Sally Blount

“A Wild Ride: How the Holy Spirit Propelled Ms. Blount from Business School to the Boardroom to Battling Poverty”

Heralded by her peers as a “natural change agent,” Sally Blount has made her mark not only in the corporate world but in the field of academia—she served as dean at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management for eight years. Her ability to pivot, helping organizations do more and better, has also served as a catalyst for her own faith journey, leading her to take on a new role as Executive Director and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2020.

Ms. Blount is the first layperson to lead Catholic Charities, which began more than a century ago amidst a global flu pandemic. Today she is leading this institution out of another pandemic, challenged by soaring budgets, poverty, and social justice issues that seem to change daily.

In addition to Catholic Charities, Sally Blount holds the Michael L. Nemmers chair in Strategy at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where she is a proud alumna and served as dean from 2010-2018.

Blount is an expert on organizational transformation and leadership. A record-setting fundraiser, organizational change agent, and highly sought-after speaker — she has been regularly featured in top news outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Forbes, The Economist, Businessweek, Fortune, and MSNBC. She has been a featured speaker at WEF Davos and the Vatican.

Blount sits on numerous boards including the advisory board for the Aspen Institute Business and Society program and the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Finance Council. She also served as dean at NYU Stern College of Business for six years and on faculty at NYU and the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago for nearly two decades. She holds MS and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University and a B.S.E. from Princeton University. Blount began her career at the Boston Consulting Group.

Please tune in as Sally Blount discusses the challenges that lie ahead for Catholic Charities in 2023 and how the complexities of her own faith journey and career accomplishments have intertwined to bring her to this next chapter in her life. 

Fr. John Kartje

“Rediscovering Awe and Mystery: What Science and Faith Can Tell Us This Advent”

Long before he became a priest, Chicago’s Father John Kartje was a scientist, getting a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Chicago. What’s the one constant between these two vocations? “Both the scientist and the person of faith are always engaging with mystery,” he says. 

Kartje describes Advent as that pregnant pause in each year when we once more engage the mystery, bringing along our new hopes and anxieties, seeing the story through fresh eyes whether we’re 30 or 70.

Currently the rector/president of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary, Fr. Kartje takes issue with the supposed disconnect between faith and science. The way science looks at the world should absolutely inform the way people of faith do so, he says. That’s why the Vatican convenes groups of scientists, of any faith or of none, to report on conditions such as climate change. Good scientists, he says, can help people of faith to stay honest. 

Dr. John Duffy

“It's a Whole New Ballgame: Guiding Our Next Generation Through Anxious Times”

As depression rates increase dramatically, especially among teens and young adults, learn why it's important for everyone to understand what's happening

What young people face today looks nothing like what most of us experienced during adolescence, says Dr. John Duffy. The combined pressure of ever-present drama on social media, isolation due to covid, unreasonable expectations of perfection, and worries about climate change and war create a difficult challenge. We can't simply hand this concern off to parents and grandparents, says Dr. Duffy. The problem involves the whole community, and the solutions lie with all of us as well. 

A nationally recognized parenting and relationship expert, Dr. John Duffy has worked in his clinical practice with individuals, couples, teens, and families for nearly 25 years. He is the author of the # 1 best-sellers Parenting the New Teen in the Age of Anxiety: A Complete Guide to Your Child's Stressed, Depressed, Expanded, Amazing Adolescence (2019) and The Available Parent (2014). Dr. Duffy has been a parenting and relationship expert on hundreds of national television programs, including CNN, Today, various NewsNation shows and Steve Harvey. He is part of the CNN Wellness team, and appears often on WGN and WLS radio as well as on other television, radio, and print outlets, including the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, NPR and the Wall Street Journal.

Father Greg Boyle, S.J.

The First Friday Club Welcomes
Fr. Greg Boyle, Founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world

The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness

Fr. Greg Boyle will share what he has learned in three decades working with marginalized populations at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, California—that love is the answer, community is the context, and tenderness is the connective tissue. Tenderness reflects the foundational notion that there are no us and them, only us. Homeboy seeks to be what the world is invited to become. Kinship cannot happen without tenderness.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot

The First Friday Club Welcomes
Mayor Lori Lightfoot

"Integrity – Accept No Substitution"

Whether it was witnessing her parents’ hard work to support a family of six or understanding her mother’s desire for quality education, these and other factors have all played a critical role in Ms. Lightfoot’s ability to embrace tough challenges and forge solutions.

