The Board

President

Kathleen Duffy, SSJ, PhD, President of the American Teilhard Association, is Professor Emerita of Physics at Chestnut Hill College where she directs the Institute for Religion and Science. She is former editor of Teilhard Studies and serves on the Advisory Board of Cosmos and Creation. She has published Teilhard’s Mysticism: Seeing the Inner Face of Evolution (Orbis, 2014), Teilhard’s Struggle: Embracing the Work of Evolution (Orbis, 2019), an edited volume of essays entitled Rediscovering Teilhard’s Fire (St. Joseph’s University Press, 2010), as well as several book chapters and articles that deal with connections between Teilhard’s religious essays and modern science. Kathleen also guides evening, weekend, and week-long retreats on topics related to Teilhard’s life and work.

Vice President

Joshua Canzona earned a PhD in Theological and Religious Studies from Georgetown University in 2018 with a dissertation comparing the thought of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Muhammad Iqbal, the intellectual father of Pakistan. Dr. Canzona is currently serving as the Associate Ombudsman at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, where he acts as a confidential and alternative dispute resolution resource for over 40,000 students, faculty, and staff. He also teaches graduate courses on comparative mysticism, Muslim-Christian dialogue, and religion and art at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity.

Secretary

Tracy Higgins has been a member of the American Teilhard Association and active in the French Amis de Teilhard de Chardin for over 20 years. Providentially, she had been introduced to Teilhard by an Irish priest assigned to an historic Spanish mission church in Texas where she was living at the time, just prior to moving back to France where she became intimately familiar with Teilhard’s life and work. During her career in the Defense Department, Tracy also served in Italy, Rwanda, Korea, Burundi, Israel, Egypt and India. Upon retirement in NY, she earned a PhD from Columbia University and became a practicing RN specializing in neurological disorders and pediatric psychiatry. She is studying Jungian psychoanalytic theory which she incorporates clinically into expressive arts and Sandplay therapy.

Treasurer

Paula Guarnaccia, MEd is the current Treasurer of the American Teilhard Association. She has been an active member of ATA since 2012. Paula’s primary work is in partnership with her husband, the composer, Sam Guarnaccia. Together they created the Emergent Universe Oratorio Project which is a choral orchestral musical rendering of the story of our evolving Universe to the present day. It was inspired both by the work of Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Berry. Paula’s background is in administration in both higher education and healthcare. At the time of her retirement from the University of Vermont, College of Arts and Sciences, she was the Assistant Dean of Administration and Finance. Prior to that position for almost twenty years she had been an Administrative Director for the University of Vermont College of Medicine Health Network.

Bede Benjamin Bidlack is Professor of Theology at Saint Anselm College. He  teaches and publishes in the areas of creation theology (anthropology and sacramental theology), comparative theology, interreligious dialogue, Daoist Studies, and philosophy. He is the author of, among other things, In Good Company: Body and Divinization in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Daoist Xiao Yingsou (Brill 2015).

Andrew Del Rossi, ThD has served as a theology teacher, service-learning educator, campus minister, non-profit operator, and palliative care consultant for alternative and holistic therapies.  He is currently the Director of the Spirituality Center at Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, PA and is publishing and presenting on Teilhard, spirituality, and psychology. He was recently nominated to the board of the American Teilhard Association and is the editor of Teilhard Perspective.  Andrew resides in New Jersey with his wife and their two children.

Laura Eloe, PhD works in the office of the Fr. William J. Ferree, S.M. Chair of Social Justice and is an adjunct instructor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Dayton in Ohio. She has been a member of the American Teilhard Association since 2016 and is the editor of Teilhard Studies. Her 2019 dissertation at the University of Dayton, titled Loosing the Bound: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s Analogical Imagination in the Post-Euclidean Tradition explores the impact of Teilhard’s baccalaureate studies in mathematics and his long-time relationship with mathematician and philosopher Édouard Le Roy on his writing. In 2019 she published “From Newman through Teilhard and Beyond” in the Newman Studies Journal, an expanded version of a talk given at the 2018 “Newman and 20th Century Thinkers” conference of the Newman Association of America.

Frank and Mary Frost are independent documentary filmmakers with more than 35 years of experience. Frank earned his PhD in Cinema from the University of Southern California. Mary is a journalism graduate of the University of Toledo and was a syndicated reporter on Capitol Hill before joining Frank Frost Productions. The Frosts are producing a film on the life of Teilhard de Chardin for public television. The 2-hour television biography relies heavily on Teilhard’s own words and those of his correspondents as found in his prolific writings. Interviews with noted Teilhard scholars provide context and interpretation. Filming is complete at major locations where Teilhard lived and worked in France, England, and China. Post-production is underway. “Rediscovering Fire: The Evolution of Teilhard de Chardin,” will be the first ever television documentary on Teilhard for American television.

Richard Jordan holds a B.A. from Iona College (’70), Major in Classics, Minors in theology/philosophy, and is a 2021 Alumnus of the U. of South Florida Muma College of Business School of Tourism Management. Richard was also a Courtesy Faculty Member of the USF Patel College of Global Sustainability 2018-19. Richard joined ATA in 1990, is a ATA Life Member, and has served on the Board for a decade, and serves on the current Governance and Nominations Committees. As Dean of UN NGOs for over 40 years, Richard speaks in UN meetings on the role of Teilhard in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Lloyd “Matt” Landry completed a BS in Physics from St. Edwards University in Austin Texas in 1962 and was active in simulator engineering for advanced aircraft research until retirement in 2013. He was active in Catholic Adult education programs such as Marriage Encounter, and lecturer on Teilhard topics in the Diocese of Ft. Worth, Texas. He is the author of two blogs about Teilhard, “The Phenomenon of Love” and “The Secular Side of God” (lloydmattlandry.com). He recently submitted an article to the “Teilhard Studies”. He is at present a member of ATA and serves as admin of the Teilhard Facebook group.

Angela Manno is an internationally exhibited artist and iconographer whose work has been deeply influenced by Teilhard, Thomas Berry and her years long practice in Byzantine-Russian iconography under Master iconographer, Vladislav Andreyev. Her award-winning art resides private collections around the world and in the NASA and Smithsonian fine art collections. She studied Earth Literacy at Genesis Farm in its three month long Earth Literacy program and holds a Bachelor’s degree in French from Bard College. Her most recent project, “Sacred Icons of Endangered Species,” depicts non-human species in a traditionally religious form – the icon, originating in the monasteries of 14th-16th century Russia, in order to awaken a sense of the Sacred for all living beings and ecosystems. Each time she sells one of her icons, she donates 50% to the Center for Biological Diversity, a highly successful organization protecting critical habitat for all creatures great and small on the brink of extinction. Visit her website. 

Jennifer Morgan is an award-winning author, storyteller, and educator inspired by the work of Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Berry, and Brian Swimme. Her Universe Story Trilogy — Born With a Bang, From Lava to Live, and Mammals Who Morph are used in classrooms around the world, particularly in Montessori schools as part of the Cosmic Education Curriculum, and have received the Teachers Choice Award, Nautilus Semi Finalist, highest ratings from AAAS and endorsements from Jane Goodall, Neil de Grasse Tyson, astronaut Edgar Mitchell, Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme and others. She’s founder and president of the Deeptime Network (dtnetwork.org), a global educational network that offers professional development, courses and study groups in the New Cosmology. Members can blog and add resources and events, and promote their work through DTNetwork social media.