Iona College Honors Three Outstanding Alumnae for Service to Their Communities
The Office of Mission and Ministry honored three alumnae at its eighth annual Alumni Homecoming Reception on Friday, October 18.
From Left: Colette Phipps '01, Frances Gray '80, and Gina Parziale '98.
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - In keeping with the celebration of 50 Years of Women at Iona College, the Office of Mission and Ministry honored three alumnae at its eighth annual Alumni Homecoming Reception on Friday, October 18.
Chosen because they exemplify the values of faith, service and social justice in their respective fields, Frances Gray ’80, Gina Parziale ’98 and Colette Phipps ’01 “have gone above and beyond to serve the marginalized in creative and sustainable ways,” according to Carl Procario-Foley, Ph.D., director of the Office of Mission and Ministry at Iona.
Gray, a Queens, N.Y. native, earned her BA from Iona in English/Education with a minor in Religious Studies. She taught seventh grade at Our Lady of Fatima Elementary School in Jackson Heights, N.Y. for six years before moving to New Rochelle with her husband, Donald ’80, ’83MBA, where they raised their three children.
A parishioner of Holy Family Church, Gray has taught second grade catechism; coordinated the Holy Family Food Bank, which prepares meals for families in crisis situations, since 1999; serves as a lector and extraordinary minister, serving Holy Communion at Mass; and acts as parish secretary.
Parziale earned her BA in Speech Communication. After a long career of involvement at Iona College, which included working in the Success Center, serving as a campus minister and attending several domestic and international mission trips, she devoted her professional life to non-profit work and serving the marginalized.
In 2000, Parziale began her career at the Muscular Dystrophy Association where she combined her love of serving others with the communication skills that she developed at Iona to raise funds and awareness for patients. She has continued this work for nearly 20 years at the American Liver Foundation, Pulmonary Hypertension Association and Alport Syndrome Foundation. She recently created a consulting business to empower patient organizations to maximize their impact.
Phipps earned her BS in Social Work and has spent approximately 35 years working in human services. She currently serves as the program coordinator, Research and Development, for the Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services (DSPS) where she conducts research and analyses on trends relating to the senior citizen population in order to develop and coordinate new programs to address the needs of these residents as well as their caregivers. She is executive director of the national award-winning Westchester County Livable Communities: A Vision for All Ages Initiative.
Phipps, an award-winning certified intergenerational program specialist, currently works as an adjunct professor at Fordham University, in addition to being a published author and serving on numerous boards focused on the well-being of older adults.
ABOUT IONA
Founded in 1940, Iona University is a master's-granting private, Catholic, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers. Iona's 45-acre New Rochelle campus and 28-acre Bronxville campus are just 20 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. With a total enrollment of nearly 4,000 students and an alumni base of more than 50,000 around the world, Iona is a diverse community of learners and scholars dedicated to academic excellence and the values of justice, peace and service. Iona is highly accredited, offering undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science and business administration, as well as Master of Arts, Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees and numerous advanced certificate programs. Iona students enjoy small class sizes, engaged professors and a wide array of academic programs across the School of Arts & Science; LaPenta School of Business; NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences; and Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Iona is widely recognized in prestigious rankings, including The Princeton Review’s 2024 national list of “The Best 389 Colleges” and The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse’s “2024 Best Colleges in America,” which ranked Iona at #66 in the nation overall and #8 in the nation among Catholic schools. Iona’s LaPenta School of Business is also accredited by AACSB International, a recognition awarded to just six percent of business schools worldwide. In addition, The Princeton Review recognized Iona’s on-campus MBA program as a “Best Business School for 2023.” Iona also offers a fully online MBA program for even greater flexibility. In July 2021, Iona announced the establishment of the NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences, which is now principally located on Iona’s Bronxville campus in collaboration with NewYork-Presbyterian. Connecting to its Irish heritage, the University also recently announced it is expanding abroad with a new campus in County Mayo, Ireland. A school on the rise, Iona officially changed its status from College to University on July 1, 2022, reflecting the growth of its academic programs and the prestige of an Iona education.