Confronting ‘ever-changing landscape of poor, vulnerable’

By Brian T. Olszewski, Catholic Herald Staff

ST. FRANCIS – Hannah C. Dugan, an advocate for the poor and vulnerable in the Milwaukee area for the past 18 years, will continue that advocacy, but in the 10-county Archdiocese of Milwaukee as executive director of Catholic Charities.

Following the unanimous recommendation of the nine-member Catholic Charities’ board of directors, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan appointed Dugan to the position, effective Jan. 8, 2007. She succeeds Diane Knight who retired at the end of 2006.

In making the appointment, Archbishop Dolan termed Dugan, who had been director of Catholic Charities’ family and children’s ministries for the past year, a “woman of deep Catholic faith who is well known and respected in the community.”

Citing Dugan’s “love for the mission of the church and tremendous devotion to those marginalized by society,” the archbishop said, “She has a real sense of what Catholic Charities is all about – mainly service in the name of Jesus for those no one is caring for.”

A member of Gesu Parish, where she is a trustee and parish council member, Dugan has been an attorney since earning her degree from the UW Law School in 1987. She worked as a staff attorney at Legal Action of Wisconsin for seven years, representing low-income clients in matters of civil law. In 1994, she joined the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee where she served until joining Catholic Charities in 2006.

While Dugan maintains that she had wanted “to be an attorney since I was very young,” it was the 12 months in which she served in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps — following completion of her graduate degree in American studies from Boston College — that convinced her she should go to law school.

“It was not only an opportunity for a year of service, but to be in a law setting and know that’s what I wanted to do,” she said. “It gave me an understanding that there were law firms — active, busy, important law firms — that I could work at after graduation that had the initiative to serve the poor.”

Among those on what she termed the “ever-changing landscape of poor and vulnerable people,” Dugan listed children and immigrants.

“These are populations which are particularly vulnerable,” she said, “because as children and immigrants they have no legal status outside of what is conferred on them. Parents and state have custody. Children are considered incompetent by law. Undocumented and those in the process of being documented are in precarious legal status.”

She added, “Reality is that having legal rights doesn’t have a whole lot of meaning anymore without legal advocacy, too.”

The St. Mary School, Waukesha, and Catholic Memorial graduate said that the response to the needs of the poor and vulnerable has come from the institution that has always responded to those in need – the church.

“The church has recognized that they are the most vulnerable,” she said. “That’s exactly where we should focus our services.”

According to John Kordsmeier, chairman of the Catholic Charities’ board, the search committee and the board were looking for someone who had the ability to do fund development and who possessed financial acumen.

“Catholic Charities has a tight budget,” he said. “The executive director has to understand the intricacies and the managing that is involved (in running the agency).”

During her law career, Dugan has overseen what she termed “resource development.” She is also pursuing a master’s in business administration at Marquette.

“With non-profits, their resources are often so limited there is often a spread of expertise. You’re trained (as a lawyer) to be adversarial not in administration,” she said. “It made sense to get the background (in business).”

Another priority for Catholic Charities, according to Kordsmeier, was finding someone who would “develop relationships with parishes.” Dugan sees parishes and priests as “logical connectors” to the people the agency serves through its 18 sites.

“There is an incredible infrastructure we have in the archdiocese of parishes and joint missions of parishes with the church,” she said. “Part of what Catholic Charities wants to target is that energy in individual parishes, to tap into that energy, but also to complement it when we can work with them on persons needing care.”

Dugan, a charter member the Archdiocesan Review Board that reviewed allegations of sexual abuse by clergy, expects to learn from the parishes.

“A lot of people go to parishes for help – priests or staff or parish nurses,” she said. “Part of it is learning from those people: What is being asked of the church? Is it help with medication? Is it help with mental health issues? Is it housing?”

Dugan noted that there is a domino effect when people become unemployed, and then have health issues, and then become homeless.

“My hope is to try to stop the dominos from falling,” said the former president of the Milwaukee Bar Association.

Dugan said that the last seven years at Catholic Charities have been a time of restructuring, moving from providing services regionally to providing services according ministries.

“This creates focus on services that allow the client to know this is the place to come,” she said. “It lets Catholics of the archdiocese know what Catholic Charities is doing when they are referring friends or family members.”

Since the agency has done strategic planning during the last four years, she anticipates that it will continue to change.

“An 87-year old institution should always be looking to see how it can respond to current needs, to respond to current social justice teaching of the church, to inspire that work and direct that work as the ever-changing landscape of poor and vulnerable people changes,” she said.

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