Meet Catholic Mobilizing Network’s Board of Directors. This dynamic group brings a wealth of experience and passion to the organization. Each member brings gifts to our ministry and mission of ending the use of the death penalty and promoting restorative justice.
Board of Directors
Chair
Ralph McCloud is the director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), an anti-poverty program of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. CCHD is the domestic anti-poverty program of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Prior to working with the USCCB, Ralph worked as Director of Pastoral and Community Services in the Diocese of Fort Worth Texas. In this capacity, he supervised the Departments of Family Life, Peace and Justice, African American Ministry, Ministry to the Incarcerated, Ministry to People with Disabilities, Hospital Ministry and Hispanic Ministry. He has served as President of the National Association of Black Catholic Administrators and as a board member of both the National Black Catholic Congress and the Roundtable Association of Social Action Directors.
Member
Fr. Ricardo N. Avila, S.J. joined Catholic Mobilizing Network’s board in 2021. He serves the Roman Catholic Church as a member of the Society of Jesus (USA East Province) and a priest.
Fr. Avila is currently missioned to the Georgetown University Health Justice Alliance (HJA) as a Visiting Legal Fellow & Scholar. He works in the HJA Cancer Legal Assistance and Wellbeing Project at MedStar Washington Hospital Center’s Cancer Institute (WCI) and applies his pastoral and legal skills toward alleviating the health-harming legal needs of WCI patients. He also has litigation and transactional experience in consumer protection and commercial matters.Fr. Avila received his J.D. from Yale Law School.
He also holds an M.Div. and an S.T.B. from the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, an M.A.P.R. from Fordham University, and a B.A. in Political Science and Latin American Studies from the University of Chicago.
Member
Sharon Burns retired in 2021 from over 30 years as a non-profit leader, accountant and clinical professor. She now volunteers with several non-profits that serve vulnerable populations. Burns has served as the Director of Catholic Charities Diocese of Evansville, the Executive Director of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education, Senior Vice-President of Knowledge and Information for the International Foundation for Employee Benefits, Manager of Measurement and Learning for the Catholic Legal Immigration Clinic and Clinical Associate Professor of Financial Planning at Purdue University and Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University.
Member
Crystal is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Presentation High School in San Jose, CA. She previously served as a missioner with Cabrini Mission Corps (a lay program of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – “Cabrini Sisters”) in New York, the Philippines, Swaziland, and Radnor, PA at Cabrini University, and it was the Sisters who first introduced her to jail ministry.
Founder/Member
Karen Clifton, MDiv, is the founding Executive Director of Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN) and currently serves on the CMN Board. She is currently the Coordinator of the newly formed Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition (CPMC) and DC Coordinator of the Ignatian Spirituality Project.
Member
Joe Cotton is currently the Executive Coordinator of the Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition. He additionally serves as the Director of Pastoral Care and Outreach for the Archdiocese of Seattle. He oversees chaplaincy programs in jails, prisons, hospitals, and ports throughout Western Washington. Joe supervises the archdiocesan Criminal Justice Ministry, which facilitates several initiatives including a parish-based re-entry model for returning citizens and restorative justice peacemaking circles in lieu of traditional court. Joe has been a professional lay ecclesial minister for over 20 years, serving as a parish youth minister, social worker, international missioner, and juvenile detention chaplain. Joe holds a Master’s Degree in Pastoral Studies from Seattle University.
Episcopal Advisor
Most Reverend Daniel Flores was ordained for the Diocese of Corpus Christi in January 1988. He served as Auxiliary Bishop for the Archdiocese of Detroit before being installed as the Sixth Bishop of Brownsville in 2010. Bishop Flores serves the USCCB as Chairman of the Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church. He also serves on the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, Committee of Divine Worship, Sub-Committee on Pro-life Activities, and the Committee for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Affairs.
Secretary
Mary J. Novak currently serves as Executive Director of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice. She began serving in April 2021 as the fifth woman to guide the 50 year old organization founded by Catholic Sisters.
Member
Dennis Harry Reeder is a Communications Executive & Development Consultant, producer and photographer. Mr. Reeder is also an accomplished video and documentary still photographer whose assignments have ranged across North America and Europe. His expertise is reflected in his client portfolios, including defense and international affairs, design, the arts, environmental, design, and historic preservation subjects, adult education and training, and social justice.
Member
Stephen Schneck serves as Commissioner of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. A political philosopher by training, Schneck retired from The Catholic University of America in 2018, after more than thirty years as a professor, department chair, and dean. At the university he was also the founder and long-time director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies. He received his doctorate from the University of Notre Dame.
Member
Sister Rita Ann Teichman, CSJ, is pleased to join the Board of Directors at Catholic Mobilizing Network as liaison to the congregation of St. Joseph.
In addition to serving two terms on the Congregation of St. Joseph Leadership Team, Sr. Rita Ann has held positions at Sisters of St. Joseph as a Formation Director, the Director of Religious Education, Parish Formation. She was also Pastoral Associate at St. Joseph Hospital and Pastoral Minister at St. Catherine of Siena.
Member
Gerald F. Uelmen is Professor of Law Emeritus at Santa Clara University School of Law, where he served as Dean of the Law School from 1986 to 1996. He taught courses in Legal Ethics, Criminal Procedure and Evidence, and served as President of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, 1982, and as President of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, 1989. From 2005 to 2008, he served as Executive Director of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice and authored its Report on California’s dysfunctional death penalty law.
Member
Sheryl is the Director of the Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (KIPCOR), one of the oldest regional peace institutes in the United States. The Institute offers an array of resources in conflict resolution and peacebuilding, specifically in restorative justice education and training, as well as an extensive networking system for consulting and intervention. She currently serves on the Advisory Council on Dispute Resolution for the State of Kansas Office of Judicial Administration.
Sheryl also currently serves as President of the National Association for Community and Restorative Justice (NACRJ), a professional organization for restorative justice practitioners.
Sheryl has been a practitioner, trainer, and educator in restorative justice for over fifteen years and holds both a Bachelor of Science degree in Mediation and Communication Studies and a restorative justice-based Master of Liberal Studies degree from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