Ms. Lightfoot graduated with honors from the University of Michigan after paying her own way through college. Several years later, she would attend law school at the University of Chicago on a full scholar-ship. Upon graduation, she pursued both private and public sector positions which would ultimately provide the right mix of experience needed to enter the Mayor’s race.

On May 20th, 2019, Ms. Lori Lightfoot succeeded in becoming the first black female and openly gay Mayor of Chicago.

Philip J. Andrew

"From Victim to Director of a Response - A Catholic Community Response to Violence & Conflict"

In May 1988, Phil Andrew, then a 20-year-old college student, was shot in the chest in the aftermath of the Hubbard Woods elementary school shooting in Winnetka—one of the nation’s first modern mass school shootings.

Andrew survived his injuries, but the experience would ultimately shape his priorities and his career. In the 30 years since the shooting, he has dedicated his life to fighting violence—first as the executive director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence and later as an FBI agent and crisis negotiator.

In February 2018, Andrew was appointed by Cardinal Blase Cupich to serve as the first director of violence prevention for the Archdiocese of Chicago. In his new role, he is leading the strategic planning and directing of the Archdiocese’s antiviolence initiatives through coalition building efforts, an increased charitable presence in distressed neighborhoods and the development and revitalization of programs designed to help reduce the violence-causing cycle of despair, racism and poverty in Chicago.

Fr. Charlie Rubey

The First Friday Club Welcomes
Fr. Charlie Rubey
Founder & Director of LOSS (Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide), A Ministry of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago

"Suicide: The Aftermath"

The painful reality of suicide has become too prevalent in our culture today. It has been said that one soldier in our military takes his life every day. The rate of suicide among veterans is not far behind. There is also an alarming rise in the number of police officers and first responders who choose to end their lives. And finally, the number of school age kids who commit suicide and have so much to live for, continues to rise annually.

It is likely we all know, directly or indirectly, a family who is dealing with this frightening reality of suicide...and trying to find help in processing this complicated kind of loss.

Since 1979, Fr. Charlie Rubey, founder and director of LOSS (Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide) has strived to provide information on the impact, misconceptions, and unique struggles surrounding suicide.

Through LOSS, Fr. Rubey and his staff provide counseling at over 12 meeting sites throughout the greater Chicago area. Additionally, these meeting sites provide a place where people can gather to support one another at a time when they feel irreparably broken over a loved one's suicide.

Fr. Edward Foley

On Friday, December 6, 2019, at Noon,
in the President's Hall : 2nd Floor
of the Union League Club
The First Friday Club Welcomes
Fr. Edward Foley
Duns Scotus Professor of Spirituality, Professor of Liturgy and Music at Catholic Theological Union

"Advent: The Art of Paying Attention"

Most Christians think that Advent is preparation for the "birth of Jesus," but we cannot prepare for a past event. It is also not simply the preparation for his annual "birthday." Rather, this season is an intense rehearsal of what Christian living is supposed to be each day: paying attention to the sacred revelations and surprising Incarnations that the Holy One springs on us each day. Every day of our lives ... every moment of our lives is a potential "divine ambush." Advent is a four week intensive that each year re-certifies us ... recalibrates Christians for detecting God's unpredictable yet constant reincarnating in the world.

Fr. Edward Foley is Duns Scotus Professor of Spirituality and the founding director of the Ecumenical Doctor of Ministry Program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He is a Capuchin-Franciscan and ordained Roman Catholic priest. An award winning author, he has produced more than twenty books, translated into multiple languages including From Age to Age and Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals with Herbert Anderson. A well-known speaker, he has taught in venues such as the University of Chicago and Notre Dame, presented in settings as diverse as the Mayo Clinic and the Houston Astro Dome, and lectured in over 60 Roman Catholic dioceses from India to the Philippines.

