Meet 2019's Re/Generators
Alloys Nyakundi
New Orleans, Louisiana
Born and raised in Kisii, Kenya, Alloys Nyakundi came to study at the Loyola Institute for Ministry at Loyola University New Orleans because of his passion for leading and promoting Young People Small Christian Communities (YPSCCs) in the nine countries of Eastern Africa where he was working with AMECEA Pastoral Department. He had previously completed his undergraduate studies at Kenyatta University in Nairobi.
His writings include: “Youth Small Christian Communities: Creating the Path by Walking,” published in Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment (Institute of Youth Studies, Nairobi, Kenya, 2017), and “Neue Wege schaffen: Klein Christliche Jugendgemeinschaften in Kenia” in the journal Forum Weltkirche (July/August 2018). He also co-authored the chapter, “We Create the Path by Walking: Youth Small Christian Communities in Eastern Africa,” in God’s Quad: Small Faith Communities on Campus and Beyond (Orbis 2018). In all his writings, Alloys focuses on the importance of working together as a team, which is summed up in the Ugandan proverb, “One hand washes the other hand.”
Alyssa Duffner
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Alyssa is a queer, Catholic woman who loves poetry, journaling, dance fitness, faith-sharing, and peanut butter. She grew up in Philadelphia, PA, where she later attended Saint Joseph’s University. After graduating from college in May 2017, she served for a year as a Big Brothers Big Sisters School Program Specialist in Billings, Montana through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest. During her service year, Alyssa encountered difficulties that made her question the Roman Catholic tradition she practiced throughout her life. It was then that she first felt called to Church justice work. Shortly after serving with JVC Northwest, Alyssa led a gathering in Philadelphia in response to the PA grand jury reports of clergy sex abuse in the PA diocese. She later interned with the Women’s Ordination Conference. Alyssa is excited to be a part of the 2019 Re/Generation program and work on a project for LGBTQ+ justice in the Church.
Angela Butel
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Angela is a graduate student studying Public and Urban Policy at The New School, with a focus on innovation in city government. She has been deeply shaped by progressive Catholic communities in Kansas City, MO, where she grew up, and in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, where she went to college, and continues to be inspired by that foundational identity in her work to transform oppressive systems and structures. Over the course of the Re/Generation cohort, she will be graduating from her program and making big decisions about where to live and what to do next. She looks forward to engaging in that discernment process in community with others!
Angela Howard McParland
Providence, Rhode Island
Angie is a native Kentuckian, transplanted to New England via Nashville, TN. She is a graduate of Centre College and Vanderbilt Divinity School and formerly served as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Habitat for Humanity. Angie has served in campus ministry at Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design for ten years and has served as Pastoral Associate at a Rhode Island parish and Catholic Chaplain at Bentley University since 2017. She is a convert to Catholicism and was baptized in 2001, inspired by the combination of mystical spirituality and Catholic social teaching/liberation theology. That intersection of the spiritual, the political, and the intellectual continues to define her ministry whether on campus, in the suburbs, or at the border.
delfín bautista
Athens, Ohio
delfín is a native of Miami, FL and is of both Cuban and Salvadoran heritage. They recently served as director of the LGBT Center at Ohio University and currently teach part-time in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. They serve on the board of the Southeast Ohio Rainbow Alliance and previously was a member of CTA’s Anti-Racism Team, 20/30 Leadership Team, Liturgy Team, and Vision Council. delfín is an activist theologian and social worker who focuses on creating intersectional spaces that are safe and brave.
Diana Marin
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Diana is a writer and organizer listening into the signs of the times. Her work focuses on the role of power, gender, race and ritual within the Catholic Church. She utilizes narrative to queer and decolonize theology. Her current projects include Nuns & Nones, Alt*Div, and the OP Futuring Project.
Diana is originally from New York, but currently resides in Burlingame, CA where she explores emergent models of intentional community with the Nuns & Nones residency.
