SASI speaker bios

Bishop Gabino Zavala

Keynote Presenter: The Dignity of Work: Theological Foundations

A native of Guerrero, Mexico, Bishop Gabino Zavala grew up in Los Angeles and attended St. John's Seminary. He was ordained for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles 1977 and received a Licentiate in Canon Law from the Catholic University of America in 1985. In 1994 he was named and consecrated Auxiliary Bishop for Los Angeles, currently serving as the Regional Bishop in the San Gabriel Pastoral Region.
Bishop Zavala is active in the Church nationally and locally. Bishop Zavala is to be found at rallies and is involved in a number of social justice initiatives that support the rights of immigrants, workers and the incarcerated, their victims and family members. He is also on the Board for Interfaith Worker Justice. In 2003 he was named Bishop President of Pax Christi USA. In 2004 he received the Death Penalty Focus Abolition Award for his commitment to end capital punishment. He also is an Adjunct Professor of Canon Law at Loyola Marymount University. He is presently Chair of the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and a member of the following committees: Administrative, Special Assembly and Ad Hoc Committee on Spanish Translation of the Bible for the Americas.

Fred Kammer, SJ, J.D.

Track I: Theological Foundations of Catholic Social Teaching

Fr. Fred Kammer is a priest, an attorney, and a member of the Southern Province of the Jesuits. From 2002 to 2008, he was the Provincial Superior of the province, guiding their post-Katrina recovery and service to the devastated region's poor and needy. From 1992 to 2001, he was the President/CEO of Catholic Charities USA, the nation's largest voluntary human service network. Fred has worked in a number of programs for the underprivileged, both as a lay volunteer, an attorney, an advocate, and an administrator. From 1990 to 1992, he was the Policy Advisor for Health and Welfare Issues, Department of Social Development and World Peace, U.S. Catholic Conference. Prior to that, from 1984 to 1989, he was Executive Director of Catholic Community Services of Baton Rouge, Inc. Fred is also a retreat director and author.
Fr. Fred has written several books including, Doing Faithjustice: An Introduction to Catholic Social Thought (Paulist 1991), Salted with Fire: Spirituality for the Faithjustice Journey (Paulist 1995), and Faith. Works. Wonders.--An Insider's Guide to Catholic Charities (Wipf and Stock 2009). Fr. Fred is a New Orleans native who received his J.D. from Yale University and M. Div. from Loyola University in Chicago.

Tricia Hoyt

Track I: Biblical Justice

Tricia Hoyt is the director of Catholic Charities Parish and Community Engagement in the Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona, where her work is to encourage parishes to take on the full perspective of Parish Social Ministry as a component of its Catholic identity. She is a PhD. Candidate at Brite Divinity School (TCU) in Fort Worth, currently conducting research on Luke-Acts, and holds a M.A. in Adult Christian Community Development from Regis University, Denver. She is a lead instructor with Survival School: Managing Leadership Successfully, a training event for church and non-profit leaders, and co-author of the MOMS: Ministry of Mothers Sharing books in English and Spanish, published by Resource Publications.

Kathy Saile

Track II: Supporting Workers Today

Kathy Saile serves at Director of Domestic Social Development for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The domestic social development office is responsible for agriculture, nutrition, income support, health care, rural development, urban development, and housing policy and other issues related to domestic poverty. Previously, Ms. Saile directed the Office of Peace and Justice in the Catholic diocese of Phoenix, served as a Loaned Executive to the social policy office at Catholic Charities USA, coordinated social justice and outreach ministries for the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale, and was Associate Director of public policy for Lutheran Services in America. She is the author of a book on public policy and grassroots advocacy. She received her bachelor's degree in Organizational Communications from Ohio University and her master's degree in social work at Arizona State University.

Fr. Manuel Williams, C.R.

Closing Plenary - Practicing Micah 6:8 Today

Father Manuel Williams, C.R. was raised near Montgomery, Alabama and attended Resurrection Catholic School. He was ordained in 1987 as a member of the Congregation of the Resurrection. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame (B.A. 1979), The College of William and Mary (1993), and Aquinas Institute of Theology, he served for 13 years as a member of the Congregation of the Resurrection Provincial Council. He preaches revivals and missions throughout the U.S., specializing in African-American Catholic spirituality and history.

