Our Staff

Jose Aguto

Executive Director

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 parishioners at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Alexandria Virginia.

Dan Misleh

Founder

As the founder of Catholic Climate Covenant it is a privilege to work every day with our partners and supporters to share the good news of Catholic teaching to care for our common home. Prior to this work, I spent 11 years in the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and three years in the Office of Social Action in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. After graduating from Xavier University in Cincinnati, I joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and was stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska, where I met my wife Susie (also a volunteer). I received an M.A. in Theology from the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, CA in 1989. Susie and I have three children: Benjamin, Anna and Zachary.

Elena Gaona

Director of Communications

I come to the Catholic Climate Covenant as a communicator who has focused on issues of equity and representation. As a Catholic and mother, I care deeply about what planet we are leaving behind for the next generation, most especially the communities that are being and will continue to be the most affected by climate change.

Prior to this work, I was a newspaper reporter, followed by communication roles at nonprofits and government agencies, including UnidosUS, the Center for American Progress, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. My husband Keith and I have two energetic daughters, Maya and Fabi, and we attend St. Augustine in Washington, DC.

Anna Robertson

Director of Youth and Young Adult Mobilization

I was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee and, since graduating from high school, I've called many places home, including Cincinnati, Central America, West Virginia, Boston, and Seattle. I have a Master's of Theological Studies from the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and a Bachelor of Arts in Theology from Xavier University in Ohio.

Prior to working at the Catholic Climate Covenant, I worked as Campus Minister for Retreats at Seattle University, supported families of women experiencing incarceration, conducted research on collective memory in El Salvador, and accompanied students on international immersions at the intersection of faith and justice in Latin America. I'm passionate about supporting the emergence of the widespread ecological conversion of hearts called for by Pope Francis in Laudato Si’. In my free time, I enjoy playing music, getting outside, and writing.

Robyn Webb-Williams

Director of Development

Throughout my fund-raising career of 30 years, I have helped to enhance the quality of life for underserved individuals and communities regarding healthcare, fair housing and civil rights. I believe our climate crisis threads its way through each of these issues and I am honored to be a team member of the Catholic Climate Covenant.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, I am a graduate of Wagner College, an avid gardener who also enjoys the opera and travel, in addition to volunteering for various organizations including the House of Ruth and the YWCA.

Paz Artaza-Regan

Program Manager

I have a deep passion for justice and for the protection of God's creation, and I have been blessed with the opportunity to work for over 25 years on environmental and human rights issues within the faith community. Originally from Chile, I see myself as a "citizen of the world" with a strong commitment to global and sustainable development. I have a BA in International relations from George Washington University, a master's degree in international development from American University, and completed the course of work for a master's degree in community and regional planning from the University of British Columbia.

My husband and I have three adult children and a couch-potato pup who is king of the household. In early September 2020, we welcomed with much joy our first grandchild.

Emily Burke

Social Media Manager

I recently graduated with my B.S. from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. I double-majored in Sociology and Justice & Society and triple minored in Graphic Design, Sustainability, and Theology. In my time at Creighton I helped to organize a successful fossil fuel divestment student movement grounded in Catholic and Jesuit values. I was also involved in an interdisciplinary research project that assessed the response of the U.S. Catholic bishops to climate change in the years around the publication of Laudato Si'.

I am now a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the joint Sociology and Community and Environmental Sociology program. My research is focused on environmental social movements and the phenomena of climate change denial.

I am excited about my role as Catholic Climate Covenant’s Social Media Manager as I find social media to be a great tool to facilitate education and communication about the climate crisis. As a young adult, climate change is at the forefront of my priorities and anxieties. I look forward to energizing people of all ages to care for our common home!

Br. Cristofer Fernández, OFM Conv.

