Leadership
Fraternus Chapters are born from and always pointed back to the parish, the local community of men, because it is the Eucharist that Christian fraternity is most manifest. Fraternus helps to unite the men of a parish into a brotherhood seeking virtue and holiness, and then provides a framework to make sure that passes on to the next generation through intentional mentoring. This makes a Fraternus Chapter truly a “brotherhood for all ages.” Although it goes into high school and beyond, Fraternus membership begins in 6th grade, because it is in those years that mentoring becomes necessary.
Leadership
Executive Director
Jason Craig grew up in two homes – sometimes with his mom and sometimes with his dad, but he moved in with his dad full time at age 12. “For a lot of my friends, their father was a blank in their minds,” Jason explains, “They just were not around. But my dad took me in at a critical age and showed me that fathers love and protect their sons. Later it made sense to me that God would send His Son to save me – dads do that for their boys.”
Jason fell into typical teenage vices, but everything changed after he was mentored by a mature Christian man and led to accept the Christian faith. Jason has been working with youth ever since.
After a failed attempt at showing a Catholic friend why Catholicism was nonsense, Jason became a Catholic, along with his future-wife Katie, who grew up in an atheist home. After being received into the Church, Jason and Katie entered the world of full-time Catholic ministry. However, as Jason applied his knowledge and experience of youth ministry at a Catholic parish he realized that it was the families, especially the fathers that had the greatest impact. During this time Jason joined Justin Biance and Tommy Van Horn in founding Fraternus, and Jason wrote and developed the training and curriculum used today around the country. Jason has a Masters in Theology and Evangelization from the Augustine Institute, and continues his studies and work from a small farm in rural NC. His writings on culture, masculinity, and mentoring have appeared on numerous sites like New Advent, Catholic Exchange, and Those Catholic Men, and he is working on a book on rites of passage for Catholic boys. He is also known to staunchly defend his family’s claim to have invented bourbon.
Director of Operations
“As I have grown in my understanding of the mission and philosophy of Fraternus, it has only convinced me more of the need of this ministry and community. Fraternus emphasizes the importance of the growth and sanctification of a brotherhood of men, who give of themselves in mentoring boys, and invite the boys into this same brotherhood.”
Chris was introduced to Fraternus in 2015 after his pastor asked him and another gentleman to start a new Fraternus chapter at their parish. Since then Chris has served as a Fraternus Captain, Commander, and Regional Sage in NE Florida.
Chris holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, and and began his career as an engineer. Later, Chris obtained a Master’s Degree in Theology and a certification in spiritual direction as part of formation to serve the Church.
Chris lives in Jacksonville, FL with his wife and children.
Director of Finance & Administration
Katie has been with Fraternus since 2018.
Although Katie was born and raised in the Midwest, she has lived in Simpsonville South Carolina for the past 6 years. Katie loves spending time with her husband and being a mom to her two children, Kennedy, and Westin. Katie and her husband, a military veteran, have been married for 10 years. Her faith was truly tried when their son was born with a life-threatening condition, but God has been so very faithful. Having been raised in a Christian home, Katie learned to trust Jesus when life gets difficult, she believes in being an encouragement to others who are facing difficult times, as well.
Katie has gained a wealth of experience in industries such as banking, finance, marketing, and insurance. Katie works to serve the brotherhood of Fraternus every day. She has a heart to serve others when a need arises and is working to teach her children the same.
Ranch Officer
Pepper Martin and his family are parishioners at St. Mark in Huntersville, NC. He is a Fraternus Captain, Frat night officer, and Ranch Co-Officer. He left a more lucrative career in the Hotel industry to have more time with his family. He has been a math teacher for 17 years in public schools and his wife has been teaching kindergarten for 18 years. He and his wife Kelly grew up cradle Catholics and know the importance of being involved as a youth to keep the faith as an adult. As a youth, Pepper was moved to be more involved at church after taking trips to the Vatican where he had an audience with Saint Pope John Paul II, Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Spain, Croatia, Morocco, Australia and several other places with his parents where he gained a perspective of the world and GOD. They have four children: Owen(17), Soren(13), Holden(10), and Grace(4). Pepper has the privilege to have all three of his boys coming to Fraternus this year. When Owen, his senior in high school was in 7th grade, Pepper heard an announcement after mass explaining what Fraternus was and that they needed some men to become involved to help get it up and running. The rest is history. Pepper says, “there is no other place in the world that I need to spend my time right now than with my boys in Fraternus, growing our faith in Christ.”
Director of Mission Advancement
Christopher Ortiz is a resident of Greenville, SC and has been happily married since 2000 to his wife Cristina who are the proud parents of 6 beautiful children: Rebecca, Isabella, Carolina, Daniel, Helena and Cecilia. Chris has been involved with Fraternus since 2017 in the Upstate of South Carolina where he also works as a managing broker at a local real estate firm.
