Our Staff

Dr. John Freeh: jfreeh2@unl.edu
Tessa Contreras: tessa.contreras@unl.edu

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."

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 Philosohy and Child, Youth, and Family Studies. While at the University, she was blessed to find a home away from home at the Newman Center where Truth, Beauty, and Goodness were made tangible and encountered. She was able to be a part of the beginnings of the Newman Institute, completing five of its courses. Being transformed by the touch of the Good, True, and Beautiful Who is God Himself, she is humbled and excited to know serve with the Institute, accompanying students and the Lincoln community as we all continually seek and find on this side of Heaven.