What does your job entail?
I oversee the church’s daily operations, including staff management, facilities coordination, event planning, scheduling, policy implementation and adherence to best practices.

What is your favorite part of your job?
The best part of my job is getting to use my gifts to make our parish the best spiritual home it can possibly be for our parishioners.

What is one of the challenges you’re facing right now?
Our community has grown significantly over the past several years and therefore the dynamic of our community has shifted. We are now rebuilding many of our lay leadership structures to better represent our community and more effectively serve the current needs of our families. It has not been a quick or easy process, but a slow and bumpy journey.

What are some of the lights and shadows you’ve experienced as a woman working in partnership with a men’s religious order?
I am blessed to work alongside Jesuits who lead the church on the issue of women’s participation. Additionally, it brings me particular joy to share with my Jesuit friends anecdotes, insights and realities into life as a young woman and mother. I believe this kind of simple friendship truly makes them better priests and men. Jesuits, in my experience, are particularly unique and delightful individuals, and I do not take for granted getting to work alongside them and look to them as spiritual leaders.

How could the Jesuits and the church as a whole foster women’s leadership more effectively?
Hire women for positions of leadership and ensure that they are paid justly. Provide opportunities and incentives for women to be formally educated in Catholic theology.

What’s one of your favorite quotes about leadership or the best leadership advice you’ve ever received?
“He is the shepherd of lambs, not of wolves.” –Saint John Chrysostom