Edward J. Wehmer

On Friday, November 1, 2019, at Noon,
in the President's Hall : 2nd Floor
of the Union League Club
The First Friday Club Welcomes
Edward J. Wehmer
Founder, President & CEO of Wintrust

"Faith at Work...Let's Talk About It"

A great champion of local business and advocate for entrepreneurs, Wehmer will discuss the challenges of maintaining faith and values while growing professionally.

Please join us as we welcome Edward J. Wehmer, Founder, President & CEO of Wintrust, to the podium

Alan Krashesky

"From Fatherless Child to Anchor, a Story of Love, Faith & Family"

Alan Krashesky walked through the door of Channel 7 in Chicago as a 21 year old. Now, 37 years later, he has become the dean of broadcast journalists in the Chicago television market. He is considered one of the top reporters in the Chicago market, and has been praised for his coverage of the Catholic Church.

Like any one of us, we are more than any job we might have ever had. Alan Krashesky has a remarkable personal story. Much of which he will share with us on Friday at Noon at the Union League Club.

Fr. John Cusick and Rick Kogan

In a conversation format Rick Kogan will chat with Fr. Cusick about the issues he raises in his recently released book, “Never Be Ordinary – Wisdom from My Father.”

We all have had many suggestions, thoughts, ideas, and pieces of wisdom spoken to us throughout our lives. Some of those have found a home in our brain and memory. And some of those have become the fundamental principles on which we continue to lead our lives.

Also, many of us are now parents and grandparents. Now we are the dispensers of our wisdom to one, if not two generations, following us in life.

Fr. John Cusick is known for his down-to-earth-style of speaking along with his common sense approach to life. He attributes much of that learning to a man named George Cusick.

“Never Be Ordinary – Wisdom from My Father” will be available before and after this delightful First Friday Club event. With Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day approaching this might be a special gift for moms, dads and the generations following them.

Mr. Rick Kogan is a revered journalist at The Chicago Tribune and a radio personality on WGN radio where he hosts his weekly show from 9pm-11pm on Sunday nights. He has authored a number of books and has interviewed hundreds, if not thousands of people, during his career.

Fr. John Cusick has been the Chaplain to the First Friday Club since its inception in 1986. Ordained a Catholic Priest in 1970 he has been a parish priest at Mary Seat of Wisdom in Park Ridge, a teacher and residence hall director at Niles College of Loyola University, and for over 30 years the director of the Archdiocesan Young Adult Ministry Office. He resided at Old St. Patrick’s Church until his retirement in 2014. He continues to preside there on a monthly basis.

Patrick J. Kennedy

The First Friday Club of Chicago

Welcomes

The Honorable Patrick J. Kennedy

Former U.S. Congressman (D, R.I.)

Commissioner - President's Commission on

Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis

Topic Addressed:

“Challenging One of the Last Social Taboos –

Discrimination Against Mental Health, Addiction, and Other

Brain Diseases”

In a society today where almost anything goes, certain topics and issues are not discussed in polite company or even in private. Mental health and drug addiction lead the list.

We can talk about having cancer, ALS, acute diabetes, heart disease, anxiety, and high blood pressure, but we find it difficult, if not impossible, to admit to bipolar disorder, alcoholism, or chemical dependency. After all, people may think less of us. It could cost us our job or stand in the way of a promotion. The world sees a human weakness, not a neurological or psychiatric disease. In fact, it was only in 2010 that the Federal Parity Act began requiring health insurance companies to treat illnesses of the brain such as depression and addiction in the same way they treat illnesses of the body.

The standard-bearer and perhaps the person most responsible for challenging taboos around mental health and addictive diseases is former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, son of the late Senator Ted Kennedy. During his time in Congress, Kennedy sponsored and was the lead architect of the Federal Parity Act. And more than ten years ago, Patrick Kennedy broke his family’s code of silence when he publicly acknowledged having bipolar disorder and being a recovering alcoholic. As of 2018, Mr. Kennedy says he has been sober for more than six years.

