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ACE Advocates Host Annual Leaders Summit

on Monday, 24 October 2011.

Champions for K-12 Catholic education recently gathered at the University of Notre Dame from around the country to share skills and ideas at the annual ACE Advocates Regional Leaders Summit. The advocates, active year-round in 25 regional groups from Washington, DC to Los Angeles and from South Bend to Dallas, returned to the home of the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) to advance their goal of building a movement in service to Catholic schools.

Every annual summit provides ongoing leadership formation for the national network of ACE graduates, who represent an important pool of talent for the Church. Through their regions, these leaders—a majority of whom are still Catholic school educators themselves—perform a range of services to schools, parents, and children. Communities have raised funds for schools, assisted individual students' families facing emergencies, and taken supportive stands on statewide parental choice policy initiatives. Regions also provide spiritual nourishment and an encouraging community for local Catholic school supporters.
"ACE Advocates works to further cultivate our graduates' faith, entrepreneurship, and commitment – all of which are urgently needed by the Church and the nation," said Chuck Lamphier, director of ACE Advocates. "The regional leaders who gathered at Notre Dame are leaders in a growing movement to sustain and strengthen Catholic schools."

Given the summit's timing, on the weekend of the Oct. 1 Fighting Irish football game away at Purdue, ACE Advocates hosted a game watch which included a book drive for a local Catholic school's library. "We modeled how to host a fun event while helping to address important needs," said Lamphier.
Leaders in the regions are generally drawn from graduates of ACE's degree-granting formation initiatives, ACE Teaching Fellows and the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program. These Notre Dame alumni enthusiastically follow their team, but the regions also embrace and empower all supporters of Catholic education.

The gathering, hosted at Carole Sandner Hall, ACE's new home on the Notre Dame campus, was interactive and collaborative; the ACE Advocates' regional and national leadership groups both gained insight and encouragement. "We took the pulse of our regional leaders," Lamphier said, "and we were blessed to see the Holy Spirit at work, bringing the ACE Movement to more people in more ways."
Find out more about the ACE Advocates and their 25 regions at aceadvocates.nd.edu. Explore ACE's new website at ace.nd.edu.

ACE, founded in 1993 by Rev. Timothy Scully, C.S.C., and Rev. Sean McGraw, C.S.C., is the nation's leading force to sustain, strengthen, and transform Catholic K-12 education, with a special focus on serving under-resourced schools and disadvantaged children. ACE does this through a number of initiatives and partnerships, including formation programs for Catholic school teachers and leaders, professional services for schools and dioceses, and outreach efforts aimed at cultivating entrepreneurial leadership for Catholic schools.

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