Fr. Williams has served as Director of Resurrection Catholic Missions and Pastor of Resurrection Catholic Church in Montgomery, Alabama since 1990. Resurrection Missions is an ecumenical, multifaceted, educational and social service organization that has employed as many as 300 persons in its various programs and institutions. He has served on the boards of Catholic Social Services, Montgomery AIDS Outreach, the State of Alabama Minority Health Advisory Council, the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, and the National Catholic Development Conference. He was appointed by Alabama's former Governor Siegelman to serve as a member of the State of Alabama Child Death Review Team and the Advisory Panel to the Governor's Early Learning Commission.

Abdulrahman & Kathy Zeitoun

Monday Evening Plenary: Reflections on Hurricane Katrina

Abdulrahman Zeitoun was born in Jableh, Syria and settled in New Orleans with his wife Kathy in 1994, after working ten years as a sailor. Kathy Zeitoun was born in New Orleans and grew up in Baton Rouge. They have five children and own and manage Zeitoun A. Painting Contractors. They seek to promote tolerance, understanding, and respect for all cultures and religions.

In 2009, author Dave Eggers published Zeitoun, which tells the family's story after Hurricane Katrina, when Abdulrahman remained in New Orleans during the storm in and worked to rescue neighbors afterward. Zeitoun was arrested without charge and detained at a correctional center for 20 days, without having stood trial. During this time he was denied medical attention and the opportunity to call his family. An animated film about the Zeitouns is set for release later this year.

Joe Grant

Tending to the Soul: Taking Care in Times of Trauma

A native of Scotland and former Catholic missionary, Joe has ministered in inner-city Chicago and the Brazilian Amazon. He lives in Louisville's inner-city with his wife and three children. Joe is the creator of JusticeWalking (J-Walking), a JustFaith "prophet-raising" process with older teens. He has also authored publications on Prayer, Justice, Service, and Scripture. In 2004, Joe was recognized with the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry award for Gospel Values of Peace and Justice. Co-founder of Crossroads Ministry, Joe serves as chairperson of this justice-based retreat center in Louisville. Joe is the developer of Engaging Spirituality, the latest offering of JustFaith Ministries.

Julie Lamy, LCSW-BACS

Tending to the Soul: Taking Care in Times of Trauma

Julie received her Master of Social Work degree from Louisiana State University and is a board approved clinical supervisor. She has worked in mental health at the Louisiana State Penitentiary and helped open the first HIV clinic at Angola. She has worked for a Medicaid Rehab program at an elementary school, opened a partial hospitalization program at Lakeland Medical Center, and was Clinical Director at Center for Better Living in Central City. She worked on the inpatient psychiatric unit at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina and after she volunteered (while evacuated with her family in Baton Rouge) at the Baton Rouge Outpatient Clinic of the VA Hospital. She worked in substance abuse and the family program at the VA where she studied couples therapy with Dr. Frederic Sautter and Dr. Shirley Glynn. She currently sees individuals and couples at Counseling Solutions and has a private practice uptown in New Orleans. She most recently was certified in Clinical Hypnosis with Rapid Resolution Therapy. This technique is being studied by the U.S. Army at the University of Oregon to clear trauma in combat veterans.

Susan Stevenot Sullivan

Promoting Human Life and Dignity: Messages, Strategies and Common Action, Faithful Citizenship Revisited

Susan is Associate Director, Education and Outreach, Office of Justice, Peace and Human Development for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. She holds a BS from Xavier University in Cincinnati and an MTS from Spring Hill College. Before joining the USCCB in 2010, Sullivan served the Archdiocese of Atlanta as director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Justice for Immigrants, Catholic Relief Services and other initiatives, including a significant role in interfaith/ecumenical work. She is a former chair of the Parish Social Ministry Section of Catholic Charities USA. She has also worked for the Atlanta Council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Glenmary Home Missioners. Her work has been published in America, St. Anthony Messenger, Benedictines, The National Catholic Reporter, Kinship, Southern Changes, Glenmary Challenge and the Removing the Blindfold criminal justice project video and discussion guide. Her work is also included in the book Black and Catholic in the Jim Crow South. Susan was the lead host for the 2008 Social Action Summer Institute held in Atlanta.

