The Maryknoll Sisters, the Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers and the Maryknoll Lay Missioners are delighted to announce that beginning May 28, 2013, Gerry Lee will be the director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns.
“We are thrilled to welcome Gerry to lead our collaborative office that advocates for peace, social justice and integrity of creation,” said Kathy McNeely, who has served as interim director of the office since January 2012. “His years of mission experience and his personal commitment to justice, as well as his intelligence, creativity and proven leadership skills, will be terrific assets not only to the work of this office and to Maryknoll, but to the wider community as well.”
This is a reunion in some ways: Gerry served on the staff of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners from 1994-2006, including several years on its leadership team. He and his wife Patti McKenna, along with their daughters Amanda, Abigail and Jessica, served as a mission family in Venezuela for 10 years (1984-1994) where Gerry focused on community organizing and human rights advocacy. Most recently Gerry has been part of the food justice movement in the United States, practicing urban farming with young adults and community leaders in inner city Philadelphia.