Scott Hurd is Vice President for Leadership Formation with Catholic Charities USA, has twenty-six years’ experience in ecclesiastical service at the national, diocesan, and parish level, and has earned degrees from the University of Richmond and Oxford University. He is an award-winning author of five books including Forgiveness: A Catholic Approach, When Faith Feels Fragile: Help for the Wary, Weak, and Wandering, and Around the Table: Retelling the Story of the Eucharist.
John Kerry is based in NYC, procuring electricity and natural gas and developing energy projects with commercial, institutional, government and not-for-profit institutions throughout the Northeast. His partners, based in Texas and Washington DC, develop energy projects and procure energy throughout the country. John has recently developed strategic relationships with Siemens, Metro New York and Siemens, New England to provide full-service Procurement, Production and Reduction of Energy to clients in the Northeast. He is working with VHB Environmental Engineering, Watertown, MA to advance their environmental permitting and civil engineering profile in New England and Revolution LED Lighting, to install in-door and out-door LED Lighting for municipal, institutional and industrial entities throughout the country. John is a former senator for the state of Maine and former executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference. He is an advisor to Catholic Climate Covenant's Catholic Energies program.
Sr Patricia Talone is vice president emerita for mission services of the Catholic Health Association, after serving their for 15 years. She has published widely and is an accomplished moral theologian and ethicist. She is a Sister of Mercy of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Community.
Glenn Willard is Of Counsel for Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP, where he has been for over 11 years. He helps candidates for public office, political committees, corporations and nonprofit organizations participate in federal and state elections under complicated and varied campaign finance regulations, while guiding organizations through the many public ethics and lobbying regulations at the federal and state level as they seek to influence public policy.
Bishop Joseph Jude Tyson has been the Bishop of Yakima Diocese since 2011 and serves as a member of the USCCB’s committee for Cultural Diversity and is Chair of the USCCB’s Pastoral Care for Migrants, Refugees and Travelers. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1989 and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington, a Master’s in International Relations from the University of Washington, a Master of Divinity from the Catholic University of America and an honorary Doctorate of Letters from St. Martin’s University in Lacy, Washington.
Tashina Banks Rama is the Executive Vice President at Red Cloud Indian School overseeing the Advancement, Communications, Facilities, Finance, and Human Resource departments that serves 600 students and 175 employees. Tashina and her husband Matthew Rama live on the Pine Ridge Reservation with their children. She is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Tashina holds a BBA from the University of New Mexico and an MBA from Gonzaga University.
Dominican Sister, Mary Ellen Leciejewski is the System Vice President for Environmental Sustainability for CommonSpirit Health based in California.
In this role, Sr. Mary Ellen is responsible for overseeing systemwide sustainability initiatives. In conjunction with her work in sustainability Sr. Mary Ellen facilitates communication networks among her colleagues and works closely with hospital systems and environmental organizations throughout the country to raise awareness of healthcare’s impact on the environment and to promote programs that proactively address issues of sustainability.
Dr. Stephen Schneck is a Washington-based public lecturer and Catholic political activist who recently retired as Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at The Catholic University of America. He is a frequent media source for queries about Catholicism and contemporary public issues, having offered commentary for most national print, radio, television, and online news sources. He writes regularly for the Catholic and religious media. In 2015 President Obama appointed Schneck to the White House Advisory Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In addition to his work for Catholic Climate Covenant, Schneck also serves on the governing boards for Sojourners and for Democrats for Life of America. A political philosopher by training, Schneck received his doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. He holds a tenured faculty position at The Catholic University of America, where he served previously as professor, department chair, and dean. His academic books and articles range in topic from political philosophy to public policy.
Dr. Nancy C. Tuchman is an Aquatic Ecologist whose research focuses on human impacts on Great Lakes aquatic ecosystems. Her research has been awarded over $4.5 million in federal grants over 28 years, and she has published over 50 manuscripts and book chapters, and mentored over 60 undergraduate and graduate students in her lab. She is a professor in the biology department at Loyola University Chicago. In 2005 she founded and directed—for five years—the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Policy at Loyola, and served as its Founding Director from 2005-10. Her innovative work in building sustainability at Loyola earned her the Chicago Magazine Green Award in 2013. She Chairs the International Association of Jesuit Universities’ Task Force on Environmental & Economic Justice, and serves on the Steering Committee of EcoJesuit, the international network of Jesuit affiliates working for a sustainable planet.
I feel blessed to participate in the Covenant's mission to advance the Catholic Church's call for us to love and care for God's creation, especially for our most vulnerable neighbors. I try to affirm the moral, spiritual and non-partisan foundations of this appeal, so that we can build bridges through divisions and generate lasting, compassionate and cooperative solutions for the climate crisis.
Before the Covenant, I was blessed to serve with the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the National Congress of American Indians, EPA's American Indian Environmental Office, and the 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army. I am a graduate of Brown University and Villanova Law School, and my family and I are long-term parishioners at St. Mary's Basilica in Alexandria, Virginia.