Alexandria Police Officer Nicole Battaglia Receives “Many Are One” Humanitarian of the Year by Her Alma Mater, Seton Hall University

Battaglia’s Heroism During Simpson Field Congressional Softball Shooting Cited

For her selfless service to society through her career in law enforcement, Seton Hall University presented police officer Nicole Battaglia ’12 with the 2018 Many Are One Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Battaglia was one of the first police officers on the scene in June 2017 when a gunman opened fire on Congressional Republicans who were practicing for a charity baseball game at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in Alexandria, Virginia. She attracted the shooter’s attention and withstood a barrage of gunfire in order to protect the Congressional baseball players and civilian bystanders.

Battaglia had joined the Alexandria Police Department in 2015 and graduated from the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy in 2016.

For her courageous actions in the line of duty, Battaglia was presented with the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor by President Donald J. Trump. She was also awarded the U.S. Capitol Police Medal of Honor and the Harry E. Neal Award from the Association of Retired Agents of the U.S. Secret Service. Battaglia was named the National Association of Police Organizations’ Officer of the Year, the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s Police Officer of the Year and the National Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial Fund’s Officer of the Month.

Battaglia, a California native, received a bachelor’s degree in history from Seton Hall and a master’s degree in international peace and conflict resolution from American University in Washington, D.C.

A member of Seton Hall’s inaugural women’s golf team and the University’s Student Alumni Association, Battaglia worked at the campus bookstore as a student and served as a peer adviser with the Freshman Studies Department. While completing her master’s degree she interned at the Department of Justice in the Criminal Division and Office of Justice Programs.

ABOUT SETON HALL UNIVERSITY

One of the country’s leading Catholic universities, Seton Hall has been developing students in mind, heart and spirit since 1856. Home to nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students and offering more than 90 rigorous academic programs, Seton Hall’s academic excellence has been singled out for distinction by The Princeton Review, U.S. News & World Report and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Seton Hall embraces students of all religions and prepares them to be exemplary servant leaders and global citizens. In recent years, the University has achieved extraordinary success. Since 2009, it has seen record-breaking undergraduate enrollment growth and an impressive 93-point increase in the average SAT scores of incoming freshmen. In the past decade, Seton Hall students and alumni have received 24 Fulbright Scholarships as well as other prestigious academic honors, including Boren Awards, Pickering Fellowships, Udall Scholarships and a Rhodes Scholarship. In the past five years, the University has invested more than $150 million in new campus buildings and renovations. And in 2015, Seton Hall launched a School of Medicine as well as a College of Communication and the Arts. A founding member of the Big East Conference, the Seton Hall Pirates field 14 NCAA Division I varsity sports teams.

The University’s beautiful main campus is located in suburban South Orange, New Jersey, and is only 14 miles from New York City — offering students a wealth of employment, internship, cultural and entertainment opportunities. Seton Hall’s nationally recognized School of Law is prominently located in downtown Newark. The University’s new Interprofessional Health Sciences (IHS) campus in Clifton and Nutley, N.J. will open in the summer of 2018. The IHS campus will house Seton Hall’s College of Nursing and School of Health and Medical Sciences as well as the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall.

For more information, visit www.shu.edu.