Michele Bergeron

Creating & Sustaining a Robust Parish Social Justice Ministry

Michele serves as Pastoral Associate at St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in New Orleans, LA where she provides leadership and oversight of parish social outreach and youth ministries, participates in comprehensive planning, implementation, and evaluation of the parish goals and objectives in collaboration with the pastor and parish staff. Michele is a wife, mother of four, and a recent grandmother. She received a Master of Pastoral Studies in 1999 from Loyola University, New Orleans.

Cecilia Calvo

Building a Constituency for Environmental Justice

Cecilia serves as the Coordinator of the Environmental Justice Program at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. She received her BA in Environmental Science and Spanish from Wellesley College and her MA in International Environmental Policy and International Trade and Commercial Policy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She coordinates the Climate Change Health and Justice Initiative and the Children's Health and the Environment Initiative and tracks environmental policy issues affecting vulnerable populations.

Josh Daly

Case Study, Campus Organizing

Josh serves as Associate Chaplain for Service, Justice and Sustainability. He is a Loyola graduate ('04) who, while a student, served as an Adult Literacy tutor and was interested in issues of racial, economic and environmental justice. He lived in San Francisco Catholic Worker community and worked as an intern with the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Before returning to Loyola, he completed an MA in Theological Ethics at Saint Paul University in Ottawa. He works with the Community Action Program at Loyola.

Mary DeLorey

Case Study, Immigration Push Factors

Mary is Catholic Relief Services' strategic issues advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean. She develops and promotes the agency's public policy positions and advocacy strategies on migration, human trafficking and other priority concerns. She acts as a liaison with international Catholic organizations that provide support to migrants and refugees, and works with the USCCB, the U.S. government and NGOs, analyzing regional trends and developing policy recommendations and joint advocacy strategies.
Mary began her career as a crisis counselor for street children at Covenant House in New York City. She later developed education programs for Maryknoll in southern Peru. She returned to the U.S. to work for Catholic Charities in Washington D.C. coordinating health services, and for SHARE (the Salvadoran Humanitarian Aid, Research and Education Foundation). Mary also served as research associate at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. She has conducted research in labor outsourcing in the Americas for the University of Maryland and headed a research project on low-income immigrant workers for the Aspen Institute.

Lauren Elizabeth Fitch

Tending to the Soul: Taking Care in Times of Trauma

Lauren is a MSW student intern from Tulane University School of Social Work with a concentration in Disaster Mental Health who will graduate in December 2011. She interns at Counseling Solutions of Catholic Charities. She has worked previously in an adult psychiatric intensive outpatient unit, at the juvenile justice court house in Houma, and with the Kingsley House Youth Service Program. She participates in research on disaster resiliency through Tulane University, focused on Terrebonne Parish and is creating a video on Critical Incident Stress Debriefing to be uploaded to the Psychological Institute of Health's website.

Robert Gorman

Building a Constituency for Environmental Justice

Rob is the Executive Director of Catholic Charities Diocese of Houma - Thibodaux (Louisiana) where he has worked since 1982.Gorman was graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill with a Masters Degree in Social Work in 1977 and from Loyola University in New Orleans in 1975.
He is the founding Chair of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, the founder of the Tri-City Interfaith Stewardship Initiative and the past Chair of the Louisiana Interchurch Conference Commission on the Stewardship of the Environment. He served on the National Advisory Committee for the United States Catholic Conference Environmental Justice Program and has worked since its formation with the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. He has developed a slide/lecture presentation entitled "The Cool of the Day" which has been featured at local and national conferences. He has been active in assisting communities in Grand Bois, Gibson and Morgan City in opposing toxic and hazardous waste operations. Gorman has testified and conducted and workshops on environmental justice and stewardship issues throughout Louisiana and other parts of the country, including testimony to the President's Council on Sustainable Development, to the President and Vice President at the White House and to a national interfaith gathering at Baylor University.
Gorman was married in 1975 to Carolyn Anne Portier of Chauvin, Louisiana and they reside in Thibodaux, Louisiana. They have three children and two grandchildren.

