Patricia Sullivan Common Reading Program

Patricia Sullivan Common Reading Program

The Patricia Sullivan Common Reading Program at Molloy University:

• Involves students, faculty, administrators, and staff, reading and discussing a book chosen by a college committee because of its important theme and its relevance to contemporary life.
• Revolves around a book that is required reading for FST 1000, The College Experience, a course all First-Year students take during their first semester.
• Serves as the subject of the University’s Opening Convocation each fall. The book’s author comes to campus to talk about the book.
• Is the catalyst for Inspired Works, a contest sponsored by the Patricia Sullivan Common Reading Program Committee to reward creativity in student writers, artists, or musicians.

Current Book and Author AY 25.26

Advocate by Eddie Ahn

Convocation Speaker Wednesday, October 8, 2025

About the Author

Eddie Ahn has served as an environmental attorney for over 15 years, and he is also the writer and artist of Advocate, a graphic memoir published by Penguin Random House in 2024. While working as the executive director of Brightline Defense, a San Francisco-based environmental justice nonprofit, he has led and expanded the organization’s work and staff in environmental education, air quality monitoring, and advocacy for equity and clean energy. In December 2021, Eddie was inducted into the State of California’s Clean Energy Hall of Fame for this work. Prior to being a nonprofit attorney, he was an AmeriCorps member, teaching public speaking and arts workshops in Oakland’s Chinatown.

In addition to his nonprofit work for Brightline, Eddie has served on three commissions for local and state government agencies related to environmental policymaking: the San Francisco Commission on the Environment, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and Bay Conservation and Development Commission. He is a self-taught artist who has been recognized as a Cartoonist-in-Residence by the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. His art has been publicly installed as large art installations and on ten utility boxes throughout San Francisco.

Eddie has received his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and his B.A. from Brown University. He is also a member of the California State Bar.

About Advocate:

National bestseller, Advocate, is a moving graphic memoir following Eddie Ahn, an environmental justice lawyer and activist striving to serve diverse communities in San Francisco amidst environmental catastrophes, and accelerating tide of racial and economic inequality, burnout, and his family’s expectations.

Born in Texas to Korean immigrants, Eddie grew up working at his family’s store with the weighty expectations that their sacrifices would be paid off when he achieved the “American Dream.” Years later after moving to San Francisco and earning a coveted law degree, he then does the unthinkable: he rejects a lucrative legal career to enter the nonprofit world.

In carving his own path, Eddie defies his family’s notions of economic success, igniting a struggle between family expectations, professional goals, and dreams of community. As an environmental justice attorney, he confronts the most immediate issues the country is facing today, from the devastating effects of Californian wildfires to economic inequality, all while combatting burnout and racial prejudice. In coming fully into his own, Eddie also reaches a hand back to his parents, showing them the value of a life of service rather than one spent only seeking monetary wealth.

Weaving together humorous anecdotes with moments of victory and hope, this powerful, deeply contemplative full-color graphic novel explores the relationship between immigration and activism, opportunity and obligation, and familial duty and community service.

Patricia Sullivan Common Reading Program Committee

AY 25.26 Common Read Committee Members:

Alice Byrnes, O.P., D.A., Director of the Common Reading Committee, Professor of English

Elizabeth Cotter, PhD, RN, NPD-BC, Professor, School of Nursing and Health Sciences

Noelle Cutter, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biology, and Director of First Year Experience

Jennifer Elliott, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology

Sarah Evans, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Program Director of New Media

Mary Gallagher, B.A., Administrative Assistant, Psychology and Interdisciplinary Departments

Donna Iucolano, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Business

Janice Kelly, Ed.D., Professor, Program Director of Professional Communications, Chairperson of Interdisciplinary Studies

Laurie Hallick, M.S.Ed., Instructional Designer, Blended & Online Learning

Rebecca Martinez, B.S., M.B.A, Assistant Director, Career Center

David Nochimson, M.L.S. Access Service Librarian, James E. Tobin Library

Trisha O’Neill, B.F.A., Administrative Coordinator, English, Communications, and Art

Katherine Patterson, Assistant Professor of Education

Cate Donato, Student Member

Emily McKenna, Student Member

Committee members with President Lentini and 2024 guest speaker, Cassandra Quave

Molloy’s Common Reading Program 2009- 2024

2009        Hurry Down Sunshine: A Father’s Story of Love and Madness by Michael Greenberg

2010        Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin

2011        Outcasts United by Warren St.John

2012        Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

2013        Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

2014        One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni

2015        March Book One, March Book Two by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin,

                and Nate Powell

2016        Post Mortal by Drew Magary

2017        The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez

2018        Tough as They Come by Travis Mills

2019        We Are All Called to Rise by Laura McBride

2020        What the Eyes Don’t See by Mona Hanna-Attisha

2021        Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

2022        One Two Three by Laurie Frankel

2023        The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford

2024         The Plant Hunter by Dr. Cassandra Quave

2025         Advocate by Eddie Ahn

Inspired Works 2024-25 Contest Winners

Patricia Sullivan Common Reading Program Inspired Works Contest

Each year the committee sponsors a contest which is open to all students and invites them to submit a creative work in the medium of their choice, inspired by the book. Prizes are awarded at an Award Ceremony in the Spring.

Inspired Works 2024-25 Contest Winner-

Valeria DeCastro, First Place Winner for watercolor depiction of Plants as Agents of Healing”

Award Ceremony March 12, 2025

AY 2025-26 Inspired Works Contest submissions due November 12, 2025