Diakonia Fellows
How are you called to reveal the face of a God who came to serve, not to be served?
The Diakonia Fellows program seeks to animate a church that is ever more diaconal, synodal, and merciful by developing ministry leaders and equipping them to animate diakonia in their communities.
The deacon is to be the conscience of the Church, dragging the ambo to the streets and the streets to the ambo.
Diácono William T. Ditewig, Ph.D.
About the Fellowship
The Diakonia Fellows program is a cohort-based peer formation experience. Over the course of their year-long fellowship, Diakonia Fellows…
- Practice ongoing ministry in their respective communities
- Aprender about the theology, spirituality, history, and practices of diakonia and faith-based community organizing
- Explore their vocation to bridge-building service through guided reflection activities and prayer
- Engage in a community of peers offering mutual accompaniment and feedback
- Access ongoing coaching and spiritual direction
- Meet monthly online and once for an in-person retreat
- Fundraise to grow the support for their initiatives in their communities
- Grow relationships with local church leaders around their work
- Receive a stipend to support their success and sustainability
The number of deacons should be in proportion to the number of the people in the congregation. There should be enough so that everyone is known and everyone is looked after.”
–Didascalia Apostolorum, 3rd century CE
Meet the Fellows (2025-2026)
Julia D'Agostino
Pembroke, MA
A recent graduate from the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry with both MDiv and ThM degrees, Julia D’Agostino brings experience in Christian Life Community facilitation and liturgical ministry. Guided by Micah 6:8’s call to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly,” she has developed expertise in spiritual accompaniment through her work facilitating two year-long Christian Life Community groups for her CSTM community. She was a part of Discerning Deacons’ pilgrimage to Rome during the October 2024 Synod Assembly.
Julia will develop a community for young adults in the Discerning Deacons network, addressing the pastoral needs of transient young adults who often struggle to establish parish connections. She launched the initiative in April 2025 overseeing young adult leadership in an Easter season synodal faith-sharing series featuring Synod members. Drawing inspiration from St. Ignatius’s vision of “community in dispersion,” the project aims to provide sustainable spiritual community for young adults while unleashing them for diaconal ministry in their communities.
Mattie Gottbrath
Seattle, WA
Mattie Gottbrath serves as co-president of the St. Vincent de Paul conference at St. Edward Catholic Church. She has extensive international service experience, having lived and worked for 19 months in a marginalized community outside Guayaquil, Ecuador through Rostro de Cristo, where she engaged in community development and learned the transformative power of accompaniment. Raised in a Catholic family deeply committed to service, Mattie’s experiences in Latin American shaped her understanding of faith as inseparable from social action.
Mattie’s project focuses on revitalizing her parish’s St. Vincent de Paul conference. Based on feedback from a community listening session with neighbors, she plans to create opportunities for relational encounters that leverage community members’ strengths rather than focusing solely on their needs. The project aims to transform the relationship between volunteers and neighbors from a helper-helped dynamic to authentic neighborly connections, while also contributing to volunteer sustainability in an under-resourced and high-need service area.
Joanna Hernandez
Los Angeles, CA
Joanna Hernandez currently serves as youth minister at Dolores Mission Church. Educated in Jesuit schools, she seeks to embody the principle of being a woman for and with others. Her ministry includes food distribution in Skid Row, food bank service, bible study facilitation, and leading a social justice committee that takes students to Sacramento for advocacy and leadership conferences, with focus on homeless individuals, immigrants, and environmental issues following Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ encyclical.
In collaboration with Daniela Valdez, another Diakonia Fellow at her parish, Joanna seeks to empower the youth she serves for Catholic social action, creating structured training in advocacy and legislative meeting facilitation. An existing partnership with Ignatian Solidarity Network will enable students to attend leadership conferences and retreats while learning to conduct legislative meetings in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. on topics aligned with community and the Catholic social mission, including immigration, homelessness, and environmental justice.
