Below is a list of seminar presenters for the 2007 National Conference. For a description of seminars, please click here.
RAY MCGOVERN is a former CIA analyst and an outspoken critic of the current Bush administration. He works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour, and teaches at its Servant Leadership School in inner-city Washington. A CIA analyst for 27 years, Ray's responsibilities included chairing National Intelligence Estimates as well as preparing and briefing the President's Daily Brief. When the ethos of intelligence analysis changed from "you shall know [and speak] the truth" to "we cook estimates to go," he and a handful of former colleagues created Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) and began writing and speaking extensively. Ray was grateful to have a chance last year to draw on his early training at the hands of Dominicans and Jesuits, in holding up his end of an impromptu debate with then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on live TV.
VIPS is dedicated to exposing what these former Intelligence professionals believe to be the mishandling of important intelligence, specifically relating to the War in Iraq.
McGovern was born and raised in the Bronx and was a graduate, summa cum laude, of Fordham University. He served in the US Army from 1962-64 as an intelligence officer. McGovern also received an M.A. in Russian Studies from Fordham University, a certificate in Theological Studies from Georgetown University and was a graduate of Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program.
As a mid-level officer in the CIA in the 1960s, his focus was analysis of Soviet policy toward Vietnam. McGovern was one of President Reagan's intelligence briefers from 1981-85 when he was in charge of preparing daily security briefs for the President, the Vice President, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Cabinet and National Security Advisor. Later, McGovern was one of several senior CIA analysts who prepared the President's Daily Brief (PDB) for President George H.W. Bush.
Upon retirement, McGovern was awarded the Intelligence Commendation Medal from Bush (which he later returned) and worked for Washington-based non-profits before becoming co-director of the Servant Leadership School in Washington. He has been married to Rita Kennedy for forty-two years, with whom he has five children and six grandchildren.
SR./DR. JAMIE T. PHELPS, OP is the Katharine Drexel Professor of Systematic Theology at Xavier University of Louisiana and the director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier(IBCS), in New Orleans. She has also taught at Loyola University and the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
As a theological scholar, her primary research and teaching areas are in the discipline of Systematic Theology, teaching courses in Ecclesiology, Christology, Theology of Grace, and Liberation Theologies, among others. Her secondary research and teaching areas are in American Catholic History, Cultural Studies and Race Theory.
Dr. Phelps is the editor of Black and Catholic: The Challenge and Gift of Black Folk, and co-edited with Cyprian Davis, OSB, Stamped with the Image of God: African Americans as God's Image in Black. She has published more than 50 theological articles on issues of the mission of the Church, evangelization, inculturation, Christology, and spirituality.
A woman deeply committed to systemic change for social justice, Dr. Phelps has inaugurated or participated in the creation of several institutional programs and conferences focused to ensure the on-going growth and development of theology and ministry in and for the Black Catholic Community. She is a founding member of the Washington-based National Black Catholic Sisters’ Conference (NBSC) and in 1990 she founded the Augustus Tolton Lay Ministry Program at Catholic Theological Union to prepare Black Catholic women and men for ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago. In 1991, she re-founded the Black Catholic Theological Symposium (BCTS) which was first convened in 1978 by Father Thaddeus Posey, OFM Cap. Dr. Phelps’ scholarship, ministry, and activism on behalf of social justice have been awarded by various universities, and church-related and civic groups including the Fund for Theological Education (FTE), Barry University, the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Association of Chicago Priests, the Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver, the Urban League, the Hispanic Leadership Committee (Lenawee County, Michigan), and the National Black Sisters’ Conference.
Phelps entered the Adrian Dominican Sisters in 1959, and was professed in 1961. She received a BA in sociology from Siena Heights College, Adrian, Michigan in 1969; a MSW from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1972; and a MA in theology from Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota in 1975. She completed the PhD in Systematic Theology from the Catholic University of America in 1989.
Dr. Phelps has served on the board of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) and the Washington-based Center for Research in the Apostolate (CARA).
CAMILO MEJIA is a former Staff Sergeant of the Florida National Guard and anti-war activist. Mejía is a former student of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Mejía spent six months in Iraq, then returned for a 2-week furlough to the US after which he did not return for duty. He was charged with desertion and sentenced to one year in prison for refusing to return to fight in Iraq. In March 2004 he turned himself in to the US military and filed an application for conscientious objector status. He was the first US soldier to publicly refuse to fight in Iraq.
Mejía was placed under court-martial, and claimed that he left his post in order to avoid duties that could be considered war crimes: more specifically, the abuse and torture of prisoners. One of his attorneys, former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark, claimed that he was thus protected from desertion charges by international law.
On May 21, 2004, Mejía was convicted of desertion by a military jury and sentenced to a year in jail and a bad conduct discharge. Under Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, conviction on the charge of desertion during time of war can result in a sentence of death.
Mejía served his time at the Fort Sill military prison in Lawton, Oklahoma. During his time in custody he was recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience and was awarded by Refuse and Resist with its Courageous Resister Award. He was also recognized by the Detroit City Council with a commendation for his stand.
Mejía was released from prison on February 15, 2005. Since his release, he has spoken at many peace protests and to the press about his experiences and his opposition to the war in Iraq. He has recently written a book entitled Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejía which recounts his journey of conscience in Iraq.
Click here for more biographies for seminar presenters Dr. Jeanette Rodriguez, Dr. Ted Fortier, Rev. Charles Morris, and members of the Pax Christi Anti-Racism Team.
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