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Melanie Guste, rscj was recently featured in The Journal of
Philanthropy. She is President and CEO of Louisiana Association of
Nonprofit Organizations (LANO). Additionally, an article she wrote for
the Winter 2007 edition of Heart Magazine was awarded 1st place in the
"Best Essay: Religious Order Magazine" category in the Catholic Press
Awards. See below for more information on each honor.
Journal of Philanthropy
La. Nonprofit Association's New Chief Focuses on Growth
(From the issue dated August 21, 2008. Short excerpt below: click the title above to read the full article.)
...To help charities prepare for the future, the Louisiana Association
of Nonprofit Organizations, an umbrella group in Baton Rouge, embarked
on a new strategic plan after the hurricanes. In June, it hired Sister
Melanie Guste, a Catholic nun in the Society of the Sacred Heart order,
as chief executive to make that plan succeed over the long term.
...
"Melanie has the human and organizational-systems skills to make
those branches self-sustaining," says Greg Cotter, the association's
board chairman.
...
Sister Guste, 55, has served as the association's senior consultant
for the past two years, working on strategic planning and training. As
a seventh-generation Louisianan, she brings to her new role deep
community roots, a keen understanding of state politics, and a
spiritual commitment to service that started at a young age.
At 13, she began helping with the religious instruction of young
children at St. John the Baptist, a church in a poor area of New
Orleans. The children's poverty deeply affected her. "It changed me in
a way that never left me," she says.
She also was immersed in politics at a very young age: Her father
served as a state senator and state attorney general. She helped him
campaign, distributing leaflets and driving a truck equipped with a
loudspeaker to spread the word.
"It is corny, but it is the backbone of grass-roots political
action," she says. "It has shaped my own advocacy and belief in the
political process."
In her mid-20s, she joined the Society of the Sacred Heart, an
international religious order. The order emphasizes social justice, a
goal that still shapes and directs her everyday work with nonprofit
groups, she says.
 Catholic Press Awards
Award M3c:
Best Essay,
Religious Order Magazines
(Click the image to the right to download the Winter 2007 edition of Heart magazine and read Melanie Guste's article)
First Place
Heart, St. Louis, Mo., “Finding God – and Hope – in the Ravaged Bayous of Louisiana” by Melanie Guste, RSCJ
This essay is a great expression of a personal experience written with
the framework that gives it a broader meaning and larger interpretation
for readers. Great descriptive prose about one woman’s preservation of
her faith after experiencing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.and
self-awareness is not commonly explored in such direct terms. The
subject matter is both interesting and enlightening. Touching on the
epistemology, the presentation of fallibility associated with
perception is brought another level of understanding to the subject
matter.
Quoted from Catholic Press Association
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