Candice Harris

Work, Labor, and Global Solidarity: Catholics Confront Global Poverty

Candice works as the Grassroots Advocacy Specialist for Catholic Relief Services. As a member of the Advocacy Department, she develops tools, materials, and resources for outreach efforts to grassroots and grass-tops advocates. Prior to this position, she served as a Program Officer for CRS' US Northeast Regional office for five years. In that role, she worked closely with dioceses and Catholic colleges and universities in nine states. Candice came to CRS from the Jesuit Volunteer Corps where she worked at a legal service agency for low income clients, primarily assisting undocumented immigrants with tax controversies. She graduated from Saint Joseph's University with a bachelor's degree in International Relations.

Dr. Kim Lamberty

Global Solidarity through Parish Partnerships

Kim Lamberty is senior program advisor at Catholic Relief Services Haiti Partnership Unit and founder and director of Just Haiti, an economic justice project focused on developing Haitian coffee. She formerly worked as a parish social minister, where, among other things, she managed a sister parish project in Haiti. She holds a DMin in cross-cultural ministry from Catholic Theological Union.

Rachel Lustig

Thinking and Acting Anew

Rachel is the Senior Vice President of Mission and Ministry at Catholic Charities USA. She is responsible for grounding and inspiring transformative leadership within Catholic Charities and its extended network, drawing on the Gospel call and Catholic social teaching, to reduce poverty and build a more just and compassionate society. She oversees the Parish Social Ministry, Catholic Identity, Racial Equality and Training departments of Catholic Charities USA. Rachel speaks in dioceses across the country on Catholic social teaching and parish social ministry.
Rachel began her tenure at Catholic Charities USA in 2003 as the parish social ministry associate and served as the director of parish social ministry from 2004-2009. Prior to Catholic Charities USA, Rachel was the director of finances for Hogar Santa Cruz, a children's home, in Santiago, Chile through the Holy Cross Associate program. Rachel received her Bachelor's of Business Administration at the University of Notre Dame and her Master's of Public Administration at George Mason University.

Steve Mikochik, J.D.

Worker Case Study, National Catholic Partnership on Disability

The National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD) was established thirty years ago to implement the U.S. Bishops' 1978 Pastoral Statement on People with Disabilities. Steve Mikochik has served on the NCPD Board since 2006 and as chair for nearly three years. He is a professor at Temple Law School in Philadelphia and a visiting professor at Ave Maria Law School in Florida. Steve has a J.D. from Fordham Law School, an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, a M.A. in Religious Studies from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, and an M.A. in Philosophy from Temple University.

Dr. Alexander Mikulich

The (Dis)Harmony of White Privilege and Racism In Gospel Perspective

Alex is an anti-racist theologian and research fellow at the Jesuit Social Research Institute. He is co-editor and contributor to Interrupting White Privilege: Catholic Theologians Break the Silence (Orbis, 2007) that won the 2008 National Theological Book of the Year from the College Theology Society. He serves the Pax Christi USA Anti-Racism Team and has an extensive background in anti-racism training. He is co-authoring Imprisoned By Our Past--Liberating Our Future: White Complicity in U.S. Hyper-Incarceration and a Nonviolent Spirituality of White Resistance (forthcoming 2012). He and his wife Kara just celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary. They live in New Orleans with their children Katie and Tyler and their basset hound, Harley.

Kettly J. Prophete

Global Solidarity through Parish Partnerships

Kettly is a native of Haiti, raised in Port-au-Prince, and came to New York as a teenager. She studied business Administration at the University of New Orleans. Kettly has worked in religious social ministries since 2002. She has been the Haitian Services Coordinator at Catholic Charities of New Orleans since January of 2010. Her main focus has been to promote the parish partnership program between the Archdiocese and Haiti, while acting as a liaison between the parishes in the U.S. and Haiti. She is also engaged in outreach and providing resources to the growing Haitian community in the N.O. metro area.

Jill Rauh

Work, Labor, and Global Solidarity: Catholics Confront Global Poverty

Jill serves as Issue Outreach and Youth & Young Adult Coordinator for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Dept. of Justice, Peace & Human Development. She holds a MA in theology with an emphasis on moral theology/social ethics from Washington Theological Union, an MA in international affairs with an emphasis on U.S. foreign policy from the George Washington University, and a BA in theology and communication from Marquette University. Her professional and volunteer work has focused on social justice and the intersection of Catholic social teaching and youth and young adult ministry. Jill previously staffed the Education for Justice project at Center of Concern, worked with Latino youth, and served as an international volunteer in Ecuador.

