The Follow to Lead Podcast

We are continuing our series on the Five Essential Marks of Catholic Schools. For today’s episode, we will be joined by Chris Valdez, Principal of Marin Catholic in Kentfield, CA. Our worldview is our lens through which we look at all aspects of life. In his presentation “The Holy See's Teaching On Catholic Schools,” Archbishop Miller highlights our Worldview as the fourth essential mark of a Cath...

As we continue our six-part series on the Five Essential Marks of Catholic Schools, today we will look at "Animated by Communion and Community." An essentially Catholic School should be seen as more than a community than as an institution. This mark addresses the ways in which students build relationships, the interaction of students and teachers and even the building. Joining us for this importan...

We are continuing our series on the Five Essential Marks of Catholic Schools, talking about the second essential mark - "Founded on a Christian Anthropology." For today’s episode, we will be joined by Dr. Anthony Lilles, Professor of Spiritual Theology and Director of the M.A. Program at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, CA. Perhaps there is no other Mark that is more crucial to...

Our special guest for this episode of “Follow to Lead” is Mary Pat Donoghue, Executive Director of the Secretariat of Catholic Education for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. We will be discussing the First Mark of a Catholic School, “Inspired by a Supernatural Vision.” While focusing on the whole child in the educational process, Catholic Schools are unique in forming the student...

We begin our series on the Five Marks of Catholic Schools with special guest, Archbishop Michael Miller   On this edition of “Follow to Lead,” we are beginning a six-part series on the “Five Marks of Catholic Schools” from Archbishop Michael Miller’s 2005 Document “The Holy See’s Teaching on Catholic Schools.” This powerful presentation was written while he was the Secretary of the Congregation of...

Today we will be talking with Chris Carneal, Founder and CEO of Booster, about two fascinating subjects. First, we will get an update on the latest activities happening with Booster, a partner with the Duc In Altum Schools Collaborative. Booster has been changing the ideas of fundraising in schools across the country for the past 20 years. We will also dig into the area of “Building a Staff Cultur...

Today we will be joined by three administrators who know the work of Admissions in faith-first schools: Karen Maginn, Coordinator for Duc In Altum Schools Collaborative, who worked in Admissions prior to this position; Amber Hellwig, Director of Admissions for St. James Academy; and Chris Harrington, the Vice President of Admissions and Engagement at JSerra High School. We all know that Admissions...

Today, we have a very special edition of Follow to Lead, looking at the impact Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had on Catholic Education. For this podcast, we are joined by three members of the Duc In Altum Board of Directors, Rich Meyer, President of JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano, CA; Andy Tylicki, President of St. James Academy in Lenexa, KS, and Dr. Todd Flanders, Headmaster at...

Today we will be talking with Matt Meeks, CEO of Catholic Ventures. Catholic Ventures began in 2021 as an incubator for Technology in the Church with a vision to sanctify  the use of modern technology and provide an alternative to “Big Tech,” that we are hearing so much about these days. Their newest venture is the Lion & Lamb Book Club, the first-ever Catholic children’s book subscription box tha...

Today's episode of Follow to Lead is a very special Christmas program. Rather than our normal guest interview, we will be featuring a fun story that will warm the hearts of Catholic teachers and others who work with children in a parish or school setting. The story is entitled "Have You Seen the Baby?" written by our own Fr. Randy Sly. Please join us for this special Christmas feature on Follow to...

On this episode of Follow to Lead, we will be talking with Lynn Hire, Executive Director of the FIRE Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri. Lynn is in her ninth year with the FIRE Foundation, which recently celebrated their 25th anniversary of providing children with special needs the opportunity for an inclusive education in the Catholic schools they attend. Since their beginning in 1996, FIRE has...

On this episode of “Follow to Lead,” we are addressing the other worldwide pandemic, pornography, which is now impacting both men and women at even very young ages. Steve Pokorny, Founder of Freedom Coaching in San Antonio, TX will be joining us to discuss this very serious topic. Steve founded Freedom Coaching to offer help to those who struggle and are looking for freedom from the grip of pornog...

