CMN Executive Director will participate in residential fellowship at the University of Notre Dame

On January 14, 2026, CMN’s Board Chair Sr. Rita Ann Teichman, CSJ announced Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy’s invitation to serve as a Love Ethic Social Innovator Fellow in the The Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Center for Virtue Ethics, part of the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG).

The announcement follows:

As the Chair of CMN’s Board of Directors, I am delighted to share with you an exciting opportunity that will bring our Executive Director, Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, to the University of Notre Dame for a residential fellowship for February 2026.

Krisanne was selected as one of two leaders invited to serve as a Love Ethic Social Innovator Fellow in the The Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Center for Virtue Ethics, part of the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG). This new program invites Fellows to collaborate with faculty and staff at the University as they pursue specific projects that put love-based ethics into action.

I’m not surprised the Institute selected Krisanne to be among the first Fellows of this program that is created to inform, shape, and improve responses to pressing social, political, and moral challenges across diverse contexts. Krisanne’s visionary leadership at CMN has advanced the organization’s life-affirming mission, rooted in love and the common good.

During this month-long residency, Krisanne will explore ways to amplify the Church’s pro-life teaching about capital punishment and create pathways toward forgiveness and restoration. Her work will assist CMN in deepening its ethical grounding, advancing justice responses, and promoting healing across the country.

Certainly, the death penalty is a pressing moral challenge in our time, with deep social and political implications. I am certain that Krisanne’s time as an ECG Fellow will create new opportunities to engage Catholics and all people of goodwill in a response to this moral challenge that is rooted in restoration.

We’ll be eager to have Krisanne back at CMN in March. In the meantime, I am confident in the competent leadership and expertise of the CMN staff who will continue to carry out the mission and work throughout the next month. I hope you’ll join me in congratulating Krisanne and praying for her during this exciting opportunity.