Affiliated Faculty and Clergy

Fr. Bill Ashbaugh was born in Butler, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Allegheny College with a B.S. in Chemistry and went on to study for his doctorate in Biochemistry at the University of Maryland and Michigan State University.  During his third year of graduate studies, however, he experienced God calling him to the priesthood and was accepted into the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan. He was ordained a priest in 1993 and served with Msgr. Groshek at St. Pius X in Flint (’94), with Fr. Roger Prokop at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish (’94 – ’97), and then as Pastor at St. Mary’s in Westphalia (’97 – 2001), St. Joseph in Howell (2001- 2009), and St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Ann Arbor (2009-present).  Fr. Bill has also served the Diocese of Lansing as the Director of Diaconate Formation, as a contributor to FAITH Magazine, and on various Diocesan committees over the years. He is currently Dean of the Ann Arbor Catholic Churches.

Howard Bromberg is a Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. He has also served as Chair of the University of Michigan Police Oversight Committee and of the University of Michigan Senate Clinical Faculty Working Group. He has published articles on the Catholic church and capital punishment, history of church and state law in the United States, marriage law, Flannery O'Connor, St. Thomas More, the Papal States, and on several papal encyclicals. Before entering academia, he was an Assistant D.A. in the Manhattan District  Attorney's Office and a Legislative Counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is a parishioner of St. Mary Student Parish in Ann Arbor.

Christian Casper teaches rhetoric and argumentation in the College of Engineering and worships at St. Francis of Assisi Parish. 

Joseph Conlon is a professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan. He and his family came to Michigan from Columbia Missouri in 1989, where he had been a professor of mathematics at the University of Missouri from 1978. He was an undergraduate at Cambridge University from 1970-73, obtained his D. Phil. from Oxford University in 1976, and then came to the U.S as a NATO postdoctoral fellow at the Courant Institute, New York University. He teaches undergraduate courses in mathematical finance and graduate courses in probability and  partial differential equations. Since 1989 he and his family have been parishioners at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Ann Arbor.

Fr. Ed Fride, a native of Minnesota, is pastor of Christ the King Catholic Church in Ann Arbor, where he has been pastor for the last 30 years.  He has a B.A. in theology from the University of St. Thomas, a B.A. in Jewish Studies from the University of Minnesota, a B.Phil, double major in Classical Languages and Philosophy from Ave Maria College, an M.A. in Philosophy from Holy Apostles College and Seminary, a Master of Divinity from the Washington Theological Union, an M.A. in Jewish Studies from Gratz College and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from Sacred Heart Seminary.  He is currently in doctoral studies, Doctorate in Hebrew Letters, at Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies in Chicago.  He has also taken classes at the University of Michigan, most recently taking graduate classes in Jewish Studies.

Jonathan Geltner is the translator of Paul Claudel’s Five Great Odes (Angelico Press 2020) and the author of a novel, Absolute Music (Slant Books 2022). He teaches creative writing at Eastern Michigan University and is fiction editor for Slant Books. He is currently at work on two books: a fantasy and a critical memoir about fantasy, faith and the natural world. Of secular and Jewish background, Jonathan was baptized at the age of 35 in Detroit's Old Saint Mary's church. He is now a parishioner with his wife and young sons at Ann Arbor's Saint Thomas the Apostle

Cameron Gibelyou is a Teaching Professor at the University of Michigan. He has taught at UM since 2007, first as a GSI while completing a PhD in the Physics Department and then as a lecturer. He has taught in the Departments of Physics, Astronomy, Psychology, English, and History, as well as for the School of Education, Wolverine Pathways, and LSA’s University Courses and Applied Liberal Arts. His loves in life include the One "in [Whom] all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17), his wife and son and family, and UM and its people--who played a prominent role in his conversion to Catholicism.

Katie Hartsock is the author of two poetry collections, Wolf Trees (2023) and Bed of Impatiens (2016), both from Able Muse Press. Her poetry appears widely, in journals such as Threepenny Review, Kenyon Review, Poetry, Image, Dappled Things, and elsewhere. She is an associate professor of English at Oakland University in Rochester, MI, and lives in Ann Arbor with her husband, the writer Jonathan Geltner, and their young sons. They are parishioners of Saint Thomas the Apostle.

