ACE Leadership Conference
Registration Opens on May 1st at 9:00 a.m. EST
The 4th Annual ACE Leadership Conference will be hosted on the campus of the University of Notre Dame on November 9-11, 2025. The conference will provide an opportunity to learn from other Catholic school leaders from across the country, and gain insight into the challenges and issues you face in your work. The theme for the 2025 conference is Anchored in Hope: Forming Resilient Disciples and Strong Communities, and attendees will come away with tangible tools to bring back to their schools and dioceses for building spiritual leadership within four specific domains:
-Spiritual Formation
-Instructional Leadership
-Executive Management
-School Culture
Cost
Registration opens May 1st
Early Bird Registration - $250 from May 1st-June 30th
Regular Registration - $300 from July 1st-October 1st
Conference Sessions
Ann is the oldest of eight children in a close-knit Catholic family from St. Louis, Missouri. From a very early age, Ann displayed an unnatural attraction to writing with chalk. Some of her earliest memories involve constructing elaborate lesson plans and schedules for an attic academy that her siblings refused to attend. By the age of twelve, she was designing weeklong retreat experiences…. that her siblings also refused to attend.
Forced to ply her trade outside the home, Ann joined the ranks of Catholic school educators in 1991. After four years teaching middle school and high school on the Pacific island of Guam, she pursued her Master of Divinity and Doctorate of Ministry in Preaching at Aquinas Institute of Theology. Ann joined the Institute’s faculty in 2000.
Over the past two and a half decades she has taught a range of courses in pastoral theology, homiletics, and catechetics while also serving in a variety of administrative positions including Director of Field Education, Director of Distance Learning, Director of the Aquinas Ministry Integration Project, Director of the Doctorate of Ministry program, and Director of the Masters in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.
Ann’s ongoing reflection on her experience as an educator and administrator has led to a number of publications and speaking engagements. She is the author of ten books, as well as numerous essays and articles. She has visited all 50 states and 20 countries, having spoken at over 300 diocesan, educational, health care, ministry, and business gatherings including:
- National Catholic Education Association
- Olin Executive Education at Washington University
- The Church Network
- Archdiocese of Chicago
- National Pastoral Musicians
- Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities
- National Association of Catholic Chaplains
- Association of Theological Schools
- Catholic Relief Services
- Boston College
- National Association of Church Personnel Administrators
- Catholic Health Association
- Catholic Independent Schools of the Vancouver Archdiocese
- University of Notre Dame
- LA Religious Education Congress
- The Wexner Foundation
- Ontario Catholic Supervisory Officers' Association
In 2013, Ann affiliated with Triad Consulting Group, a global corporate education and communications consulting firm founded by two members of the Harvard Negotiation Project. Ann has a passion for bringing the best research and practice around healthy communication and conflict management from the business world into the church world.
Ann is a frequent flier on Delta Airlines, spending about 60% of her time on the road while regularly checking in at home in Atlanta, GA to make sure her husband is still alive and eating enough vegetables. She unfortunately has developed an extreme aversion to chalk. Something to do with a preference for wearing black. She continues to love her siblings and pesters them as often as she can.
2025 Sponsors
Questions?
Phone: 574.631.6804