Father Christopher Popravak, O.F.M.Cap., Board President, is the Provincial Minister of the Capuchin Province of St. Conrad (Mid America). He received a doctoral degree in Historical Theology from St. Louis University and has taught in the U.S., England and Italy. He has served on the International Constitution Commission of the Capuchin order, and has worked in postulant, novitiate and post-novitiate formation programs. In addition to his work in provincial administration, Father Christopher assists in various parish and prison ministries in the Denver metro area. He joined the board in 2017.
Kevin Hutchison, Board Chair, finished high school in Denver and graduated from University of Colorado at Boulder in Business & Finance. Since 1992, his expertise has been in the Real Estate Investment Industry. He also worked in sales and marketing for Hewlett Packard & Lenovo Programs and has experience from serving on several Board of Directors for Not-For-Profit Associations. He sees the need first-hand for solutions to homelessness, with the need to address specifically women’s lack of affordable housing and a pathway for homeless single women to rebuild their lives. Since The Julia Greeley Home offers a solution by utilizing a compassionate Catholic approach to this need, he is proud to be part of this mission.
Father William Kraus, OFM Cap., Board Member, is originally from Grainfield, KS and joined the Capuchin Order and the Province of St. Conrad in 1968. He was ordained a priest in 1973, has lived and worked in a variety of friaries and ministries in the Province and in a Capuchin mission in northern Mexico, and currently directs the Catholic Center at the Citadel Mall, a Confession ministry in Colorado Springs CO. Fr. Bill was Director of the Samaritan House in Denver in 1984 to 1990. From that time he has experience and understanding of the struggles and hopes of homeless people, especially single women, to find stability, meaning and dignity as daughters of God.
Mary Beth Bonacci, Board Member, is a Catholic speaker, author and columnist. Her book Real Love, based on the Theology of the Body, has been translated into ten languages. She is also the author of We’re on a Mission from God, and writes a monthly column for Catholic newspapers, including the Denver Catholic. She was featured in the PBS documentary Colorado Experience: Pope John Paul II about the Holy Father at Denver’s World Youth Day. Mary Beth holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communication from the University of San Francisco, a Master’s degree in Theology of Marriage and Family from the John Paul II Institute, and an honorary Ph.D from Franciscan University of Steubenville. No longer a full time speaker, for the past 15 years she has paid the bills and funded her ministry by working as an award-winning real estate agent with RE/MAX Alliance in Denver.
Camilla Raymond, O.P., Board Member, is an international and religious studies educator who uses intuition, reflection, writing and storytelling in a compassionate and inclusive way to facilitate various ideologies and belief systems her students hold. Through this approach, she participates in where they go, what they do, their sense of belonging and flourishing on their academic, professional, emotional, and spiritual journeys. Camilla currently teaches at the Colorado School of Mines (Golden, CO) and University of Denver (DU) while finishing a Ph.D. in the Study of Religion at DU. Her work, research, conference presentations, and teaching engagements has taken her home to Jamaica, to Israel, England, Spain, and throughout South and Central America. In 2008, she taught undergraduates at Southeastern University (Lakeland, FL) for six year. Camilla has served in advocacy at the Women’s Union in Boston where she planned programs that put an international cadre of woman on a path to self-sustainability and professional success. She is a single mother who lives in Centennial, CO with her four children.
Kevin Knight, Board Member, is a Senior Editor at the National Catholic Register. Before joining the Register staff in 2015, he served the Archdiocese of Denver in the Office of Evangelization and Family Life Ministries, focusing especially on the Restored Order of the Sacraments of Initiation — Archbishop Samuel Aquila’s initiative to restore the ancient practice of administering the sacrament of Confirmation to young children, before First Holy Communion. After getting bachelor’s degrees in Chinese Language and Literature (at the University of Colorado, Boulder) and Meteorology (at Metropolitan State College of Denver — where he met Father Regis Scanlon), he launched in 1995 a website called New Advent, an early internet project combining technology, Catholic evangelization and the Catholic intellectual tradition, drawing inspiration from Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to World Youth Day in Denver in 1993. Kevin lives in Arvada with his wife Kenna and three children, Christopher, Daniel and Anamaria, and is an active member of Holy Trinity Parish in Westminster.
Carla Little, Board Member, is an attorney from Parker, Colorado, and the founder of Little Law Office. For nearly 20 years, she has focused her solo practice on providing personalized estate planning services. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Regis University (majoring in business studies with a minor in religious studies), her law degree from The University of Denver, and went on to receive her L.L.M. in Estate Planning and Elder Law. She also graduated from Catholic Biblical School. Carla is active in several local parishes, and she serves numerous Catholic clients by incorporating their faith into their estate plans and by educating Catholics on the intersection between faith and estate planning through speaking engagements. She is a member of the Colorado Bar Association and the Catholic Lawyers Guild. Before starting her own practice, Carla worked as a public defender, where she saw examples of some of the events and circumstances that can leave women vulnerable and homeless. She welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Julia Greeley Home’s mission to uplift and minister to women.
Jean Torkelson, Executive Director, has enjoyed a wide-ranging career in communications and project development. Following a journalism degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she spent seven years as a television reporter for the ABC affiliate in Minneapolis-St Paul before being recruited as press secretary and media advisor to the governor of Minnesota. Eager to follow a writing career, Jean left politics to accept a journalism fellowship at City College, Cardiff, Wales, U.K. Returning to the USA, she pursued a newspaper career as writer and columnist. She is co-author/ghostwriter of a half-dozen books and author of “Colorado’s Sanctuaries, Retreats and Sacred Places.” As editorial writer, later religion reporter/columnist for the Rocky Mountain News, she met Father Regis Scanlon, who in 2014 offered her an administrative role at the Julia Greeley Home. From there grew great love for JGH’s mission and purpose, to give struggling women the time and skills to rebuild their lives.