On this episode of “Follow to Lead,” we’ll be talking with Anna Camacho, Artisan and Founder of CORDA Candles about discerning careers and her company. F or years, Anna asked for the intercession of St. Joseph, praying and hoping for some kind of work that was creative and let her work with her hands. There were plenty of ideas that didn’t pan out, but she kept bothering St. Joseph for one that wo...

This is a special encore edition of Follow to Lead with our guest is Dr. Clare Kilbane, Professor of the Practice at the University of Notre Dame affiliated with the McGrath Institute for Church Life. Clare will be a featured presenter at the Duc In Altum Summit this month. Prior to joining the McGrath Institute, Clare spent twenty years as a professor of education at four different universities. ...

Today we are featuring a special encore edition of Follow to Lead with Camille Pauley. As a featured presenter at the Duc In Altum Summit this month, Camille will be sharing about her non-profit organization Healing the Culture and their mission is the evangelization and conversion of people to become deeply, authentically, and permanently pro-life. Founded in 2003 by Camille and Fr. Robert Spitze...

Today’s guest is Pat Reidy, Vice President for Mission and Faith at JSerra Catholic High School in Orange County, CA. There’s a lot of talk right now about being a mission driven school. We will be discussing this critically important topic with Pat,  talking about what it means, what it doesn’t mean, and what it looks like in practice.

In this episode we’ll be talking with our Executive Director, Kyle Pietrantonio about recent developments in the Duc In Altum Schools Collaborative, as well as a look at upcoming events and activities. As a part of the program, we’ll share information about our Fall Summit, including speakers and some of the workshops being planned. This year’s Summit will be hosted by JSerra High School in San Ju...

This week on “Follow to Lead” we will be interviewing Rachel Ullmann, the Executive Director of the GIVEN Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to activating the gifts of young adult women for the Catholic Church and the world. GIVEN inspires and equips the next generation of female leaders to “receive the gift that they are; realize the gifts they’ve been given; and respond with the gift...

Today we will be talking with Chris Ledyard, the Athletic Director of JSerra High School. Prior to his work at JSerra, Chris spent over 20 years as Athletic Director at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. For Catholic schools, sports is always a key component to the proper fulfillment of our faith mission. During our program, we will dive into the issues of integrating faith, virtues and...

Today’s program features Dr. Margarita Mooney Suarez, Associate Professor, Princeton Theological Seminary and the Founder/CEO of the Scala Foundation. She lives her academic life at the intersection of social science, philosophy and theology. A gifted and popular speaker for schools, youth groups, parish groups and others, she loves challenging people to think in new and different ways about cultu...

What began as a conversation between a mom and her daughter has become an international movement. We will be talking in today’s program with Marcie Stokman, author of the book, “The Well-Read Mom.” This book and a small group of mom’s who began to meet and read the Classics has become a movement of book clubs and groups in many parts of the world. As we will learn, through the power of reading tog...

Today’s program, featuring Mike Erwin, will be a multi-faceted exploration into three fascinating organizations. Mike combined his passion for Christ, his interest in leadership and his military background to help establish a high school dedicated to building tomorrow’s faith-filled leaders. His is also the founder of Team Red, White and Blue, dedicated to enriching the lives of military veterans...

In today’s society, we have a love-hate relationship with social media. Our guest for this edition of Follow to Lead is Dr. Richard Ludwick, President of the University of St. Thomas. Dr. Ludwick will highlight for us their collaboration with Bishop Robert Barron’s “Word on Fire Institute” in presenting a masterclass series called "The New Evangelization and New Media.” Max Studios, at UST, is pro...

Entrepreneurship is a familiar word these days, but what about Catholic Entrepreneurship? On this episode of Follow to Lead we’ll be talking about faith in the marketplace and the business world our Catholic School graduates can encounter in their future, with John Cannon, the Founder of SENT Ventures. SENT is an organization that provides business insight, community support, peer-to-peer mentorsh...

A New Perspective on Fundraising - Booster Fundraising in elementary schools is never fun and a lot of work. Booster is changing those ideas in schools across the country. Today we’ll be talking with two leaders from this innovative company and Duc In Altum parter. Chris Carneal is the founder and CEO of Booster. He’ll be joined by Stephen Murray, the President and COO. If you want a new perspecti...