Salena Ibrahim
Worcester, MA
Salena Ibrahim is Assistant Chaplain for Domestic Immersions and Multifaith Support at College of the Holy Cross. She graduated with her Master of Divinity from Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry, where she completed a supervised ministry internship at the US-Mexico border with Kino Border Initiative. She previously served as a Jesuit Volunteer and supported college students engaged in service and justice initiatives at the University of Detroit Mercy. She is passionate about educational equity and has experience in migration ministry.
Salena is exploring multiple avenues for implementing diakonia in response to Paragraph 60 of the Synod’s Final Document. She is particularly attentive to the needs of the various women’s spirituality groups on-campus and the representation of women’s leadership in the church. Possible initiatives include an educational series on Paragraph 60, creating bridge-building spaces for the women’s spirituality groups, and developing opportunities for student preaching via multimedia platforms.
Jazmin Jimenez
Manhattan Beach, CA
Jazmin Jimenez is Director of Liturgy & Worship at American Martyrs Catholic Community with thirteen years of background in Catholic education as a campus minister and theology teacher. She has made significant contributions to young adult and young family ministries while serving as a catalyst for parish synodal listening sessions. Her ministry experience includes two months living and working at the Kino Border Initiative on the US/Mexico border and participation in Discerning Deacons pilgrimages to Rome for the Synod.
Building upon existing relationships with Catholic ministry leaders across Los Angeles, Jazmin will grow a regional “St. Phoebe Circle.” Modeled after the early deacon circles of men and women that emerged after World War II and laid the groundwork for the restoration of the permanent diaconate at Vatican II, Phoebe Circles aim to unleash the faithful for diakonia (Christ-like service of Word, worship, and charity) while deepening an understanding of the diaconate and growing participation in the Church’s active discernment about its renewal.
Shannon Kozubik
Marin County, CA
Shannon Kozubik is former university chaplain at the University of St. Thomas who converted from Evangelical Protestantism to Catholicism. After marriage and completing her Masters in Theology, she founded and operated a yoga studio and parent center for 10 years. Currently, Shannon serves at St. Mary’s, a rural, multicultural parish, where she organizes lectors, visits homebound and dying parishioners, and is a leader in coordinating parishioners to address needs in their rural community.
Shannon seeks to use her fellowship year to operationalize volunteer lay leadership at her all-volunteer rural parish family, where two priests serve three parishes. The project includes developing standardized expectations for volunteers, simple role transfer processes, and structured homebound ministry protocols. A concrete product will be the creation of a manual, designed for sustainability and transferability to other rural parishes facing similar operational challenges. She hopes to use this practical effort to build bridges between the disparate cultural and economic communities in her parish.
Sarah Pericich-Lopez
Seattle, WA
Sarah Pericich-Lopez is the Director of Community Organizing at the Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center (IPJC) in Seattle, Washington. A graduate of Loyola University Chicago’s Master of Divinity degree program, Sarah has served as a hospital chaplain, resident minister, and community organizer. She specializes in faith-based organizing that integrates Catholic Social Teaching with synodality, empowering others—particularly women—as diaconal leaders in their communities.
Sarah will launch a comprehensive women’s leadership cohort at IPJC to transform the organization’s approach to community organizing. The year-long program will train women in Western Washington, including in Pierce County, in organizing, Catholic Social Teaching, and synodality while conducting a diocese-wide listening campaign with vulnerable community members. Participants will identify key priorities for IPJC’s five-year strategic focus and develop sustainable leadership pipelines. The initiative aims to equip women to flourish as diaconal leaders while reigniting the Catholic imagination for Catholic Social Teaching.
Siobhan Rearick
Durham, NC
Siobhan is a British-born educator with seventeen years of experience teaching in Catholic and Christian schools, including work in inner-city London schools serving marginalized communities. As a young adult, she volunteered with the Sisters of Notre Dame in Lima, Peru and is currently completing her final year of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd training. She serves as a catechist, lector, member of the parish “green team,” and founding member of her parish’s Phoebe Circle. Her background includes Confirmation catechesis, and establishing Christian Life Community groups in London.