Before becoming involved with Fraternus and setting up roots in Greenville, Chris was blessed to travel and live in some very different locations. New York, California, Puerto Rico, Florida, Ohio, Austria and Nevada are the different places Chris has called home in his life. Throughout his life, Chris has witnessed firsthand the value of virtuous men. From his grandparents to his father and then other men who have come into his life, Chris has an appreciation for authentic brotherhood with well formed men. He also recognizes the blessing the men in his life have been to him and the adverse effect not having virtuous men to be mentored by can have on a boy.
Chris is elated to be a part of bringing the Fraternus brotherhood to all 50 states and the rest of the world. As the Director of Mission Advancement, he looks forward to visiting existing chapters and forging relationships with the brothers there as well as looking for opportunities to grow the brotherhood.
National Communications Officer
Tom is a cradle Catholic, growing up in the Northeast, raised in a family of five, he is right in the middle of four girls. His father was an electrician, and while his mother stayed at home, with some part time jobs to help make ends meet. Tom went to Catholic Schools through his graduation as an Electrical Engineer from Manhattan College. He met his wife at college, then in 1984 they were wed at Manhattan College (in one of the ugliest chapels on earth). They started their Life together in the Hudson Valley in NY, where Tom started his nearly 28 year career with IBM, followed by another 7 years with Cognizant. They moved to Atlanta, then Charlotte when they sought a simpler lifestyle (going away from a 2-income home, plus nanny) to raise their twins, Thomas & Sarah, who were 2 at the time.
Tom & Dianne joined St. Mark Catholic Church in Huntersville, NC during its very first days, and they have served in many different capacities. Tom is a charter Knight of Columbus at St. Mark Parish, and was a part of the launch of a “new” Youth Ministry program there in 2001 called Life Teen (after completing an Executive MBA program at Wake Forest University). He has served on the Pastoral Council, was a catechist for 4th graders, ran Confirmation Preparation for Teens (RCIT) and has been training the Altar Servers at St. Mark on and off since its beginning.
In 2013, Dianne and Tom were approached by Fred Goduti (Charlotte Area Regional Sage) to attend an information session on Fraternus and Fidelis. We did, and both of us jumped in. Dianne became the Lead Lady for Fidelis during its first 3 years, and is now is on the National Board for Fidelis, while Tom became Fred’s Finance Officer, and established his reputation for details and quality in all we do (nick-named “The Hammer” by peer captains and creating a new verb in the national team of “being Ridered”). He joined the National team in August and looks forward to contributing wherever his skills can plug in to grow this Awesome ministry to hundreds if not thousands of parishes.
Our family has jumped out of an airplane (making memories when Tom found his Second Job through the intersession of St. Joseph his patron). We love roller-coasters (the bigger / faster the better), live music, and most important we love our time together as both our twins are still here in the area. Finally, after 23 years in Huntersville, raising our family, we downsized this year to a Condo on Lake Norman, and are loving our retirement location and blessed lives. Praise God.
New Chapter Development Officer
Terry Rumore, by virtue of his Baptism, is an adopted son of God, a Father who loves him. That is his primary identity. He is also a lifelong resident of Birmingham, Alabama, who has been married to his high school sweetheart, Charlotte, for 28 years. Together they have raised 4 beautiful children: Patrick, Anna, Libby, and Michael (ranging in ages from late teens to mid-20’s). Terry is also a grandfather of three and is hopeful for many more.
He is a third-generation business owner along with his brother, Charles Rumore. Together they own Southern Armature Works and Southern Radiator Cooling where the Rumore family has been serving the Birmingham community for 93 years! Terry and his family are members of the Cathedral of St Paul where he served as the founding Commander of the Birmingham Fraternus Chapter for five years. Terry’s national position with Fraternus as New Chapter Development Officer has blessed him with several years of travel across the country, training and fostering Fraternus Brotherhood wherever he is. He is always eager and willing, with pipe or cigar in hand, to discuss around a fire his passions for fatherhood, brotherhood, mentoring, interior prayer, and basically all things Catholic with anyone who will listen.
National Sage & Fraternus Board Member
Danny Snyder has a classic American story of working from the bottom to the top, working up from dishwasher to chief operating officer of the Merchant’s and Mere Bulle’s restaurant chain. He also started an Allstate insurance company, sold it back to Allstate, then started an independent insurance company that has grown to 2,000 clients in a short few years. But like many “classic American” men Danny fell away from his Catholic faith as a young man.
After decades of struggling to balance his life, things needed to change. So, he decided to try out going to Eucharistic Adoration at the local parish. “From that point a fire was ignited,” Danny explains. Danny re-engaged with his faith in a big way.
