All power, no puff
By Sabatino Mangini ’01

After they turn their tassels, most Rowan graduates venture away from campus, assuming responsibility and developing authority in their professions with each year of experience. Yet the University is proud to have alumni return with a degree of mastery and wisdom matched only by their commitment to their alma mater. Here, we celebrate four accomplished and influential women who have circled back to serve as leaders at Rowan.

Kathleen (Merkel) Matteo ’56
When Board of Trustees Chair Kathleen (Merkel) Matteo ’56 spoke at Commencement in May, she spoke from her heart. Encouraging students to hold dear their college memories, she recalled her own: favorite teachers, best friends, dances and dorm life. “I’ve been out of school a long time, but I love remembering,” Matteo says. “Speaking to the graduates, I knew how much their four years in college would mean to them.”

Growing up in Brooklyn, Matteo hadn’t planned to attend college at Glassboro, but that’s how it worked out. She commuted from Chew’s Landing. “As commuters we had to really work to be involved,” she recalls, “but we did it.” Now, Matteo is still commuting to campus and staying involved with her alma mater. Appointed to her second six-year term on the Board and elected to the chair last fall, she has also served the University Foundation and Alumni Association as a board member and officer.

Between college days and now, Matteo married, raised six sons and managed to be involved with PTA, her local Board of Education and Township Juvenile Conference Committee, her church and Mothers’ Club Association, as well as the family business. She is director of administration and finance for Matteo Equities, Inc. and its subsidiaries in Gloucester Township where she assists in development of long-range planning, budgeting, accounting and human resource development. She also serves as financial administrator for Matteo & Belko, a law firm in Moorestown.

Matteo’s college days were just before the first major campus expansion. Classes were small and she explains, “We were all here for the same purpose—to teach. We had ties to each other.” After graduation, she helped plan and host college class reunions. She still gets together with her “Girls’ Club,” a close-knit college-days group that she describes with great affection.

Even with so many fond memories of her own college career, Matteo isn’t hung up on the past. “We’re doing so many good things at Rowan. Look at the Camden Campus project, the Tech Center. You can’t help but be enthused,” she says. “Of course I love to remember how things were, but I enjoy change, too. If you don’t evolve with it, you’ll be left behind.”

Matteo breaks into a wide smile acknowledging her pleasure in leadership at her alma mater. “Our Board has a closeness. Our main purpose is education and our interest is how we can help students,” she says. “I always say, ‘Plan your work and work your plan.’” When alumni come to campus and are proud of what they find, she adds, “It says wonderful things about what we’re doing.”

For the remaining four years of her term on the Board, Matteo has nothing but great expectations. “Henry Rowan saw the possibilities here and now everyone else does. Successful, bright people are getting on the bandwagon,” she says. “It makes you want to be part of the winning team.”

Carol A. Sharp ’73
"I never actually had a plan for becoming the Dean of the College of Education at Rowan University,” says Carol A. (Castellini) Sharp ’73. “But here I am, and I’m going to do the best job I can possibly do.”

Diligence is the key to Sharp’s rise through the ranks of education from public school teacher to the dean of education. Since earning the post last year, she has depended upon her propensity for putting in long hours to supervise the college’s curriculum, partnerships with public school districts and community colleges, grant management, and the six departments and faculty. “I believe if you work hard and strive for what’s right, you’ll get results,” she says. “I think of what needs to get done, and I keep pushing and striving until it’s done.”

And while Sharp takes pride in working hard, she doesn’t take full credit for it. “I think the reason for this drive stems from the relationship that I had with my grandmother. She was an excellent listener with exceptional wisdom. She consistently guided me and her values inspired me,” says Sharp. “Because she didn’t have the opportunity to pursue higher education, she was very proud and supportive of my educational achievements.”

Sharp earned a B.A. in general elementary education at Glassboro. In 1982, she earned an M.A. in urban education at William Paterson University, and four years later, a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction at Pennsylvania State University. The following year, she was happy to return to Glassboro as an assistant professor in the Department of Elementary/Early Childhood Education.

“Rowan University is a place where young adults learn and experience events that serve as a foundation for even greater opportunities,” says Sharp. “Since this is where I received my own preparation, I wanted to serve in a capacity that would help others with similar goals.”
Sharp and her husband, Martin ’63, ’66, who live in Mullica Hill, are loyal Prof fans and attend every home football game. She likes to spend time cultivating their flower and herb garden and relaxing at the Jersey shore. “I love to listen to the ocean,” says Sharp, “it’s a great way to unwind. And the shore is close—it fits into my busy schedule.”

