MILWAUKEE — Sean Lansing is the new executive director of “Tomorrow’s Present,” a youth leadership development program that works in collaboration with the House of Peace and Cardinal Stritch University’s Leadership Center, according to a June 2 Cardinal Stritch press release. An anonymous donor’s gift will make “Tomorrow’s Present” part of the Leadership Center.
According to the press release, “The gift was made to ensure that Tomorrow’s Present found a permanent home when Dr. Lisa Calderone-Stewart, the organization’s founder and an alumna of Stritch’s Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies, passes away.”
Calderone-Stewart, who founded “Tomorrow’s Present” in 1999 with a grant from the Lilly Foundation, has been running the program since she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in June 2009. Recently, the cancer, which has spread to her abdomen, lungs, liver, bile duct and bone marrow, has left her unable to continue her ministry.
In a June 10 e-mail from Calderone-Stewart, she said she is moving in with her younger brother who will care for her. “With all of the unknowns ahead of me, I can’t help but feel blessed that I had these few extra months to say good-bye to all the people I love….” she said in an e-mail written past her doctor’s predicted six months since her diagnosis. “My 13 years in Milwaukee have meant so much to me … it has really been a marvelous place to live, to work, and to pray.”
Lansing, previously a coordinator for youth ministry services at the Center for Ministry Development and a youth minister for the Central City Catholic Parishes in Milwaukee, will assume Calderone-Stewart’s position Aug. 1.
