Who We Are

Staff

Kim Speirs, Executive Director
Kim comes to The John Paul II Life Center with twenty years of award-winning healthcare, corporate and academic experience. Her passion for protecting women and babies from abortion extends to graduate school where she researched press coverage of abortion. She’s taken hotline calls for women facing unexpected pregnancies and has spoken at the Texas Rally for Life and Gov. Rick Perry’s press conference (http://governor.state.tx.us/news/speech/11741) endorsing the “Choose Life” license plates .

As a former adjunct college professor, Kim appreciates The JP II Life Center’s dedication to education. As a woman who struggled with infertility for 15 years, she knows the value of the Vitae Clinic’s cutting-edge NaPro TECHNOLOGY™. And, as an adoptive mother, she experiences the beauty of life and the heroism of birth parents through her son and his birth mom.

Volunteer Staff

Lori Mazzurana, Marketing Consultant
Lori‘s career has focused on advertising, marketing and public relations with a specialty in Hispanic and tourism marketing. For The John Paul II Life Center and Vitae Clinic, Lori helps with marketing strategy, advertising, media relations and web development. Lori was drawn to the mission of the JP II Life Center because of her difficulty in finding a Catholic Ob-Gyn physician trained in NFP and one who would adhere to the Catholic church’s teaching on reproductive health. Thanks to the science behind NaProTECHNOLOGY™, Lori and her husband, Paul, had their first son right after their one-year anniversary and had a second son 2 years later.

Reverend Jim Evans, Chaplin
Father Jim Evans is a priest in the Diocese of Austin where he has served as pastor and associate pastor. His past assignments have also included director of the Office of Social Concerns and director of Catholic Charities. Currently, in addition to serving as the chaplin for The John Paul II Life Center, Fr. Jim is on the board of directors of the Frontline Faith Project, is the chaplin for the Texas State Guard, and co-hosts Mary’s Touch, a radio program broadcast on more than 100 stations across the country.

Volunteer Spotlight

Each month, The John Paul II Life Center will spotlight one of our wonderful volunteers. This month we would like you to get to know Mary Morales.

Mary Morales
April 2012 Spotlight

Mary began volunteering at The John Paul II Life Center shortly after it opened. She has also volunteered at Heroic Media and Gabriel Project Life Center. In addition to serving on the boards of Texas Alliance for Life, Lifeline (now Marywood) and Down Home Ranch, Mary has taken hotline calls, prayed in front of abortion facilities, and has published articles/newsletters on the Life issue.

"For more than a decade my friends and I have prayed for a truly pro-life Ob/Gyn office. That prayer has been answered through The John Paul II Life Center and its Vitae Clinic.” She and her husband, David, have five daughters.

Board of Directors

Tim and Pat Von Dohlen
Pat and Tim Von Dohlen decided when they married, after each had experienced tragedy in the loss of spouses, that whatever they did in the future they would do together. Pat and Tim have worked side by side from concept to formation and implementation of The John Paul II Life Center and Vitae Clinic. While a member of the Texas House of Representatives Tim started his active defense of life for the unborn and respect for the dignity of women just after the terrible Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Pat and Tim attend and speak at conferences around the United States on how to develop a “prototype for life” to replicate pro-life centers across the United States that promote the wonder and beauty of life and treat women’s fertility as a blessing and not a preventable disease. Pat and Tim are active members of Saint John Neumann Catholic Church in Austin. Tim, an attorney and pharmacist, is a former State Deputy of the Knights of Columbus. Pat is a former elementary school teacher.

Chris and Sheri Danze
Chris and Sheri Danze, native Austinites, have been instrumental in a wide range of pro-life activities since the 1970s. Sheri co-founded the Gabriel Project (a parish-based ministry that helps pregnant women in need) in the Diocese of Austin, and in seven other dioceses around the country including: Tyler, El Paso, Victoria, Amarillo, Fredericksburg, West Virginia and Colorado.

Chris has won two national pro-life awards and one from Houston from the Foundation for Life. In 1999, Chris and Sheri helped establish Our Lady of the Angels Maternity Shelter in Temple, Texas, an emergency shelter that assists homeless pregnant women. Chris and Sheri are the parents of four biological and five adopted children. They are grateful to serve on the board of The John Paul II Life Center.

Heather and Jeremy Kalamarides, D.O.
Dr. Kalamarides serves as Medical Director of The Vitae Clinic; his wife Heather, MAT, FCP, is an experienced practitioner of the Creighton Model FertilityCare™ System. The couple met while they both were students at Hiram College.

Dr. Kalamarides is a member of Seton Medical Center’s Ob-Gyn Ethics Board, the Catholic Physician’s Guild of Central Texas and the Diocese of Austin Pro-Life Advisory Council. He is a graduate of Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Pennsylvania and completed his Ob-Gyn internship and residency at Sisters of Charity Hospital in Buffalo, New York. Prior to medical school, Dr. Kalamarides was a research assistant at the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction in Omaha, Nebraska. There, he trained directly with Dr. Thomas Hilgers, who pioneered the Creighton Model FertilityCare™ System.

Heather Kalamarides is affiliated with Austin FertilityCare Center and provides clients of The Vitae Clinic with quality instruction in learning to chart their cycles using the Creighton Model FertilityCare™ System. Heather completed her FertilityCare™ Practitioner training at Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha, Nebraska. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from Hiram College and a Master’s Degree in Teaching from Kent State University.

Both Dr. Kalamarides and his wife were attracted to the use of Natural Family Planning early in their marriage due to personal objections to artificial methods of contraception. They are the parents of three children.

Nancy and John Carrano, Ph.D
John is a West Point graduate and retired army officer. Currently, he runs his own company which specializes in developing technologies for clinical diagnostics. John earned is PhD from The University of Texas. Nancy has been passionately involved in their children’s schools for the last 15 years serving both in the classroom and in leadership positions. She also has served on the board of directors for Western Hills Athletic Club. Through her work with The John Paul II Life Center, she has had the opportunity to put her background in p.r. and advertising to good use.

Prior to working with The John Paul II Life Center, John and Nancy supported the pro-life movement in Texas through Majella (now Heroic Media) and the Texas Alliance for Life. In addition, they are active members of their parish, St. John Neumann Catholic Church. John and Nancy are the parents of four children: three biological and one adopted.