Callings Conference 2008

Keynote Bios

Ms. Anne Buening brings the combination of a mental health background, a business background and a graduate degree in theology to her work in the church.  Mrs. Buening holds a bachelors degree in Psychology from St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana, a Master's degree in Social Work from the University of Maryland and a Master's degree in Theology from Washington Theological Union.  Mrs. Buening has worked in public andprivate social service organizations as well as in corporate health care management.  She now serves the Archdiocese of Baltimore as Pastoral Life Director for St. Clement parish.  She was the first lay woman to be so appointed.  Mrs. Buening and her husband Don have two sons.  The Buening's are not strangers to the Mount as one of their sons and his wife are both Mount graduates.  Mrs. Buening expects her new little granddaughter from that marriage will be a member of the Mount St. Mary's class of 2027.

Dr. Kathleen Cahalan is associate professor of Theology at Saint John's University School of Theology-Seminary in Collegeville, Minnesota.  She earned her doctorate in practical theology from the University of Chicago Divinity School, taught in the theology department at Rosary College, River Forest, Illinois, and served as the evaluation coordinator for the Religion Division of Lilly Endowment, Inc.  Cahalan is the author of Projects That Matter:  Successful Planning and Evaluation for Religious Organizations (Alban Institute, 2003), and Formed in the Image of Christ: The Sacramental-Moral Theology of Bernard Haring (Liturgical Press, 2004).

Dr. Michael Galligan-Stierle is the Vice President for the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities were he oversees conference, the newsletter, the journal, and church-university issues. For six years, Michael was employed by US Conference of Catholic Bishops as the Assistant Secretary for Catholic Higher Education and Campus Ministry.  He has a Ph.D. in Sacred Scripture, and he has thirty-five years of experience as a Campus Minister, including work as a director in diocesan, public, private, and Catholic university settings.  Michael received recognition for his work of "Developing Leaders for the Future" from CCMA at the 1999 Bishops' Reception, and he has published articles and given numerous talks on empowering student leaders.  Michael and Pamela have been married twenty-nine years and are the proud parents of two biological and two adopted children twenty-four to twenty-eight years old.

Dr. Richard McCord is a senior staff member at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops where he directs the Office for Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth.  He holds a Doctorate in Education from the University of Maryland.  His other graduate degrees include a Masters degree in Divinity from Mary Immaculate Seminary and a Masters degree in Christian Education from Princeton Theological Seminary.  Dr. McCord has served the Catholic Church in professional capacities since 1972 in parish educations work, in diocesan administration and leadership roles, and for the past twenty years in a national position with the bishops.  His published work has appeared in numerous church journals, magazines, and syndicated newpaper features.  Dr. McCord has been a contributor to five books and to three national research projects on parish lay ministries.  He played a key role in staffing the Bishops' Lay Ministry Project which began in 1996.  in this capacity, he was responsible for their most recent document Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord: A Resource for Guiding the Lay Ecclesial Ministry.  Dr. McCord was given the Gaudium et Spes Award in 2000 by the National Association for Lay Ministry in recognition of his many efforts.  He has been married to Denise since 1976 and they are the parents of an adult son, Andrew.

Mr. Herm Trabbic combines a successful 35-year career as a senior HR manager and independent management consultant with a recent Master's degree in Theology from the Washington Theological Union, his public ministry (in "retirement") is now focused on working with Church leadership in a variety of settings to develop and enhance effective, pastorally-oriented leadership by both the lay and the ordained.  Initiated by his pastor's request, his private ministry focuses on leading a Sunday litury with the elderly residents of an assisted-living and Alzheimer's facility.  Realizing the tremendous need nationally for a ministry to the institutionalized elderly, he established the Institute for Sunday Literury6 for the Elderly (ISLE) and currently serves as the executive director of this nascent organization.  CHURCH magazine (Spring 2007) featured his ministry in an article: Holy Communion on Sundays for the "Exiled Elders".  He is currently co-authoring a book to be published by Liturgical Press:  God is in the Details: A 'How To' Manual for Catholic Lay Presiders.

Sponsored by Mount St. Mary’s University and Callings, a program of theological exploration of vocation funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc.