Meet Our Staff
Jennifer Carr Allmon
Executive Director
Jennifer Carr Allmon is executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops (TCCB). She oversees the day-to-day work of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops including legislative activities, communications, convening and collaboration, and management. Allmon develops legislative strategy and relationships with diocesan staff and other legislative partners including developing and delivering legislative testimony and policy papers.
Allmon monitors all legislation filed and tracks legislation related to our policy priorities. She is available to provide training and technical assistance to dioceses and TCCB departments in review of and preparation for legislative session. She is also responsible for facilitating collaboration among the departments of the conference as well as supervising the coordination of the TCCB General Assembly.
Prior to this position, she served as the advocacy director at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston where she was responsible for directing the agency’s public policy efforts. This included issues such as access to healthcare, immigration reform, and the needs of the poor and vulnerable. Allmon also served for four years as Catholic Charities' HIV/AIDS education coordinator, where she developed and implemented HIV/AIDS and chastity education programs for Catholic parishes and schools in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.
Allmon has given presentations throughout the United States on the issues of substance abuse treatment and prevention, chastity, social justice, and advocacy. She has published numerous articles on HIV/AIDS education in a Catholic context and on various public policy and legislative issues. She earned a bachelor's degree in education from University of St. Thomas in Houston and is a Texas Certified Teacher. She has a master's of arts in moral theology-bioethics and has completed the National Catholic Bioethics Center’s Bioethics Certification Program.
Dr. Lisette Allen
Director of Education
Lisette Allen is director of education for the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops. She has served as teacher, principal and superintendent in the Diocese of Brownsville. She was a member of the NCEA/ACRE revision committee in Washington DC, and guest presenter for the University of Notre Dame Alliance for Catholic Education Program focusing on Teaching English Language Learners (2008-2010), and for the Chief Administrators in Catholic Education (CACE) focusing on Latino families.
In 2011 she received the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) Catherine T. McNamee, CSJ Award for Outstanding Leadership in Promoting a Vision of Catholic Education that Welcomes and Serves Cultural and Economic Diversity and Enhances Services for Student with Special Needs. She has served as a Commissioner, Vice- President and President of the Texas Catholic Conference Accreditation Commission.
In July 2014, she joined the Texas Catholic Conference Education Department as the director of accreditation for Catholic schools in Texas. Raised in Harlingen, she attended the University of Texas Pan American where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in communications disorders. She holds a master of arts degree in education from Texas A&M University Kingsville and the University of Notre Dame for a master of arts degree in Educational Administration from the University of Notre Dame. In 2023 she received a doctorate in educational leadership from St. Louis University.
Shannon Jaquette
Policy Analyst
Shannon Jaquette is the policy analyst for the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, assisting the executive director and legislative counsel in the public policy analysis and outreach of the TCCB. Duties include creating social media content, assisting with grasstops education, planning events, public policy analysis and collaborating with the dioceses and parishes in Texas.
Shannon is a graduate of the University of Dallas.
Madeleine Greene
Legal Researcher
Madeleine Greene is the legal researcher for the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops. Her responsibilities include legal, legislative, and statutory research. She provides analysis on potential liability or other impacts to diocesan ministries and communicates with the archdiocesan attorneys. Prior to this role, Madeleine served as the director of government relations at the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States and Responsibility.org in Washington, D.C. In that role, she lobbied at the federal and the state level across the nation.
Madeleine graduated from Hendrix College in 2016 with a degree in political science. Soon she will graduate from the Texas Tech University School of Law in May 2024. Madeleine plans to take the bar examination in July 2024.
Dr. Ashley Altizer
Associate Director of Accreditation
Dr. Ashley Altizer has been a Catholic educator for 15 years as a teacher, campus minister and administrator. As a high school teacher and campus minister in the Archdiocese of Boston, she shared with her students her love of learning and her passion for Catholic social justice. She continued that passion in her role as a high school administrator in Boston and a district-level administrator in the Department of Catholic Schools, which oversees 36 schools in the Archdiocese of San Antonio. Ashley worked closely with the schools, guiding them through their accreditation process and working with schools on their professional development and academic programming.
Ashley is a product of Catholic education, attending Mercyhurst University, serving in the Urban Catholic Teacher Corps at Boston College, and completing the Remick Leadership Program through the Alliance for Catholic Education at the University of Notre Dame. Ashley has a passion for helping to prepare teachers to be student-centered, faith-filled leaders in their schools. She finished her doctoral program through Northeastern University in May 2022. Her dissertation, "Forming Catholic Educators - The Challenge of New Teacher Induction and Mentoring in Catholic Schools," focused on the ways leaders can help new teachers grow in their craft and commit themselves to the mission of Catholic education. Through her action research project and her work in the Archdiocese of San Antonio, she has continuously sought to improve professional development for teachers and leaders to form individuals who can guide students on both their faith and academic journeys through Catholic school.
Selena Aleman
Archivist
Selena Aleman is the Archivist of the Catholic Archives of Texas (CAT). She began working at the CAT in January 2018 as a graduate student intern. Selena works on digitization projects, including digitizing the Knights of Columbus collection and sacramental records. She also provides reference services and works on other projects with the executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops.
Selena has worked on archives projects at the Austin History Center, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, and the Texas Archive of the Moving Image. She received a bachelor of science in sociology and minor in women and gender studies from Texas A&M University in 2013 and a master of science in information studies from UT at Austin in 2018.
Prior to her work in archives, Selena served as a literacy tutor for City Year San Antonio and was an eighth grade social studies teacher in Victoria, Texas.
Helen Osman
Communications
Helen Osman is a communications consultant for the TCCB, providing both external and internal communications support and direction. She has worked in communications for faith-based organizations since 1984, shortly after she moved to Central Texas with her husband, John.
They have returned to Austin, after an eight-year hiatus in Washington, DC, where she coordinated communications for the US Catholic bishops and shepherded the visits to the United States of Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 and Pope Francis in 2015.
She is the president of the international organization SIGNIS (World Association of Catholic Communicators), the only Vatican-recognized media professionals association. She has also served as president of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada, and received its highest honor for personal achievement in 2012. She provides communications support for international, national and local entities.
Lorena Martinez
Administrative Manager
Lorena Martinez is the administrative manager for the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, responsible for managing the operation of the office and supporting the TCCB executive director and departmental directors through her duties in human resources, payroll, budget, organization, communication, and moderate bookkeeping.
Lorena has more than 15 years of experience in the public and private sectors. She spent many years supporting the student financial aid office at the University of Texas and served as an executive assistant to small business owners. Originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, Lorena was raised in south Texas and received her bachelor's degree in art with a minor in psychology from Texas A&M International University.
Marina Onorato
Administrative Assistant
Marina Onorato is the administrative assistant responsible for aiding the TCCB Education Department in planning, organizing, data entry, coordinating with vendors and everyday office support.
Born and raised in Rochester NY, Marina attended Catholic schools in the Diocese of Rochester and received a bachelor’s degree in history, with minors in Human Life Studies and Legal Studies. She worked for two years in the private sector before joining the Diocese of Rochester Pastoral Center in 2021 as their receptionist and switch-board operator, while providing administrative support to departments in the pastoral center.