Bishop John Stowe (Kentucky) – Bishop President
Bishop Stowe is a Conventual Franciscan friar and has served as the bishop of Lexington, KY since May 2015. Currently, for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, he serves on the committee for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the bishops’ anti-poverty initiative. He has a history of working on social justice and peace concerns including as a Pax Christi USA local leader in California. Prior to his appointment by Pope Francis as bishop, he was rector and pastor of the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio and a vicar provincial for the Conventual Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Consolation. Bishop Stowe also served in El Paso, TX as moderator of the curia and vicar general for the diocese. During that time, he worked on border issues and was present with the immigrant community.
Josephine Garnem (Maryland) – National Council Chair
Josephine Garnem is an advocate, and grassroots community mobilizer with over 23 years of extensive international and domestic experience. She is passionate about racial equity and justice and immigration. Josephine was born in Sierra Leone and has lived and worked in the Middle East, Sweden, Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon, Haiti, Pakistan and Afghanistan before moving to the US. Josephine organizes and leads diaspora-led free surgical training and medical missions to Sierra Leone and Cameroon. She is a 2020 Cohort of the Center for Action and Contemplation’s Living School (Theology and Social Justice).
Sr. Annie Killian, OP (Ohio) – Vice Chair
Sr. Annie is a Dominican Sister of Peace and an assistant professor of English at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. Her teaching and research focus on medieval religion and literature, the art of preaching, and the writings of holy women. After joining Pax Christi USA in 2021, she served on the leadership team for the Young Adult Caucus from 2021-23. She has experience in retreat ministry and prison teaching. Her writing appears in Commonweal Magazine and Global Sisters Report.
Jeff Sved (Oregon) – Secretary
Jeff was commissioned as a Franciscan lay missioner through Franciscan Mission Service (FMS) in 2012, living and serving in Cochabamba, Bolivia for four years. While there, he spent most of my time in the prisons, working and learning alongside talented carpenters, leather-workers, and artisans in the prison workshops, as well as integrating restorative practices through Las Escuelas de Perdón y Reconciliación (ESPERE). Since returning to the US, Jeff has worked for social change in campus ministry, and most recently in non-profit development and fundraising.
Vic Doucette (Illinois) – Treasurer
Vic Doucette has a Master’s degree in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University in Chicago and has spent most of his career working for the church. Most recently, he was the Director of Programs & Publications for the National Federation of Priests’ Councils (NFPC) and the Executive Director of the Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMM-USA) where he recruited long-term volunteers from across the country to work with marginalized people in Central America. He founded the Social Justice Resource Center, has been active in his local parish community, and has facilitated numerous JustFaith groups. He teaches classes for returning citizens, has helped welcome refugee families to the Chicago area, and has participated in service trips to developing countries. He is the former president of the local interfaith organization and serve on several other national boards, including the Parish Evaluation Project and Maryknoll Lay Missioners where he serves on the Mission Advancement committee.
Rozella Apel-Hernández (Virginia)
Rozella Apel-Hernández is a educator and activist from California, currently living just outside of the nation’s capital. Born and raised in the Catholic Worker Movement, she is particularly passionate about immigration, nuclear disarmament, and radical community. Rozella has joined delegations to Nicaragua and Cuba to learn more about local peacebuilding efforts and has spent time volunteering and interning with nonviolent organizations around the country in hopes of widening and connecting the network of faith-based activists in the US.
Lauren Bailey (Massachusetts)
Lauren served as Pax Christi USA’s National Field Organizer from 2020-2023. During her time on staff, she met and befriended people from every corner of our movement, witnessing the power and impact of their grassroots advocacy. She is presently an organizing manager with Catholics for Choice, and serves as the board secretary for the Journey of Hope, an anti-death penalty organization. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Bob Shine, whom she met through the Pax Christi Young Adult Caucus.
Arthur Dawes (Texas)
Arthur has experience on boards of directors, quality assurance committees, has worked as an organizer of continuing education programs on social justice, and has leadership experience with a professional association and ethics committees; serving Pax Christi local and state programs have him afforded skills in public social justice education programs.
Fr. Warren Harvey (Louisiana)
Fr. Harvey is the Bishop’s Liaison to the Little Rock Diocesan Council for Black Catholics. For the past eight years he has served as Pax Christi Little Rock’s chaplain. He is the first African American priest for the Diocese of Little Rock and has been the pastor of many parishes, as well as the Chaplain for the Central States District of the Knights of St. Peter Claver and Ladies Auxiliary. Due to his consistent activism with Pax Christi Little Rock, Fr. Harvey, who celebrated the PAX Mass in June 2025, was appointed to share his advocacy and spiritual guidance with the full membership of the wider Pax Christi USA movement.
Sr. Susan Nchubiri, MM (Washington, DC)
Sr. Susan, a Maryknoll Sister originally from Kenya, is a staff member at the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns. She has served as an Ecumenical Accompanier in Palestine with the World Council of Churches, and has worked as a community organizer in Haiti where she founded two self-help women’s groups, a micro-credit co-operative, a community garden, and goat-raising project for a youth group. 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 in support of 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 economic justice.
Frank Panopoulos (Maryland)
Frank has worked on peace and social justice issues since 1979. During the 1980s he was one of Pax Christi International’s NGO representatives at the United Nations and worked on staff for the Catholic Peace Fellowship. At that time, he lived in the Corjesu Community, a lay Catholic community engaged in the works of mercy in Upper Manhattan and affiliated with the Catholic Campus Ministry at Columbia University. Frank has spent time in prison for acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, including two Plowshares Actions (AVCO and Trident II). He also is a human rights attorney. His current work includes representing people arrested at demonstrations in Washington, DC and advising peace and justice non-profits about the potential use against them of executive orders and related laws to curtail speech and civil disobedience.
Lasya Priya (Wisconsin)
Lasya is a PhD student in Sociology at UW-Madison, and a graduate of Mount Holyoke College. Their background is in InterGroup Dialogue and Interfaith Student Organizing. They are passionate about facilitating intergenerational conversations for social justice and supporting the work of other young activists and peacemakers. They have been on the PCYAC leadership team since 2023, and currently serve as the young adult representative to National Council.
James Watts (Alabama)
James Watts is the current Director of the Office of Black Catholic Ministry for the Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama. He has earned a BS in Economics and a Masters in Management and has attended Summer Institutes at Loyola Marymount University and Catholic Theological Union before completing the “Building Intercultural Competence for Ministers” program with the Southeast Pastoral Institute. He works with people to accomplish their goals through community service and board involvement. He has served as an educator with experience in the classroom from kindergarten to college instruction as well as serving as the Youth Minister of Holy Family Catholic Church. His service to the community spans serval boards including Urban Impact, Birmingham Storm Water Appeals Board, Diocese of Birmingham Hispanic Social Service Board, and the FBI Multicultural Advisory Committee. In addition to board commitments, he has given back to the community through many youth initiatives such as basketball and the Boy Scouts of America.