Susan Gunn, director, first joined the staff as office coordinator in 2012. In 2015, she took on the role of communications manager and, in 2018, director. Her previous overseas experience was in mainland China beginning in 1991. While there, she studied Chinese in Beijing and trained middle school teachers at rural teacher-training colleges from 1993-1997, while sponsored by the Amity Foundation, the largest charity in China, and the National Council of Churches of the USA. Susan and her husband also worked as short-term volunteers at Prem Dan, the house for the destitute and dying, run by the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, India. They now live in Maryland with their three children. Susan has a Master’s degree in International Development Management from American University.
Iqbal Ahmad, Kroc Institute Fellow, graduated with a BA in political science and public administration from the American University of Afghanistan. He has previously worked at the Ministry of Interior Afghanistan as an analyst, where he focused on national and local police, as well as reforms in the security sector. Later, he worked at Afghan Peace Watch as an editor, providing real-time data on the ongoing conflict and casualties.
Father Frank Breen, MM, Society Justice and Peace Coordinator, corresponds on environmental issues from the UN and updates from the Africa Region. Fr. Breen was ordained in 1970 and for the next twenty-nine years he worked in Kenya, in three parishes in various parts of the country, and as the foreign correspondent for Maryknoll Magazine for five years, based in Nairobi. In 1999, he returned to the United States and did Maryknoll Development work for eight years. In 2007, he began living with his mother, while doing a nine-month sabbatical on environmental readings. In 2008, he embarked on writing The History of Maryknoll in Africa, a five-volume production that took nine years to complete. After his mother died in 2013, he moved to Maryknoll, New York in 2014. In September 2017, he joined the OGC staff. Fr. Breen lives at Maryknoll, New York and works with religious groups doing advocacy and educational work in conjunction with the United Nations.
Anna Engelmann, office manager, has had a varied career, from disaster relief with the American Red Cross to conflict resolution with an internship in Palestine to international law at the Office of the Legal Advisor to the President in Eritrea. She has a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Sociology and Criminal Justice and an M.A. from American University in Ethics, Peace and Global Affairs. She has training in mediation and is particularly interested in restorative justice and the role of empathy in conflict resolution.
Thomas Kenney Gould, communications manager, was a child Maryknoll Lay Missioner with his parents and four siblings in Oaxaca, Mexico. He joined the office in October 2022 after completing an Episcopal Service Corp service year in upstate New York. There, among other things, he was an aide to the Episcopal Diocese of New York’s Creation Care Committee, which writes diocesan and church-wide resolutions, advocates for green policies, and helps the 180+ parishes in the diocese set goals and meet standards set by the Paris Climate Accords. He received his BA in Humanities from Yale University, for which he studied abroad in Rome. Currently, he aspires to the work of Matthew Butterick and Rajiv Surendra for their eclectic approaches to visual arts.
Sara Kennel, climate advocacy intern, is an undergraduate student at Eastern Mennonite University pursuing a BA/MA in Global Development and Restorative Justice. In her childhood, she lived in Tegucigalpa, Honduras with her parents who worked as teachers, and her two siblings. After graduating high school, she moved overseas to intern with Mennonite Mission Network's CASAS program in Guatemala, aiding in projects promoting agricultural sustainability and women's empowerment. She then interned with the Dunamis Foundation in Ecuador, assisting in grant writing, and teaching English classes in their safe house for underage victims of sexual exploitation. Currently, she enjoys tutoring ESL students at the Intensive English Program, promoting access to education for resettled refugees, and advocating for peace through student organizing on campus.
Sister Margaret Lacson, MM, program associate, works at the New York office as Maryknoll NGO representative at the United Nations where the Maryknoll Sisters and the Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers have consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). A Philippines native, she was assigned to work in Japan in 1993 where she worked until 2022. Following her volunteering at a women’s shelter and the Yokohama Diocese’s Office for Solidarity with Migrants, she founded the Kalakasan Migrant Women Empowerment Center in December 2002 with 9 other committed Catholic Sisters and lay people.. There she helped immigrant women, primarily Filipinos, in abusive relationships through crisis intervention, advocacy and networking, follow-up care, and children’s programming. The Center thrives to this day. She is particularly appreciative of inter-religious dialogue, Zen Buddhism, Shinto practices, the Way of Tea, and inner spirituality, and feels that her work has enabled her to be a bridge between cultures.
Dan Moriarty, Peace and Nonviolence senior program officer, is a lifelong missioner. As a Maryknoll Lay Missioner from 1995-2000, Dan worked in Bolivia with Aymara youth and served as National Coordinator of Prison Ministry. He completed a Master’s degree in International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute and served as Campus Minister for Social Justice at Seattle University before returning to Bolivia to build and direct a volunteer and immersion program at the Maryknoll Mission Center in Latin America. Dan was a frequent public speaker on Bolivian history, culture, and politics; nonviolence; and racism and social conflict for various international organizations in Cochabamba, and an adjunct professor of Conflict Transformation at the Universidad Mayor de San Simón. Born in New York and raised in Seattle, Dan received his BA in Sociology (Religion minor) from the College of William and Mary, taught school in Washington, DC, and worked in the US Embassy library in The Hague before joining Maryknoll. He enjoys all kinds of music, especially when played by his wife and two sons.
Sister Susan Nchubiri, MM, program associate, has served as an Ecumenical Accompanier with the World Council of Churches. She previously worked as a community organizer in Haiti where she founded 2 self-help women's groups, a micro-credit co-operative, a community garden and goat-raising project for a youth group. Before that she has worked as a campus minister and pastoral care giver to students, migrant workers, and prisoners in Hong Kong. Susan had also worked in campus ministry in Chicago and volunteered weekly at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center. She was program director at Euphrasia Women Refuge Center and at Maria House Imani Projects in Nairobi-Kenya where she worked hand in hand with the social workers and instructors to support vulnerable women and children. From 1998 to 2000 Susan served as a committee member of the Association for Sisterhoods of Kenya, Justice and Peace Commission addressing issues of gender-based injustice and the marginalization of the poor. Susan is passionate about promoting integral human development.
Father John Sivalon, MM, program associate, works as Maryknoll NGO representative at the United Nations where the Maryknoll Sisters and the Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers have consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). [Both organizations are also affiliated with the UN Department of Public Information (DPI).] Following ordination John was assigned to the Africa Region where he worked in the Musoma Diocese. During his pastoral work in the Africa Region he was also appointed Justice and Peace Coordinator. Father Sivalon earned a M.A. Degree in Sociology from the University of Dar es Salaam and his Doctorate in Theology from the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. After finishing his studies, he returned to the Africa Region. Father Sivalon continued as a member of the faculty of the Department of Sociology at the University of Dar es Salaam. In 2002 he was elected General Superior of Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. After his term, he joined the faculty at the University of Scranton Department of Theology and Religious Studies.
Lisa Sullivan, Integral Ecology senior program officer, served as a Maryknoll Lay Missioner with her family in Bolivia and Venezuela for twenty years where she worked with barrio youth to create the vibrant Afro-Venezuelan community center. She later worked with the School of the Americas Watch as Latin America Coordinator, organizing citizen diplomacy delegations to 18 countries. Early in her stay in Venezuela, Lisa began to plant hundreds of fruit trees on a barren plot in the mountains, and 20 years later this passion grew into a lush permaculture farm called Conuco Colibrí. During the height of Venezuela’s severe food crisis, Lisa and her husband converted Conuco Colibrí into a community teaching farm for children and youth. Lisa has brought that passion for the earth to her current role doing international advocacy and education on issues of climate change from a faith perspective.