Henning Institute Board of Advisors

Michael Lisanti

Director, Henning Institute 

Michael Lisanti is a Teaching Professor at St. Mary’s College of California where he has taught Latin and in the College’s Great Books program for over twenty years. He has served as Steward, Vice President, and currently serves as President of the College’s chapter of SEIU 1021. Formerly a Fellow of the Henning Institute, he is now the Institute’s Director.

Theodore Tsukahara, AFSC

Ted Tsukahara, an Affiliated member of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, has been involved with the John F. Henning Institute since its founding, first as a member of the Board of Advisors, and as Director for almost twenty years. He earned a B.S. in Economics and Business Administration from Saint Mary’s (1962), a M.S. in Quantitative Business Analysis from University of Southern California (1964), a M. A. (1967) and PhD (1970) in Economics from Claremont Graduate University.  In addition, he was a National Endowment for the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow in Bioethics at The Hastings Center (1974). He was granted tenure by Pomona College (1974). He left academics in 1976 to work as a financial and strategic planning executive for a major energy company, transitioned into investment banking as a merger and acquisition specialist before returning to Saint Mary’s in 1992 to teach graduate business students. He transitioned to teach undergraduates and served as Tutor in the Integral Program of Liberal Arts until retiring in 2022. He was honored by the Faculty as Professor of the Year for Academic Year 2021-2022.

James M. Wood

Jim is a graduate of Saint Mary’s College of California Integral Program Major (’70) and was Chair and Member of Saint Mary’s College Board of Regents (2011-2015) . While in College Jim was ASMC Student Body President, a columnist for The Collegian, and a member of SPAN that was organized to bring co-education to the college as well as other educational changes.

He attended the University of San Francisco School of  Law (’73) and began his practice as a  Litigation Attorney with over 35 years of civil trial, litigation management and pro bono experience as a partner in an AmLaw 100 global law firm and California based predecessor. Following retirement from Big Law Jim has devoted his time to providing pro bono legal services to clients with a variety of legal issues.

His honors have included the AIDS Legal Referral Panel Clint Hockenberry Leadership Award 2014 - named for ALRP’s first Executive Director and is “ALRP’s highest honor—given to individuals whose work reflects a lifetime of service to the HIV/AIDS community” and the California Lawyer Angel Award (2007) as one of the state's outstanding Pro Bono attorneys for representation of California school children with diabetes to ensure they received care throughout the school day.