Our Team

​​On January 23rd, 2013, The Mary Ward Centre officially opened its doors to celebrate the Loretto Sister's newest ministry and the ongoing contribution of Mary Ward, founder of the Loretto Sisters, to the works of education, justice, and spirituality in response to contemporary needs. We are inspired by Mary Ward's values of freedom, justice, sincerity, and joy, and committed to the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. Learn more about Mary Ward here.
 

Since 2013, our partnerships and collaborations with various groups and individuals have continued to grow and expand. We are humbled by the number of people that have shared in our events and experiences, and our mission to implement the vision of The Mary Ward Centre.
 

Audrey Ferrer is the Director of the Mary Ward Centre. She was previously a  Religion and Family Life Resource teacher for the Toronto Catholic District School Board, and the coordinator of the Interfaith Youth Alliance Movement. She has a particular interest in engaging youth in interfaith dialogue and collaboration with community partners to advocate for equity and social justice issues. She has won several exemplary awards, scholarships and grants and has received support from organizations such as KAICIID, Development & Peace (Caritas International), and Canada World Youth.

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Sr. Sarah Rudolph, ibvm is a member of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary | Loretto Sisters. With a background in international relations and policy analysis, she is the Social Justice Animator for the Mary Ward Centre, leading on faith-based advocacy for children and youth.  She has a deep love for Ignatian spirituality which she shares as a giver of the First Spiritual Exercises, through a monthly women's prayer group, and outreach to women in recovery through the STIR Retreats program. 

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Kathy Murtha has been a Retreat/Workshop facilitator for the past 30 years.  She loves designing and facilitating retreats for young people and adults. Kathy gained a global consciousness and sense of the importance of social justice issues through her two year VICS volunteer experience among the Huli tribal peoples in the highlands Papua New Guinea  and three years grassroots work with the marginalized and street people in Parkdale. 

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Eva Rodriguez-Diaz has 20 years of experience working in Colombia protecting the rights of peasant populations and indigenous affected by the armed conflict and internal displacement, and protection of women's human rights and the promotion of their economic rights as employees, owners and producers of the land. She collaborates with international organizations designing human trafficking prevention programs for Latino-American countries.

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Jaime Gutierrez leveraging nearly 20 years in graphic design, advertising, and product development, Jaime Gutierrez brings his expertise to Mary Ward Centre. His main goal is promoting faith as a path towards positive societal change.

Jaime's advertising background fuels his human-centered design approach. He believes design can inspire a commitment to serving others and foster an understanding of faith as a tool for social transformation.

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Alessandra Carbonaro I am currently enrolled as a grade twelve student at St. John Henry Newman High School. I have an interest in graphic design and video production, therefore I look forward to supporting the Mary Ward Centre with communication projects for my cooperative education placement. During my time here, I look forward to bringing positiveness and making The Mary Ward Centre a wonderful place to walk into daily and working and meeting with other students and staff members by applying my graphic design and video editing skills to create special social media posts that will benefit and educate individuals on several topics that covered in today's world, the importance of missions and visions that the Mary Ward Centre has to offer. 

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Alejandra Manrique is a grade 12 co-op student at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Academy, with an unwavering passion for history, music, and art. Alejandra has been drawing since before she knew what art was and has plans to pursue a career in illustration. She has experience in both storytelling and illustration, having previously written a children's story and preparing stories over campfires to scare her dear friends and family. Alejandra will be responsible for developing a graphic novel that reflects Mary Ward's adventurous life and her fight for women's rights. The graphic novel will be a testament to Mary Ward's legacy.

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Rachel Gurung is from Pokhara, Nepal. She moved to Canada in 2018 and is now a grade 11 student at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Academy. Rachel wanted to be a lawyer growing up so now she is a coop student at St. Mary Ward Centre which is a great opportunity for her. Rachel is a hardworking, independent, and dependable individual. She shows a lot of interest in a lot of things. For example, she enjoys cooking, plans to take a cosmetics course soon to become an expert in the field so she can work part-time as a cosmetic professor, and enjoys traveling around the world. E.t.c. Rachel has visited about 20 countries during the course of her 17 years of life.

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