October 2010 Board Meeting Circle Pines, Minnesota
Board members enjoy connecting with local supporters of Mary’s Pence and are pleased to meet with local groups.
Contact the office
(651-788-9869) to make a connection.
Elise DeGooyer, Seattle WA
Secretary
Elise is from the Seattle area and has many years of experience in non-profit organizations working to end hunger, homelessness and HIV/AIDS, as well as advocacy to improve the well-being of women. She currently serves as Program Manager for Northwest Harvest, addressing food security and child nutrition across Washington State. Elise received her MA in theology from Maryknoll School of Theology in NY.
Consilia Karli SFCC, Allentown PA
Board President
Consilia is currently an ESL instructor in Edison, NJ and a member of the Sisters for Christian Community. She is a former member of the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and has extensive experience in education, small business management, and social work. She joined the Mary’s Pence Board after working with us as a volunteer for several years.
Judy Diaz Molosky CSJ, Los Angeles CA
Judy is a Sister of St. Joseph. She has an MA in Education in Religious Studies and thought for over 10 years. With 3 other Sisters she opened and ran a shelter for women and Children in East Los Angeles. During the ‘80s and ‘90s she worked with Latino immigrants in Los Angeles and led study tours for the Archdiocese of L.A. to Central America. She helped found LISTO Job Cooperative for mono-lingual Spanish speaking immigrants. She served on the CSJ Congregational Leadership Team as Mission Coordinator, supporting the ministries in Peru, Chile and Nicaragua. She lead Mount St. Mary’s Center for Urban Partnership and taught Intercultural Communications. She has extensive Community Relations, Development and Project Management experience.
Sr. Robbie Pentecost, OSF, Lancaster KY
Robbie is from the Appalachian region eastern Kentucky and currently serves as the Director of Christian Appalachian Project’s Christian Partners program. Previously she served in the Major Gift and Planned Giving segment of Christian Appalachian Project. She has an MBA from St. Louis University and a B.S. in Finance and Accounting from Southwest Missouri State University. For the past 16 years, Robbie has worked with various nonprofit organizations in different capacities across the Appalachian region. She currently serves on the Board of the Catholic Committee of Appalachia as Treasurer and most recently as Treasurer of the Appalachian Ministries Education Resource Center (AMERC) an ecumenical training program for seminarians. She is a member of the Sisters of St. Francis, Oldenburg, Indiana where she is currently serving on their Chapter Planning Task Force.
Pat Rogucki SFCC, Baltimore MD
Pat has a passion for working with people from Central America. For more than 20 years she has spent her summers in El Salvador in a local parish in Parish Education and Child Sponsorship. She has served on the board of Salvadoran Enterprises for Women since 2003. SEW provides grants to rural women for economic development projects. In addition she has been active in supporting her parish’s sister parish in Guatemala.
Ashley Steele, Hartford CT
Ashley is from Minneapolis and recently graduated from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN, with a degree in Sociology and minors in French and Critical Studies of Race and Ethnicity. She will join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps working as a Legal Case Manager in Hartford CT. Over the past few years she has become increasingly aware of the disparity in access to social and economic capital between men and women, which has fostered a growing desire to work for justice in the world.
Gilda Larios, Mexico City, Mexico
ESPERA Fund Facilitator
Gilda is a professional social worker in Xiutepec, Mexico. She is co-founder and administrator of three-time grantee, Women’s Income Generation and Empowerment, a micro-lending program for poor women in Mexico.
Katherine Wojtan, St. Paul, MN
Executive Director
Katherine came to Mary’s Pence with a background in strategic planning, project management and training/facilitation, mostly in a corporate setting. She has facilitated retreats on nonviolence, was a founding member of Conversation with Other (cross conflict facilitation), has volunteered for Nonviolent Peaceforce, and served as a core team member founding the Minnesota Peace Team which was created to provide a nonpartisan presence during the Republic National Convention.
Rebecca Blumenshine, St. Paul, MN
Development Liaison
Rebecca Blumenshine is deeply passionate both about justice and about fundraising. Prior to joining Mary’s Pence, she worked as the Manager of Individual Giving at the Sierra Club of British Columbia. She has also worked for FairVote in Washington DC; a kindergarten in Beijing, China; and Pendel Hill, a Quaker center near Philadelphia, PA. Having lived in Managua, Nicaragua with lay missionary parents as a teenager, Rebecca speaks Spanish and has strong ties to Latin America. She also speaks German and Chinese.
