Sue Beckham

Board Member

Sue and Bucky have been married 27 years, have four children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.  They are dual parishioners of St. Malachy parish, Brownsburg and Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Church, Indianapolis where they enjoy attending the Traditional Latin Mass.

Sue participated in Cursillo and also served as a team member on two Cursillo teams. Later, she attended a Christ Renews His Parish (CRHP) retreat at St. Malachy, and was the Co-Spiritual Director on a subsequent team. These movements were formative events in her spiritual journey and a spring board for a deeper prayer life.  The Eucharist is central to the Beckham’s faith life and they are dedicated to weekly Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Sue served on the first St. Malachy medical mission team in 1997 to provide assistance for parishioners of St. Marguerite, in Port Margot, Haiti.  This mission had a profound impact on her, as she experienced the beauty, humility, faith and dignity of her brothers and sisters in Haiti.

Sue is passionate about her Catholic faith and wants everyone to experience the beauty of the Church’s teachings.  She led the Catholics Returning Home program at St. Malachy to welcome fallen away Catholics back to the Church.  Sue was also involved in the Gabriel Project, an outreach program assisting women and families facing crisis pregnancies. She attended the Epiphany Certification Program, a two year course offered by the Epiphany Academy, to study Formation Science, which is a universally relevant science, anthropology and theology of formation based on the writings of Fr. Adrian Van Kaam and Dr. Susan Muto.

Sue has 30+ years’ experience in the healthcare and health insurance industries.  She has held various leadership positions in healthcare operations including managing call centers, leading clinical transformation projects, directing information technology teams, physician integration and consulting, managing claims processing, excess loss, subrogation, and managed care departments.  Sue successfully led centralization and restructuring initiatives during corporate mergers.  Under her leadership, operational performance improved significantly, labor costs decreased, and customer satisfaction survey results improved. She also served in a consulting role for IPS to facilitate the system selection process for the food and nutrition services division.  Sue currently serves as IU Health Information Services Director at Methodist, University and Riley hospitals in Indianapolis.

Sue’s clinical background is cardiology and cardiovascular nursing.  She served as staff nurse, preceptor for graduate nurses, quality assurance committee member, and charge nurse at a large healthcare facility in Indianapolis.  She graduated from Indiana University School of Nursing with High Honors and received the Academic and Clinical Excellence award.

Dr. Kit Palanca-Beveridge

Secretary

Dr. Kit Palanca-Beveridge is a general dentist who has been in her private practice in Indianapolis, Indiana, since 1996. She is a faithful energetic Catholic who calls St. Elizabeth Seton Church in Carmel, Indiana, her parish home. She is married to a very loving and supportive man named Khris Beveridge. They have a beautiful daughter named Karolina Maria (aka “Kira”), who they lovingly refer to as their “Gift from God.” Kira came into their lives by God’s grace through the Philippine International Adoption program. They are all dog lovers and have two adorable rescue dogs named Kinder and Kona.

She was born on June 13, 1969, in Manila, Philippines. She is a cradle Catholic, being that the Philippines is a predominantly Catholic society. She attributes her strong Catholic morals from both her parents and the Catholic private school that she attended from kindergarten to high school named St. Joseph’s College in Quezon City, Philippines. 

Both her parents are accomplished physicians and exposed her at a young age to the world of medicine and all the good it can do for humanity. Her father, Dr. Ernesto Palanca, is a Urologist Surgeon who performed the first kidney transplant in the Philippines and was the youngest President of the International College of Surgeons. Her mother, Dr. Lily Marquinez-Palanca, is an Internist-Cardiologist/Acupuncturist known for introducing Acupuncture to the Philippines.  As you can imagine, both parents were very busy physicians but took the time to instill in their children the importance of having God be the center of their lives. They would often take their children to various medical charitable missions to witness firsthand the Philippines’ poor and impoverished people.

Her parents sent her to St. Joseph’s College (SJC), where she spent her formative years of education. St. Joseph’s College is a Catholic private school founded 75 years ago by Dutch Franciscan Sisters. And up to this day, it is owned and administered by Franciscan sisters. Following the example of St. Joseph, a righteous and upright man, SJC upheld and promoted the core values of simplicity, truth, justice, peace, and integrity of creation to all their students. SJC didn’t just talk but walked the walk as she witnessed the Franciscan nuns holding numerous outreach programs to help the needy and fearlessly lead the peaceful protest against the Marcos regime. Dr. Kit forged strong bonds at SJC and remain close to her friends from there, and share that same passion for a God-centered servant’s heart.