Patrick Kennedy represented Rhode Island’s First Congressional District from 1995 through 2011, sponsoring dozens of bills to increase understanding and treatment of addiction and other brain disorders. Since leaving Congress in 2011, he founded the nonprofit Kennedy Forum to lead a national dialogue on mental health and addiction involving advocates, business, and government. Locally, Kennedy Forum Illinois works to end discrimination against people with mental health and addiction challenges here in our state. Kennedy also cofounded One Mind, an organization that funds “open science” research on brain diseases, encouraging scientists to widely share their findings about Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, addiction, depression, and other diseases. His 2015 book, A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction, chronicles his own struggles along with his political advocacy supporting mental health and addiction care.

Joy Loverde

The First Friday Club of Chicago in Cooperation with

the Authors Group (Union League Club)

Welcomes

Ms. Joy Loverde

Author: Who Will Take Care of Me When I’m Old? and

The Complete Eldercare Planner

Who will address the topic:

“Caring for Aging Parents and Loved Ones while Planning for Your Future Self - Are You Ready?”

The Baby Boom Generation has become the new senior citizen generation, with more than 6000 Americans turning 65 every day. At the same time more and more people are living into their 90s. This data presents us with two fears: the fear of dying and the fear of living too long.

Many of us might become--if we aren’t already--the caregivers for grandparents, parents, spouses, siblings, and beloved friends. Without careful planning, that role as caregiver can put our own physical, emotional, financial, housing, and legal needs at risk. 

But wait--what about you and me, especially if we have no children or others to rely on as we grow older? Joy Loverde points to the increasing percentage of the middle-aged and Baby Boomers who are aging solo: the never married, separated, divorced, and widowed. Given this reality, the number one question we all need to ask ourselves is, “Who will take care of me and be my advocate when I’m old?”

Mary Meg McCarthy

The Statue of Liberty

Every Immigrant’s Dream of a Better Life

It has been said time and time again that we are a nation of immigrants. Most arrived on our shores freely, while many others came against their will.

Who would have thought that the issue of immigration would ever become so political, as it has become recently? We might be getting tired of all the rhetoric, the posturing, and the politics. It is easy to turn a deaf ear to the issue today.

Yet beneath that rhetoric, posturing and politics are the lives, the pain, the suffering and the hope of so many people who carry the dream found in the Statue of Lady Liberty and in the DNA passed on to us.

Let’s take a look at what’s going on through the eyes of a key person whose life’s work is immigration. Since her years working in Chile during the Pinochet regimen, Mary Meg McCarthy has dedicated her career to protecting and promoting access to justice for men, women, and children regardless of their legal status. Ms. McCarthy is now in her 20th year leading the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), one of the nation’s pre-eminent immigrant rights organizations.

Ms. McCarthy received her J.D. degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and her B.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame. An expert in immigration law, Ms. McCarthy has testified before Congress and is often quoted in major news outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Chicago Tribune. Ms. McCarthy is the immediate past chair of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration. Several organizations have recognized Ms. McCarthy’s expertise and commitment to serving the immigrant and refugee community through awards such as: the American Constitution Society Chicago Lawyer Chapter Ruth Goldman Award, the Elmer Gertz Award for Human Rights from the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Inn of Court 2015 Don Hubert Public Service Award, the Pax Christi 2013 Teacher of Peace Award, and the Damen Award from Loyola University. In June 2018, she received an honorary degree in law from Knox College (Galesburg, IL).

Arne Duncan

Bishop Ron Hicks

On Friday, December 7, at Noon,

in the Presidents Hall of the Union League Club,

The First Friday Club of Chicago

Welcomes

Auxiliary Bishop Ronald Hicks

Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Chicago

Who Will Address the Topic:

Light in the Darkness: Discovering Light and Hope in the Christmas Event

We are acutely aware of the darkness in the world. However, especially during the season of Advent, we patiently hope and boldly proclaim the light will never be overcome by the darkness. With inspirational stories and solid spirituality, Bishop Ron Hicks will share his experiences of living and working with children and adults in poverty in Central America.

Surrounded by so much bad news in our lives, Bishop Hicks will help to center us on the Good News which comes from our Savior.

