Billiken Teacher Corps to Hold Community Conversations
The Billiken Teacher Corps, in partnership with the Herrmann Center for Innovative Catholic Education, are hosting Community Conversations, a series of three free evening panels on what Pope Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas asks of Catholic schools in an age of screens, algorithms and AI.
The panels bring together voices including the SLU Provost and deans alongside classroom teachers, a Belizean principal, archdiocesan leaders, a parish youth minister, and Billiken Teacher Corps alumni now teaching in local Catholic schools.
Each panel will be anchored in a short passage from the encyclical. Pope Leo writes that “in an era when truth is often distorted in order to serve particular interests and communication strategies, the field of education assumes decisive importance,” and that schools “are not called to follow the pace of the digital world, but to offer that which the digital sphere by itself cannot provide.”
They are free and open to the public.
Catholic Education in the Digital Age
The Tuesday, Oct. 20 panel includes:
- John James, Ed.D., professor of educational leadership at Saint Louis University
- Sr. Jessica Kerber, academic coordinator for SLU's Center for Ignatian Service
- Ronny O'Dwyer, S.J., president of De Smet Jesuit High School
- Mary Serafino, Catholic Leadership Institute
- Raymond Moylan, Rosati-Kain Academy
- Ben Smyth, Ph.D., director of co-curricular programs and service learning in SLU's Chaifetz School of Business
Catholic Education for Community & Belonging
The Tuesday, Nov. 10 panel includes:
- Kathy Johnson, Ph.D., provost and executive vice president at Saint Louis University
- Mike Boyle, Ph.D., executive director of the Herrmann Center for Innovative Catholic Education
- Randy Rosenberg, Ph.D., dean of SLU's College of Philosophy and Letters
- Julie Soffner, president of Catholic Education and Formation for the Archdiocese of St. Louis
- Dr. Aedryan Cox, school leader at De Smet Jesuit High School
- Heather Sasser, middle school science teacher and Billiken Teacher Corps alumna
Catholic Education for Peace & Justice
The Tuesday, Dec. 8 panel includes:
- Bryan Sokol, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at SLU
- Gregory Beabout, Ph.D., the Romano Guardini Chair in Catholic Thought and Culture at SLU
- Roxy Encalada, principal of St. Martin de Porres, Belize
- Jaime Nunez, St. Francis Xavier College Church
- Maggie Runde Drexler, Billiken Teacher Corps
- Maria Amparo Alonso Escobar, International Advisor & Founder/CEO of Ethical Artificial Intelligence for Human Development (EAiD)
Community Conversations
- Dates: Oct. 20, Nov. 10 and Dec. 8
- Times: Refreshments and networking at 4:15 p.m., with panel discussion beginning at 4:30 p.m.
- Where: Carlo Auditorium, Tegeler Hall, 3550 Lindell Blvd.