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President and CEO, Catholic Charities USA
Founding Executive Director, Leadership Roundtable
Kerry Robinson and I first crossed paths in the magnificent Catholic Student Center at Yale University. I’d been invited to give a lecture there and was wowed by the facility and all the gatherings taking place there. When I mentioned this to the pastor Fr. Bob Beloin, he said, “Oh, You need to meet Kerry. She got this place built.” Kerry, it turns out, had been the community’s development director and raised $75 million dollars to both build the new center and rejuvenate the Catholic presence at Yale. Her success led to the publication of the award-winning book “Imagining Abundance: Fundraising, Philanthropy and a Spiritual Call to Serve” (Liturgical Press, 2014).
But Kerry had already been part of building new structures in the Church long before her work at Yale. A member of the Raskob family, she had been active in Catholic philanthropy since the age of 14. And Kerry has continued to build more structures—of the organizational nature—since her work at Yale. Kerry was the founding executive director of the Leadership Roundtable—a network of Catholic leaders from both the business and church worlds building a culture of co-responsibility, transparency, and accountability in the Church. Since the time I interviewed her, Kerry has now become President and CEO of Catholic Charities USA.
Kerry continues to use her power—most especially the power to convene—as a way to build the Reign of God.