Administration & Staff

Fr. Vincent Dávila, OP
President

Fr. Vincent was born in Madrid, Spain and immigrated with his family to Indianapolis as a child. He is the oldest of four siblings and was raised in a strongly Catholic family. He sensed that God might be calling him to the priesthood as an adolescent, but initially resisted the idea—he had his own plans. It was not until his faith deepened in high school and he really fell in love with God that suddenly he wanted to become a priest. He attended Purdue University and studied mechanical engineering, and it was at Purdue that he first met the Dominicans, who run the campus ministry. Now his desire for priesthood became honed in: the Dominican charism, especially its mission of preaching the Gospel and its emphasis on rooting preaching in a life of contemplation and study, fit him like a glove. He was also drawn on a personal level by the friendship he found among the friars he met, and was drawn to be a part of a community of friends seeking together to know and love Jesus and make him known and loved.

He entered the Dominicans immediately after college, and after a year of novitiate professed his vows as a Dominican friar and began his studies for the priesthood at Aquinas Institute. He was ordained a priest in 2017 and was assigned to Minneapolis-St. Paul, where he taught undergraduate theology at the University of St. Thomas and was a chaplain both there and at St. Catherine University. After two years in the Twin Cities, he was assigned to pursue a doctorate in theology at the University of Notre Dame. Towards the end of those studies, he moved to St. Louis and began to teach at Aquinas Institute while completing his dissertation. After completing his doctoral studies, he took on a full-time position at Aquinas Institute as Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology, a position he has held until being appointed President.

Fr. Michael Mascari, OP
Vice President
Academic Dean

Dominican Fr. Michael Mascari serves as Academic Dean and Vice President of Aquinas Institute, from which he graduated in 1987 with an MDiv and an MA in Theology. He was a member of the faculty from 1996 until 2003, when he was elected as Prior Provincial of the Dominican Province of Saint Albert the Great. During his tenure as Prior Provincial from 2003 until 2011, he was chair of the Members of the Corporation and a member of the Aquinas Institute Board of Trustees.

In 2012, the Master of the Order, Fr. Bruno Cadoré, OP, called him to Rome to serve the universal Order as the Socius for the Intellectual Life. In this capacity he resided for six years at Santa Sabina in Rome, where he served as President of the Board of Directors of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome (Angelicum), as a member of the Conseil scientifique, École biblique et archéologique française (Jerusalem), and as President of the Order's Permanent Commission for the Promotion of Studies.

In addition to his academic degrees from Aquinas Institute of Theology, Fr. Michael  holds a PhD in Early Christian Studies from the Catholic University of America (1996), a JD from DePaul University School of Law (1978), and an AB degree in history from Georgetown University (1975).

Brian Matz, PhD, STD
Associate Dean for Academic and Administrative Assessment
Professor of Historical Theology

Dr. Matz serves Aquinas Institute as Professor of Historical Theology and Associate Dean for Academic and Administrative Assessment. He comes to Aquinas after having served as the CSJ Endowed Chair in Catholic Thought at Fontbonne University. Professor Matz also previously taught at Carroll College in Helena, Montana. A recipient of numerous awards, honors, and grants, with the most recent through the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) and the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the North American Patristics Society, the Society of Christian Ethics, and the Society of Biblical Literature.

Donna Thro
Executive Director of Business Affairs

Donna Thro serves as the Executive Director of Business Affairs of Aquinas Institute, from which she graduated in 2009 with  a Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies (MAPS).  She has been a member of the administrative staff since 2017.  Prior to joining Aquinas, Ms. Thro was the Business Manager at St. Teresa of the Child parish in Belleville, Illinois from 2010 – 2017.  Ms. Thro attended Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC) and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) for her education in accounting and business and worked for CPA firms from 1983 – 1993.