 

 

Jennifer King

Board Member

Jennifer grew up outside Chicago in a devout Catholic family with 3 brothers and two sisters. From an early age , led by her parents , Jennifer was active in the Catholic Church often praying outside planned parenthood beginning at age of 10. This continued through her high school education at Benet Academy . She went on to graduate from the University of Notre Dame and was accepted into the executive training program at May Company.

Quickly moving up the ranks , Jennifer was named a Divisional Vice President within a matter of years . Under her leadership sales , profitability , and operational metrics were always at the top level at the company consistently earning awards for her yearly results. After 24 years , she decided to step away from work to devote more time to her family and community.

Jennifer is a member of Saint Louis de Montfort Catholic Church. She served as room mom for 6 years in her daughter Lauren’s classes , volunteered as administrative assistant at the school , worked at everything from book fairs to lunch room duty on a weekly basis at SLDM school as well as Guerin Catholic where her daughter attended high school . She was named to the Parish Council and served for three years. She continues to volunteer at the Noblesville senior food delivery at SLDM as well as Tools for School and the food pantry at Our Lady of Mount Carmel

She became involved with CUP after becoming very concerned with the removal of Father Ted Rothrock at St Elizabeth Seton parish. Jennifer is passionate about the Truth , Beauty , and Goodness of the authentic Catholic faith and dogma and believes in supporting those who fight for the Truth as well as educating / providing resources for those on their faith journey .

Jennifer lives in Carmel with her husband Chris and daughter Lauren.

Tim O’Donnell

Vice Chair

Timothy J.A. O’Donnell is a scholar and speaker whose commitment to the Pro-life cause and Religious Liberty spans nearly thirty years. Deeply committed to championing the sanctity of human life, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Catholic Theology from Marian University and completed a Masters degree in Catholic Life and Thought from Saint Meinrad School of Theology. Timothy has performed extensive studies and research in cultural, political, economic, and theological disciplines including post-graduate theological studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Timothy is a member of the American Catholic Philosophy Association and the National Catholic Bioethics organizations.

For over a participated as a scholar with the think-tank Acton Institute in multiple colloquiums studying the principles that build a free and virtuous society. He teaches business courses at Butler University in the MBA Program and Ivy Tech Community College in the discipline of Philosophy with a specialization in Ethics. He teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

No stranger to the media, he cohosts The Catholic Cave on Catholic Radio Indy, which focuses on making Catholic philosophy and the rich intellectual tradition of the Holy Mother Church accessible to the laity and applying it to current issues. He speaks and debates publicly and has been active with YouTube video interviews. Concerned with cultural issues, he has lectured at Benedictine College’s Symposium on Transforming the Culture commenting on Gender Ideology,  Totalitarianism, Moral Theology, Natural Law,  Ethics, and Anti-humanism. He has served as the Director of Religious Education for a decade teaching primarily Adult Faith Formation.

Timothy also serves on several Boards including Right to Life of Indianapolis, Providence Christo Rey High School, and the Little Sisters of the Poor. He has served at a local food pantry for over 20 years, and his favorite pastime is playing St.Nicholas / Santa Claus at shelters during the Advent Season.

Timothy is married to his beautiful wife Maureen and moved to rural Indiana a few years ago to try their hand at homesteading. If you are familiar with the TV Show Green Acres” – that’s us! Together we have three adult children, one daughter-in-law, and our first grandchild.

Jim Pedzinski

Board Member

Jim and his wife, Kathy, joined Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church – Noblesville, IN (ologn.org) in summer of 1995.  They have two adult children, an amazing daughter in-law, one grandson and two dogs, Max (Black Lab/Shepard) & Meeka (Golden).

Jim graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Health Sciences. Upon graduation he joined Boehringer Mannheim Diagnostics which has since been acquired by ROCHE.  Jim’s interest in pharmaceutical research allowed him to step into a role at SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories which focused on collecting safety data for clinical research projects in support of pharmaceutical development.  More recently, Jim has continued his career working as an independent consultant with numerous startups, providing vision, strategy, business and exit planning.