Dominic Surya
Chicago, Illinois
Dominic finds life in organizing communities and ideas. He grew up in Singapore, Texas and Michigan and is now a freelance grant writer and project manager on Chicago’s South Side. He also volunteers in his church, where he is active in governance, finances and the church’s housing development.
In college, Dominic organized with faith leaders for a trauma center for gun-shot victims, and then for an Obama-library Community Benefits Agreement. He holds a BA from the University of Chicago Divinity School where he wrote a thesis on gender-related issues from interviews of students and their campus ministers. He’s currently considering a PhD in sociology focused on how Catholics and non-Catholics understand what the Church is, especially given little Church movement for gender-related issues like women’s ordination. You can learn more about Dominic at DominicSurya.com
Greer Hamilton
Chicago, Illinois
Greer is a wandering New Englander living in Chicago and missing the mountains of Vermont. Greer has embraced and explored their Irish-Catholic upbringing during their work with the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth as a Jesuit Volunteer in Washington DC and now as an immersion retreat facilitator at the Br. David Darst Center in Chicago. They are currently completing a Masters in Social Justice at Loyola University Chicago through the JVC Magis program. Greer has a particular passion for unearthing the many ways the Christian theological understanding of what it means to be human has warped notions of race and gender. As Greer navigates the intersection between faith and gender, they remain a devoted follower of Mary Oliver and Sergei Rachmaninov.
Lauren Barbato
Newark, New Jersey
Lauren is a progressive feminist Catholic passionate about bringing reproductive justice into the Catholic conversation. As a storyteller, she strives to amplify the stories of Catholics who have had abortions and highlight the intersections of reproductive justice and spiritual and moral agency. Lauren is the author of a forthcoming book of interviews with abortion providers for Catholics for Choice. She was also a featured activist in Catholics for Choice’s “In Good Faith” campaign and participated in the organization’s Young Catholic Summit. A New Jersey native, Lauren received her MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University-Newark. She currently teaches writing to undergrads at Rutgers-Newark and high school students through the Rutgers Early College Humanities Program. Her nonfiction and fiction work can be found in venues as varied as Cosmopolitan to The Hopkins Review to Conscience: The Newsjournal of Catholic Opinion.
Monica Lundberg
Lowell, Massachusetts
Monica is a lifelong Catholic, artist, educator, activist, and mother living in Lowell, MA. Her vocational path has taken many forms over the past decade, including volunteer work with Call To Action, serving on the board of a local arts non-profit, bookselling, primary care-giving, painting, sculpting, supporting local community organizing efforts, and parish-based leadership. Her passions lie at the intersections of social justice, theology, art, education, and children’s literature.
Ruby Fuentes
San Juan, Texas
Ruby is a recent graduate of psychology and Mexican American Studies from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, a social media content creator for the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville, community organizer in the Rio Grande Valley, and an 8th grade catechist at St. John the Baptist in San Juan, TX. Raised Catholic in the Texas/Mexico border, she has witnessed socioeconomic inequality, political division in lieu of the reconstruction of the border wall and increased militarization, but also the unity of the community serving those in need, such as the influx of Central Americans seeking refuge in the Humanitarian Respite Center. She has participated in both religious and secular organizations to eradicate social injustice. She is committed to being a bridge to unify her community through media documentation and public service.
Teresa Marie Cariño
New York, New York
Teresa is a pastoral associate for youth and young adult ministry at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City.
Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she has deep roots in the Jesuit education tradition. After graduating from St. Ignatius College Prep, she attended the University of San Francisco (USF), earning a bachelor’s degree in Theology and Religious Studies with minors in Catholic Studies & Social Thought and Philippine Studies. While at USF, Teresa worked in the University Ministry office and co-founded the student leadership group Ignatian Companions. She also studied abroad with the Casa Bayanihan program at the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, working with marginalized communities. Upon graduation, Teresa joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, spending a year of service working as a Tenant Organizer in New York City.
