Staff

Alexia Kelley, Executive Director. Alexia Kelley is the Executive Director and co-founder of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Kelley has served in diverse capacities in non-profit organizations committed to poverty reduction, social justice, and the environment. She worked for nearly a decade at the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the Catholic Church’s national anti-poverty program.

Kelley is the co-editor of Living the Catholic Social Tradition: Cases and Commentary (Sheed and Ward 2004) with Dr. Kathleen Maas Weigert. The book examines how low-income led, anti-poverty organizations funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development put Catholic social justice teachings into action. She is co-author of a forthcoming book, A Nation For All: How the Catholic Vision of the Common Good Can Save America from the Politics of Division (Spring 2008) to be published by Jossey Bass. She is also the author of Call to Family, Community, and Participation, an education booklet in a Catholic social teaching series published by US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Kelley has a B.A. in Religion with honors from Haverford College and a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School with a focus on Christianity and Culture.

Kelley serves on the Board of Directors of the Providence Hospital Foundation and was a founding Board member of Language, Education and Technology Center, an adult literacy/ESL program at Our Lady Queen of the Americas parish in Washington, DC. Kelley served as a delegate to the 2007 Vatican’s Second World Congress of Ecclesial Organizations Working for Justice and Peace in Rome. She was one of more than 300 participants from 80 countries to the Congress that was convened and facilitated by Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice.

Pat Wheeler, Communications Director. Pat Wheeler serves as Communications Director for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Ms. Wheeler has served in a several top communications positions in the Washington, D.C. Government and at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. She served as Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. She has extensive experience in media relations, crisis communications, strategic planning, media training, advertising, market research and community relations. Ms. Wheeler has taught courses in marketing and public relations at Howard University, Lutheran College Washington Semester, American University, Trinity University, the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia, Northern Virginia Center. In 1993, she was named Public Relations Woman of the Year by Washington Woman in Public Relations.

John Gehring, Senior Writer and Media Specialist. John Gehring is a senior writer and media specialist for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Previously, Mr. Gehring was the assistant director for media relations at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, where he provided media outreach and commentary writing for bishops and staff on international justice and peace, immigration and other social justice issues. A former national education reporter for Education Week newspaper, Mr. Gehring has also written for the Catholic Review in Baltimore and the Frederick Gazette in Frederick, Md. He graduated from Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md. with a degree in writing and sociology and earned a Masters in journalism from Columbia University in New York City.

Victoria Kovari, Field Director. Victoria Kovari is the Field Director for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. For the last 27 years, Ms. Kovari has worked as a community organizer, political consultant and non profit housing developer. Prior to her joining the alliance, she worked as an organizer with MOSES, an affiliate of the Gamaliel Foundation, directing campaigns in Michigan for regional mass transit and health care . She also worked with Gamaliel affiliates in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Upstate New York. In October 2002 ,she was one of 20 U.S. community leaders awarded the Ford Foundation's national Leadership for a Changing World Award. She has served on the faculty of the Schools of Social Work at both the University of Michigan and Wayne State University.

John Cosgriff, Communications Specialist and Web Editor. John Cosgriff is a Communications Specialist and Web Editor for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Mr. Cosgriff worked previously as a fellow at the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life where he helped write and produce the quarterly journal Religion in the News, a periodical devoted to analysis of the media's coverage of religious stories. A graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, CT, he holds a degree in English as well as the self-designed field of Religion in Public Life. John also studied Catholicism in Society while in Galway, Ireland. He is originally from Springfield, Massachusetts.

Sarah Sweeney, Executive Assistant and Office Manager. Sarah Sweeney is the Executive Assistant and Office Manager for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. She was previously a faith-based community organizer in Detroit, Michigan and is the current DC Recruiter for the Harriet Tubman Center for the Recruitment and Training of Community Organizers. She attended the University of Michigan where she earned a BS in 2007 in Cultural Anthropology. She gained experience in public health as a 2005 NIH international research trainee and through her work developing student public health programs with the Michigan Healthy Communities Initiative.

Thomas O’Neill, Program Manager. Tom O’Neill serves as the Program Manager for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Previously Mr. O’Neill helped execute the National Cathedral’s Consultation of Religious Leaders on Global Poverty, a major conference organized around global poverty in anticipation of the 2005 UN General Assembly. In that role he recruited and corresponded with over 50 global attendees, headed logistical efforts, and coordinated events with the UN and ECUSA. In an earlier position he worked as the Executive Assistant to the Provost/COO, where he managed the operational budget, oversaw the activities of the Cathedral Chapter, and worked on special events. Mr. O’Neill graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Virginia, and has a Master of Arts in Divinity from the University of Chicago.

Brian Peck, Field Organizer. Brian Peck is a field organizer with Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good in his home state of Michigan. A 2008 graduate of the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in sociology and urban and community studies, Brian previously worked for the University's Office of Undergraduate Admissions as a service assistant. He gained experience as a faith based community organizer in Detroit as an intern with the Harriet Tubman Center. Brian is an active member of St. Mary's Student Parish in Ann Arbor, leading in music, parish council and social justice ministries.