Leadership Team | cceasternwa

Senior Leadership Team

Monique Kolonko

Gene DiRe, LMHC

Executive Vice President Advocacy Services & Programs

gene.dire@cceasternwa.org
(509) 358-3639

Gene joined Catholic Charities in 1987 as the Director of Counseling Services. He has served in his current role since 2006 and oversees St. Anne’s Children and Family Center, the Counseling program, the Childbirth and Parenting Assistance program, Immigration Legal Services, the Furniture Bank and Furnishings for Hope, and Catholic Charities Walla Walla.

Gene received his BA and a Masters in Counseling from Gonzaga University. Prior to joining Catholic Charities he served in the juvenile and criminal justice fields, working with agencies in Spokane and Vancouver, WA. He also served as a leadership and management instructor for the state criminal justice training commission.

While studying for his undergraduate degree Gene was a seminarian for the Diocese of Spokane. Although he was not eventually called to the priesthood Gene is blessed that the Lord called him to serve the poor and vulnerable through his work at Catholic Charities.

When leaving work behind, Gene enjoys reading, hiking and driving throughout the continental US and Canada.

Monique Kolonko

Executive Vice President Stabilization Services and Housing

monique.kolonko@cceasternwa.org
(509) 459-6187

Monique joined Catholic Charities in 2002, became Associate Director in 2006 and has served as Executive Vice-President since 2016. She has over thirty five years of experience in Social Services and Housing related positions on two continents. Monique experienced her fifteen minutes of fame in 1998, when she appeared on CBS’s 48 hours in a positive feature about long term care in Spokane. Monique supervises the Housing portfolio, Housing Social Services, Housing Development, Senior Services and Food for All for Catholic Charities.

Monique is a transplant from south of the Mason-Dixon Line and earned her BA at Louisiana State University in Shreveport and her MA from the University of Arkansas. She is actively involved in community service as an Honorary Member of the Spokane Valley Rotary and Chapter EW of P.E.O. Monique volunteers at a variety of community events and is an enthusiastic supporter of the Spokane Chess Club.

In the rest of her spare time, Monique prefers to travel and is a self-proclaimed National Park Geek. Visiting all fifty-nine National Parks is one of the items on Monique’s Bucket List.

Jon Andrus, PhD

Senior Vice President Finance & CFO

jon.andrus@cceasternwa.org
(509) 459-6160

Jon joined Catholic Charities in 2006 as the Director of Finance and currently serves as Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Jon earned his Certification as a Public Accountant in 1980 after graduating from the University of Montana. After working for a number of years in financial and information systems auditing, he returned to school and earned a Master of Science Degree in Management Information Systems and a Ph.D. in Business Administration and was employed as an assistant and associate professor of accounting and information systems at a number of universities in the west.

Jon has served on the boards and on the finance committees of a number not-for-profit organizations and currently serves on the board and finance committee of NPIP, a Washington nonprofit corporation providing insurance and risk-management services for nearly 800 nonprofit organizations in the Northwest.

Susan Foster-Dow

Vice President
Mission & Strategy

susan.foster-dow@cceasternwa.org
(509) 455-3033

Susan joined Catholic Charities in 2015, after working in and around the agency in a variety of volunteer and consulting capacities for 20 years. Prior to joining the leadership team, Susan worked in organizational development consulting and strategic planning for organizations in the U.S. and China, as well as many years in admissions and student success in higher education. She holds a Bachelor of Science from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, with a Certificate in Asian Studies. She was awarded Georgetown’s China Scholar Graduate Fellowship for graduate studies in international law and diplomacy at Taiwan’s National Cheng-chi University. She completed her master’s degree and beyond in organizational leadership at Gonzaga University. She studied and lived in Taiwan and China for several years and speaks Mandarin.

Susan currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Women and Children’s Free Restaurant in Spokane, as well as on the Diocesan Lay Review Board, which she chaired for ten years. She also serves as Chair of the Georgetown University Alumni Admission Program for eastern Washington and northern Idaho. Susan previously served in leadership roles on the St. Aloysius School Parent Advisory Council, the Board of Trustees for the Center for Organizational Reform, the Spokane-Jilin (China) Sister City Society, and the Spokane Sister City Association Board.

Susan enjoys travel, reading, wine tasting adventures, and perpetual home improvement projects.

Nadine Van Stone

Vice President Crisis Response & Shelters

nadine.vanstone@cceasternwa.org
(509) 358-4269

After nearly 17 years as Director of St. Margaret’s Shelter, Nadine transitioned to a new role early in 2016 that includes oversight of St. Margaret's while helping develop Catholic Charities’ new Holy Names Rising Strong program, in partnership with the Empire Health Foundation. Rising Strong is a family-centered therapeutic program to provide families alternatives to having their children removed while they begin recovery from substance abuse. Nadine is also overseeing the dynamic changes at the House of Charity, providing an opportunity for both of the Catholic Charities’ shelters to increase collaboration and resource-sharing.

Prior to her association with St. Margaret’s Shelter, she was the Rehabilitation Manager at Goodwill Industries for seven years. Her duties there included overseeing a variety of programs aimed at assisting people with disabilities in finding and keeping employment, with offices in Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.

Nadine has an MS degree from Eastern Washington University in Counseling, with an emphasis on family counseling. Her educational background also includes drug and alcohol and women’s studies.

She is currently the Chair of Spokane’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program Board. Nadine is part of the Invest Health team, a project through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to improve community health through cross sector collaborations.

Robert J. McCann, PhD, President & CEO

Gene DiRe, LMHC

Monique Kolonko

Jon Andrus, PhD

Susan Foster-Dow

Jonathan Mallahan

Nadine Van Stone

Leadership Team