Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program

Michael Zelenka serves as a faculty member for the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program. He also works with Notre Dame ACE Academies and the Center for Transformational Educational Leadership.

We are better together.

We don’t build community. We reveal it (Nuzzi & Hunt, 2012, p 6). 

As believers in the mystery of the Trinity – the belief that there are three persons in one God – we recognize that God Himself is a relationship. Therefore, for those of us made in His image and likeness, which is all of us, we were created for relationships. 

Erich Hoffer’s initial plans didn’t include a commitment to Catholic school leadership, let alone the University of Notre Dame’s Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program.

Not even close. 

For one thing, he wasn’t Catholic. He also had aspirations to major in political science and head straight to law school before beginning a long and successful career. 

So how is it that he is now in his 18th year in education and nearing the middle of his second year as the principal of Christ the King Roman Catholic School in the Archdiocese of Denver?

Sandria Morten serves on the faculty of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program and earned her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at Loyola University Chicago.

When I was in my third year teaching in a Catholic school in Chicago, my principal asked me to be her assistant principal. In typical Catholic school fashion, this added an additional title to my fifth-grade teaching job but didn’t come with any extra release time and only with a modest stipend. I was thrilled, and shocked, at the invitation. I remember asking her why she asked me; we had many more experienced teachers on staff. She told me, “I always see you poking your head outside of your classroom, asking how things work and offering ideas. You are going to be a principal one day.”

Mary Frances "Frankie" Jones serves on the faculty of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, as well as the Coordinator for Teaching and Learning for the Notre Dame ACE Academies. 

We live in a time when many feel broken and hopeless. For Catholic educators who believe every child is made in the image and likeness of God, and therefore made for greatness, resignation is not an option. In the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, we cannot submit to despair; we are compelled to act.  

Looking at a map on your computer screen, it seems like a pretty straight shot from Washington, DC, to San Jose, California. Hop on I-80 West and a mere 42 hours and 2,842 miles later you’ll arrive at your destination.