Matt Rousso

Creating & Sustaining a Robust Parish Social Justice Ministry

Matt spent 24 years in pastoral work as a diocesan priest in four different parishes of the New Orleans Archdiocese. While visiting Ecuador in 1980, he was impacted by the reality of abject poverty. He moved to Ecuador in 1985 and worked among campesinos and Quechua people in the Diocese of Riobamba as a missionary. He began serving as Maryknoll Mission Education Assistant in 1991 and also was Associate Campus Minister at Loyola University 1993-98. Currently he directs the Maryknoll Mission Office in New Orleans He also directs a two-semester program, "Ministry to the Universal Church," for college seniors at St. Joseph Seminary in Covington, Louisiana. The program includes two eight-day immersion programs in Esquipulas, Guatemala.

Rob Tasman

Strategy Session on State-level Immigration Legislation

Originally from New York, Rob earned a BA in Communications and Theology from Boston College in 2000. After teaching theology at Boston College High School for two years following graduation, he returned to Boston College to earn a MA in Theology specializing in Christian Social Ethics in 2004. Upon spending seven years in Boston he moved to Baton Rouge where he taught at Catholic High School then attended law school at LSU Law and graduated in 2008. Currently, Rob is a licensed Louisiana attorney and has been using both his JD and theology degrees in his role as the Associate Director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops since February 2008. He is husband to Katie and father to three sons: Mack, Kevin and Joseph.

Tom Ulrich

Doing More with Less: The Art of Building Capacity

Being a kid at heart, I see the world mainly as it has unfolded through the eyes of my family, especially my two quite pitiful, adult children and wife of 33 years (Some have indicated that Mary Jane, my wife, has surly earned a free pass to heaven. Those people are no longer my friends!). Add to that about 30 years of working, in some professional capacity, with parishes (If you include being an altar boy, 12 years of Catholic school education, parish summer socials, a Cub Scout pack and sports leagues, parish activity has been a life-long love affair).

Just for fun, I have a masters degree in social work (specializing in community organizing), a bachelor’s degree in psychology and been trained as a trainer. My career journey has included being a caseworker for Catholic Charities, directing parish social ministry for Catholic Charities in three Catholic dioceses, coordinating education work for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Vice-president for Training, Convening and Mission, Catholic Charities USA and, currently, directing the “Constituency Relations and Support Department” for Catholic Relief Services (I also carried newspapers for many years, but that’s a different, yet somehow interesting, story, in a convoluted sort of way).

A recent twist has been to author a book (published by Ave Maria Press) on parish-based social ministry. It is dazzlingly titled Parish Social Ministry: Strategies for Success (It will probably sell about 8 copies… all to my mom). As a reminder of how old my wife is getting, we became grandparents a while back… and it’s really cool! To honor his passage into “guyhood”, I am training my grandson in how to use a TV remote control mechanism while eating Doritos. And, to be fair about it, my 4 mo. old granddaughter’s introduction to the English language includes the critical phrase, “Boooo Yankees!!!” as in the New York Yankees baseball team not the civil war.
My proud faith tradition is Roman Catholic and baseball (sometimes not in that order, but I am totally confident that God really does understand)!

Susan Weishar, Ph.D.

Strategy Session on State-level Immigration Legislation

Sue Weishar is Migration Specialist/Fellow at the Jesuit Social Research Institute. Sue has thirty years of experience in education and human services, including fourteen years as Director of Immigration and Refugee Services with Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans. Earlier, she worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Samoa and as a teacher in Guatemala. In the years since Katrina, Sue worked as project manager for the Louisiana Refugee Services Collaborative to implement a new state-wide refugee services collaborative composed of the state's refugee resettlement programs, administrator for the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA), Gulf Coast Coordinator for the Mississippi Center for Nonprofits, and Director of Development for UNITY of Greater New Orleans.

Dr. Weishar and programs she directed have been honored by Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans, USCCB/Migration and Refugee Services, the National Crime Prevention Council (for the Asian Youth Services Program), and the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement (for the Immigrant Domestic Violence Services Program). Her doctoral dissertation in Educational Leadership and Research from LSU focused on new methodologies in learning and teaching English as a Second Language to Vietnamese refugees.

Other speakers’ bios will be posted as the information is received.