Bishop Frank J. Dewane welcomes Dr. Marcel Brown as Principal of St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic School in Naples. Brown assumed the position on July 1, 2025.
Prior to joining Bishop Dewane’s mission of evangelization in the schools of the Diocese of Venice, Brown served as head of two classical Pre-K-12 schools in the Diocese of Tulsa. There, his imperative was to turn around a struggling, inner-city Cathedral school, heading the conversion of the school to a classical curriculum and a much stronger Catholic culture. In four short years, he doubled the faculty, and welcomed 240 new students.
Brown holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. from The Catholic University of America and a B.A. from The University of Dallas. At the University of Dallas, he also completed a Concentration in classical languages and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest liberal arts honors society (est. 1776). Dr. Brown’s essays on Catholicism, the liberal arts, and culture have been published in The Adoremus Bulletin, Crisis Magazine, Catholic News Agency, and Vatican News. Dr. Brown has been interviewed by The Drew Mariani Show (on Relevant Radio), The Catholic Man Show (on St. Michael Catholic Radio), and Vatican News.
In 2024, Dr. Brown was commissioned to write a play depicting the Life of St. Rita of Cascia – Winter’s Rose – in honor of the centennial of his former Parish in Alexandria, Virginia. Brown is a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.
Brown and his wife have been blessed with 10 children and are spirited advocates of the Evangelium Vitae, the 1995 “Gospel of Life” encyclical of St. John Paul II.
Brown’s hopes for St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic School are twofold: working in close collaboration with the Pastor, Father Casey Jones, he wishes to strengthen the school’s Catholic culture and, over the course of the coming years, move the Seton community towards a deeply and authentically classical, Catholic formation centered on the mystery of Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist. He is encouraged in this effort by the words of The Congregation for Catholic Education, which in 1988 wrote, “The systematic genius of classical Greek and European thought has … given us a set of truths which we can recognize as a part of our permanent philosophical heritage” (The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, para. 57).
O’Grady, who was serving as the interim principal, has a well-established and highly respected reputation as an exemplary educator and successful administrator.
On July 1, 2020, Jesuit Father John Belmonte assumed his role as the Superintendent of Catholic Education of the Diocese of Venice, a move announced in May 2020. Prior to coming to the Diocese of Venice, Father Belmonte was Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Joliet since 2010 and earlier served at Marquette University High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and St. Ignatius Preparatory High School, Chicago, Illinois.
Epiphany Cathedral Catholic School in Venice announced the return of Nicole Loseto as Principal, returning to the school where she taught for years and served as assistant principal before December 2019 when she took the top post at St. Catherine Catholic School in Sebring. She has 18 years of educational experience and holds two Masters’ degrees – one from Touro College in New York (Education and Special Education) and a second from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio (Educational Leadership).
Father Jose Gonzalez, Pastor of St. Catherine Parish, noted that Loseto is a perfect fit for the position at the fast-growing school which opened in 2008 and is the only Catholic School in the Eastern Deanery. “God has sent us the right person for the right time.”
