Fordham has appointed Martha K. Hirst as the University’s senior vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer, effective July 1, 2015. She comes to Fordham after four years at St. John’s University, where she served as executive vice president, chief operating officer, and treasurer. Prior to St. John’s, Hirst had a distinguished career in public service with New York City.

“I am delighted to welcome Martha Hirst to Fordham,” said Joseph M. McShane, SJ, president of the University. “Her breadth of experience and demonstrated ability to oversee large and complex organizations and budgets will be of great—and obvious—benefit to Fordham, as will her ability to manage relationships among diverse government and private sector entities. Given that experience, and Ms. Hirst’s first-hand knowledge of Catholic higher education in New York, the Board of Trustees and I expect great things from her.”

At St. John’s, Hirst managed the university’s $450 million operating budget and headed its operations area. She led a team of internal and external real estate, legal, financial, and higher education experts that marketed and sold the university’s Murray Street property for a record-setting $223 million, increasing St. John’s endowment by 50 percent. She also directed the lease and fast-tracked build-out of a new, efficient, state-of-the-art facility on Astor Place in Manhattan, for St. John’s School of Risk Management and Intensive English language programs, and oversaw the university’s purchase of a 200-unit off-campus student residence, converting a long-term lease to ownership, with sustainable annual savings to the university.

Prior to St. John’s, Hirst served as commissioner of New York City’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services for eight years and as deputy commissioner of the Department of Sanitation for six. She served in key roles under every mayor from Ed Koch to Michael Bloomberg, including positions in housing, intergovernmental relations, real estate, energy management, and facilities management and construction. Hirst headed the team of solid waste management planners and engineers that designed, secured regulatory approvals for, and implemented the closing of the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island. She also oversaw recycling education and outreach programs for the city.

“Fordham is an iconic institution of higher education in the City of New York and I am thrilled to be joining its leadership team,” Hirst said. “Fordham’s rich Jesuit tradition, outstanding faculty and vibrant campuses combine to provide the first-rate education students and their families work so hard to obtain. I am honored to accept this wonderful opportunity and look forward to working with Father McShane, members of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Freedman, and other academic and administrative colleagues in service to the Fordham community.”

Fordham’s search committee selected Hirst from a short list of highly qualified candidates. The committee was led by Robert Daleo, chair of the University Board of Trustees, along with trustees Carolyn Dolan, Christopher Fitzmaurice, and Donald Almeida, and trustee emeritus John Costantino. The committee was assisted by the executive search firm of Witt/Keiffer.

Hirst received a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from New York University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a master’s degree in urban planning from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service. She has two sons and lives in Manhattan.

Monsignor Quinn comes to Fordham from the Diocese of Scranton, Pa., where he has served with distinction as pastor in a succession of parishes, including the diocesan Cathedral of Saint Peter. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1972, and his juris doctor’s degree from Seton Hall University in 1975. He served as a law clerk to Chief Judge William J. Nealon, and was appointed a Federal Magistrate-Judge for the United States District Court of the Middle District of Pennsylvania in 1976 (the youngest person in the country to serve in that position at the time). Monsignor Quinn resigned from the bench in 1981 to pursue theological studies at the North American College in Rome. He received degrees from both the Pontifical Gregorian University (S.T.B.) and the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (M.A.) and was ordained a priest. He later received dual degrees in Canon Law from the University of Ottawa and Saint Paul’s University in Ottawa.

“In light of both his great pastoral gifts and wide experience, I am confident that Monsignor Quinn will serve the University family with distinction,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “I am confident that the Fordham community will welcome and embrace him with characteristic enthusiasm. I would also like to thank the Most Reverend Joseph Martino, the Bishop of Scranton, for making Monsignor Quinn available to serve as Fordham’s vice president for University mission and ministry.”

Father Ryan is a native New Yorker and a graduate of Regis High School in Manhattan. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1957, received his bachelor’s degree in English from Fordham in 1963, and a licentiate in philosophy from Woodstock College in 1964. He taught for one year at Aquinas College in Akure, Nigeria, then returned to the United States for a bachelor’s degree in divinity from Woodstock College, Maryland. Following his ordination to the priesthood, Father Ryan completed a Ph.D. in the history of religion (with a specialization in Arabic and Islamic Studies) at Harvard University. He returned to Africa to serve successively as a lecturer and senior lecturer in comparative religion and Islamic studies at the University of Ghana. He has also had faculty and administrative appointments at the University of Cape Coast (Ghana), Hekima College (Kenya), the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome), Loyola Jesuit College in Abuja, Nigeria, and Fordham.

An accomplished scholar, author and former holder of the Loyola Chair in the Humanities, Father Ryan fills the post previously held for more than 20 years by the late Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J.

“As he assumes his new post, at my request, Father Ryan will devote most of his energy toward fostering dialogue between and among Jewish, Islamic and Christian scholars, a task that has become increasingly important in the past two decades and which promises to become even more important in the years ahead,” said Father McShane. “Given both his experience in Africa and his scholarship, I am confident that he will make Fordham a center for interreligious study and dialogue.