Ralph McCloud

Ralph McCloud is a NETWORK Fellow at NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice. Founded by Catholic Sisters in 1972, in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, NETWORK is an inclusive, national, Catholic advocacy organization open to all with shared values, working to achieve equity and justice for everyone.

Ralph is the former Director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Prior to his time leading CCHD, the domestic anti-poverty program of the U.S. bishops, McCloud worked as Division Director of Pastoral and Community Services in the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas. He has served as President of the National Association of Black Catholic Administrators and as a board member for the National Black Catholic Congress, the Roundtable Association of Social Action Directors, and the Center for Migration Services of New York. He is the current Chair of the Catholic Mobilizing Network.

From 1997-2005, while in Fort Worth, he served four terms on the City Council and three terms as Mayor Pro Tempore. He also chaired the County Homeless Commission and was named Tarrant County’s First Racial Reconciliation Award Winner by the Tarrant County Community of Churches.

Ralph has received numerous awards, including: the Courage Award from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (2009), the History Maker Award from the Archdiocese of Atlanta (2009), Catholic Charities USA’s Martin Luther King Keep the Dream Alive Award (2010), and the Bishop John Joseph Keane Medallion from the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies from the Catholic University of America (2017). In 2024, Pax Christi USA bestowed its Eileen Egan Peacemaker Award on McCloud, an honor the organization last granted in 2010.

McCloud is currently on the Leadership Group for the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University. He is a member of St. Teresa of Avila Parish in Washington, D.C., where he serves as a lector and is a member of the Finance Council.