Meet the Federation Staff
Sr. Deirdre Griffin, CSSJ | Executive Director
Sister Deirdre Griffin, CSSJ (she/her), a member of our Springfield, Massachusetts congregation, joined the Federation staff in September 2025 as our Executive Director. Deirdre joyfully describes herself as a Sister of Saint Joseph of the Universe. She is passionate about our CSSJ charism and spirituality and the myriad of ways they are lived out across vocations in response to the call of the Gospel around the world. Sister Deirdre’s ministries prior to joining the Federation speak to her professional qualification as an attorney. She lived at the U.S.-Mexico border from 2022 to 2025 with the Maryknoll Lay Missioners, accompanying people seeking safety at Annunciation House shelter and providing legal services through Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center. Her experience also includes serving as director of the Elms College International Programs Office, leading interfaith refugee resettlement work with Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts, managing interpreters throughout the Massachusetts court system, the private practice of immigration law, and living at The Gray House in Springfield, Massachusetts, where she ran a community food pantry and thrift store.
Deirdre grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, just north of Boston, where she was educated by Sisters of St. Joseph through high school. She is the eldest child of immigrant parents. She is a graduate of Bowdoin College, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Government and Legal Studies, with a minor in Education. Shortly after college she joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, which formed the foundation from which she went on to Boston College Law School and said “yes” to the adventure of vowed life as a Sister of Saint Joseph.
Deirdre’s experience of the Federation Novitiate in 2002 introduced her to the “mysticism of service” at the heart of CSSJ life all around the world. Our spirituality continues to be the well from which she draws sustenance each day. For Deirdre, being “at home” in both her home congregation in Springfield and the Federation is key to living CSSJ life today. “We are living in times of great change among us and around us. Our collaborative fidelity to grace across our diverse vocations is a gift entrusted to us by the Holy Spirit for this time. As we live into our collective future, the Federation is a dynamic space through which we nourish the relationships that give rise to inspirations for sharing God’s love in our times.”
Sr. Bethany Welch, SSJ | JPIC Coordinator
Bethany J. Welch, SSJ, PhD (she/her) is a Sister of Saint Joseph of Philadelphia who joined the Federation in 2025 as the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Coordinator. Sr. Bethany’s professional background includes nonprofit management, policy analysis, research, teaching, and advocacy. Her vocation is grounded by Ignatian spirituality, animated by communities of kinship, and sustained by authentic co-laboring for the full thriving of all creation.
One of Sr. Bethany’s formative experiences of social justice came in 2012, when her research and writing on the role of the Catholic Church in urban revitalization prompted a large intercultural parish to invite her to assist them in re-purposing a former convent. A beautiful expression of radical hospitality and mutuality emerged as the community worked together to create a generative space for encounter, education, solidarity, and action. Programs at the Aquinas Center included English literacy classes, summer camp, immigration legal services, a community garden, and urban immersion trips facilitated by neighbors for outside visitors. She served as executive director of the center until late 2019.
After entering the Sisters of Saint Joseph as a candidate in 2020, Sr. Bethany became the Justice and Peace lead for the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, which is the national organization representing leaders of Catholic religious institutes for men in the United States. Later, while a canonical novice in the Federation’s novitiate, her weekly ministry assignment was at a transitional housing program for college students experiencing homelessness. This led to a full-time ministry role with Depaul USA after vows and a research study funded by the Center for Church Management at Villanova University School of Business on the adaptive re-use of church real estate to address homelessness.
Sr. Bethany currently serves as peer convener for Tending the Flame, is involved with Giving Voice, and is a member of the SSJ Commission for Justice. She received a B.S. in Studio Art/Graphic Design and Communication from Roberts Wesleyan University, an M.S. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Rochester, and a Ph.D. in Urban Studies and Public Policy from the University of Delaware. She completed a certificate in Nonprofit Management from LaSalle University and has taken courses in the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry.
