EVANGELIUM CONSULTING GROUP - Key Persons
Ann's passion for serving the Church flows from a deep personal encounter with Jesus Christ. In spite of her background in education, this encounter occurred, interestingly enough, while she was serving as a tennis teaching professional, and she realized that the Lord was waiting for a response from her - indeed, the ball was in her court.
After taking time to learn how to pray, she became involved in the faith formation of 9th graders. One of the first challenges was the complete lack of textbooks. In teaching the young people what she was learning through personal prayer, the thirst to lead others to Christ began to grow. After a year as a full-time youth minister, Ann received a graduate degree in Theology and Christian Ministry with a specialization in Catechetics. Her undergraduate degree is in French and Education.
Following four years as a DRE for two parishes in Nebraska, Ann began serving the Diocese of La Crosse, WI as the Director for Catechesis and Evangelization. In her thirteen years of service since, she has assisted catechetical leaders, catechists, Catholic school administrators, teachers, and priests with the implementation and building up of religious education programs, adult faith formation, and evangelization efforts for parish renewal. Her experience has included providing priests and catechetical leaders with consultation on a wide variety of challenging situations.
At heart, Ann is a "people person." Developing resources is for her and those she works with an endeavor that must always be truly practical, personally relevant and life giving. One such resource is the Virtue Program for young people and their parents. She has also composed written resources to accompany popular Catholic DVD's. Helping children, young people, and adults to fall in love with Jesus Christ and to be more fully committed to Him in every area of their lives gives her great joy.
Ann Lankford is a faith-filled and enthusiastic presenter who is passionate about helping parishes form healthy leadership teams. With several recent additions to my parish staff, the two-day leadership training led by Ann, together with Chris Ruff, has helped to make our team better communicators and united in purpose. We continue to benefit from that intentional time together in our enlivened, dynamic weekly staff meetings and daily through our cohesive team unity.
Chris has dedicated over twenty years to diocesan and parish work. He is Director of the Office for Ministries and Social Concerns of the Diocese of La Crosse, where he established and directs the Lay Formation Institute. He also works in clergy formation as Associate Director of the Permanent Diaconate Program.
Chris is passionate about fostering renewal in the Church through small groups and teams. He is convinced that healthy renewal depends not only on the workings of grace, but on addressing human and interpersonal dynamics and the challenges and opportunities they present to any organization. He believes solutions emerge from attention to core principles and practices in a context of complete trust in God.
Along with a STL in Theology from the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Rome, Chris holds a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology and practiced individual and marriage counseling for six years in his work for a large parish in Minneapolis, where he also directed RCIA and adult faith formation.
Chris has taught many classes as an adjunct professor, most recently for the Master's program of the Institute for Pastoral Theology of Ave Maria University, including Christian Anthropology and Pastoral Care. He has also lectured widely in the U.S. and Canada on a variety of topics.
Finally, Chris has written for multiple Catholic publications and developed small group resources and a DVD for the Discipleship Series, distributed by Catholic Word. These resources seek to energize and inspire the average Catholic through a blend of Scripture, reflection, prayer and charitable outreach.
Chris and his wife Clare have five children and live amid the rolling bluffs and apple orchards of La Crescent, MN.
Chris Ruff is a faith-filled and insightful presenter who is enthusiastic about equipping today's leaders in ministry with the tools they need to serve and evangelize their parishes. With several recent additions to my parish staff, the two-day leadership training led by Chris, together with Ann Lankford, has helped to make our team better communicators and united in purpose. We continue to benefit from that intentional time together in our enlivened, dynamic weekly staff meetings and daily through our cohesive team unity.
Dominic has been working for Evangelium in multiple facets since 2016. His professional capacities include Consultant, Assistant to the President, Assistant Facilitator, Assistant Trainer, and most recently Content Researcher and Architype.
Bringing over six years of higher education in theology both from Christendom College and St. Patrick's Seminary and University, Dominic is able to integrate, condense, and make practical higher and more fundamental guiding aspects of the Catholic faith that give clarity to the structure and content of Evangelium's method and workbook. The combination of his years of experience with many diverse teams along with the years spent in the seminary bring a unique and insightful perspective to all clientele.
