Our New Executive Director
Mary Callan: A Woman of Compassion and Experience
To our Friends who support Julia Greeley Home, now and from the beginning,
I am extremely pleased to tell you that on October 15, 2020, the Julia Greeley Home welcomed an outstanding leader, Dr. Mary E. Callan, PhD, as our first Executive Director.
While I will remain active as president and founder, I am immensely grateful that God brought us a talented leader who not only understands my vision of the Julia Greeley Home, but who has the experience and capabilities to take JGH to the next level of effectiveness.
The reason I founded the Julia Greeley Home is that throughout my ministry to the poor, it has always bothered me that, even though every woman is born with innate God-given dignity, in our harsh world today that beautiful quality is often obscured, and even put in danger. That’s especially true when a woman is poor and homeless.
Mary Callan is special because she has the heart and compassion for the women I want to help. She also is a strong woman of faith. Under her leadership, I know we will continue to grow stronger as a Christian and Catholic resource for women who are alone and need to recover their hope.
It is difficult to pack all of Mary’s background into a letter. Her career has spanned executive jobs in corporate America, major Catholic enterprises, and small nonprofits that help people in need.
Most recently, she was recruited by Raymond Cardinal Burke to be Director of Development for the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, WI. During her tenure, Mary successfully closed a $13 million capital campaign for Cardinal Burke, and completed a number of other major outreaches for him. Before this, Mary was the Director of Development for the diocese of Steubenville, Ohio. She has also worked for the well-known Catholic author Scott Hahn as his personal assistant.
In the secular world, Mary’s jobs have ranged from Vice President of a sports medical firm, to Senior Advisor on biotechnology policies for the government of Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. Those executive positions, and many others, drew on her scientific side, as she earned her PhD in Plant Pathology and has earned a number of degrees in the agricultural sciences. Mary is even the inventor on nine issued patents!
Besides being a wonderful role model for our JGH residents, Mary knows how to run a nonprofit organization effectively. Among her many jobs in the nonprofit sector are Development Director for The Family Center/LaFamilia in Fort Collins, and Executive Director for the Denver substance abuse and recovery organization New Life Promises Recovery Center.
In late summer, Mary let us know she was planning to relocate to her home in Colorado to be closer to her family. It was like Mary was coming home to our Julia Greeley family, too! When I founded the Julia Greeley Home, I had the mission in mind, but I needed a staff and team to make it a reality. They have done a great job to get us to 2020, and I’m grateful. But our prayers since the beginning have been to find an Executive Director who will give the Julia Greeley Home the permanent focus and direction that I envisioned. Now those prayers have been answered in Mary Callan.
Welcome home, Mary!
Father Regis Scanlon OFM Cap
Founder and President, the Julia Greeley Home Inc.