February 3, 2012
Directors named for Catholic Charities and Office of Catechesis
By PAUL R. LEINGANG and MARY ANN HUGHES (Message editor and staff writer)
Bishop Charles C. Thompson has appointed new directors for two key diocesan offices — Catholic Charities and the Office of Catechesis. Both will start in March.
Sharon A. Burns will take the lead at Catholic Charities. She is a native of Evansville who graduated from Reitz Memorial High School in Evansville. She is currently a clinical associate professor at Purdue University and head of an Evansville consulting company. Her background includes teaching, accounting, business management, and grant writing and revenue generating activities. She succeeds Gayle Uebelhor, who has served as interim director following the retirement of James F. Collins in May 2010.
Katharine Gallo has been appointed to head the Office of Catechesis, following Donna Gish who has served as acting director since the death of Benedictine Sister Geraldine Hedinger in February of 2010.
Gallo currently teaches religion at Sacred Heart High School in Kingston, Mass. She served in several parish posts in the Boston area, and from 2000 to 2002, she was Assistant Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Bos-ton.
• Burns brings a strong record of managing non-profit associations, overseeing the work of professional staff members, and collaborating with and serving community partners. In addition to her current position, her experience has included work as a self-employed Certified Public Accountant and consultant in Columbus, Ohio, and as an assistant professor at Ohio State University.
She earned a bachelor of science degree in consumer financial advising from Purdue, a master’s in consumer science from the University of Wisconsin at Madi-son, and a doctorate in consumer and family economics from Purdue.
Her current position at Purdue in West Lafayette is in the College of Health and Human Sciences, Department of Consumer Sciences and Retailing.
Tim McGuire, chief operating officer in the Diocese of Evansville, said he is “excited about the combination of skills that Burns brings to the position,” noting that she served as executive director and senior vice-president of non-profit organizations.” Along with organizational, financial and creative skills, “she understands the need to continue to incorporate Catholic social teaching into the work of Catholic Char-ities.
“I am confident that Sharon will continue the strong leadership established by Jim Collins and Gayle Uebelhor, and along with the Catholic Charities staff, will enhance the proud tradition of Catholic Charities in southwest Indiana.”
Uebelhor has been serving as the interim director at Catholic Charities. McGuire thanked him for his service during the last two years. “He has done an outstanding job of enhancing many of the programs initiated by Jim Collins. In addition, he increased the board involvement and enhanced the relationships with other Catholic [St. Vincent de Paul] and non-Catholic outreach agencies.”
In addition to serving as interim director, he was charged with studying the operations and ministry of Catholic Charities and making recommendations for the future. He said of his work at Catholic Charities, “On my very first day, I was told that Catholic Charities was the ‘best kept secret’ in the diocese. My goal, then and now, was to make it less of a secret.
“What I discovered on day one were talented and dedicated staff members who were able to revamp their counseling schedules and outreach to the deaneries to serve more people; an outreach component which expanded the Neighbor to Neighbor program in frequency, language (Spanish) and locations, while increasing their emergency assistance to more people and to the ‘new poor.’ Our pro-life (conception to natural death) programs were expanded; our family and marriage support initiatives reached more people.”
He said to the board “my proudest endeavor took on the additional tasks of involvement in researching and implementing senior service initiatives, expanding our outreach programs, assessing our counseling services, initiating a major thrust to increase the understanding of Catholic Social Teachings, writing articles for the Message and local newspapers, and working more closely with the St. Vincent de Paul councils.”
• Gallo’s experience before moving to the Boston area in-cluded ministry as Director of Religious Education for the Diocese of Owensboro from 1987 to 2000. In her role in the Western Kentucky diocese, she designed and implemented a new catechist certification pro-cess, implemented a SPRED (Special Religious Education) program, and designed a catechetical program, Loaves and Fishes, used in the diocese.
She has served as a board member and regional representative for the National Confer-ence for Catechetical Leader-ship, and was a regional representative for the National Con-ference of Directors of Relig-ious Education.
She says she is “really excited to be coming to the Diocese of Evansville,” and is “looking forward to working with the DREs,” adding “catechesis is a passion.”
She earned her bachelor of arts degree in special education and elementary education at Brescia College in Owensboro, and a master’s in religious education from Boston College. She earned her doctorate in educational leadership from Spaul-ding University in Louisville.
McGuire said that Gallo brings a “great combination” of diocesan and parish experience which includes 13 years as a diocesan director, two years as an assistant director of an archdiocese, and seven years as a DRE.
“In addition to her job skills, it is obvious that Kathy possesses great spirituality,” adding “even though she is moving from the East Coast, her values and perspectives are very similar to those of Midwesterners.”
McGuire thanked Donna Gish for her guidance and leadership as acting director in the diocesan Office of Catechesis. “In addition to the creation of For-mation Day, Donna continued the programs and spirit in-spired by Sister Geraldine Hed-inger,” he said, adding that “Donna will now return to her role as assistant director of Cate-chesis.”
Gish has served as acting director since March of 2010 following the death of Sister Geraldine Hedinger. Gish was associate director of the office since Sept. 1, 1997.
As interim director she continued several programs that were started by Sister Geraldine, including “Why Catholic?” a four-year adult faith formation program which ended in Ad-vent 2011, monthly formation and networking meetings for the directors and coordinators of religious education, 12 catechist formation [Toolbox] sessions each year and RCIA re-treats. She also served as a resource to parish leadership.
A new event that was started under Gish was Formation Day. “With the help of a committee of religious education directors we had two very successful events for catechists.” She also assisted with the Rite of Election, along with Matt Miller, diocesan director of Worship, and the Confir-mation Spectacular, with Steve Dabrowski, director of the Off-ice for Youth and Young Adult Ministry.
She is currently working on religious education textbook adoption for elementary grades for parish and schools with Donna Halverson, assistant su-perintendent of schools and committee members.
“I could not have continued the wonderful ministry of catechesis without the support of the DREs/CREs of the diocese, the encouragement of pastors, and the assistance of Kay Beard, secretary for the Office of Cate-chesis. The Holy Spirit has certainly guided me the past two years. I learned from the best, my beloved colleague and friend, Sister Geraldine Hedin-ger.”