We Did It! 🎉
This special recognition reflects the heart and dedication of our amazing staff, whose compassion drives our mission every day. Thank you to all of you for the meaningful work you do in serving individuals and families throughout Southeast Wisconsin.
Anniversaries 🎂
Below you will see staff that have reached some incredible anniversary milestones. Congratulations to all of you on your accomplishments! Please scroll through and enjoy reading reflections and special moments their colleagues provided in order for this to be a surprise to those being recognized.
30 YEARS
Sue Walsh
Mental Health Therapist (MAO)
30 years
"Sue’s steady presence, unwavering commitment to her clients and mentorship have left an impression on people's lives over the past 30 years. Congratulations on this milestone at Catholic Charities, Sue!"
"Sue has been a dedicated therapist and supervisor to an immeasurable number of clients, therapists and interns. She loves her work and is deeply passionate about serving her clients. She has back-to-back sessions all day everyday … any open spots get filled quick! She says she never wants to retire and we’re going to hold her to her word on that!" 😊
"If you’ve spent time with Sue, you have also appreciated her quick wit and sense of humor. Her sincerity, relatability, wisdom and levity make her an obviously fantastic fit for this role. She has been such an encouragement to me in my journey here at Catholic Charities and I could never thank her enough for that support. Thirty years, congratulations, Sue! What a gift you are to all of us!"
25 YEARS
Sarah Matson
Director of Supported Parenting (WAO)
25 years
"Sarah was a big reason why I wanted to come back to work at Catholic Charities. She has really helped shape me into the social worker that I am today. Her support both professionally and personally means so much to me. She is just so fun to be around and can help me see the humor in things. I am so grateful to know her."
"Sarah has been the best supervisor throughout my career here at Catholic Charities. Her dedication to Catholic Charities has made me a better social worker. I don’t just see her as my supervisor, but she is also a mentor and a role model. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being such a kind, thoughtful and supportive supervisor. Sarah inspires me to reach new heights and to believe in our ability to serve our community. Happy 25th Anniversary! Love, Your Zodiac Twin."
Barb Graham
Director of Refugee & Immigration Services (RIS)
25 years
"It might not be possible to find someone more passionate about her work or committed to justice on behalf of immigrants and refugees than Barb. Barb’s intellectual curiosity and ability to synthesize information are formidable, but it’s her deep respect for her clients that make her a great lawyer. As she likes to say, she’s not afraid to pick World War III if she knows she is right, and the fight is worth fighting."
"Her willingness to think outside the box and creatively problem-solve have pushed our department to evolve and offer more than direct legal services. Just as important, the mentorship and camaraderie that she provides to staff and law students are also what make our office culture feel good. Her door is almost always open, and more often than not, there will be warm cookies, a Spanish tortilla, or an apple pie in the kitchen downstairs, courtesy of Barb."
15 YEARS
Diana Schroeder
Certified Nursing Assistant (ADC)
15 years
"Diana began her journey at Catholic Charities as a CNA at the New Berlin ADC location and transitioned to 60th when they closed in 2012. It was an adjustment for her because it was a much longer drive to work. I am grateful she adjusted!"
"Diana has a natural gift for caring for our seniors and always makes them feel comfortable and safe in their environment. Her compassionate and engaging demeanor has resonated beautifully with our members, their families and the other staff. She makes them feel special often seen giving a reassuring hug or holding someone's hand."
"Humor is another trait she uses well. Over the years, I have noticed Diana tends to take lead in helping those that might need to be fed or require extra care. If she sees someone who needs their hair washed, she will just take them into the salon and pamper them. She’s been known to treat a van driver with a cup of coffee and a snack just to make their day brighter. That’s just who she is and doesn’t make a fuss about it."
"Away from work, she loves spending time with family, friends and her dogs. She’s not one to shy away from a project and loves taking care of her yard."
"Congratulations Diana on 15 amazing years! We have been very blessed in having you be a part of us! You have graced the lives of so many, and I know they have also touched you deeply over the years. Being a caregiver truly was your life calling; the ADC environment makes it really fun too." 😊
5 YEARS
Erika McDade
Pregnancy Support Coordinator (MAO)
5 years
"It has been so wonderful getting to know and work with Erika. She has such a warm and supportive soul. She immediately made me feel welcome and a part of the team. I am so grateful for this time I had to work with her and grow a friendship with her. She will be so missed here but I know she will continue to do great work and make an impact in the community."