Catholic Climate Justice Coordinator

I am a member of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual and am a friar of Our Lady of the Angels Province. I was born and raised in Northern Virginia and have a B.S. in Environmental & Conservation Biology from George Mason University. I am a religious brother in studies at CUA finishing a MA in Theology, Religion, & Culture Studies.

I'm excited to be working with the Catholic Climate Covenant for my professional ministry experience this year. My vocation as a Franciscan is fueled by a concern for creation, a desire for wider ecological conversion in the Church and for stronger leadership from people of faith in their intersections with environmental justice issues. My hope is to help respond to the call for Catholic involvement in community-based conservation, environmental conflict mitigation, and addressing the nexus between poverty, environment, and religion by helping the faithful integrate Catholic social teaching (i.e. Laudato Si') and mobilize the Church (YOU) toward care for our common home.

Desiré Findlay

Young Adult Mobilization Intern

I come to Catholic Climate Covenant ready to be engaged in bridging Catholic Social Teaching with creation, both in my daily life and on a global scale. As an educator, having taught at an all-girls high school for four years, I know just how important and powerful knowledge can be. I have seen a deeper understanding of self, others, and the wider world empower young people just as much as it has empowered me. As a member of this team, I hope to share my background in education, recruitment, public speaking, and writing to continue learning, teaching, and inspiring.

I also hope to share my background as someone who was born in Mississippi and raised in New Mexico; who spent twelve years with the Felician Sisters of North America; and who has had opportunities to travel to places like Haiti, Panama, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Canada, and over 20 U.S. states. This earth and its people matter to me, so I feel incredibly blessed to be involved in care for all of creation on such a tangible and energizing level.

Kathy Foley

Office Manager

After running a bookkeeping service, raising 6 children and actively engaging in St. Catherine Laboure parish, my husband and I spent three years as missionaries at St. Augustine Indian Mission in Winnebago, Nebraska. This amazing adventure left me hungering for more ways to serve the church and her people. I now share leadership of our parish's Stephen Ministry with my husband, Jeff. I am excited to begin another adventure by joining Catholic Climate Covenant.

Katie Gozum

Youth & Young Adult Mobilization Intern

I'm a lover of God and His creation. I studied environmental sustainability at the University of Illinois and started a creation care team at the campus Newman Center. After college, I worked as a personal assistant for a woman with primordial dwarfism. I decided to return to the environmental field as a volunteer for the Laudato Si' Movement and later an intern for the Laudato Si' Ministries of the Diocese of Joliet. I am blessed to be working as an intern at the Catholic Climate Covenant. In doing God's work, I remember one of my favorite lines from Pope Francis in Laudato Si':

"By developing our individual, God-given capacities, an ecological conversion can inspire us to greater creativity and enthusiasm in resolving the world's problems and in offering ourselves to God "as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable." (Rom 12:1)

I am newly married to my husband and adventure partner, Dean. We are proud parents of 1000+ red wiggler composting worms. I enjoy running, nature watching, and art journaling.

Kelly Hickman

Database Manager

I serve as the Database Manager for the Catholic Climate Covenant, maintaining the database and supporting the Covenant with various administrative, financial, and programmatic duties. I am passionate about advancing social justice and undoing institutionalized racism, and I deeply believe in the Covenant's mission to inspire and transform hearts and minds toward ecological conversion, working to achieve climate and environmental justice. I serve on the board of the Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life (SEEL) Puget Sound and on the A Matter of Spirit editorial board. I am a third generation Seattleite and enjoy spending lots of time with family and friends, snuggling my cat Leeloo, and practicing the radical act of resting.

Nancy LaVerda

Public Health Volunteer

It has been a pleasure for me to help the Catholic Climate Covenant with the development of educational literature that documents the impact of climate change on the health of humanity. I have advanced degrees in public health with a DrPH from George Washington University and an MPH from Columbia University.. I have worked in the field of public health for over 35 years and am very happy to use my education and experience to support the mission of the Covenant. I am a long-term parishioner of St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and serve as a member of their creation care team.