SUSIE SAENZ
Chief of Staff and Vice President, St. John Paul II Foundation
Susie Saenz is Chief of Staff and Vice President at the St. John Paul II Foundation where she is responsible for providing counsel to the President, managing the Office of the President, promoting overall operational efficiency for the Foundation across departments, and representing the Office of the President. Susie earned her BS in Kinesiology from Texas A&M University and, prior to joining the St. John Paul II Foundation in 2017, worked at Baylor College of Medicine in the philanthropy and alumni relations office. She and her husband, Victor, along with their son, are parishioners at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Houston and enjoy gathering with friends over a meal, wine, and lively conversation. Susie has benefited greatly from the mission of the St. John Paul II Foundation during her time as a team member and continues to be grateful and humbled to have the opportunity to use her gifts and talents to enrich the lives touched by this apostolate.
THOMAS M CARROLL II, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center
Dr. Thomas Carroll is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester, husband, and father of four. He received his M.D. and PhD from the University of Connecticut and then completed his internal medicine training at the University of Rochester where he subsequently served as Chief Resident and completed the fellowship program in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Dr. Carroll practices both general internal medicine and palliative care in the office and hospital settings. He also directs the Advanced Communication Training (ACT) Program (https://act-ur.com/), which seeks to improve patient care by supporting communication excellence among individual clinicians and clinical teams. His interests include communication training, medical education at all stages of training, bioethics, and moral theology.
CLIFF PORTER, MD, PhD
Managing Partner and Founder of Texas Direct Medical Care
Dr. Cliff Porter is the managing partner and founder of Texas Direct Medical Care. He is board certified in Family Medicine with the experience to provide highest level of personal medical care for our guests.
Prior to opening Texas Direct Medical Care, Dr. Porter was medical director for several urgent care clinics in Travis County. Before settling permanently in Austin, Dr. Porter was an Army physician stationed at Ft. Hood, practicing full-service family medicine, taking care of all ages of active duty soldiers and their families, including retirees in primary care, hospital admissions, emergency medicine, intensive care, as well as obstetrics, delivering babies in the middle of the night.
Dr. Porter is a Colonel (Retired) from the US Army and served with 1st Armored Division, deployed to Iraq in 2011, and served in both the Army Reserve and Texas Army National Guard as the senior flight physician for aviation (36th Combat Aviation Brigade).
Dr. Porter has joined the growing physicians adopting the Direct Primary Care model, revolutionizing primary care. Our model allows us to provide the best personal care for all of our guests.
JAMES O. BREEN, MD
Associate Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, Florida State University; Founder and Owner, Benedict Medicine
James O. Breen, MD graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and received his internship and residency training in Family Medicine at Brown University. He completed a fellowship in faculty development at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and is a Diplomate of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. He has practiced family medicine in a range of practice types including community health centers, multispecialty groups and academic practices, where he has served at the rank of Associate Clinical Professor in Family Medicine at both the University of North Carolina and Florida State University. He has spoken nationally at conferences for the Catholic Medical Association and Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and his writings have appeared in publications including the New England Journal of Medicine, Linacre Quarterly, Crisis Magazine and The Catholic Thing.
Dr. Breen recently opened Benedict Medicine, a Christ-centered, independent primary care practice that integrates contemporary medical knowledge within a context that sees each person as made in the image and likeness of God. His interest in the application of Catholic social teaching to medical care has led him to form the Benedict Medicine Consortium, a voluntary association of primary care physicians whose practices are built upon Catholic principles. He is a member of the Southwest Florida Guild of the Catholic Medical Association and lives with his family in Fort Myers, Florida. He is in the process of completing the Certificate in Health Care Ethics Program from the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
REV. EDUARDO RIVERA, CSB
Chaplain, University of St. Thomas – Houston
Fr. Eduardo Rivera, CSB is a priest of the Congregation of St. Basil (Basilian Fathers). He is the chaplain of the University of St. Thomas, and Director of Scholastics for the Basilian Fathers. Fr. Rivera is an alumnus of the University of St. Thomas and native of Houston.
REV. ROBERT GAHL
Associate Professor of Church Management Director of Church Management Programs – Catholic University of America
Fr. Robert Gahl, PhD is Associate Professor of Practice in the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America and Director of the Church Management Program, including the Master in Ecclesiastical Administration and Management (MEAM). He is also Associate Professor of Ethics in the School of Philosophy of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Santa Croce) in Rome where he was Director of the Program of Church Management (2017-2022).
A native of Milwaukee Wisconsin, he completed his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and worked in Silicon Valley with robotic software for electron beam lithography systems (1985-1987). After completing his Licentiate in philosophy at the University of Navarre (Pamplona, Spain, 1989) and his Doctorate in Rome at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (1991), he did postdoctoral research at the University of Notre Dame (1993) and was ordained to the diaconate by Blessed Alvaro del Portillo and to the priesthood by St. John Paul II (1992).
Fr. Gahl has published on the narrative structure of the moral life, cognitive behavioral therapy, corporate social behavior, and the social doctrine of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. In 2018-2019, as Visiting Faculty Research Affiliate at Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program, he taught courses at Harvard and MIT. He has directed courses on institutional mission at leading health care and medical research centers and on virtuous leadership for Italy’s Center for Advanced Defense Studies (IASD). His current research focuses on intergenerational human flourishing.
He recently published “The Challenge of Self-Mastery in the Future of Work” for the Business and Professional Ethics Journal (2022) and has offered analysis regarding issues of ethics and Church affairs for numerous media outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, CNN, CBS, BBC, the Associated Press, Relevant Radio and Vatican Radio. In addition to Italy and the USA, he has lectured in the Vatican, UK, Spain, Kenya, Ireland, Malta, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Ethiopia, and Poland.
JOHN BUTLER, MD
Legacy Community Health Montrose Clinic Adult Infectious Disease Physician
Dr. John Butler is an infectious disease physician in Houston, TX and has over 30 years of experience in the medical field. He graduated from University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston McGovern Medical School in 1993. He is currently medical director at Casa Juan Diego clinic since 2017 and in practice at Legacy Healthcare as a HIV specialist.