But it wasn’t until he became the first Commander of Our Lady of the Lakes Fraternus Chapter in Hendersonville, TN that Danny’s flame went from pilot light to full blaze. “When I heard of Fraternus I knew I must get involved for the sake of my sons,” explains Danny, “little did I know I would benefit me more than them.”
Danny is not only a volunteer and benefactor, but is offering his lifetime of successful business experience as a Board Member. When asked why he works so hard for Fraternus, Danny is straightforward: “Fraternus is changing the world for the better. Better equipping young Catholic boys to be great Catholic men.”
National Program / Systems Officer
After spending the first eight years of his life with the Wynne family following the father’s DuPont career transfers from Old Hickory, TN to Bridgeport, CT, Herkimer, NY and Scarsdale, Ny, the Wynne family returned to Nashville, TN in 1947 via a two year stay in Springfield, TN. Tom, a cradle Catholic, attended Catholic schools all but one school year of his life through one year of college at Christian Brothers College in Memphis, TN. Determining college was not for him at that point in time, a waste of perfectly good money, Tom enlisted in the U.S. Army Security Agency. After active military duty, some years were spent as an insurance adjuster which prompted the successful taking of law courses at the University of Tennessee Nashville Extension. Circumstances and opportunities lead Tom to embark on his 36 year career in the asphalt paving construction industry in Nashville which prompted a return to the UT Extension for courses in civil engineering. Retiring from the asphalt paving industry in 2002, Tom started enjoying the leisure life in Hendersonville, TN where he had been a resident since 1978, attending Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church with his wife Jeanie. Then along came Fraternus to Our Lady of the Lake in 2010 in which Tom finally engaged in something truly meaningful.
I’m beginning my ninth year in Fraternus and was Communication Officer for the OLOL Chapter from its inception, then after a time, I was appointed, elected or designated the first National Commander of Fraternus.
I keep it real with the brothers. I have made it an annual affair, sometimes, maybe, twice a year, to confess to the Brothers that I have broken every commandment that Moses brought down from the mountain. More than once! Everyone! I well know when, where and how the evil one strikes. I’ve lost battles and, finally, won some. Now, being in the right army, I can prepare my young Brothers for the onslaught, telling the story in the third person only revealing in last sentences that the person the story is about is me and involving them in the story, asking at certain points what the person in the story should do to correct himself. They get thoroughly involved. Mentoring is telling them when and where evil lurks and how temptation presents itself. Then give them witness and training to get up if they fall, retreat, re-group, re-plan and fight again!
I think Fraternus will be, someday, as integral to the Catholic Church as the Knights of Columbus.
Board of Directors
Chair
Jeremy points to two things that brought him to Fraternus. First, in the Summer of 2013 he traveled to Lourdes, France, the famous site of Mary’s apparitions to St. Bernadette. “For me it was a spiritual trip,” Jeremy said, “but for my wife it was a tremendous conversion.” After the trip, he says it became clear to him he needed to do more to lead his family’s formation of their faith. “But I wasn’t sure how to step up his game,” he said. His wife was always at the heart of his family’sjourney in faith and she was progressing further and leading. “I knew as a father I needed to be leading better, especially since I have two sons and a daughter who need a strong male example.” But Jeremy was struggling to understand how he could improve even if he was coming to grips with the why.
A couple of years after this experience he was invited by his good friend to a dinner party where Danny Snyder presented his experience with Fraternus. After the party ended, his friend and soon-to-be Commander of Birmingham, Terry Rumore came to him and said “I want to do this, and we are doing it together.” Through Fraternus their existing friendship, inspired by Danny’s testimony, became a brotherhood with a mission. With Jeremy’s help Birmingham is one of the nation’s largest and most impactful Chapters.
Jeremy says his prayer to be a better spiritual leader was answered through Fraternus. While he knows he has much work left to get better, he was honored to have his son become the first young man Knighted in his Chapter; and as such his son has entered college more prepared because of the brotherhood of men.
Jeremy brings extensive accounting and financial experience to the board as the CFO for Hoar Construction, LLC, a national player in the commercial construction industry. At Hoar, Jeremy works side-by-side with colleagues who place the spirit of service and integrity in all they do. He has also held leadership roles on other non-profit boards and serves in advisory role for a local banking company. And most importantly Jeremy is a father to Ben, Will, and Abigail, and a husband to Michele. He loves to travel and spend time at the lake with his family, and explore the outdoors. He resides in Birmingham, Alabama and attends St. Paul’s Cathedral parish.
Founder
As the lead founder of Fraternus, Justin’s inspiration to start Fraternus came from growing up without strong Catholic mentorship and then finding it when he joined the Catholic Student Union at Florida State University. While working for the Boy Scouts of America he began to see the need for a distinctly Catholic movement for boys rooted in fraternity and learning the truth of manhood found in Jesus Christ.