"I have had the pleasure of watching Erika grow over the last five years! She came to CCMKE with a passion for young mothers and a strong desire to help. Now, she combines that passion with the skills and knowledge she has gained. Erika is a great advocate and support for her clients and an asset to our program! We will miss her as she transitions to the next phase of her life."
Meet Our New Staff!🤩
In March, Monica started as an office assistant at our Waukesha office bringing more than seven years of experience in customer service. After living in Chicago for more than 40 years, Monica recently moved to Milwaukee, and she loves it. She says, “I'm very thankful to Catholic Charities for giving me the opportunity to be part of an amazing organization.”
In her free time, Monica loves spending time with her family and enjoying eight beautiful grandkids.
Aubrey started as a part-time consultant with Catholic Charities in June 2024, and in February 2025, she officially joined the team as our Chief Financial Officer. Aubrey brings more than 15 years of accounting and finance experience to Catholic Charities with a primary focus on nonprofits. She graduated from Marquette University with an Honors Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with majors in Accounting and International Business. She also has earned an MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern University.
Aubrey is passionate about the nonprofit sector and loves using her knowledge and skills to help those in need. She is a Wisconsin native and currently lives in Shorewood with her two young children. When she isn't at library storytime or the zoo with her little ones, Aubrey loves to play volleyball and practice yoga.
Emily joined Catholic Charities as Hoarding Case Manager at MAO in April. Recently graduating from UW Milwaukee, she has a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and experience working with older adults in rehab and assisted living environments. She was drawn to Catholic Charities for their inclusive model of care and is excited to be a part of its one-of-a-kind hoarding intervention program.
In her free time, Emily enjoys reading thriller novels and going to concerts. She frequently visits her hometown of Manitowoc to spend time with her family and their dog Carl Jr.
Larry started as our Annual Giving Manager at CAO in April. He spent more than 30 years working for various newspapers across the United States, including most recently the Milwaukee Catholic Herald. Raised in Portland, Oregon, he moved the Midwest in the mid-1990s as part of the United States Army and never left.
He and his wife Sharon live in Menomonee Falls with their dog, Vinny. They have two grandchildren who live in St. Louis and in his spare time, Larry loves coaching his youth baseball and basketball teams.
Beth started as a Mental Health Professional at WAO in February. She brings more than four years of mental health experience to Catholic Charities, and she is so excited to step into this role. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Social Welfare from the University of Wisconsin. This month she graduated from Concordia University Wisconsin's Master of Social Work program. She has experience with all ages, with significant experience with children and adolescents. Beth has previously worked with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee as a K4 teacher at St. Adalbert School. She is eager to reconnect with the archdiocese's mission in her new role at Catholic Charities.
Outside of work, Beth enjoys spending time with her husband and two cats. She loves learning about animals and other parts of the world. An avid learner, she loves to read, visit museums and learn new languages (primarily Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, French and Japanese).
Congratulations! 👏
Joanna Morales, Outreach Case Manager (SAO)
We are excited to announce a talented team member has received a promotion. She joined the Sheboygan team as an Office Assistant back in August 2022, and in December of 2024, took on the role of Outreach Case Manager. Please join us in celebrating Joanna's new role!
I am incredibly grateful for this new opportunity. When I first started here as an office assistant, I immediately felt a pull toward case management. I have always loved helping people, and I am really excited to work within the community where I grew up."
Farewell💫
Lucy Angulo, Mental Health Therapist (SAO)
"I started providing counseling services at the Sheboygan office on March 2012, just after I graduated with my master's in counseling degree from Lakeland University. I was the first counselor to provide bilingual therapy in the Sheboygan and Fond du Lac offices."
"Working for Catholic Charities has provided me with innumerable opportunities for professional and personal growth. I am grateful for my supervisors and coworkers who supported me when I needed it most. I am also grateful to my clients who allowed me to make a difference in their lives. Hearing them talk about the benefits of their therapy sessions has been a rewarding experience."
