2026 SYMPOSIUM SPEAKERS

Abbot John Klassen, OSB

Abbot John Klassen, OSB, served as the tenth abbot of Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, from 2000 to 2024. A bio-organic chemist by training, he successfully bridged the gap between science and spirituality while leading his monastic community through a period of extensive leadership, academic growth, and public reconciliation. He professed as a Benedictine monk in 1972 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1977.

Jessica Bergman

Jessica has been a dedicated member of the Sisters of St. Benedict (Ferdinand) Mission Advancement team since 2016, contributing expertise in project management, staff hiring and training, portfolio management, and major gift strategy. Since 2020, she has assisted the Prioress in facilitating the Executive Advisory Council (EAC) — fostering productive dialogue and meaningful engagement among its members. She is also a proud member of the sisters giving society, Women of the Rule, and has traveled with them to Peru and on the 2024 European Pilgrimage.

Beyond her work with SOSB, Jessica is the founder of Trek Advancement, a philanthropic consulting firm based in Lexington, Kentucky. Prior to her consulting work, she served as Vice President of Advancement for her alma mater, Union College. She has also worked in development for the University of Louisville and Hanover College. She and her husband share a passion for restoring historic properties throughout the Southern Indiana area.

Jessica currently serves as Secretary for the Board of Trustees of Union College and as a grants committee member of the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County, Indiana. An avid traveler and hiker, she is also a certified Master Naturalist for the State of Indiana. She resides in New Albany, Indiana, with her husband, Matt, and their two sons, August and Theodor.

Brian Doyle

A native of Mooresville, Indiana, Brian is a 1995 graduate of Saint Meinrad College. He furthered his studies in systematic theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, and at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, Dominican House of Studies, in Washington, DC. He is an alumnus of the IU School of Philanthropy Lake Institute’s Executive Certificate in Religious Fundraising program and the Catholic Leadership Institute’s Tending the Talents program.

Brian has led stewardship and development offices for over 25 years, serving the (arch)dioceses of Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Palm Beach, and Toledo. In those capacities, he also established two Catholic community foundations, conducted diocesan and state-wide conferences and served as a Board Member for the International Catholic Stewardship Council (ICSC). He currently serves on the organization’s Finance Committee and is leading the organization’s current strategic planning process. He has presented workshops on the personal, corporal, theological and spiritual dimensions of Catholic stewardship and temporal affairs at parishes, seminaries, national conferences and nation-wide webinars. In addition to development work, he served six years at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Washington, DC in the Departments of Education Catechesis and Migration & Refugee Services.

Amidst his duties as Director of Planned Giving and Foundation Relations for Saint Meinrad Archabbey, Seminary; School of Theology, Brian also presents workshops on parish administration to new pastors through the Saint Meinrad Institute for Priests; Presbyterates and teaches stewardship; development workshops in the Seminary.

Brian has enjoyed serving in the Boy Scouts of America, St. Francis/St. Joseph Worker House, Sant’Egidio Community, American Oversees School in Rome, medical missions to the Philippines, and Maryknoll Missionaries efforts in East Africa. He and his wife of 24 years, Donna Kay, are blessed with 7 children: Blase, Cecilia, Xavier, Finnian, Gemma, Juliana and Kateri.

Shannon Joseph Jordan

Shannon Jordan has worked for the Church for over twenty years.  In 2001, he started at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as a recruiter, policy analyst, and HRIS administrator in Human Resources. He went on in 2003 to work for Migration and Refugee Services as a Field Coordinator managing the Federal grants and working with dioceses throughout the country on resettlement capacity building.  Mr. Jordan began working in Development for the Diocese of Trenton and then the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  He founded the Catholic Foundation of Greater Philadelphia, building a new non-profit corporation from the ground-up and served as its first Executive Director and President until 2016.  Mr. Jordan and the Foundation helped raise the funds for the World Meeting of Families and Papal visit to the United States in 2015.  Since 2016, he has served as Chief Mission Advancement Officer for Saint Vincent Archabbey and Seminary where he builds programs and secures the resources for them. He is instrumental in strategic planning for the Archabbey and Seminary.

Mr. Jordan earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, in Psychology, and a master’s degree from the Catholic University of America in Irish Studies and Literature.  He teaches at Saint Vincent College in Irish Folklore and its effects on Irish childhood.  Mr. Jordan also serves on various committees and boards at Saint Vincent Seminary and College, including Secretary for the Seminary Board of Regents and the Mission Integration Committee at Saint Vincent College. 

Garrick Lambert

Garrick Lambert has been the Events and Recurring Gift Manager at St. Benedict's Abbey in Atchison, KS since 2020. Before coming to work at St. Benedict's, he worked in behavioral and mental health in Atchison, Fort Leavenworth and Phoenix, AZ. He is a father of 5 and married for 13 years. This is his third Benedictine Development symposium and has made dear friends and gained so much wisdom from the other communities. 

Faith Murray

Faith Murray is Director of Major Giving at Conception Abbey, in Missouri. She has 16 years of experience in fundraising, including direct mail, acquisition, capital campaigns, data segmentation, and major gifts. She has a B.A. in writing and a Certificate in Nonprofit Fundraising from UMKC.

In addition to work, she volunteers at local charities, cantors for her parish, and homeschools 3 beautiful children with her husband.

Dan Pritchard

Dan Pritchard is the President of Planned Giving Design Services and serves as a consultant to several Catholic non-profit organizations throughout the United States. He has over 30 years of experience in the field, has served as chair of the former National Catholic Development Conference’s planned giving group, created the Chicago Area Catholic Planned Giving Council, and has presented at several national fundraising conferences. Dan’s areas of expertise include planned giving and major gift program design, capital campaign implementation, structuring gift acceptance policies, strategic planning, and major gift solicitation.

Sr. Judith Sutera

Judith Sutera, OSB, is a Benedictine sister of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, KS. She holds degrees in psychology and sociology, with masters degrees in counseling and in monastic theology. She is editor of The American Monastic Newsletter and Magistra: A Journal of Women’s Spirituality in History. Author of several books, her latest is the first inclusive language edition of the Rule of St. Benedict with daily commentary. For the past 26 years, she has served in communications and public relations for her monastery. She is a director for oblates, teaches courses in monastic spirituality, and gives presentations, retreats, and workshops for monastic communities, academic conferences, formation groups, and retreat centers across the United States and abroad.

Brother Tobias Dammert, OSB

In 1966, while completing trade school as an apprentice in tailoring at the Abbey of Muensterschwarzach, Germany, I made the decision to join the Missionary Benedictines in the hope of working one day in Africa as a missionary. In 1968, I was assigned to the mission office to take over data entry and communication with donors from my home state of Baden Wuertemberg, Germany.

In 1972, I was asked to join the community of the Mission House in Schuyler, assisting in the mission office. A three-month tour of visiting donors in southern states exposed me to the American culture and prepared me for my work in donor relations. It was a time of evolution and transition: the era of BC (before computers) to the modern era of the 21 st century.

Fundraising is a ministry which I like to call “friend raising.” Asking for financial support for projects is not always easy. In Br. Alphonse, with whom I worked from 1974 until his death in 1994, I had a great teacher who shared his knowledge and wisdom that I try to apply daily in my work.

The Conference of Mission Procurators of our Congregation coordinates our outreach ministry and projects in need of funding. As Director of Development, I assist the Mission Procurator in all matters of fundraising and planned giving, especially copywriting, planning appeals, and corresponding with benefactors.

By virtue of my assignment, I am a member of the administrative team of Christ the King Priory.