October 03, 2024
Alumni president Brian McManus ’90 knows the value of a second chance
By Vicki-Ann Downing
Brian P. McManus ’90, the new president of the National Alumni Council, is a peer recovery coach. He works to assure people with mental health and substance use disorders, and those just released from prison, that life offers second chances.
McManus speaks from experience. He knows what it’s like to lose everything and begin again.
“I’m in a place now where I don’t regret my journey because it got me where I am today,” McManus said. “But I do regret the things I did that affected my friends and family.”
McManus grew up in Hamden, Connecticut, the son of Irish immigrants. He was a first-generation college student. Financial assistance from PC made it possible for him to leave home for college, unlike his older sisters who commuted closer to home. His parents were familiar with the Dominican priests who staffed St. Mary Church in New Haven and it reassured them as he left for Providence.
McManus majored in history, built lifelong friendships, and went on to law school at Quinnipiac University. After graduating in 1993, he opened a real estate law practice in New Haven. He married a classmate, Kerry Ryan McManus ’90, and together they had three daughters and a home in Fairfield. All seemed to be well — except that it wasn’t.
“For a lot of my life I had depression and mental health issues, and I self-medicated with alcohol,” McManus said. “I suffered from alcohol use disorder, what we used to call alcoholism, probably for many years. The depression started in high school and got progressively worse. I normalized it, telling myself everyone felt the way I did. It was a really debilitating path. I made bad decisions that affected my family and my career, to a place where I almost lost hope.”
McManus hit bottom when he was hospitalized in November 2010. He revealed the true extent of his problems to his wife — he had been mishandling funds from his law firm. They decided he would hire a lawyer and inform the FBI. Over the next year, as McManus began his recovery, he worked alongside an FBI investigator to detail the wrongdoing. No outside complaint had ever been lodged against him — he had hidden everything well.
“Once you cross the line it’s a circle,” McManus said. “The guilt, the shame fueled the depression which fueled the drinking. The more I worked to get myself out the deeper I got in.”
In October 2011, McManus pleaded guilty in federal court to misappropriating more than $1 million in proceeds from real estate transactions. He was ordered to make restitution and sentenced to 21 months in prison. He served 15 months at the federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and in June 2013 was released to a halfway house in Connecticut.
He needed to find a way forward.
“I had to reinvent a direction for myself,” McManus said. “I couldn’t go back to the legal field, nor did I want to.”
McManus was grateful when a friend from PC and a friend from high school found him a job with a power washing company. To earn more income for his family, he worked evenings and weekends as a house monitor for a residential drug and alcohol treatment program, bringing residents to recovery meetings in the community.
“People saw that I was doing the right things for myself and for my family and started asking how they could help,” McManus said.
He was hired to do legal research for a private investigation firm that performed background checks on reality show contestants. He applied to become a licensed private investigator in Connecticut but was told that path was closed to him because of his background.
So McManus pivoted. He became a certified peer recovery coach with the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery, responding to hospital emergency rooms to talk to patients with substance and alcohol use disorders. It gave him the opportunity to work one-on-one with people whose stories were like his own — presenting not as a clinical counselor, but as someone with lived experience.
In November 2020, McManus became program manager for the organization’s Jail Diversion Recovery Coaching Program, which provided in-person treatment to 1,000 people leaving prison. Today he manages the Recovery Coach Program for Bicycle Health, a Dallas-based startup that provides telehealth counseling to people with opioid use disorder.
“I’ve been in recovery almost 14 years now,” McManus said. “I’ve been able to reestablish a new way of living, find a new direction, and have a great relationship with my wife and my daughters. I’ve been able to build on some meaningful relationships and friendships that have been with me since my days in Providence.”
In January 2022, during winter break, PC’s Chirico Career Center invited McManus to be part of an alumni panel for students on the topic of working for nonprofits.
“It reconnected me,” McManus said. “I wasn’t sure how people would react to me. I wasn’t sure PC would want to connect with me.”
He was even more surprised when Jennifer MacCallum O’Meara ’93, president of the National Alumni Association, asked him to accept an at-large position on the National Alumni Council. Because the college would be adding a School of Nursing and Health Sciences, the board wanted representatives from the health field.
“We were inspired by Brian’s journey and his affinity for PC,” O’Meara said. “Many members of our alumni family, including some of our past presidents, have personally dealt with addiction and recovery. Additionally, and maybe more importantly, Brian represents our broader alumni family. Many of us have a love for PC but not everyone is able to be an active volunteer. Brian is a testament to the adage that we can always come home to Friartown.”
McManus was nominated to run for vice president of the alumni association and won the election in June 2023. The vice president serves for a year before becoming president, a role he assumed on July 1, 2024.
McManus remembers that as a student, he worked in the alumni office in Harkins Hall under Bob Ferreira ’83, now assistant vice president for special projects and strategic initiatives at PC.
“Brian always stood out as someone who was willing and eager to assist with whatever project he was given,” Ferreira said. “I’m proud that he is leading the alumni association. His story will inspire many Friars.”
McManus has another memory from his college days. It was a Catholicism course taught by Rev. Walter J. Heath, O.P. ’56, a professor and administrator who was a World War II submarine commander. Illness prevented Father Heath from finishing the semester, but his message to McManus endured.
“Father Heath had a lesson about the sacrament of confession. He told us that no matter what we did, we have a God that will forgive,” McManus said. “The message of the Dominicans is fundamental in my recovery journey. I feel God has given me a second chance and I need to take advantage of that.”
McManus is leading the alumni association as it concludes the celebration of its 100th year, a public role that means his story will be told many times.
“My recovery journey has been very much an open book, not really by my choice,” he said.
But he doesn’t mind. He’s grateful to have another platform on which to get his message across.
“There is still so much stigma around mental health issues and addiction, alcohol and substance use,” McManus said. “It’s hard to find a family that is not affected in some way. We really haven’t talked about what it is to recover from these things and how people can go forward and live productive lives and contribute to the greater community.
“One thing I’ve learned is that people want to help. They can’t help if they don’t know,” McManus said. “We have an incredibly supportive community. If you feel like you’re struggling, talk to somebody. There are a lot of people out there who have been through things and are willing to help. No matter how bad things look, there’s no reason to lose hope.”
The National Alumni Association is committed to ensuring that the Friar Family connection stays strong after graduation. Learn more about the different ways the National Alumni Association keeps alumni, near and far, engaged with PC and with one another.