Siobhan will develop a bilingual ministry initiative to bridge the English- and Spanish-speaking communities in her parish. The project will begin with regular devotional prayer meetings centered around a book study, progressing to include bilingual worship leadership. Her goal is to unite both communities around joint service projects, fostering relationships while addressing the limited opportunities for bilingual worship given the parish’s significant Hispanic population.
Sarah Riggio
Seattle, WA
Sarah Riggio has extensive experience in ministry including college campus ministry, high school theology teaching, and youth ministry leadership, most recently serving as Pastoral Assistant for Youth Faith Formation at Our Lady of Guadalupe. As a mother of five children, Sarah considers motherhood her highest calling and has welcomed refugees and asylum seekers into her family’s home for the past five years. She is passionate about Scripture and preaching and has been trained to lead communion services.
Drawing from her five years of experience housing and supporting refugee families, Sarah plans to create a trained network of people equipped for compassionate cross-cultural ministry in Western Washington. The project will leverage her existing relationships with refugees from Afghanistan, Latin America, and Haiti, along with her parish and community connections, to formalize and expand welcoming ministries. Sarah envisions training others in the skills needed to befriend and accompany newcomers, helping them navigate life in America while building authentic relationships that embody Christ’s call to “welcome the stranger.”
Calista Robledo
Boston, MA
Calista is in her third year as an MDiv student at the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry. She brings experience in liturgical ministry, retreat leadership, and arts ministry. She founded the Theology Arts Collective and offers retreat direction in Boston College Campus Ministry. Her ministerial formation spans liturgical leadership and preaching with particular strength in empowering others through creative and spiritual expression. Her liturgical ministry began in childhood as an altar server and continues today alongside ministry as a liturgical dancer.
Calista is exploring multiple initiatives for her fellowship year, including a potential formation program for final-year MDiv students at the Clough School that would bring together lay and Jesuit students for formation in diakonia. Alternatively, she envisions launching a creative writing project documenting stories of diaconal ministry, beginning with St. Phoebe’s story and weaving together historical, theological, scriptural, and pastoral elements of diakonia through contemporary examples.
Fran Slayton
Charlottesville, VA
Fran is a former child sex abuse prosecutor turned stay-at-home mom and children’s author who has served on three parish councils. As a former Director of Valley Cursillo for six years, she founded a Phoebe Circle in Charlottesville and has been living with brain cancer for nine years while continuing active ministry.
Fran plans to develop an online platform designed to model, encourage, and advocate for women’s leadership roles within the Catholic Church in accordance with Paragraph 60 of the Synod’s Final Document. The platform will feature written, video, and podcast interviews showcasing ministry opportunities currently available to women in some dioceses. CWC will provide webinars, discussion boards, and online conferences to teach practical skills for establishing new ministries while promoting current best practices for Catholic women’s leadership across dioceses.
Daniela Valdez
East Los Angeles, CA
Daniela Valdez has dedicated eleven years to religious education ministry in Los Angeles, California, serving as a catechist for children ages 6-14 and working with junior high and high school students for the past three years. Beyond religious education, she provides comprehensive support to families, helping them navigate immigration policies, cope with loss, advocate within school systems, and understand college transitions.
In collaboration with Joanna Hernandez, another Diakonia Fellow at her Dolores Mission parish, Daniela will develop a ministry to serve at-risk youth who are vulnerable to gang involvement in her Los Angeles community. She hopes to connect young people with professionals and role models to expand their vision of future possibilities while providing legal workshops for parents and guardians, educating them about their rights regarding eviction, immigration, and advocating for their children. The initiative aims to break cycles of injustice by offering holistic support that creates safe, nurturing spaces where both youth and families feel empowered and reminded of their inherent worth and God’s love.