VOTF Board of Trustees

Trustees serve terms of three years, and may serve for two consecutive three-year terms. A total of 11 trustees may be appointed and elected.

Some seats are reserved for specific functions. Thus, the current Chair and immediate Past Chair of VOTF fill two positions.

Bylaws (as amended June 2020)

Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

Board members serving today are:

  • Mary Pat Fox, Chair
  • David Castaldi
  • Joseph H. Feitelberg
  • Svea Fraser
  • Elia Marnik
  • Bradley A. Pritts
  • John Salvati

See board member biographies below.

David Castaldi

David is a founding member of VOTF who served as Chair of the Board from 2005-2007 and returned to the Board in 2022. He served as Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer for the Archdiocese of Boston from 2000 to 2001, on the board of trustees at St. John’s Seminary from 2000 to 2013, and headed the Parish Reconfiguration Oversight Committee from 2003 to 2005.

In his business life, David has served as president, vice president, CEO, and director of operations for various corporations involved in precision-instrument manufacturing, medical device operation and production, skin-cell regeneration to treat burn victims, and biological pharmaceuticals. David also has been a founder of the firms Harbus Investments, BioSurface Technology Inc., and Cadent Medical Corp. He has served as advisor to several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. He has served on the boards of the American Red Cross, the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and Nabi Pharmaceuticals.

David earned his finance and accounting degree at the University of Notre Dame and his MBA at Harvard Business School. During his U.S. Army service, he taught military accounting at the Army Finance School.

David currently resides with wife Judy in Chestnut Hills, Mass.

John V. Salvati

I am originally from Lawrence, MA, now living in Evergreen, CO, having lived the greater portion of my life in Wellesley, MA. A graduate of Central Catholic High School in Lawrence and Merrimack College in North Andover, I attended graduate school in Public Administration at the University of Connecticut. Since retirement, I have continued to study theology at both the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College and the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago; I am registered as a non-degree student at both.

My working life included 23 years in Massachusetts state government, the last 12+ in child protective services at the Department of Social Services. From state government, I spent eight years as a research assistant at Brandeis University, involved in management training programs, as well as consultation with tax-exempt organizations, largely in financial management. My last 14 years of active work were as the CFO of MAB Community Services in Brookline, MA, a multi-service organization working with brain-injured/diseased adolescents, developmentally disabled adults, and people suffering from low and deteriorating vision.  

Most joyfully, I continue to coach Little League with my grandson. I have been a member of the Board of VOTF since 2021.

Joseph H. Feitelberg

My interest in VOTF was created when I attended my first annual meeting in 2018.

The Diocesan Transparency report was the key factor that captured my attention. My faith has anchored my life despite the turmoil of the last 25 years.

I grew up in the Diocese of Fall River where one of the first cases of sexual abuse was disclosed. Seven years of Jesuit education at both the high school and college (College of the Holy Cross, 1956) level had a major influence on my life. My wife Sheila, a born and bred New Yorker, shared my interest in our Church. We were blessed with six children who have remained faithful to the Eucharist.

Together, we became members of the Order of Malta in 1954 and regularly worked at the Lourdes Shrine. The U.S. Navy also seriously impacted our lives. My business experience introduced me to the processes of Continuous Improvement where one learns that bottom up is as important as top down.

The presence of Pope Francis has significantly reassured me that our Church challenges are fixable because of his commitment to the core values of Vatican II. It also seems clear that it will take another 50 years to get us to where we need to be.

Thus, my interest is to work with VOTF’s leadership and recruit younger trustees who can follow through on their current restore and renewal process for our Church.

Svea Fraser

I grew up on the banks of a river in Glastonbury, Connecticut. The day after graduation from the University of Connecticut, I left for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Turkey. The 52 years since then have been filled by: marriage to an adventurous husband; two blessedly wonderful daughters and six grandchildren; and living around the world (Switzerland for one year, Australia for seven years – where I worked in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne Office for Worship; and Singapore for two years – where I volunteered in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore Family Life Office. We also lived aboard a 47-foot sailboat for four years.

Initially settling in Wellesley, Massachusetts, we returned home time and again and accomplished the following: resettling refugees by forming Friends of Southeast Asian Refugees, Inc. (a 501c3 non-profit organization); studies at ANTS (four years), Hebrew College (two years for a Meah certificate), and earning an M.Div. degree at Pope Saint John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts (I am the second and last woman to have done so. Sr. Shirley Nugent, SCN, was two years ahead of me. I always say her name); and four years as the first Catholic woman “Chaplain” at Wellesley College.

I also was one of the founders of Voice of the Faithful in 2002 and am a current trustee. At VOTF, I was the first coordinator of the Working Group for the Second Goal: Priest Support. Then I shifted my focus to the role of women in the Church, while continuing efforts on behalf of collaborative ministry for clergy and laity to work together for renewal. Currently, I am leading the Women’s Emerging Voices Working Group, which is now identified as a National Deacon Circle, partnering with our friends in Discerning Deacons (discerningdeacons.org).

For the past 20 years, I have served as coordinator/catechist for RCIA (now OCIA) for St. John/St. Paul Collaborative in Wellesley.

My hobbies include walking – hundreds of miles on the Camino de Santiago three times; sailing – although I prefer being on land where I am always happy riding other people’s horses (three times a week).

Thanks be to God!

Bradley A. Pritts

Bradley (Brad) A. Pritts has been an active member of St. Mary’s Student Parish in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a Jesuit-operated parish with a special ministry to students and faculty of the University of Michigan. He has served on the Parish Pastoral Council several times, as well as being a long-term volunteer in the music ministry and serving several years as chair of the Family Education leadership team. He has been a VOTF member since 2006, including several years service on the Financial Accountability team. Financial Accountability and Structural Change are several of his key interests. He looks forward to increasing his activity with VOTF as retirement frees up more of his time. 

He currently serves as a founding board member of Vineyard Village, a startup nonprofit with the goal of creating employment and training opportunities for the formerly incarcerated and the recovery community. Vineyard operates the Fresh Start coffee shop in Monroe, Michigan, opened in 2019. Brad has also served as board member of the Saline Area Players community theater group and the Orchard Hills/Maplewood Homeowners’ Association, and as an adult leader for the local Boy Scouts of America. 

Brad has been married to wife Susan A. Pritts since 1976 and has one adult son. 

Brad works as a self-employed management consultant with more than 40 years experience specializing in quality and engineering management. His primary areas of focus have included quality management for imports from China as well as quality/regulatory compliance management systems. (Ask him for a war story or two about his travels to China, if you dare!) He is currently in a phased retirement.

Brad earned his B.S. in Computer Science at Ohio State University and M.B.A. from the University of Michigan. He resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.