Marquette University’s Board of Trustees elected two new members at its September 2026 meeting.
The new trustees are Sheila Brennan Conroy, partner at the Madison, Wisconsin, law firm of Lake Effect HR & Law, and Jenna Santoianni, president of MRC Television Group.
Marquette trustees serve for three-year terms and may be re-elected to serve for a maximum of 12 years; they are volunteers and are not compensated for their service.
Sheila Brennan Conroy
(Madison, Wisconsin)
Sheila Brennan Conroy, Arts ’88, is a partner at the Madison, Wisconsin, law firm of Lake Effect HR & Law, where she counsels private and public sector employers throughout the country in employment and human resources matters. Prior to that, she practiced with firms in Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison and served as director of Wisconsin’s Office of State Employment Relations.
Conroy sits on the boards of the Madison Area Sports Commission and the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation. She is a past board member of the Madison Public Library Foundation and Girls on the Run of Dane County. She also serves as a member of the Advisory Council for Affordability and Access at the University of Notre Dame, and she served as a member of the President’s Advisory Council at Marquette.
After graduating from Marquette University with a bachelor’s degree in English and French, Conroy attended law school at the University of Michigan, where she met her husband, Kevin Conroy. They have three daughters residing in Milwaukee, New York and Chicago.
Jenna Santoianni
(California)
Jenna Santoianni, Comm ’06, is president of television for MRC, the leading independent entertainment studio behind some of the world’s most iconic, award-winning television series and films. There she oversees MRC’s current programming, the slate of development, all joint ventures and production partnerships, as well as the television studio’s operational units, including production, business and legal affairs, and production finance.
Previously, Santoianni was executive vice president of Paramount Television Studios. She rose to prominence during her five-year stint as EVP TV series at Sonar Entertainment, executive producing a slew of series for the indie studio
Santoianni received the Spirit of Marquette Award in 2025. She teaches The Business of Television, a one-credit seminar in the Diederich College of Communication. She co-founded the Marquette Entertainment and Communications Alumni (MECA) organization, which helps Marquette graduates gain their footing in Los Angeles. She also is integral in the planning and support behind the Los Angeles Diederich Experience. Santoianni is a member of the Marquette University President’s Society and has also been a Marquette Mentor for over a decade.
She lives in Studio City, California, with her husband, Eric, and her three daughters.