Our commitment to OLOG started with a dream and a group of parents.  We all had young children and had become frustrated with public school system and their teachings, lack of discipline and respect. Removing the “Pledge of Allegiance” from the classroom was the beginning of indoctrination and replacing it with a moment of silence.

The “Pre-school” was bursting with children, many parents were supportive, the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette blessed the efforts. Father Jim Bates, needed convincing and was slow to say yes but gave the parents a chance to demonstrate our commitment. Our discussions began, why not expand our parish to include a Catholic school for our children which would provide a Catholic foundation through religious and academic excellence, where family values are an extension of the school, respect and discipline are understood and based on Catholic teachings.  

Both Jim & Kathy volunteered early in the concept phase of Our Lady of Grace School, including the planning phases, fundraising efforts, facilities readiness, enrollment efforts, and more.   Jim continued to support the parish and school with numerous after-school activities over the next eight years, along with volunteering at the Noblesville Boys & Girls Club.

As parents, we encouraged our boys to continue their catholic education at Cathedral High School (www.gocathedral.com). We are proud to share that they both graduated from Cathedral High School and went on to graduate from college.

Throughout their experiences at Our Lady of Grace School and Cathedral High school, Jim and his wife encouraged their sons to continue with volunteer activities throughout their life.  Many projects were aligned with the Catholic Youth Organization Indianapolis, Meals on Wheels, Horizon House (www.horizonhouse.cc), United Way (https://youtu.be/tuBGwERxKWw ), and Habitat for Humanity.

I agree with my colleagues on the CUP Board, our faith is being attacked through a culture war.

Vicki Yamasaki

Board Chair

Vicki and Ken have been married for 35 years and have two daughters and three grandchildren.  Vicki worships at St. Luke Catholic Church.   She and Ken were made Hoosiers when they moved to Indiana in 1995.

All of our gifts come from our Heavenly Father and out of deep gratitude, Vicki gives back to the community in a variety of roles.  At OLMC, Vicki’s former parish she werved as a catechist for 22 years. There, she also provided outreach to the suffering as a Stephen Minister, and was a member of the Investment Committee.  Vicki served on the OLMC Re-Open Committee and Strategy Committee and served for three years on Parish Council.  She co-chaired the Gratitude strategic initiative for the parish.

In the community, Vicki created and launched a mentoring program for single mothers and brought this program to The O’Connor House, a maternity home for homeless single pregnant moms.  She also helped guide Dress for Success in the launch of its mentoring program.  A strong proponent of mentoring, She has been an active mentor to dozens of mentees.  Vicki has served on the Marian University dinner gala committee for over 15 years and was the Franciscan Values Honoree at Marian University in 2021.  Vicki is a former board member of The O’Connor House and served as president and other leadership roles for several boards including Financial Executives International (FEI) Indianapolis, YWCA of Indianapolis and National MS of Indiana.

Vicki, a CPA, launched her own business as President of Yamasaki ERM Solutions following her retirement as Chief Risk Officer for OneAmerica Financial Partners, a large insurance organization.  Vicki has experience in finance, risk, strategy, and public accounting.  She has over 35 years of experience, with particular emphasis in strategic planning, insurance, problem solving, risk management and working collaboratively.  Prior to retirement, she spent the last half of her career with OneAmerica Financial.  The first half of Vicki’s career was served in public accounting.  Before joining OneAmerica she served as a partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers in a national role.

Vicki is a summa cum laude accounting graduate from University of Houston, where she later was recognized as the 1998 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year.

Vicki helped launch CUP because we are witnessing Catholics being suppressed for our beliefs.  Our faith is being attacked through a culture war.  Vicki could no longer sit idly by and watch priests, like Fr. Ted Rothrock, who courageously speak truth be cordoned off and told what they can and cannot say – likewise for the faithful.  We cannot stand by any longer and allow every aspect of our environment to be infiltrated with assaults against the sanctity of life and marriage and our religious liberty.  Their methods are insidious as they creep into our media, entertainment, school systems, and even our churches.  When will we stand up?  The time is now.