Dr. Margaret Roman, Ph.D.

Margaret Roman, Ph.D.,’72,was a well-known educator for 50 years before retiring in 2021. Graduating from Saint Elizabeth University with a B.A. in English, her teaching career included   St. Ann’s Elementary School in Newark (1971-1977), the Academy of Saint Aloysius in Jersey City (1977-87), and Saint Elizabeth University in the English Department for 34 years (1987-2021). For all of her teaching career, Dr. Roman shared and celebrated with her students the many diverse voices that make up the canon of American literature.

Dr. Roman served as Director of the Saint Elizabeth University Honors Program for 26 years. During that time, Dr. Roman was on a quest to help students develop their public voices. Every year a group of 20 students made presentations at the Northeast Regional Honors Council conferences.  The students from Saint Elizabeth’s have been, and continue to be, a formidable force! Dr. Roman was a member of the NRHC Executive Board for many years and served as President (2012-13).

Dr. Roman has also been a champion for the transformative powers of travel for students and the belief that all “travel opens one’s eyes to the diversity of cultures”. The tours coordinated under the auspices of Dr. Roman stand out for opening the hearts of students to the suffering of others and served as catalysts for students to commit themselves to work for a more just world. These trips include living with the poor in Las Colonias in Juarez, Mexico; participating in the Peace Conference at Hiroshima Jogaquin College; traveling on the Holocaust Study Mission to Berlin and Poland that resulted in the award winning documentary by Lisa Reznik, A Holocaust Journey: Lessons We Learned, which focuses on students’ experience. This film is presently used to teach Holocaust education in New Jersey, Florida and other states.

Dr. Roman is the author of Sarah Orne Jewett: Reconstructing Gender, University of Alabama Press, 1992, reprinted in paperback and ebook format in 2017. Dr. Roman has presented at many conferences nationally and internationally on topics in literature, education and women’s studies. She also writes poetry, and her latest poem, “Look Up,” printed in the volume of the same name, ARTS By The People, Fall 2013, tied for best poem. 

Dr. Roman has been the recipient of the Pelican Award 2008, awarded by the Alumnae/i Association of the College of Saint Elizabeth and University “for creative vision and leadership in the literary field,” the EOF (Educational Opportunity Fund) Champion, State of New Jersey, nominated by the College of Saint Elizabeth, November, 2008; the College of Saint Elizabeth Sisters of Charity Mission and Values Award, (March 2009); and the Vivere Christus Award, awarded by the Diocese of Paterson “to acknowledge on a diocesan level the value and importance of the laity and to express gratitude and appreciation to those who unselfishly give of themselves for the building of God’s Kingdom”, September 2017.