One of the first pieces of advice Ann Lankford received at Franciscan University was to figure out her passion and pursue it. A professor who engaged her at a welcome night for new graduate students told her that, and she kept it in mind throughout her time at the University.
“I think it happened without me planning it intentionally,” she says.
As director of Catechesis and Evangelization for the Diocese of La Crosse in Wisconsin, Ann clearly is following her passion. For the last 23 years in that role, she has helped catechetical leaders, catechists, school administrators, teachers, and priests build up religious education, adult faith formation, and evangelization programs. She also has developed resources such as the Virtue Program, which presents the virtues, illustrates why they are needed, and shows how various saints lived them.
Ann started her professional life as a teacher following graduation from William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri, where she received a degree in French and education. She became a tennis teaching professional after playing high school and college tennis, and, while teaching at a tennis club in Milwaukee, she experienced a conversion and began attending a Marian prayer group.
“That whole prayer group was providential in where I am now and how I got to Franciscan,” she says. The group met in the home of a family whose daughters later attended Franciscan, and as Ann went there each week, she says, “It helped continue with the conversion I had, and I really learned how to pray.”
Meanwhile, Ann quit teaching tennis because of problems with her vocal cords. She became a sales rep for a title insurance company but continued studying the faith and was invited by a priest she knew to serve as youth minister at Sacred Heart Parish in Eldon, Missouri. She soon realized she needed more training and, after a summer class at Franciscan, enrolled in the University’s master’s program to study for a degree in theology and Christian ministry with a specialization in catechetics.
She then spent four years as director of Religious Education for St. Augustine and St. Mary’s parishes in Schuyler, Nebraska, before going to La Crosse in 2002.
In her work, Lankford says, she has followed the advice she was given when beginning graduate school.
“My passion,” she says, “is relating ‘The Story of the Bible’—how God created us to be united with him in a relationship of love, how we lost union with God through the original sin, and how Jesus reunited us with God. It is a privilege to help other people understand better what our Catholic faith and life is about through hearing the drama of God’s love for every person and the whole human race.”