Sharp is dedicated to her job because she “feels a sense of responsibility to serve my students.” She understands that even the most strong-willed student needs a supportive environment to achieve certain goals. That’s why she advises students “to work as hard as you can. Find a mentor you can trust and talk to. Build networks with all kinds of people and don’t ever give up. Sometimes opportunities arise that you never dreamed possible. Be in a position to seize them.”

Juanita Johnson-Clark ’76
For Juanita Johnson-Clark ’76, earning a B.A. in law/justice at Glassboro when she already had four children was the turning point in her life. “There is no doubt in my mind that without God’s help and the great education I received at Glassboro, my life would not be as fulfilling as it is today,” she says. “I am grateful that I had the opportunity to experience college life from a different perspective. Because of being older and married, I was more responsible, appreciative and more driven than the average student.”

Now Johnson-Clark has a chance to return the favor as a new member of Rowan’s Board of Trustees. “It was a humbling thought that I could be offered the opportunity to give back, in some form or fashion, some of what had been given to me,” she says. “Rowan has progressed and expanded so much since my college days—and continues to do so. As a new trustee, I’m thrilled and excited to be part of Rowan’s continuing growth and development.”

Her college education launched Johnson-Clark’s distinguished 25-year career in social work. She served as director of the Camden County Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse under the Department of Health and Human Services, established the Camden County Chapters of the Million Mom March and the Parent-to-Parent Coalition, and belonged to many task forces, including the County Youth Services Commission and Cultural Diversity Task Force.

Still, these accomplishments didn’t come easy. “In my early years, employment barriers were most prominent for me,” says Johnson-Clark. “Some were due to just being a female, and some were due to being an African-American female. But I have always been a strong-willed African-American woman, a characteristic inherited from my mother, which was also an essential tool I needed for survival and success.”

Johnson-Clark still has an uncommonly active life as a retiree residing in Lawnside. She serves as president of Borough Council, chair of the Bylaws Committee, treasurer of an investment club, church trustee and also works as a Mary Kay consultant. “My family laughs when I tell people that I am retired,” says Johnson-Clark. “According to them, I’m not retired, I just changed careers.”

Despite all these responsibilities, Johnson-Clark’s priority remains her two sons, two daughters, 11 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. “My family is the most important part of my life,” she says. “Without them, my life would have no meaning.”

Frances Colon Gibson ’74
Artist and educator Frances Colon Gibson ’74 was honored when she was appointed to the Rowan Board of Trustees in 1999. “I guess it was inevitable,” she says of her return to Glassboro. “At some point in our lives, we seem to come full circle with our past.”
Colon Gibson’s young life had cycled between schools in Camden and Puerto Rico, giving her a unique perspective. “I became accustomed to flowing between two cultures and languages,” she says. “I tried to take the best from both.”

As a child of the ’60s and as an art education student at Glassboro in the ’70s, Colon Gibson fully embraced new experiences while maintaining her Hispanic roots—even if her family didn’t always agree. “[That era] certainly had a tremendous impact on my socialization as a woman,” she says, “and especially as a Puerto Rican woman who had been raised under different and stricter social norms than most average American women.
My parents were somewhat concerned that I was becoming ‘too liberated and bohemian.’ But I knew that the issues of that time were significant in changing my thinking about my role as a woman.”

Colon Gibson also realized during her college years that she wanted to become a teacher. She returned to the Camden School District where she helped educate children for 23 years in multiple capacities, including tenures as a bilingual teacher and as principal at Broadway School and Rafael Cordero Molina School.

Along the way, Colon Gibson overcame prejudices against her sex and race. “I just tried to handle each situation as best as I could,” she says. “I had many friends and colleagues who were very supportive and encouraging during those difficult times. Dr. Ted Johnson, a retired superintendent and former Rowan professor, was my greatest mentor. He gave me my first administrative opportunity back in the ’70s, and still mentors me to this day.”

In 1993, Colon Gibson became the first female Hispanic superintendent in the New Jersey public school system. She served as superintendent of the Magnolia Public School District for a decade where she deftly handled staff development, financial, contractual and budget issues and facilities management.

Now that she is retired, Colon Gibson plans to pick up her paintbrush more often. In 1996, she painted an 18 x 20-foot mural of Magnolia’s school mascot, a blue mustang, as a gift to the school. That work inspired colleagues to commission Colon Gibson to paint murals at their schools. She also has donated an original or copy painting to be auctioned annually to support Camden’s Puerto Rican Day Parade.

Colon Gibson strives to create a rewarding future for herself as well as those around her. “The first half of my life struggles—to overcome poverty, language and societal prejudices—helped me to become a stronger, resilient and sensitive person,” she says. “I’m very thankful for my life, my family, my career in educating children, and the many opportunities I’ve had to contribute to society.”

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Sabatino Mangini ’01 works as a copywriter for Voveo Marketing Group while pursuing a M.A. in writing at Rowan. He lives in Wenonah.