I want to begin by thanking Laurie Hansen Cardona for her years of service to the NACC and the chaplaincy profession in her role as editor of our Vision for the past six years. When I became executive director of the NACC in August 2007, David Lewellen had been editor of Vision and was doing a high quality job. When in early 2008 he let me know he was taking an editorial position with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, we were fortunate that Laurie Hansen Cardona expressed interest in becoming editor. I had known of Laurie’s work when she was managing editor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s Catholic Herald. She also had national experience in working for Catholic News Service. I was excited to have a person of her background and expertise assume this role.
Laurie’s work over the past years has exceeded my expectations, as she helped guide Vision from a printed medium to an online product; worked closely with NACC Editorial Advisory Panel members to map out themes for Vision issues; solicited, screened, and guided writers; worked closely with our research member, Austine Duru, to include regularly high quality research contributions; sought editorial consistency with the invaluable proofreading help of Becky Evans and Susanne Chawszczewski, when she was with us, and worked with Phil Paradowski, our website specialist, to ensure an overall visual appeal for the online publication. In summary, Laurie did not work alone, and an important part of her success was that she was able to be in communication with our members, writers and book reviewers, our Editorial Advisory Panel, staff members, and a myriad of other constituents to ensure a high quality product each time. Laurie did all this on contract with the NACC, while being a full-time mom and wife and teaching English as a second language, which had been her aspiration and goal well before giving NACC six years of her professional life. Laurie is a lovely human being, a woman of faith, a person driven by a love for family and those in need. Please join me in wishing her all the best.
As we move forward, I am delighted to let our members know that David Lewellen will be reassuming the Vision editor responsibilities. Again, I am excited that David was interested in returning to the NACC in this role. While he continues his editorial work with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and his life as a loving father and husband, he will start his editorial work with the next issue of Vision. In many ways, David has remained close to NACC staff members, exchanging emails, sharing the growth of his children, and offering me comments on NACC Now and Vision. Please join me in welcoming David back.
David Lichter
Executive Director, NACC