Jesse Kauffman is originally from Los Angeles, California. After serving for four years in the US Navy, he earned his BA in history from UCLA and his PhD from Stanford. Kauffman is Professor of History at Eastern Michigan University where he teaches courses on 20th century European political and military history. His first book, Elusive Alliance: The German Occupation of Poland in World War I, was published in 2015 by Harvard University Press. Kauffman frequently leads students on travel-study trips to Germany and Poland, which usually include visits to the "Priests' Block"; at Dachau, St. Maximilian Kolbe's cell at Auschwitz, and sites near Krakow connected to Pope St. John Paul II. For several years he was the faculty advisor for Eastern Michigan's Catholic student organization. Kauffman is a parishioner at St. Thomas the Apostle in Ann Arbor where he is active in the lector ministry and the St. Vincent de Paul conference.

Amy Kilbourne is a professor of learning health sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School, where she teaches implementation science, or the study of how to translate scientifically-supported innovations more quickly into the hands of patients and the providers who care for them. With a background in public health, rhetoric, and mental health services research, Amy co-authored a book on bipolar disorder self-management as well as several papers focused on implementing effective treatments for persons with mental disorders in community and school-based settings. She is originally from Los Angeles, California and is a parishioner at Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Ann Arbor, MI.

Scott Lyons is an associate professor of English at the University of Michigan where he teaches courses on Native American literature, Catholic literature, critical theory and more. He is the author of X-Marks: Native Signatures of Assent; The World, the Text, and the Indian: Global Dimensions of Native American Literature, and a range of essays including “The Bible in Native American Literature.” A descendent of the Ojibwe and Dakota tribes, Lyons was raised on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. He is a parishioner of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Ann Arbor.

Dana Nichols is a lecturer in English at the University of Michigan where she teaches courses in literature, rhetoric, and writing. She is a parishioner of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church. 

Gabriel Rauterberg is a professor of law at the University of Michigan where he teaches classes on business organizations, capital markets, contracts, and the history of the corporation. He is the author of several books, including The New Stock Market: Law, Economics and Policy (with Merritt Fox and Larry Glosten) and Contracts: Law, Theory, and Practice (with Daniel Markovits). Before arriving in Michigan, Gabriel practiced commercial litigation for several years. He is originally from Mississauga, Ontario. Which mass his family attends on any Sunday depends on the mercurial input of his one and three year olds.

Fr. Kyle Shinseki, SJ was born and raised in Hawai‘i and serves as a Pastoral Associate at Saint Mary Student Parish, the Newman Center for the University of Michigan. In his current role, he supports Ig.Nite, a weekly student formation gathering; campus outreach efforts; and pro-life student ministry. Prior to joining the Jesuits in 2009, he received a bachelor’s from MIT, where he became Catholic, as well as a master’s from UCLA and an MBA from Northwestern. He worked in the nonprofit sector in community development and fundraising and the private sector in marketing. Ordained in 2018, he completed a Licentiate in Sacred Theology in 2019. Prior to arriving in Ann Arbor, he served as Campus Minister at Santa Clara University. He sits on the Boards of Directors of the National Institute for Ministry with Young Adults and Manresa Jesuit Retreat House. He enjoys diverse ethnic cuisines; hiking; and Latin American, country, and Hawaiian music.

Sr. Maria Faustina Showalter, OP was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She moved to Ann Arbor in 1997 when she entered the newly founded Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist.  She professed her perpetual vows in 2005. Sister received her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and her master’s degree in K-12 Curriculum and Instruction from Eastern Michigan University and a Graduate Certificate in Catholic School Leadership from St. Thomas University in Minnesota. She has served as the principal of Spiritus Sanctus Academy for the past 10 years and is very proud to have had many of its alumni matriculate to the University of Michigan.

Douglas Trevor is a professor of English at the University of Michigan, where he primarily teaches courses on the works of William Shakespeare. He is also a novelist and a short story writer and has written four books: a novel (Girls I Know), two short story collections (The Book of Wonders and The Thin Tear in the Fabric of Space), and a study of early modern literature (The Poetics of Melancholy in Early Modern England).  He is currently working on a book on Shakespeare’s early writing career. Prior to arriving at Michigan, he taught at the University of Iowa. Before that, he did his doctorate at Harvard University and his B.A. at Princeton.