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, 2021
Reborn in Wonder Speaker | Fall 2020 | "Standing on a Knife's Edge: The Battle between Hope and Despair in Tolkien" 

Dr. Helen Freeh holds a Ph.D. in literature from Baylor University where she wrote her dissertation on Fate, Providence and Free Will: Clashing Perspectives of World Order in JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth. A graduate of the University of Dallas, she has taught at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale Academy and McLennan County Community College.  

Pilot course: ENG 396 "Gold from Egypt" | Spring 2016
Evening Seminar: On the Shoulders of Giants: Introduction to Patristics | Spring 2021 
Newman Institute Board Member 

Dr. John Pepino is a professor of Greek, Latin, History, and Patristics at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska. His Master’s degree is in Classical Greek and Latin and his Doctorate is in the Fathers of the Church. He has published on the Fathers of Church and on contemporary Church History (particularly Vatican II and the liturgy in the twentieth century). His most recent publication is the English translation of Yves Chiron, Annibale Bugnini: Reformer of the Liturgy (Kettering, OH: Angelico Press, 2018).

Evening Seminar: Psalms | Fall 2018

Dr. Vern Steiner is the founder and President of the Emmaus Instiute of Blblical Studies. Prior to entering the Catholic Church in 2015, he enjoyed a long career as an evangelical protestant pastor, seminary professor, and founder and president of a Bible institute. His teaching specializations include biblical introduction and interpretation, languages and exegesis, and exposition and theology. He focused on Bible, History, and Philosophy in his undergraduate studies; he holds masters degrees in Pastoral Ministry and Biblical Literature; and he earned his Ph.D. in Exegetical Theology.

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

Dr. David Arias holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Center for Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas (Houston). He is a professor of Philosophy at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, NE and is the M.A. Philosophy Program Director for Holy Apostles College & Seminary in Cromwell, CT.

Evening Seminar: The Integrated Life: The Economics of Higher Purpose  | Spring 2021

Dr. Geoffrey Friesen earned his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, and his B.S. from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. He came to CBA in 2005. His research interests include investments, behavioral finance, mutual fund performance, microfinance, business ethics and the application of Catholic Social Teaching to economics and finance. His teaching interests includes investments, security analysis, derivatives, managerial economics, the history of financial and economic thought and Ph.D. financial theory.

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