"One of my greatest achievements was receiving a Honoris Causa degree (Doctor in Humane Letters), in August 2020, from Lakeland University, "in recognition of my significant contribution to mutual understanding, respect and economic opportunity in the human mosaic of Wisconsin", as it is described in the diploma they conferred to me. I felt humbled and at the same time proud for being recognized for my contribution to the community."
Meeting Community Needs🫂
Sometimes we do stuff outside our day-to-day activities ... We are 100 percent behind our community. And we love going the extra mile to help others and to build stronger relationships. See the difference it's made in just the last few months:
Solar Panel Project
"Reporting financial fraud is not the typical work that we do in RIS, but being client-centered is. Last summer, when the first client told me they had a large loan for solar panels that they never took out, my heart sank. I knew I wanted to fix it, but I wasn’t sure how. When the second client told me that he and two friends also had solar loans, my heart started racing as I wondered how many people in the Rohingya community were potentially impacted and what had happened."
"Because of our agency’s strong relationships with Rohingya community members, people trusted our agency with their stories. We soon found out that an American salesman with an interpreter approached dozens of Rohingya families with an opportunity for solar panels. They offered unbelievable incentives and never disclosed that they’d be taking out high-interest loans ranging from $50,000-$89,000. When they came to us, victims were under incredible financial stress and also felt violated by the community member they trusted to interpret."
"At the start, I wasn’t sure what to do but I reached out to a community partner who reached out to their contact who connected us with the State of Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP). Since we reported the first case in July 2024, we’ve established an incredible collaboration with the DATCP, and 42 families have made reports. DATCP helped the victims, and our agency navigate the bureaucracy of getting the loans cancelled and as of May 2025, more than $1 million in loans from victims in the Rohingya community have been forgiven. In the course of its investigation, DATCP discovered other Wisconsin communities impacted by the same scam and, in total, more than $2 million in loans have been forgiven."
"Our partnership with DATCP and success has been so unique that they highlighted it at the State Consumer Protection Conference in March 2025!"
Pictured: Harun Rashid (Refugee Education Developer) & Claire Reuning (Refugee Integration Specialist) - RIS
Adoption Support Group
Did you know our Adoption Services staff hosts a bimonthly Adoption Support Group? The group is informative and supportive, while also helping families complete their hours of required education by the State of Wisconsin.
Families from all parts of the adoption process can attend whether they are waiting for their home study to start, waiting to be matched with an expectant parent or have completed the process with their new family.
What makes this group so special is the bond children and parents make with one another. The children have become friends and play together, despite living in different locations and parents get together outside of the group from time to time.
Some topics discussed include:
- Discussing adoption w/ children & others
- Building resilience in children & parents
- A birth parent panel discussion
- Book club focused on child development
- Identity in adopted people
- Post-adoption support
Fun Fact! Catholic Charities volunteers play with adoptive children during discussions, book club and Adoption Support Group meetings.
Pictured: Erika McDade (Pregnancy Support Coordinator), Jen Layton (Director of Child Welfare Services) & Carrie Lueders (Adoption Social Worker) - MAO
Staff Out & About in the Community👋
MATC's Rohingya Student Association's Eid Celebration
Special Needs Community Resource Fair at Union Grove Elementary School
MPS Refugee & Immigrant Resource Fair
Lenten Luncheons ⛪
This Spring, communities throughout St. Francis, Hartland, Bristol and Fond du Lac came together for prayer, fellowship and a soup lunch. Lenten Luncheons shine a light on the many acts of kindness and good works by the Treasures of the Church awardees and the mission of Catholic Charities to serve neighbors in need.
The luncheons bring us together to remember that no one organization, parish, or individual can accomplish serving neighbors in need alone. This is truly a celebration of our shared mission of service.
We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who was able to join us at this year’s Lenten Luncheons! Making new friends and generating community engagement throughout southeastern Wisconsin increases support for our mission to continue serving neighbors in need.
As he begins his new journey in retirement, Fr. Dave was honored for his 9 years as Vicar for Catholic Charities and 49 years of service in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee at this year’s luncheons.
