Work, Family, and Faith: Toward an Integrated Life

An attorney and policy expert, Mary has been a three-time keynote speaker for the Holy See during the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and serves as a consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, for the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth and the Committee on Religious Liberty.

She was awarded the Cross Pro Eccelsia et Pontifice, a decoration of the Holy See, for her distinguished service to the Catholic Church by law people and clergy. She speaks frequently at national conferences, universities, and in dioceses across the country and provides expert advice to legislators, policymakers, and NGOs on issues related to gender ideology.

The co-author of several books on education, Mary’s writing appears regularly in national media and academic publications. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Notre Dame Law School, Mary is married to Seamus Hasson, and they are parents of seven grown children and grandparents of nine.

A veteran of pro-family politics—including his father’s winning 2010 congressional race—Terry has worked with leaders like Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Chris Smith.

He’s a graduate of Franciscan University, a Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute, and most importantly, dad to seven. Terry and his wife, Katie, live in Virginia with their family.

His writing has been published in The New York Times, National Review, Politico, The Washington Post, and USA Today, and he has spoken on college campuses and Capitol Hill on topics from welfare reform to child-care and education policy.

Patrick has published reports on paid leave and family policy with the Institute for Family Studies, and edited an essay series featuring working-class voices for American Compass. He is an advisory board member of Humanity Forward and the Center on Child and Family Policy and a contributing editor to Public Discourse.

Prior to joining EPPC, Patrick served as a senior policy advisor to Congress’ Joint Economic Committee. There, he helped lead research about how to make it more affordable to raise a family and more effectively invest in youth and young adults. He also previously worked a government-relations staffer for Catholic Charities USA.

Patrick graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in political science and economics. He also holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He and his wife Jessica have four young children and live in Columbia, S.C.

She is a co-founder and board member of St. Thomas More Academy (STMA), an independent Catholic classical K–12 school in South Bend, Indiana. She served as STMA’s head of school in its first two years. Now in its fifth year, STMA serves more than 250 students.

Margaret is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and attended Aquinas Academy, another independent K–12 Catholic school co-founded by her parents and several others. Margaret and her husband, Peter, have been married for ten years and have five children, ages 1 to 9.

Her work has been reviewed or covered in The New Yorker, Slate, The Atlantic, The Times (of London), The Wall Street Journal, Freakonomics Radio, NPR, Fox News, and more.

Pakaluk received the 2015 Acton Institute's Novak Award, a 2023 Freedom and Opportunity Academic Prize from The Heritage Foundation. She earned a doctorate in economics at Harvard University, where she studied with Nobel Laureate Oliver Hart.

She is married to American philosopher Michael Pakaluk with whom she raised fourteen children: six from Michael’s previous marriage to pro-life activist Ruth VK Pakaluk, deceased in 1998, and eight from their marriage in 1999.

Dr. Rook brings more than 24 years of experience in secondary and higher education to her teaching and leadership. Her areas of expertise include mathematics pedagogy, curriculum design, educator preparation program assessment and accreditation, and the integration of a Catholic worldview in teacher formation.

She has presented at numerous national and regional education conferences. Her recent research has been published in Verbum Vitae, the Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, and the Journal on Excellence in College Teaching. She serves as a peer reviewer for the American Journal of Distance Education and Religions.

A lifelong Catholic educator, Dr. Rook is a passionate advocate for teacher preparation rooted in the Church’s mission and vision of education. Her greatest joy in life is being a wife and mother. She and her husband Philip have been married for almost 25 years and are blessed with six children: Jack, Michael, Benjamin, Gianna, Joseph, and Daniel.

Her research areas include: the nature of man and woman, the human person, the theological meaning of human work and the conversion of the acting person.

She is a recognized scholar of the work of Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II and has written and presented or published several papers on how his philosophical anthropology informs his body of work as Pope, his understanding of human work, the complementarity of man and woman, and of the dignity and vocation of women.

She has written and presented many talks and papers on these topics both nationally and internationally. Dr. Savage is the Director of Franciscan’s Institute for the Study of Man and Woman.