Fr. Zachary Swantek
Chaplain
Fr. Zachary Swantek
CHAPLAIN
Fr. Zack is a native of New Jersey. He studied Literature and Religious Studies at Drew University, and worked in business for several years. He attended seminary at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where he earned a Masters in Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Newark in 2014. After ordination he was sent back to Rome for a Licentiate (S.T.L.) at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, and for a doctorate at the Pontifical University of Saint John Paul II in Krakow.
Fr. Zack has served as a parish priest, as a college chaplain at Stevens Institute of Technology and Seton Hall University, and as a high school teacher and chaplain at Seton Hall Prep. He continues to teach graduate level courses at Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, and loves offering seminars, reading groups, and Bible studies at Aquinas. When not reading, Fr. Zack loves hiking, kayaking, soccer, and making pilgrimages.
Email Father Zack at: zswantek@princeton.edu
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Fr. Joe Thomas
Assistant Chaplain
Fr. Joe Thomas
ASSISTANT CHAPLAIN
Fr. Joe is a native of Bradenton, Florida. He graduated from Princeton in 1999 and later did graduate work in English Literature at New York University, where he received a Master’s Degree. He later switched to Theology, getting a Doctorate from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome in 2011. In that same year he was ordained to the priesthood. After nearly six years of pastoral work with students and professionals in Dallas, Fr. Joe is happy to return to Princeton and the work of the Catholic chaplaincy.
Email Father Joe at: frjosephthomas@gmail.com
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Stephany Tuchez
Business Manager
Stephany Tuchez
BUSINESS MANAGER
Stephany Tuchez, from Hightstown, NJ, graduated from Rutgers University, with a B.A. in Labor Studies and Employee Relations and over ten years of ministry experience. Stephany has been married since 2009 and has four children. Among her various interests, Stephany enjoys connecting with people and talking about Jesus and his Church. She also enjoys experimenting in the kitchen with new dishes! Stephany believes that the way to a person’s heart starts with a good meal. She is very passionate about growing in her Catholic faith and eager to serve the Catholic community at Princeton University.
Email Stephany at: tuchez@princeton.edu
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Diana (Di) Hernandez ’17
Director of Student Affairs and Alumni Relations
Diana (Di) Hernandez ’17
DIRECTOR OF STUDENT AFFAIRS AND ALUMNI RELATIONS
Di is a member of the Princeton Class of 2017 who majored in Psychology with a certificate in East Asian Studies/Chinese.
She was born and raised in Ecuador, where volunteering led her to believe that one of the most effective ways to serve others is by helping them grow closer to God. Di coordinates Aquinas’ Small Group Bible Studies, One on One Discipleship program, and student leadership training. In addition to her role with Aquinas, she is involved in a Catholic organization: Bonds of Marian Love. She spent a year in between high school and college doing missionary work in New Jersey and New York. She loves Aquinas because it challenges her to live her faith more fully every day and help others deepen their relationship with God. Di also enjoys playing sports, playing the guitar, and talking to people.
Email Di at: dh11@princeton.edu
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Marcus Gibson *19
Director of the Princeton Initiative for Catholic Thought
Dr. Marcus Gibson is Director of the Princeton Initiative in Catholic Thought and lectures at Princeton University. He holds a B.A. from Duke University and an M.A. and Ph.D. (*19) from the Program in Classical Philosophy at Princeton University. He has taught courses in Greek philosophy and Catholic thought at Princeton and Rutgers. At the Aquinas Institute, he helps develop opportunities for intellectual formation, leading and organizing seminars and lectures. Seminars he has taught in recent years include Prayer & Life in Christ, Matthias Scheeben on Sanctifying Grace, Life in Christ’s Mystical Body, and the Greek Church Fathers on Christ & Human Nature. His academic work focuses on what the traditions of ethical reflection springing from Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas can contribute to our understanding of human fulfillment, passion, and growth in virtue. He and his wife live in the Princeton area.
