The ACE Fellowship has been building a national network this year with the help of a generous grant from the Kellogg Foundation. In October, we were able to award funding to nine regional areas applying to establish local Fellowship groups. This January, the ACE Fellowship hosted a Winter Board Meeting in Malibu, California, for regional representatives from each these cities.
The Board Meeting brought together an exceptional group of ACE, ND, and UCCE graduates for three days of reflection and strategic planning. This time together gave the reps a chance to share their experiences of regional Fellowship building while mapping out next steps in a national agenda for ACE Fellowship.
(Left) Erik Goldschmidt - ACE 3 representing Boston, (Right) Joe Villinski – ACE 4 representing Chicago, (Center) Karen Hammen – ACE 11 representing the Bay Area: Discussing their experiences of regional Fellowship
(Left) David Garcia-Prats - ACE 8 representing Houston, (Center) Bekah Madrid – ACE 8 representing DC, (Right) Beth Burau – ACE 7 representing Dallas: Listening to guest speakers and Fellowship representative panels
(Left) Dr. Kevin Baxter – guest speaker from LA Catholic schools, (Center) Kelly (Walsh) Surapaneni – ACE 3 representing Boston, (Right) Scott Morgan– ACE 2 representing the Bay Area: Panel discussion on leveraging talent for the service of Catholic education. Kelly is principal of Trinity Catholic HS and Scott is the founder of non-profit Education Pioneers.
(Left) Kelley McCann – PLACE grad representing LA shares her reflections in a breakout session
David Yeager – ACE 11 representing the Bay Area offered a workshop on using free Google technology for regional communications. Dave is a grad student at Stanford in Ed. Psych and developing partnerships with Google and Catholic schools.
Mariaelena (Raymond) Amato ACE 7 regional rep for LA was not able to attend because the meeting fell close to her due date. In photo: David Garcia-Prats receiving a text message from Eric Amato announcing the birth of baby boy, Tommy Amato.
Morning prayer at the Serra Retreat Center
(Center) Chris Broughton – ACE 11 on the Fellowship staff did an outstanding job as the lead coordinator of the Board Meeting. From coordinating travel to communicating with guest speakers, Broughton designed and implemented an impressive event.
(Center) Fr. Tim Scully declares a victory for the Regional ACE Fellowship during a weekend excursion in Newport.
(Left) Chris Broughton and (Right) Thomas Bambrick back to reality in South Bend.
For more pictures of the Board Meeting visit this slideshow.
To read more about the regional Fellowship groups, visit this site.
By Tony DeSapio