Advisory Council

The Advisory Council advises VOTF’s board of trustees on issues relating to the organization’s mission and goals, offers analysis and recommendations as solicited by the board, and counsels the board on issues it feels are pertinent to VOTF’s success. Council members have knowledge and experience in theology and institutional church dynamics and a unique understanding of VOTF’s origin and development.

Council members include:

  • RIP — dear Francine Cardman, Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Church History, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, Boston, Mass., who wrote and taught on the development of doctrine and early Christian ethics, women’s ministry in early Christianity, tradition and hermeneutics with regard to women’s ordination, lay leadership and participation in the early church, structures of governance and accountability in the church and Vatican II and ecumenism.
  • William D’Antonio, Ph.D., Fellow, Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies, The Catholic University of American, Washington, D.C., who is co-author of eight books on the sociology of religion, including Voices of the Faithful, a study of a lay social movement striving to help change the church that uses VOTF as its example.
  • Paul Lakeland, Ph.D., former Aloysius P. Kelley S.J. Professor of Catholic Studies and Director, Center for Catholic Studies, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Conn., who has written and taught Catholic ecclesiology, liberation theology and religion and literature.
  • James E. Post, Ph.D., J.D., Emeritus John F. Smith Jr. Professor in Management, Boston University School of Management, Boston, Mass., who taught strategic management, corporate governance and professional ethics; has held leadership positions in the school’s doctoral and public and non-profit management programs and management policy department; is the author, co-author or editor of 20 books and more than 100 scholarly papers and was co-founder and president of VOTF.
  • Christine Schenk, csj, theologian and former Executive Director, FutureChurch, a national coalition working for full participation of all Catholics in the church, who has created the national dialogue projects Women in Church Leadership, The Future of Priestly Ministry, Celebrating Women Witnesses and Save Our Parish Community and who has written widely and given hundreds of presentations and interviews on the worldwide Catholic priest shortage, strategies for preserving vibrant parishes, women in scripture, Jesus and women and women in the early church.