Our Staff

DR. JOHN FREEH: Inaugural Director of the Newman Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture. Dr. Freeh is a native of Jersey City, N.J., but has studied and taught in D.C., Chicago, Spokane, Pittsburgh and Oxford, England. Tempted by the adventurous spirit of the West (and a strong nudge from Providence), he left a tenured position at Hillsdale College in order to teach at Wyoming Catholic College and assist in the development of its Great Books curriculum. Following similar promptings, he was eager to help found a program in Lincoln inspired by Blessed John Henry Newman's ideal of a liberal arts education, which seeks to form the whole person: mind, body and spirit. Newman's motto - cor ad cor loquitur, or, heart speaks to heart - has been integral to his own educational philosophy. He is a life-long teacher: his fields are Renaissance Literature, Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot. Dr. Freeh enjoys travel, hiking, and camping with his growing family. He finds himself so very blessed on the path Providence has laid for him and wishes all to take encouragement, as he has, from Newman's wise words about the human condition: "God has created me to do him some definite service... I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught."
jfreeh2@unl.edu

TESSA CONTRERAS: Program Coordinator of the Newman Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture. Tessa is a native of Lincoln, Nebraska​, and attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, graduating in May of 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with minors in Philosophy and Child, Youth, and Family Studies.  The University's Newman Center blessed her with a home away from home and made tangible and personal the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. She was able to be a part of the beginnings of the Newman Institute, completing five of its courses.  The experience of God's love and presence transformed her and she is both humbled and excited to now work for the Institute, accompanying students and the Lincoln community as we all continually seek and find truth and beauty on this side of Heaven. 
tcontreras2@unl.edu 

Evening Seminar: Tolkien I | Fall 2019, 2020
Evening Seminar: Tolkien II | Spring 2020
Reborn in Wonder Speaker | Fall 2020 | "Standing on a Knife's Edge: The Battle between Hope and Despair in Tolkien" 

Pilot course: ENG 396 "Gold from Egypt" | Spring 2016
Newman Institute Board Member 

Evening Seminar: Psalms | Fall 2018

Evening Seminar: Introduction to Philosophy | Fall 2019
Evening Seminar: Seven Philosophical Errors | Spring 2020, Fall 2020

Bishop James D. Conley*
Mr. Matthew Tasler, Chair 
Dr. John Freeh, Director of the Newman Institute 
Rev. Robert Matya 
Rev. Timothy Thorburn
Dr. David Arias 
Mrs. Celeste Fortenberry
Mr. Andrew Minarick 
Dr. John Pepino
Mrs. Lisa Pfeifer
Mr. Michael Riordan