Catholic Mobilizing Network staff represents experience and passion. These people bring a wealth of experience that comes from years spent organizing and educating. The CMN staff is committed to working to end the use of the death penalty and promoting restorative justice.
Staff
Executive Director
Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy is the Executive Director of Catholic Mobilizing Network. Krisanne has twenty-five years of experience working in national level, faith-based policy advocacy. She has been quoted in sources such as the New York Times, CNN, America Magazine, Crux, National Catholic Reporter, EWTN News Nightly and featured on JustLove Radio on Sirius XM. For more than a decade, Krisanne served as the senior church relations staff at Bread for the World, a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. Krisanne is co-author of Advocating for Justice: An Evangelical Vision for Transforming Systems and Structures.
Latino Outreach
Sr. Ilaria Buonriposi is an Italian Comboni Missionary Sister. After graduating in Social Work at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (the Jesuits’ University in Madrid, Spain), she ministered for 17 years in Peru and Colombia in different areas. In Peru she had been organizing communities and educating women for the Diocese of Lurin, and running a diocesan microcredit program to eradicate poverty empowering people living below the poverty line. In Colombia she worked with street children in a conflict zone.
Director of Restorative Justice
Caitlin joined the CMN team in 2017 after seven years of direct social services, volunteer management, operations, and program implementation at faith-based and secular non-profits such as Catholic Charities of Baltimore, Catholic Volunteer Network, Youth Service Opportunities Project and Smith Center for Healing and the Arts. Caitlin is responsible for program development that increases understanding of restorative justice and use of restorative practices in Catholic contexts.
Associate Director of Community Engagement
Emma Tacke is CMN's Associate Director of Community Engagement. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Gender Studies from the College of Saint Benedict, Emma moved to Seattle, Washington for a year of service with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Upon completing JVC NW Emma spent a year with NETWORK Lobby in Washington D.C. working for social and economic issues as a Grassroots Mobilization Associate. As a lifelong Catholic and believer in the sanctity of human life, joining CMN seems like a natural segue for Emma.
Communications Manager
In her role as Communications Manager, Katlyn serves to amplify CMN's life-affirming message across various media platforms. She joined the team at CMN in August 2018, after three years working in communications and marketing for Holy Family Hospital of Bethlehem Foundation, an organization supporting a Catholic maternity hospital in the West Bank. Katlyn holds a B.S. in International Development and Trade from Virginia Tech. She also serves as English Music Director at Shrine of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Washington, DC.
Religious Engagement Associate
Sister Eileen, the Religious Engagement Associate for the Catholic Mobilizing Network, is working with Religious Congregations to broaden and deepen their commitment to ending the death penalty and to enhance the voices of murder victim family members.
Eileen holds an MA in Peace and Justice Education and a Masters of Divinity from Weston Jesuit School of Theology. She has taught at the elementary and secondary levels, and coordinated peace and justice activities in several parishes as well as within her own religious congregation. Prior to coming to CMN, Eileen served as her congregation’s NGO Representative to the United Nations.
After being involved in death penalty abolition efforts in three different states where she was ministering, she became the spiritual advisor to an individual on death row who was subsequently executed.
Development Manager
In his role as Development Manager, Jeff works to ensure that CMN has the financial resources necessary to accomplish its mission to end the death penalty and promote restorative justice. Previously, Jeff was commissioned as a lay missioner through Franciscan Mission Service. He served in Bolivia where he spent most of his time in the Cochabamba prisons, working alongside incarcerated carpenters, leather-workers, and artisans, as well as facilitating restorative justice workshops (Es.Pe.Re.). Upon returning to the U.S., Jeff served at St.
Contractor
Leslie Willis joined the CMN team for the virtual Harm, Healing, and Human Dignity Restorative Justice Conference in 2020 and has continued her involvement as an Administrative Assistant and Tech Support. She is a self-employed program developer based in San Diego, contracting with organizations to develop offerings in the areas of restorative justice, prisoner reentry, and youth empowerment. Previously, Leslie has worked in international education and non-profit management.
Believing in the dignity of all life and the power of stories and community to heal, Leslie is the editor of a book of short stories written by a group of formerly incarcerated men called Writing After Life: Stories from Those Who Served a Life Sentence. She has an MA in Social Innovation from the University of San Diego and a BA in Sociology and Global Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
