It is with great excitement, huge thanksgiving, and humble gratitude in God's goodness that St.Therese Institute of Faith and Mission announces that Mr. David Douglas will be taking on the role of Executive Director, effective August. 1, 2023.

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My name is David Douglas. I recently accepted the Executive Director position at St. Therese Institute of Faith and Mission. It is an honor to be writing this introduction!

I am a native of St. Paul, Minnesota. My wife, Charmaine, is originally from Saskatchewan, and we have seven children - one of whom was born and baptized in Bruno, SK.

I went to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and double-majored in Catholic Theology and Sociology. After a career in employee benefits funding consulting, I decided to realize my goal of living abroad by earning a TEFL certificate to work as an English language instructor. I found a teaching job in Korea. For most of the next decade, I worked as an independent educational contractor, ultimately earning a teaching license and a master’s degree and moving from language academies to international school classrooms and a wide variety of instructional, mentoring, editing, and education leadership roles across South Korea, Malaysia, China, and the USA.

I met Charmaine in Seoul in 2009. We came to Canada to be married in her family’s home parish outside Melfort, SK, in 2010, and then went back overseas together. I was raised Protestant but had studied the Catholic faith since encountering it in college. Shortly after the birth of our first son, I was received into the Catholic Church on Easter, 2012, in Sungai Petani, Malaysia. When Charmaine and I eventually decided to settle in North America in 2018, we came to her mother’s home in Bruno for the transition. We got to know some wonderful people related to the St. Therese Institute that summer. We were both amazed by the vibrant Catholic community of the town, and we never forgot it.

From Bruno, we moved to Cloquet, Minnesota in August 2018, where I have been the principal of Queen of Peace Catholic School. As God has allowed us to work directly for a mission of the Church, we have grown in appreciation for both the challenges and the incredible call that is made upon Catholics of our day. The world is more connected than it has ever been, and the details of our daily lives have changed so much over recent generations that we can truly speak of facing a new historical epoch. What does it mean when the societal norms of a thousand generations are washed away and so much established wisdom no longer applies? Who are we called to be in these brave times? Above all, how are we to follow Christ and, indeed, each do our part to bring in the plentiful harvest? What a gift that the St. Therese Institute is here, equipping laborers for the harvest! My family gives praise to Christ for the invitation that allows us to join this wonderful and necessary mission work.

Ave Maria!

David Douglas