This year, Archbishop Jeffrey Grob joined the celebrations sharing his thanks to Archbishop Emeritus Listecki for establishing this important “friend-raiser” for Catholic Charities. Honoring the history of service, he noted, “Since 1920, Catholic Charities has been caring for the wellbeing of families impacted by poverty with compassion, dignity and respect. I am happy to be a part of that mission.” Please join us in welcoming Archbishop Jeffrey Grob, our new President!
Meet Celia & John Kinsella 🤝
The 2025 Chairs of our Works of Charity Fund and the Good Samaritan Society
John initially became involved with Catholic Charities when he joined our Finance Committee in 2020. He said, "Once I joined, it became very clear and apparent to me that the agency does tremendous work."
John says, "The people are great. I’ve just continued to get more and more involved because every month that goes by and the interactions I have, it just becomes more apparent to me this is an organization that does tremendous work for the poorest of the poor in the area. I want to do everything I can to help the organization, and I hope maybe through some of those efforts, being outspoken and being excited about the work they do, hopefully it can rub off on others."
"Publicly aligning ourselves with the organization was the easiest decision in the world to make, because I’ve seen the great work they do. I’ve always been proud (of serving on the board) because I like being affiliated with this organization because they do great work. Sometimes, I feel a little bad about it because I feel like I’m not the one doing the hard work; that’s the employees of the agency. They’re the ones who deserve all the credit. To be affiliated with it, to be involved, to know that we are connected to that it satisfies something inside where it feels like we are on the right path, that we are doing what we can. It’s small in comparison to others, but we’re doing what we can to make a difference."
Celia & John reflecting on their time at the Waukesha office
"When we visited the Waukesha office a couple months ago, we met with some of the staff members there and got to hear some their client stories directly, from the community counseling side to the parenting support side. There are some tough situations the agency staff walk with the clients through and becoming vulnerable with the clients is something we have tremendous respect for. It takes a lot of energy to open yourself up and to meet people in some of their hardest and toughest circumstances, and to walk that path with them."
John reflecting on his time visiting the ADC
"That was a truly inspirational experience to see how joyful everyone was. These are individuals, people, souls, who maybe don’t have a place to go during the day or anything like that, but they can come to the Center and the amount of energy and happiness that was there for those people that is cultivated by the staff of the agency was heartwarming. You could just tell by being in that building that everyone was so happy to be there, no matter what was happening outside the building and in their personal lives. They were just happy. I walked away from there and the conversations that I had with not only the staff members at the location, but the individuals that were there as well, I just walked away with such a full heart, knowing that the organization is bringing joy to the world."
This is what it's all about❣️
A heartwarming moment captured by Annette Jankowski (Director of Adult Day Services)
I think this is one of the kindest gestures I’ve seen … One of our members lives about five blocks away and the van that is used to pick her up is in the shop being serviced. The owner and one of his employees didn’t want that to stop Naomi from being able to attend and have been 'wheeling' her home."
Our ADC member, Naomi, used to attend another program but was having panic attacks in the transit van thus seeking out the Adult Day Center. Eventually she found a small transport service that has been nothing but wonderful. The owner is so pleasant and treats Naomi so well. The gentleman in the picture is D and he offered to wheel Naomi to and from because of the van being serviced."
A heartfelt reflection from Claire Reuning (Refugee Integration Specialist)
Barb often says that our clients are just the nicest people, and it really is true. Last week during a home visit, one of our asylum clients asked if we accept clothing or household item donations. She had a few items in good shape, and she wanted to give them to another immigrant family in need. I know that we aren’t supposed to take donations, but I could also tell that it meant a lot of her to be able to help another family just starting out in the US. I nodded my head and said that I know that I could find a good home for what she had. When she dropped everything off this week, she had a big smile on her face. The items are in great shape and Zetho is happy to share them with members of his community."
Social Media Highlights⚙️
Mental Health Awareness Month
Do you follow Catholic Charities on social media?
Go Team!🌟
Employee newsletters are an opportunity to showcase each and every one of you and the good work you do every day. Your hard work and dedication really make a difference for clients and the agency. No matter which program, department or office location you are a part of, we are all a part of Catholic Charities.
Credits:
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