STEERING COMMITTEE

Jocelyn

Collen

Jocelyn E. Collen has a Master of Divinity from Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. She studied Theology at Fairfield University as an undergraduate with Paul Lakeland and Nancy Dallavalle. She holds a Post-Masters Certificate in Spiritual Formation from Boston College, and is currently serving on a ministry team that presides over Communion Services in a prison in Boston, Massachusetts.

Diana

Culbertson, O.P.

Diana Culbertson, O.P. of the Dominican Sisters of Peace is professor emerita at Kent State University, where she directed the program of Religious Studies and the Graduate Program in Liberal Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her M.S. in Theology from Aquinas Institute of Theology.  She is the former president of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion, and a Board member of FutureChurch. She has published in literary and religious journals, and continues to lecture, write, and edit extensively.

Elizabeth

Donnelly

Elizabeth A. Donnelly (Preacher Coordinator) is a frequent speaker and writer on Catholic affairs.  As a trustee of a Catholic family foundation, she is part of a group of female foundation leaders who have engaged in dialogue with top Vatican officials on the role of women in the Church.  After graduating Georgetown University (SFS ’78), she served on the staffs of Bread for the World and the Presidential Commission on World Hunger and as a Maryknoll Lay Missioner in Lima, Peru.  She studied Christian social ethics at Harvard Divinity School (MTS’85), and did doctoral work in international political economy and ethics in Harvard’s Department of Government, writing extensively on the Catholic Church’s contribution to the movement for debt relief for heavily indebted low-income countries.  She has served on several boards, including those of Jesuit Volunteers International, Maryknoll Lay Missioners, Bread for the World, and the Ignatian Solidarity Network.  She and her husband have three daughters, two educated at Georgetown and one at Loyola Maryland.

More:

https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/5155/article/their-way

https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/conversations-sr-camille/elizabeth-donnelly-passes-faith-her-three-daughters

Rita

Houlihan

Rita L. Houlihan brings over 32 years of organizational change strategy and large project management experience to the Catholic Women Preach planning committee. She is a Eucharistic minister, lector and catechist as well as a member of her parish’s Parish Council and a member of FutureChurch’s Board. Rita is committed to restoring the historical memory of early Christian women leaders with a focus on St. Mary Magdalene. She sponsored Boston College’s annual “St. Mary of Magdala Lecture”, Elizabeth Johnson’s lecture on Mary of Magdala at Fordham University and commissioned the sculpted relief – “Mary of Magdala Proclaims the Resurrection” by Margaret Beaudette, SC. Rita is a graduate of Newton College of the Sacred Heart and holds a Masters in Educational Psychology from NYU.   

Russ

Petrus

Russ Petrus serves as program director for FutureChurch. He holds an M.Div from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology and the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, where he focused on liturgics and catechesis. Before joining the staff at FutureChurch, Russ served in parish ministry in Boston and Cleveland for a number of years as a pastoral associate with responsibilities for catechesis, RCIA, and youth and young adult ministry.

As a member of the Catholic Women Preach Steering Committee, Russ is responsible for website design and content management, social media outreach and graphic design.

Deborah

Rose-Milavec

Deb Rose-Milavec serves as Executive Director of FutureChurch (futurechurch.org), a 26-year old national organization seeking changes that will provide all Roman Catholics the opportunity to participate fully in the life and leadership of the Church. Deb has more than 20 years of experience working in community and Church-based organizations with a strong background in theology, Church history and Catholic social teaching. Her professional experience includes serving as Executive Director at the New Choices Domestic Violence Prevention Agency and Shelter in Shelby County, Ohio; Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee; and prior to coming on board for FutureChurch, Vice President and Project Director for Catherine of Siena Virtual College, an online college offering women’s and gender studies worldwide with a special outreach in developing regions.  Deb holds a Master’s Degree in Theology and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies.