Our Board
"Tet-a-tet" is a Haitian phrase meaning “working in partnership.”
Many people are involved in making Just Haiti a success. The most important people tet-a-tet for Just Haiti are the coffee farmers we partner with in Haiti, and their families. We are also grateful for other organizational partners, our roaster, and the many volunteers who work to produce and sell our high quality coffee. Below is the current Board of Directors for Just Haiti.
Father Pierre Pascal Pierre, Vice President
Father Pascal is Rector of the Les Cayes campus of Universite Notre Dame d’ Haiti. From about 1997 to 2004, Father Pascal was pastor of St. Pierre parish in Baradères. He personally knows many of the coffee growers Just Haiti is working with. Following his pastorship at St. Pierre, Father Pascal left Haiti to study at the Institut Catholique de Paris in France. He received a Master’s Degree in Education and is currently completing his doctoral studies. After returning to Haiti, he was appointed director of Développement Communautaire Chrétien Haïtien (Christian Development Program for Haitian Communities) in Les Cayes, Haiti. The DCCH is a division of Caritas International in Haiti that is concerned with developing subsistence agriculture projects. In addition to his other responsibilities, Father Pascal is chaplain and professor at the Catholic University in Les Cayes, and also teaches at the state university in Les Cayes.
Kim Lamberty, President
Kim has been developing and managing justice, peace, cross-cultural, and community service programs for over 25 years. She is currently Executive Director of the Quixote Center. Previously she was director of justice, peace and integrity of creation at the Society of the Sacred Heart United States and Canada Province. She also has been director of university programs at Catholic Relief Services in Baltimore, where she also worked to strengthen the overseas mission programs of Catholic institutions, especially programs in Haiti. She has accompanied vulnerable communities and human rights workers in Haiti, Colombia, Palestine, Guatemala, the U.S.-Mexico border, and the former Soviet Union. She is the author of a book, Eyes from the Outside: Christian Mission in Zones of Violent Conflict, as well as several articles on Christian mission, and she is associate editor of the journal Missiology: An International Review. She holds a Master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University and a Doctor of Ministry degree, in cross-cultural ministry, from Catholic Theological Union.
Bernard Nestor, Treasurer
Bernard was born in Haiti, and moved to the United Sates when he was 18 years old. Although he has never visited the community of Baradères he feels like he has been there and that he knows the people. He knows them through the accounts of those who have traveled there, his recollection of bygone days when he lived in Haiti, and his gut feelings about this community. These all concur in giving him a coherent and living picture of life in that part of the world. Bernard has been a member of the sister parish committee at Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Silver Spring, Md., for over ten years. He appreciates the work that the parish is doing in support of the Baradères community. He also believes that additional steps are needed to buttress the progress already realized. Through Just Haiti he found like-minded people and happily joined with them in taking the initiative to help serve the people of Baradères. Through this coffee project, the people in Baradères become part of the global community, and will be able to improve their lives.
Kathleen McGourty
Kathy McGourty is a 2010 graduate from Catholic Theological Union with a Master’s degree in Theology. She has worked as a youth minister with grades 7th – 12th for the last year at St. Isidore Parish in Bloomingdale, IL. Since April 2011 she has also been working as an Education Project Consultant for the Office for Immigrant Affairs in the Chicago Archdiocese. Having started a Peace and Justice Committee in 2004 at her parish in Arlington Heights, Kathy continues to use her passion for social justice as a vehicle for educating the faithful on Catholic Social Teachings and engaging parishioners in actions of solidarity and accompaniment with the marginalized. They have been supporting KDB through coffee sales since 2009 and they traveled to Haiti to meet with the coffee growers in 2012. Kathy has been married since 1983 to Bob McGourty and they have four adult children.
Michele Gibbs, Secretary/Order Processing
Michele has been working as an Administrative Assistant in the Center for Academic and Career Success at The Catholic University of America since 2003. Previously, she worked for St. John the Baptist Catholic Community in Silver Spring, MD where she assisted 5 directors in running parish programs, including Kim. She continues to be very involved at St. John’s through various ministries. Michele is a board member and officer for another non-profit organization in Maryland. Originally from Schenectady, New York, she was employed by the University at Albany for 9 years before following her heart to the DC area.
Pierre Herard
Pierre is an engineer born and raised in Jérémie, Haiti. Shortly after completing secondary school, Pierre emigrated to the US, and Chicago became his home. Before long, he enrolled at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), and earned a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering. An MBA followed several years later from the Lake Forest Graduate School of management. Pierre spent his professional career working as Project Manager or Process Engineer for Food Manufacturing and Dairy processing companies, managing projects throughout the US and Canada. His most recent assignment was with a tropical food processing company with an assignment in Costa Rica. Pierre is married to his wife of 36 years (Nerlande). Together they’ve raised a daughter (Astrid), and a son (Lou). Both of them are post baccalaureate graduates and are pursuing their careers.
Angela Paviglianiti
Angela first began to explore a “faith that does justice” in an intentional community residence during her years at the University of Detroit Mercy. She might have recovered from that but decided to join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps following her graduation. Her experience with homeless families in inner city New Jersey led her to pursue a Master’s in Social Work at the University of Michigan. While continuing to work with young families, Angela was a member of her parish’s Social Justice Ministry and the Pax Christi Michigan State Council. Angela eventually determined she cared most about what she did in her “free time” and moved to Chicago, where she earned a Master of Divinity at the Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in 2011. She now serves CTU as the Director of Admissions. In her “free time,” she promotes awareness of lay vocation at her parish and facilitates spiritual accompaniment for the homeless. Angela traveled to Baradères as part of a CTU immersion course in January 2011, and has carried the people and the land in her heart and mind ever since. She welcomes the opportunity to be in continued relationship with the coffee growers of KDB, and to promote both their efforts and those of the new communities collaborating with Just Haiti.
Steve Applegate
Steve is an educator, designer with Master Degrees in early elementary school education and instructional technology. He has been involved in Haiti projects for the past ten years. His mission is to "collaborate with people of interest to further assist Haiti with its becoming a self-sufficient, interdependent nation with dignity."
Steve's role with Just Haiti is facilitating communications to include maintaining the web site, emailing informational newsletters, marketing and any tasks which will enhance communication between Just Haiti, its partners, friends and consumers.
Dan Cardile
Dan has been working on Haiti projects since joining St. Francis of Assisi church in Derwood in 2007 and is currently the chairperson of the St. Francis Haiti Committee. St. Francis is twinned with St. Paul’s Parish in Léon in the far southwestern region of Haiti. Together with his wife, Dr. Anne, Dan has traveled to Haiti many times. He was born and raised in Maryland and lives there today. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1996. After college, Dan worked for several years in social work in Washington D.C, mostly with the homeless population. Dan then attended and graduated from Catholic University School of Law in 2005. Presently, Dan works at the Family Law Self-Help Center in the Montgomery County Circuit Court as a staff attorney.
Non-board Just Haiti Team Member
Lou Lamberty, CFO
Lou is a retired engineering manager. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska with his wife, Pat, of 56 years. They are active in their church, First Central Congregational. They have three children and four grandchildren. They love to travel and to spend time with their children and grandchildren.