His journey of healing and discernment has born personal fruit that Dominic has been able to add to the robust content of Evangelium, making it more foundationally and spiritually focused. This he has done by spending generous amounts of time in prayer, spiritual direction, study and meditation on Scripture, practical psychology, and spiritual theology, aiding his repertoire for each engagement with Catholic teams.
Other than his passion for organizational health in the Church and helping pastors become the leaders they deeply desire to be, Dominic enjoys other passions/pastimes including road and mountain biking, painting, creative writing, movies, and gardening.
Dominic resides in Denver, Colorado.
For over 20 years prior to founding Evangelium, Keith led various efforts, teams, and volunteers in several Catholic dioceses, parishes, and apostolates. After moving home to California in 2005, he struck up a close friendship with Patrick Lencioni who eventually agreed to train him in his consulting method. As they worked closely together in Catholic contexts, with Patrick's blessing Keith founded Evangelium Consulting Group in 2014 to serve the Church. Keith personally recruited, trained, and now supports each of Evangelium's consultants and currently serves as Founder and President.
Keith is a natural leader, exceptional trainer, and a bold yet empathetic coach. His colleagues and clients alike appreciate his wisdom and knack for cutting through confusion and complexity.
Keith holds degrees in Business and Psychology, as well as a graduate degree in Theology and Christian Ministry, with a specialization in Catechesis.
He lives in Walnut Creek, CA with his wife Gina and two of their eight kids, one of whom is a religious sister with the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.
Kyle discovered consulting after ten years in diocesan and parish leadership positions. Until 2015 he served as the Director of the Adult Evangelization and Discipleship Office of the Archdiocese of Vancouver. Kyle is passionate about helping organizations become "smart" and "healthy" so that they fulfill their missions and leaders thrive. He approaches his work with intensity, empathy, candor and humor.
Kyle holds a BA in Christianity and Culture and a MA in Theology and Ministry. He has taught catechetics at the seminary level and published articles on evangelization, catechesis, and leadership.
Kyle shares his time with STRiVE!, a firm enjoying a long history with The Table Group, which consults to businesses on organizational health.
Kyle was very effective and efficient in helping our team move away from chaos-indeed it was messy and the stakes were high-to clarity and onto the road to organizational health. We found him to be easy to work with and pastorally sensitive to our peculiar needs. He's a clear and intelligent communicator with an evident love for the Church and for those She is mandated to reach. Kyle won our trust and appreciation and I highly recommend his services.
Kyle Neilson's presentation at our Catholic Community Network event delivered exactly what we hoped it would. Our speaker series features a who's who of successful Dallas Catholic business and non-profit leaders and Kyle seamlessly provided the serious content our audience is used to hearing. He spoke directly to the critical need of many non-profits - organizational health - and did so in a clear, convincing, winsome way. People stayed twice the usual length of time to hear more from Kyle. All Catholic organizations need to focus more on organizational health and Kyle is the person best equipped to help you do so.
Lizette has approximately 16 years of experience serving the Catholic Church. Her passion and love for the Church have led her to a deep commitment in helping people encounter Jesus Christ. She started off as a committed volunteer at her local parish which quickly grew to greater role in her parish community.
Eventually she moved on to serve at various diocesan committees both in Spanish and English. She has held different positions at the parish level and currently works in the Faith Formation department in the Catholic Diocese of Oakland. Although initially her focus was heavily on youth ministry, she has experience in adult and family faith formation. One of her greatest passions is working with leaders and helping them discover their full potential in serving the Church.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Lizette is completely bilingual and bicultural. Throughout her ministry experience she has worked in Spanish and English communities and has been able to effectively serve them in their needs.
Lizette received her Bachelor's Degree in Intercultural Communications from San Francisco State University with a Minor in Religious Studies. She then continued on to receive her Master's Degree in Theology from the Franciscan School of Theology, then affiliated with the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA.
To date she is always looking at new techniques and forms of gaining more knowledge about evangelization and formation in order to better form herself in her service to the Catholic Church.
Lizette's passion's include organizing, training, mentoring, forming and evangelizing. She enjoys giving workshops to teens, families, married couple and leaders. One of her biggest missions is to help equip leaders to serve to their highest potential.
Lizette and her husband Julio live in Oakley, CA.