Archbishop Cupich makes new staff appointments

On March 31 Archbishop Cupich announced the appointment of four new leaders for the Archdiocese of Chicago: Father Ronald Lewinski and Father Peter Wojcik have been appointed co-directors for the Department of Parish Life and Formation, effective May 2, upon the retirement of Msgr. Richard Hynes; John Osterlund has been named chief development officer for the Department of Stewardship and Development, effective May 16; and Eric Wollan has been appointed director of capital assets, overseeing the Real Estate and Facilities areas, effective April 11.

“I am very pleased to have such strong and talented directors join our team as we launch Renew My Church, and take up the task of shaping the future of our ministry and service to our 2.2 million Catholics in Cook and Lake Counties, our parishes and the more than 9 million people in the greater Chicago area,” said Archbishop Cupich. “Their proven expertise will contribute greatly to our efforts in moving forward as a community of faith and service.”

Father Ronald Lewinski was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1972. In his current role, he serves as the archbishop’s delegate for parish transformation and as dean for Vicariate I-A.

Prior to his current ministry, Lewinski served as pastor of St. Mary of the Annunciation Parish in Mundelein, where he built a new church and pastoral center and was instrumental in founding Frassati Catholic Academy, a regional Catholic Middle School in Lake County.

Lewinski has also served as an adjunct instructor at Mundelein Seminary and as the director of the Office for Divine Worship. He is respected as a pioneer in the pastoral implementation of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and is an author and frequent speaker on liturgy and pastoral life around the country and internationally. The National Catholic Education Association named him Pastor of the Year in 2012.

Father Peter Wojcik currently serves as director of the archdiocesan Office for Catechesis and Youth Ministry. He is a former regional director for the Office of Catholic Schools. He also serves as adjunct faculty at Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business and as chaplain at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital.

He was ordained in the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2008 and is a resident at St. Clement Parish in Lincoln Park. Wojcik has been an Accreditation Board Member for the University of St. Mary of the Lake and has served as executive secretary of the Priest Council. He holds a master of business administration with a focus in strategy from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Master of Divinity in theology from the University of St. Mary of the Lake.

John Osterlund joins the Archdiocese of Chicago from the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, where he served as general manager and chief development officer and managed Rotary’s Challenge to End Polio Now, which raised more than $228 million.

A native of Oak Park, Osterlund grew up in Sebring, Florida. After graduating from the University of South Florida with a bachelor’s degree in political science, he was awarded a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship and was placed at the University of Stockholm, where he did a year of graduate research on Sweden’s social welfare system. Osterlund received a master’s degree in history education from Florida State University.

Eric Wollan joins the archdiocese as director of capital assets. In this role, he will help develop an overall real-estate strategy for the archdiocese and will oversee real-estate transactions and facilities management. Wollan brings more than 25 years of broad real-estate experience to the archdiocese that includes acquisitions and dispositions, portfolio and asset management, investment strategy, client relations and capital raising.

Mostly recently, he oversaw a real-estate group at Byline Bank, directing the sale and management of the bank’s owned real-estate portfolio. Previously, he was a vice president at Citigroup, responsible for real-estate acquisitions and joint ventures, and was a vice president of acquisitions and portfolio management at the RREEF Funds, a large institutional real-estate investment advisor, where he was responsible for acquisitions, portfolio management and asset sales.

Wollan has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University and a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.