Charles E. Rice, Chairman of the Board and President Emeritus.  Professor Rice is Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame Law School. His areas of specialization are constitutional law and jurisprudence. He currently teaches “Law and Morality” at Notre Dame and  is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.  He is a frequent contributor to The Wanderer and the author of many scholarly articles and books; among them, Freedom of Association; The Supreme Court and Public Prayer, The Vanishing Right to Live; Authority and Rebellion; Beyond Abortion: The Theory and Practice of the Secular State; No Exception: A Pro-Life Imperative; 50 Questions on the Natural Law; and The Winning Side: Questions on Living the Culture of Life. His latest books are Where Did I Come From? Where Am I Going? How Do I Get There?, (2nd ed.) co-authored with Dr. Theresa Farnan and What Happened to Notre Dame?, both published by St. Augustine’s Press in 2009.

John M. DeJak, President.  Mr. DeJak, an attorney, is Dean and Latin Teacher at the Church and School of Saint Agnes in St. Paul, MN.  He also serves as a Canonical Advocate for the Metropolitan Tribunal of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis. Mr. DeJak graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a B.A. Classics (Latin) degree and took his J.D. from Ave Maria School of Law where he was privileged to study under Professor Charles E. Rice.  He practiced law and served on active duty as an officer in the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division and was the founding Headmaster of Chesterton Academy in Minneapolis, MN.  He is a contributing editor to The Distributist Review and his articles have appeared in The Wanderer, Gilbert Magazine, The Distributist Review and The St. Austin Review.  He and his wife, Ann, have seven children and are expecting their eighth.

John B. Manos, Vice-President.  Mr. Manos is currently the General Counsel for the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).  A native of Cincinnati, he studied engineering before pursuing a career in law.  As an engineer, he worked as a consultant analyzing explosions, chemical disasters, and workplace fatalities. From this work, he was hired by Mother Angelica to work for EWTN, and later left to be in the inaugural class of Ave Maria School of Law.  Subsequently he clerked for Justice Donald C. Wintersheimer of the Kentucky Supreme Court, became an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Michigan, and then returned to EWTN.  John’s current law practice is focused on the needs of EWTN, in nonprofit and tax exempt laws, trademark and intellectual property, licensing, international law, as well as broadcast and communications law.  He reads some Polish and Russian, and regularly attends a Melkite Church where he is familiar with the Byzantine Liturgy and movements in the eastern Churches. He is currently working on a project about Fatima and Russia.

Cindy Paslawski,  Secretary and Treasurer.  Mrs. Paslawski has been active with The Bellarmine Forum almost since its inception.  As the Wanderer Forum Foundation/Bellarmine Forum’s Executive Secretary and Treasurer since 1995, she has overseen publication of Forum Focus and the Bellarmine Forum Magazine and, since 2001, coordinated all regional and national forum and Focus on Faith retreats.  She is the mother of six and grandmother of five.

Arthur Hippler is chairman of the Religion Department and teaches religion in the Upper School at Providence Academy. Since 2001, he has been Visiting Professor with the Institute for Pastoral Theology of Ave Maria University. Before coming to Providence Academy, he served the Catholic Diocese of La Crosse (Wisconsin), teaching moral theology and social ethics in the diocesan programs for lay formation and continuing education for teachers. He is the author of Citizens of the Heavenly City: A Catechism of Catholic Social Teaching, published by Borromeo Books. He received his B.A. in Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College in California, and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston College.

Christopher Manion is a syndicated columnist and host of the Bellarmine Forum’s Podcast “Footnote.”. He earned a Ph.D. in government from Notre Dame University, and has taught in departments of Politics, Religion, and International Relations at Boston University, the Catholic University of America, and Christendom College. For many years he was the staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, chaired by the late Senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.). He has been a contributing editor and music critic for Saturday Review and High Fidelity magazines, and his op-eds and book reviews have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Journal of Economic Development, the National Catholic Register,and Western Horseman. He is on the boards of the American Foreign Policy Council and the Population Research Institute, founded by the late Rev. Paul Marx, and was a founding Fideicomisario (Trustee)  of Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. He is a Knight of Magistral Grace in the Sovereign Military Hospi­taller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta. His family resides in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.

Frank Morriss served as the original editor the Forum Quarterly which became the Forum Focus. He authored many of its articles. He formerly was a contributing editor and columnist for The Wanderer newspaper. A graduate of Regis College and with a law degree from Georgetown University, Morriss has worked as a journalist since 1950, with the Denver Catholic Register and National Catholic Register. He has authored several books, including The Conservative Imperative, A Little Life of Our Lord, Saints in Verse, Two Chapels and Francis Thompson.

Karen Pautler served as Treasurer of the Wanderer Forum Foundation/Bellarmine Forum for several years. She hails from Denver, Colorado and is a former systems analyst.

Patrick Sternal hails from the suburbs of Los Angeles, California, but now resides inside the D.C. Beltway, where he serves as a legal specialist for the federal government. Mr. Sternal earned a B.A. in Liberal Arts at Thomas Aquinas College, and has taught math, Latin, and middle school science for several years. He earned a J.D. at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan, graduating as a member of the law school’s inaugural class. Returning to Los Angeles, he entered private practice of law and undertook further legal studies at Loyola Law School, completing an LL.M. in Taxation. Prior to entering government service, he worked as a transactional attorney, representing nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations. Mr. Sternal has been an active member of the California State Bar and the American Bar Association committees on nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations. He has been a regular speaker and teacher on the law of nonprofit organizations.