Alumni Spotlight: Diana Madrigal von Glahn ‘96
Diana von Glahn’s career has been something of a pilgrimage. After earning her law degree from Notre Dame in 1996, she returned to her native California and worked briefly for a law firm there. Drawn to more creative pursuits, she moved to New York City, where she landed the first of several jobs in publishing.
Now based in suburban Philadelphia, von Glahn writes, produces, and hosts The Faithful Traveler, a travel show with a Catholic focus. The program explores the art, architecture, history and doctrine behind religious shrines and places of pilgrimage throughout the United States. Creating it, she has found a professional and spiritual home.
“The impetus for the show came from Notre Dame,” says von Glahn, whose law school years coincided with a strong desire to explore her Catholic faith more deeply. She visited churches and shrines while studying on the Law School’s London Program, which allows second-year students to take courses in U.S., international, and comparative law abroad during a full academic year abroad. “It was a way to experience more of the world and to do so while I was studying law,” she says.
The idea for The Faithful Traveler came to von Glahn in 2003, when she and her husband-to-be, David, began planning an itinerary for their honeymoon in Europe. The couple wanted to visit Catholic religious sights in France, but could find little information to guide their travels. “We thought, if nobody else has done this and we’re looking for it, then why don’t we just create it ourselves?” she says.
Five years later, von Glahn is producing a travel show designed to fit the niche. This summer the first Faithful Traveler DVD was released, focusing on the Miraculous Medal Shrine in Philadelphia. Two others will follow in the fall. Von Glahn is pitching the program to the Travel Channel, PBS and the Eternal Word Television Network—and she’s marketing the DVDs on the Internet and to Catholic schools, dioceses, and bookstores.
While she has blazed a different trail, von Glahn believes that law school prepared her for the work she’s chosen. “My legal education and the time at Notre Dame taught me a lot,” she says. Presentation skills that she learned in trial advocacy class make her persuasive in front of the camera, she says, and her business law training helps her negotiate contracts and legal permissions with confidence.
“Life is never easy, no matter what path you choose—whether it’s the safe path or the difficult and exciting path,” she says. “I have never been one to shy away from a challenge. I’ve always followed my heart … and it’s always made me happy.”
