Joe Pagetta, a Jersey City native and 1995 graduate of St. Peter’s College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature, recently published his first book with Vanderbilt University Press in Nashville, Tennessee. “The Apostle of Tennessee: The Indefatigable Life” and “Ministry of Father Aloysius Orengo” shares the previously untold story of an Italian-born Dominican missionary priest who served in Tennessee in the mid-to-late 19th century, serving the scattered Catholics and establishing dozens of churches during a tumultuous time in the state and the country’s history. Already a journalist for his hometown newspaper, The Jersey Journal, when he entered St. Peter’s in 1991, Pagetta credits his college experience for many of the influences and opportunities that have guided his career. In addition to his time serving as both a sports editor and editor in chief of what was then called the Pauw Wow (now the Saint Peter’s Tribune) student newspaper, and work study in the athletic director’s office, he took advantage of the school’s community relationships to work paid internships in the media relations and corporate communications divisions of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
That experience, coupled with his writing proficiency, guided him toward public relations and communications work. In 1998, he moved to Nashville, where he landed a job as an assistant manager of marketing at Broadcast Music Incorporated. His positions in the almost-30 years since then have included a dual position as Manager of Media Relations at the Nashville Film Festival and Director of Media Relations and Online Strategies at Nashville PBS – a role for which he was named the Best PR Guy in Nashville by the Nashville Scene – and Director of Community Initiatives at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. For the last nine years, he has served as the Director of Communications for the Tennessee State Museum, where his work has been honored with awards from the Southeastern Museums Conference and the Tennessee Association of Museums. He recently produced the short film, “A Grand Design: Captain Le Roy Reeves and the Tennessee State Flag”, which picked up a Silver Award in Media Production from the SEMC. Pagetta events credit his work in film with his St. Peter’s experience, for he remembers well his film appreciation classes with Bill Luhr, and learning about theme, framing, and mise-en-scene.
In addition to his time at Saint Peter’s, Pagetta is a product of a Jersey City Catholic School education. Before arriving at Kennedy Blvd., he was taught by the Sisters of Christian Charity at St. Nicholas grammar school in the Heights section of the city, and the De LaSalle Christian Brothers down Montgomery Street at Hudson Catholic. While he holds all his Catholic instruction close to his heart, his Jesuit education, and its focus on service and intellectualism, wields a strong influence. He currently takes spiritual direction from a Jesuit priest in Nashville, and occasionally writes for America: The Jesuit Review, one of the oldest continuously published journals in the United States. He also contributes to Give Us This Day, Tomorrow’s American Catholic, Chapter 16, and the Tennessee Historical Quarterly, among other outlets.
Among the many things Pagetta is thankful for when it comes to his Saint Peter’s education, he especially cites it affordability and the opportunity that created. Like many of Saint Peter’s students then and now, he was the first generation of his family to attend college. A robust scholarship, loan and work study package, together with his work outside of school, allowed him to pay his own way and graduate with very little debt. He considers what Saint Peter’s gave him as a great gift.
Lastly, in addition to the dedicated teachers, faculty advisors and librarians who solidified a love of literature for him, he fondly recalls cultivating a certain respect for failure, for lack of better term. “In retrospect, I published plenty of bad poetry in the Pavan and performed some truly awful songs in Dinneen Hall,” he says. “And I recall making some bad editorial decisions at the student newspaper, but I always received grace from those around me and learned a great deal in the process. I’m not certain if being willing to fail is implicit in a Jesuit education, but if Saint Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises teach us anything, it’s that we’re not perfect. We make mistakes every day, and only in reflecting on those mistakes, and discerning a path forward, do we truly encounter God’s role in our lives.”
Pagetta is a graduate of L’Evate (formerly Leadership Donelson-Hermitage), a current member of LEAD Tennessee, and member of the Catholic Media Association and PRSA Nashville. He lives in Nashville with his wife, Keri, and twin daughters.