Fr. Thomas Hurley

Maureen Maher, Investigative Journalist

Ms. Maureen Maher
Award-Winning Investigative Journalist
for the CBS News Magazine, 48 Hours
Who Will Address the Topic

“The World I want for my Daughter...and Son.
Using Lessons from Our Time to Create a Better Future.”

On nearly all fronts, the events of the last 16-18 months have been turbulent. It started with an unexpected presidential election, moved into the #me too issue, and more recently, the ongoing scourge of mass school shootings.

Politics, immigration, harassment, equal rights... gun control. How do we speak to our children about these important topics if we as adults can hardly have a civil conversation with anyone other than like-minded people?

How do we teach our children and grandchildren to navigate this world that we have created for them? What lessons have we, as adults, learned along our way?

Maureen Maher will share life stories from her travels around the country and around the world. She is now using them to teach her children and (hopefully) others the importance of finding something in common with people, even and especially when you disagree.

For 25 years she has reported on National and International events, including the War on Terror and the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Most recently, Maureen Maher won an Edward R. Murrow Award and an Emmy Award for two investigations into International Adoption, one of which, helped to change Federal Laws.

She received honors for an investigation that helped to win the freedom of two wrongly incarcerated men, one of whom had been in jail for more than two decades. She also received honors for an investigation on Chicago Crime, including coverage of Hadiya Pendleton’s drive-by shooting death.

Kenneth Woodward

The First Friday Club Welcomes
Mr. Kenneth L. Woodward
Former Religion Editor, Newsweek Magazine
Who will address the Topic?

“Religion and American Politics: The Recent History of a Stormy Relationship”

We have been told to avoid two topics in our conversations: religion and politics. On April 6 th
our speaker, Ken Woodward, will address both of them!
One of the people most qualified to address this issue is Ken Woodward who for 38 years covered the topic of religion in America for Newsweek Magazine. And since then he has continue to speak on and write about the place and impact of religion in our country.

His most recent book is titled Getting Religion: Faith, Culture, and Politics from the Age of Eisenhower to the Era of Obama.

Ken Woodward’s intent during his First Friday Club presentation is to begin with an analysis of the present situation of Evangelicals in current American politics and then go back to JFK and move forward to a discussion of Religion and the GOP and Religion and the Democrats.
This should be very interesting!

Ken Woodward has authored over 750 articles for Newsweek, including nearly 100 cover
stories. He has been a news commentator on NBC, ABC and CBS. Among his numerous awards
are the National Magazine Award, the Pulitzer Prize of the magazine industry, and the Robert E.
Griffin Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Art of Writing from the University of Notre
Dame.

Mr. Woodward grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, graduated from St. Ignatius High School there and
from the University of Notre Dame (1957). He and his wife, Elizabeth, have three children and
seven grandchildren.

 

Fr. David Kelly - Chaplain at Cook County Jail

Violence is a Three-Sided Coin

The out-of- control violence that plagues so many pockets of Chicago focuses on two elements:
the perpetrators and the victims. Often they are described as opposite sides of the same coin, the 2
sides of a violent action.

Yet there is another element that very often encircles those two sides. Violence between perpetrator
and victim often occurs in the same territory, neighborhood, or community: the third side of the coin.

Fr. Dave Kelly and other members of his religious congregation began the Precious Blood Ministry of
Reconciliation. This Ministry reaches out to those who have been harmed, the one who has done the
harm, and the community.

Our criminal justice system asks what law was broken and what the punishment is. There is very little
energy offered to the victim or to the process of healing.

Fr. Kelly's Restorative Justice Program seeks to restore the peace, to fix the harm and pain by
working together with the victim, the offender, and the community.

In the great Tradition of our Faith rooted in Christ, he sees all life as precious: the offender, the
victim, and all in the community. He believes that healing and hope can be restored by all three sides
of this coin coming together in Peace and Justice.

Violence among us may be defined as out of control. But Fr. Dave Kelly's ministry has proven that
can change.

Father Dave Kelly has earned his Doctorate of Ministry from the Catholic Theological Union. His
thesis is entitled: "Responding to the Violence Among Urban Youth: a Restorative Approach."