Email Marcus at: cbgibson@princeton.edu
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RJ Snell
Member of the Executive Committee
RJ Snell
MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
R.J. Snell is Contributing Editor of Public Discourse and Director of the Center on the University and Intellectual Life at the Witherspoon Institute. Previously, he was for many years Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Philosophy Program at Eastern University and the Templeton Honors College, where he founded and directed the Agora Institute for Civic Virtue and the Common Good.
He earned his M.A. in philosophy at Boston College, and his Ph.D. in philosophy at Marquette University. His research interests include the liberal arts, ethics, natural law theory, Thomas Aquinas, the Catholic intellectual tradition, and the work of Bernard Lonergan, SJ.
Snell is the author of Through a Glass Darkly: Bernard Lonergan and Richard Rorty on Knowing without a God’s-eye View (Marquette, 2006), Authentic Cosmopolitanism (with Steve Cone, Pickwick, 2013), The Perspective of Love: Natural Law in a New Mode (Pickwick, 2014), Acedia and Its Discontents (Angelico, 2015), and co-editor of Subjectivity: Ancient and Modern (Lexington, 2016) and Nature: Ancient and Modern (Lexington), as well as articles, chapters, and essays in a variety of scholarly and popular venues. He and his family reside in the Princeton area.
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Peter Carter
Director of Music & Chapel Organist
Peter Carter
DIRECTOR OF MUSIC & ORGANIST
Peter Carter is the Organist and Director of Sacred Music for the Aquinas Institute. He studied at Westminster Choir College ’15 and ’16 and often participated in Aquinas Institute events while a student. He is also the Director of Sacred Music at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Allentown, New Jersey, and coordinates the music for the international Pro Civitate Dei conferences in France, Chile, and the United States. From 2019-2020, he served as co-host of Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast, interviewing prominent Church figures and musicians including Robert Cardinal Sarah, Olivier Latry, and Sir James MacMillan. In 2021, he founded The Catholic Sacred Music Project to cultivate young professional church musicians with an inaugural choral festival at the Philadelphia Cathedral-Basilica led by Sir James MacMillan.
Email Peter at: tuespetruscarter@gmail.com
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Ana Samuel '00
Women's Ministry Coordinator
Ana Samuel, Ph.D is a graduate of Princeton University ’00 and The University of Notre Dame, where she completed doctoral work on the political theory and sexual ethics of Montesquieu. She is a research scholar a The Witherspoon Institute, where she directs programs that promote the natural law understanding of marriage and sexuality. Most of all, she is a grateful daughter of the Catholic Church and a mother (alongside her beloved husband Diego) of six.
Ana Samuel, Ph.D is a graduate of Princeton University ’00 and The University of Notre Dame, where she completed doctoral work on the political theory and sexual ethics of Montesquieu. She is a research scholar a The Witherspoon Institute, where she directs programs that promote the natural law understanding of marriage and sexuality. Most of all, she is a grateful daughter of the Catholic Church and a mother (alongside her beloved husband Diego) of six.
Email Ana at: anajsamuel@gmail.com
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Greg Sullivan
Director of RCIA
Gregory J. Sullivan is a lawyer with a law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law. He has worked in private practice and with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office for thirty years. For more than two decades, he has precepted at Princeton University for Prof. Robert George in both Civil Liberties and Constitutional Interpretation. He has also precepted for Prof. Keith Whittington. Greg has published widely in newspapers, magazines, Public Discourse, and Catholic World Report. He has worked in CIA in his parish at St. John the Baptist in Allentown. Greg lives with his wife in Chesterfield.
Gregory J. Sullivan is a lawyer with a law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law. He has worked in private practice and with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office for thirty years. For more than two decades, he has precepted at Princeton University for Prof. Robert George in both Civil Liberties and Constitutional Interpretation. He has also precepted for Prof. Keith Whittington. Greg has published widely in newspapers, magazines, Public Discourse, and Catholic World Report. He has worked in RCIA in his parish at St. John the Baptist in Allentown. Greg lives with his wife in Chesterfield.
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