Joseph Sciame is Vice President for Community
Relations and is an alumnus of the University. He has served in
several capacities, which have included: Director of Financial Aid;
Vice President for Recruitment Services; Acting Vice President for
Enrollment Management and Vice President for Government and
Community Relations. He has served as a Vice President for 30
years.
In his current position, Sciame interacts as a key University
representative with various community groups and organizations
surrounding the University campuses. He chairs regular bi-monthly
dialogue groups to better communicate the University’s concerns as
neighbors and to learn of their respective concerns. He has been
honored on several occasions by the University and by student
organizations for his leadership and commitment to St.
John's.
Mr. Sciame’s commitment to service extends well beyond the
University and its community involvements. He is a Board member of
the Jamaica and Staten Island Chambers of Commerce; the Queens
Symphony Orchestra; the Kupferberg Holocaust Center; Southern
Queens Park Association; Queens Council, Boy Scouts of America and
Chairs the Board of Ethics of the Town of North Hempstead, to name
a few. He is the founder and Chair of the Bedford Stuyvesant
New Beginnings Charter School, a site of the former St. John the
Baptist Elementary School that closed in 2010. A proud Italian
American, he is the Chair of the Conference of Major Italian
American Organizations, the President/Chair of the Italian
Heritage and Culture Committee, NY, Inc. since 2006, a
National/State Past President of the Order Sons of Italy in America
and a National Past Chairman of the National Association of Student
Financial Aid Administrators. A resident of New Hyde Park, he
serves as a lector at his home parish of Notre Dame. He was awarded
the rank of Cavaliere Ufficiale in the Order of Merit of the
Republic of Italy and a Commendatore of the House of Savoy, as well
as honored on other occasions by the Vatican as a Papal Knight with
the Grand Cross of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher of
Jerusalem.