Henning Institute Board of Fellows

Steven A. Cortright, Senior Fellow and Co-Founder

Steven A. Cortright is an alumnus of the Integral Program. A tutor since 1978, he has led each class in the Program except the Music Tutorial (for generations of Integral students, good news!). He had the signal privilege of knowing, and studying with, the Program's founder, Br. Sixtus Robert Smith, FSC. In 2017 (to his vast surprise), Mr. Cortright was named Saint Mary's Professor of the Year. He is equally and deeply enamored of the elegances found in formal logic and in German poetry, but would exchange both for a closer appreciation of moral elegance in Jane Austen's novels.

Ernest S. Pierucci, Co-Founder

Ernest S. Pierucci is a 1972 graduate of the Integral Program at Saint Mary’s College. He received his Juris Doctor from the Columbus School of Law of The Catholic University of America in 1975. He thereafter practiced law for forty years and along the way taught business law, philosophy of law and Collegiate Seminar at Saint Mary’s. Ernest is a co-founder of the Henning Institute. He has participated in over 20 international conferences on Catholic social thought, including two at the Vatican by invitation. Ernest has published a number of articles and book chapters on Catholic social thought. His latest publication is the article “Wonder, the Person and the Common Good in Catholic Social Teaching” which appeared in the Journal of Catholic Social Thought of Villanova University in its winter 2020 edition. 

Father George E. Schultze, SJ 

Father Schultze, a native of Mountain View, Calif., is the Propaedeutic Year Director and a faculty member of the Latin Patriarchate Seminary in Beit Jala, Palestine. At the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem, he also directs retreats, provides spiritual direction, and ministers to Filipino and Indian migrant workers. Prior to entering the Society of Jesus, Fr. George worked as an NLRB Board Agent (Region 32) and later as a Compensation Analyst at Hewlett-Packard. He studied Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell, completed an MBA at UC Berkeley, and received a Ph.D. in social ethics at the University of Southern California. He teaches theology, philosophy, and Catholic social teaching. He has written for the Catholic World Report, Seminary Journal, Career Development International Journal, Social Policy, and Logos: A Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Culture.

Patrick Downey, Professor and Chair of the SMC Philosophy Department

Patrick Downey, Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Saint Mary’s College of California, has been teaching there for 27 years.  Graduating from Pitzer College, with a B.A. in Philosophy in 1980, he then went on to get a M.T.S. from Harvard University in 1984, and then received his Ph.D. in Theology at Boston College in 1994.  His academic interests have centered around the relation between Philosophy and Theology, and he has published two books that have dealt with that theme:  Serious Comedy and Desperately Wicked.  He is currently working on a project in Political Theology that should lead to a book tentatively entitled Blood and the Nations. He has taught a JanTerm course on Catholic Social Teaching, and followed closely the ongoing publication of Social Encyclicals from the Vatican and their implications in understanding the nature and good of humans.

Colin Chan Redemer, Teaching Professor

Colin Chan Redemer is a Teaching Professor in Philosophy and Great Books at Saint Mary's College where he co-founded the campus chapter of the SEIU Local 1021 and continues to serve as the Chief Steward. He is the Director of Education at American Reformer, a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Renewing America, and formerly was the Executive Director of the Davenant Institute, a co-founder of the Davenant Hall graduate school, and Managing Director of Beck & Stone. He holds a PhD from the University of Aberdeen. His current research focuses on the moral, political, and theological implications of friendship.