Professionally, Justin and his brother Jason own and operate J. Biance Financial, an investment advisory practice. Justin remains a dedicated member of the Fraternus team as a benefactor and board member and still offers many hours a week mentoring and providing input to the brotherhood. Justin also has two masters degrees, one in Theology from Holy Apostles College and Seminary and one in Entrepreneurship from the University of Florida.
“Fraternus provides the kind of brotherhood young men desperately need,” Justin explains. “So many boys end up in the wrong kind of brotherhood, following the wrong kind of mentors. Fraternus provides an image of the Father young men crave but rarely encounter. It is this very natural experience of fatherhood and Christian brotherhood which makes Fraternus so powerful.”
Dan is a motivational speaker who counsels educators, coaches, business leaders, religious groups, and athletic teams. Dan inspires a strong inner core for overcoming life’s challenges in sports, faith, family, and mentoring.
Dan Duddy has been married for 36 years and is the father of 8 children. For 39 years, Dan was a special education teacher, coach of multiple sports, and student advisor. He is known as a passionate speaker who brings an engaging sense of humor to both religious and secular audiences.
Ryan Hanning PhD is a Professor of Theology and Catholic Studies and serves as a founding Fellow of the San Juan Diego Institute which serves several Universities, non-profits and Catholic apostolates, and a Fellow of the Harvard Institute for Virtuous Leadership Institute and the Institute of Catholic Theology. In addition to teaching and consulting, Ryan also serves as a theological consultant and speaker for Catholics Come Home™ & Amen Alleluia™ and writes and speaks internationally on education, theology, ecological ethics and virtuous leadership. Ryan currently homesteads in Tennessee with his beautiful wife Rebecca, and their ten well socialized homeschooled children.
Sean Pelkey is a loving husband of Maggie and father of six kids. In a world filled with screens and other distractions, Fraternus is a source of real, in-person fellowship and virtue training and Sean believes we desperately need programs like this to be successful. Sean and his wife Maggie live in Jacksonville, Florida and have been homeschooling for nearly 15 years. Sean is the Chief Financial Officer of CSX, one of the nation’s largest freight railroads.
Danny Snyder has a classic American story of working from the bottom to the top, working up from dishwasher to chief operating officer of the Merchant’s and Mere Bulle’s restaurant chain. He also started an Allstate insurance company, sold it back to Allstate, then started an independent insurance company that has grown to 2,000 clients in a short few years. But like many “classic American” men Danny fell away from his Catholic faith as a young man.
After decades of struggling to balance his life, things needed to change. So, he decided to try out going to Eucharistic Adoration at the local parish. “From that point a fire was ignited,” Danny explains. Danny re-engaged with his faith in a big way.
But it wasn’t until he became the first Commander of Our Lady of the Lakes Fraternus Chapter in Hendersonville, TN that Danny’s flame went from pilot light to full blaze. “When I heard of Fraternus I knew I must get involved for the sake of my sons,” explains Danny, “little did I know I would benefit me more than them.”
Danny is not only a volunteer and benefactor, but is offering his lifetime of successful business experience as a Board Member. When asked why he works so hard for Fraternus, Danny is straightforward: “Fraternus is changing the world for the better. Better equipping young Catholic boys to be great Catholic men.”
Ed Toth first came into contact with Fraternus right at the beginning, at one of the “pilot” Chapters at St. Paul’s in Pensacola, FL. “I fell in love with the idea immediately,” he remembers. “I’ve been involved ever since.”
Ed and his wife Karen co-founded Telecom, a successful business in the world of telecommunications. As an electrical engineer, Ed has also worked in management at GE and has overseen man high-tech projects. “I have also had every version of a smart phone since the very beginning,” he adds. Ed and Karen have created a wonderful culture in their company that allows their family to be together, travel often, and live their faith vibrantly.
Ed’s two boys are currently Brothers in Fraternus, and Ed is even piloting a program for younger boys, since Fraternus doesn’t start until age 11. He has experienced what he calls “the burden and privilege” of mentoring and knows the world needs more ways that men can intentionally form the next generation. It’s a burden, he says, because men are fallible and sinful creatures, but it’s a privilege because men are also called in a unique way to pass on a true manhood rooted in Jesus Christ.
Asked why he is a board member and benefactor, Ed laughs and says, “Because Jason Craig invited me to his house for fresh bacon!” But he then explains that his experience with the brotherhood and philosophies of Fraternus have really helped him in his own life, and help men and boys in general reclaim the spirit of virtue and greatness. “Men and fatherhood in general are just too underrated, but we can look around today and see how much we need more virtuous men.”