Stella D’Angelo | Administrative Manager
Stella D’Angelo (she/her) joined the U.S. Federation staff in October 2021. She provides support for the Federation’s day-to-day activities, including bookkeeping for all Federation accounts. She is also able to interface and support our international community, as she speaks three languages fluently (English, Portuguese, and Spanish).
Through her travels, she developed a deep sense of justice, passion for helping others, and trying to make the world a better place. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she raised money in New York for food and health products in Sao Paulo, Brazil by selling hand-made masks with the project Helping Hands.
Stella moved to New York from Cork, Ireland where she lived for five years and received her ICM Diploma in Human Resources Management from Griffith College. Living among such an intense international and culturally mixed environment, Stella could better understand the struggles and differences that make us all one (loving God and neighbor!). While in Ireland she traveled to many places, had a summer job in Scotland, and studied Spanish in Chile. While waiting for her visa to move to the USA, she spent months volunteering and learning about Organic Farming in Italy and Portugal.
Stella was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. She graduated with a degree in business management from Rio Branco University in São Paulo, with a concentration in Sustainability Reports. She also recently received her certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell and is currently getting her MBA in Business Management at the University of São Paulo. Stella is a proud wife to a farmer and proud mother of Lily Eloá, whom she lives with on Long Island.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Leadership Assembly and Council
The Federation is governed by the Leadership Assembly which is composed of all the Leadership teams from our member congregations. This group meets annually in November for direction setting and corporate responsibilities. The Leadership Council is the elected leadership team of the Federation. It is made up of 10 members plus the Federation Executive Director, Associate Director, and the Treasurer. Though the group previously consisted of only sisters and leaders, the group recently added their first non-leadership sisters (representing the youngest 7% of sisters), as well as the first non-sister to the group.
This group meets several times a year to forward the purpose and direction of the Federation, plan the annual meeting, and carry on business. Co- chairs provide leadership and relate between meetings with the Federation staff.
- Sr. Mary McGlone, Carondelet (co-chair)
- Sr. Mary Parks, Baden (co-chair)
- Sr. Donna del Santo, Rochester
- Shannon Green, Mount Saint Mary’s University
- Sr. Dian Hall, Concordia
- Sr. Michelle Lesher, Philadelphia
- Sr. Rosa Lopez, St. Augustine
- Sr. Karen Dietrich, Philadelphia, Treasurer (ex officio)
- Sr. Deirdre Griffin, Executive Director (ex officio)
The Finance Committee
The Finance Committee serves the Leadership Assembly in the management of the operating budget and investments. It meets 2 – 3 time annually with the Treasurer to monitor finances, oversee investments, develop budgets, prepare finance reports for the Leadership Assembly.
The Federation is supported by:
- Membership Dues
- Gifts
- Investment Income
- In-kind Gifts of office space, support, hospitality, personnel, service, expertise, etc…
Sponsored Committees, Programs, and Projects
The Federation sponsors several Committees, Programs and Projects. Committees which are established by the Leadership Assembly/Council to promote the goals and purposes of the Federation. Membership includes sisters, associates, staff colleagues, and the meetings are hosted by congregations/provinces around the country. Some committees plan and run programs; others carry out specific tasks for us all. These are collaborative efforts, which involve substantial commitment of time on the part of project staff. Current committees, programs, and projects include:
- Canonical Novitiate Program: Sr. Joan Gallagher (Brentwood) is the current novice director.
- Vocation/Formation Group (meets every other month)
- Lifelong Transformation Committee
- Global Coordinating Group
- The writing of the U.S. history of the Sisters of Saint Joseph
- Finance Professionals
- Development Personnel
- Communications Personnel
- Justice and Peace Personnel
- Artists
- Associate Directors
- St. Joseph Worker Community
- CSSJ Collaborative for ages 65 and younger
- Tending the Flame
Other Sisters of St. Joseph Federations
We relate to the Canadian, French, and Italian Federations, as well as the La Red Conference of Latin and South American Sisters of St. Joseph. There are Sisters of Saint Joseph in over 53 countries.
Legal Status
The Federation is a Civil Corporation, incorporated in Missouri and a Canonical Juridic Person.
