Presentation
One Earth Community
Bio
Elise D. García, OP, is Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, a Michigan-based congregation of nearly 365 Sisters and about 180 Associates, whose Sisters are missioned around the United States, as well as in the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, and Norway. She served in the presidency of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious from 2019 to 2022 and was the General Council liaison to the Portfolio Advisory Board from 2016 to 2022.
Her background is in communications, development, and nonprofit management. She has served multiple national and regional organizations advocating for social justice, immigration reform, peace, integral ecology, voting rights, and women’s issues, among other causes for the common good. In the early 2000s, she served as Co-Founder and Co-Director of Santuario Sisterfarm, an ecospirituality center founded by Latinas of the Texas-Mexico Borderlands and Dominican Sisters dedicated to cultivating biodiversity and cultural diversity. Elise served as editor of Sor Juana Press, a small woman’s press created to publish the works of women of color and women religious on topics related to Earth and spirituality.
Elise grew up in Latin America and Egypt and has a deep appreciation for the richly diverse gifts of people from around the world.
Opening Keynote
Building Safe Communities as a Health Imperative
Bio
Laura Krausa is the System Director of Advocacy Programs for CommonSpirit Health – a Catholic health system operating across 22 states. Directing the organization’s United Against Violence Program, Laura oversees community-based violence prevention efforts across the system and is a co-author of CommonSpirit Health’s Community-based Violence Prevention Resource Guide, a manual for creating and implementing violence prevention programs. She has overseen programs in more than 55 communities and almost $50M in funding for the initiatives.
Laura also leads CommonSpirit’s shareholder advocacy program, engaging corporations as a large institutional investor on business practices that positively impact health, environmental and social justice. Her work with weapons manufacturer Sturm Ruger & Co., Inc. was featured in the NY Times, Reuters, the Washington Post and TIME Magazine, and she has successfully achieved two majority votes with the company, pressing it to address safety issues and human rights. Laura regularly presents in national forums on violence prevention and shareholder advocacy, and she serves on the Boards of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. Laura holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Business Management from Regis University.
Panelist
Case Studies in Building Safe Communities
Bio
Sister Judy Byron, OP, an Adrian Dominican Sister, served as the program director of the Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center and directed the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment for twenty-five years. As a member of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, she focused on issues of Climate Finance, Gun Safety, Health Equity, Human Rights and Worker Justice. When she was in community leadership she collaborated with religious communities in the northwest to found the Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center (1991) and Mercy Housing Northwest (1992). Currently, Judy serves on the Adrian Dominican Sisters Portfolio Advisory Board, the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment Board, and the boards of Mercy Housing Northwest and Mercy Housing Inc. She resides in Seattle where her ministry includes promoting racial justice in local parishes and advocating to end gun violence. She has a BA in Social Science and MA in Religious Education.
Panel Moderator
Climate Justice
Bio
Corinne Sanders, OP, is an Adrian Dominican Sister currently serving as a member of the elected leadership team of the Congregation. In this role, she provides oversight to the Congregation’s Sustainability Enactment in which the Sisters commit to live in right relationship with Earth community. She helped create the Office of Sustainability on the Adrian campus, serving as the first director from 2017 - 2022. In that position, she collaborated with others to create the Environmental Leadership Experience, a summer program for college students from Siena Heights University and Barry University. She is a member of the ADS Land Justice Focus Group. Her background in educational leadership has served her well as she has ministered in schools, served as Head of School at Rosarian Academy, and currently serves on the boards of Siena Heights University and the Earth Law Center.
Panelist
Climate Justice
Bio
M. Duanne Andrade is the CEO of the Solar and Energy Loan Fund (SELF), a CDFI/Green Bank based in Florida with a footprint across the Southeast United States. Duanne is passionate about social, environmental, and economic equity and has spent the past 20+ years working on creating innovative financing models to unlock access to fair capital for low wealth populations in underserved communities, both in the United States and in Latin America. She has worked extensively with nonprofit microfinance models focused on lifting vulnerable populations out of poverty as well as for-profit financing models to address financing gaps for small businesses.
Duanne expanded her focus to include energy efficiency and clean energy as a critical component of sustainable development. In 2008 she founded an energy efficiency company in Mexico to reduce carbon emissions and help transition the highly polluting industrial sector to clean energy. Running up against capital constraints, she pivoted towards the financing side; in 2013 she began working with SELF to knock down barriers of access to capital with a focus on helping low- and moderate-income populations gain access to the benefits of energy efficiency, storm resilience and clean energy.
Duanne has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from NYU and an MBA from the Bolivian Catholic University, “San Pablo’s” Maestrías Para el Desarrollo (MPD), a program in cooperation with the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID).
Panelist
Climate justice
Bio
Caroline Shenoy manages the investment notes program at One Acre Fund, a pioneering social enterprise dedicated to advancing climate justice by empowering millions of African farmers with the resources and training needed to grow more food, while building resilient and sustainable agriculture systems.
With over a decade of experience at the intersection of financial services and social impact, Caroline brings a deep commitment to addressing environmental and social inequalities. Before joining One Acre Fund, she was on the team at Calvert Impact, a nonprofit investment firm, directing capital to tackle critical social and environmental challenges in the U.S. and globally. She initially began her career in impact investing after serving as a Kiva microfinance fellow with three microfinance institutions providing loans to underserved communities in Indonesia and East Timor. She holds a Master of International Business from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, where she focused on sustainable development economics, and a BBA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Closing Keynote
The Role of Community Organizing in Building Safe, Sacred, and Ecologically Sustainable Communities
Bio
Juan F. Soto has over 33 years of experience in grassroots organizing and leadership development. As the Organizing Director of Gamaliel, he has spearheaded numerous campaigns focused on social justice, civic engagement, and equitable community development. His expertise includes building coalitions, fostering interfaith and ecumenical collaborations, and empowering marginalized communities. Under his leadership, the Gamaliel Network has deepened its focus on relational voter engagement, promoting grassroots democracy by linking faith values to civic action.
Juan's work includes integrating voter registration and education into faith-based settings, strengthening local and national democratic participation. As an immigrant himself, he is a prominent advocate for immigrant rights, economic equity, and restorative justice. He has led efforts to mobilize diverse communities to address social and economic disparities, particularly in urban and faith-based settings. Juan has a B.A. in Business Marketing from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies from Catholic Theological Union as well as Certificates in Hispanic Theology Ministry and Ministerial Coaching from CTU. He believes in carrying out one’s faith and values in the public arena and views his work as a ministry rather than a job.