​What is the Parish Finance Council (PFC)? 

The Parish Finance Council (PFC) is a consultative body that assists the pastor in the administration of parish financial matters. The pastor is accountable to both the parish and the diocesan bishop for the stewardship and administration of the parish’s temporal and financial goods. An active and well-informed Finance Council is essential to promoting the parish’s financial health and supporting its mission.

The PFC meets monthly to review parish financial statements and to provide counsel on matters of financial stewardship presented by the pastor. In addition, the PFC offers input and oversight on the parish’s annual budget, which is prepared by the Director of Parish Operations in collaboration with the Archdiocese.

View the St. John XXIII Finance Council Guidelines

CLICK HERE for the FY 2026 Mid-Year Report
CLICK HERE for the FY 2025-2026 Parish Budget!

Download the FY 2024-2025 Annual Report:

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Who are we?
Brian Bigelow

Brian has been a Catholic since 1997 and a member of St. Mary since 2007. He has a degree in accounting and an MBA in business and has 30 years of experience in the accounting and finance industries.  Brian has a strong desire to do the best for our parish by sharing his experience in finance. 
Tom Connolly
 
Tom Connolly and his wife Mary are re-joining St. John XXIII parish after having been members of St. John Henry Newman Parish in Evanston. Tom has a bachelor's degree in Accounting from Carrol University and a MBA and JD from DePaul University. Tom has been a tax lawyer for more than 30 years.​
Mary Doucette
 
​Mary and her husband are new to St. John XXIII Parish.  She is the treasurer of the Peace and Justice Committee and has been looking for additional ways to get involved.  Mary served on the Finance Council for St. Francis Xavier in Wilmette before joining St. John XXIII.  She has an MBA from the University of Chicago with concentrations in both finance and statistics and has worked in the financial services industry for more than 30 years.  She is currently a member of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners Board of Directors and chairs the Finance Committee of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners Foundation Board.  Mary also volunteers for the Booth Alumni Nonprofit Consultants (BANC).  This spring Mary will lead a project with Catholic Charities.  Mary and her husband believe that it is important to support organizations by sharing their time, talent, and treasure.
Mary Erickson
 
Mary is a long-time parishioner at St. Nicholas and has served in many parish ministries and activities, including the Mardi Gras Party, the Rummage Sale, the Stephen Ministry, and the St. John XXIII Evangelization Committee. Mary has an MBA from Northwestern University and has passed the CPA exam. (She was a certified Registered Agent with the IRS.)  Her professional experience includes financial management in both the private and nonprofit sectors and work as an accountant and in professional tax preparation.
​Annie Kvasnicka

Annie Kvasnicka has been a parishioner of St. John XXIII and a Pope John XXIII parent since moving to Evanston in 2022. She works in finance and has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Suzanne Lefevre
Chairperson
 
Originally from Southern California, Suzanne has been living with her husband, Tom Lenz, in Evanston since 1989.  They joined St. Nicholas soon after moving here and raised three sons, who are now young adults, in the parish.  During these years she has served on the baptism ministry team and was a religious education catechist, a Eucharistic minister, and a St. Nick’s Fest volunteer.  From 2007 to 2014, she was on the parish staff as the Business Manager.  Her professional career includes positions in finance and accounting in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.  She continues to work part time doing accounting work for small nonprofits in the Chicago area.
​John Muller

John joined St. John XXIII in April, 2025, when he and his wife Debbie moved to Evanston after 20 years in Deerfield.  John served on the Holy Cross Parish Finance Council there for over ten years.  After receiving his MBA, John had a 24-year career in marketing, finance, strategy, and consulting before buying a local small business, which he then ran for 13 years until selling it and retiring in 2024.  His consulting projects included work for the Archdiocese of Chicago school system in 1998 and helping to work on the Archdiocese strategic plan in 2010.  John and Debbie have two grown daughters.
Laura Pigozzi

​Laura and her husband, Bob, are current parishioners of St. John XXIII. They were previously members of St. Mary’s before moving from Evanston to Minneapolis in 1986, and they returned to Evanston—and to the parish—in 2022. Laura and Bob are the parents of four grown sons and the grandparents of two granddaughters.

​Laura joined the faculty at Northwestern University in 2018. She holds a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois and a PhD in Rhetoric and Scientific & Technical Communication from the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on health communication within the immigrant Latino community. While living in Minnesota, Laura served her parish on the finance committee, stewardship committee, and parish council. She is grateful for the opportunity to begin serving the St. John XXIII community.
​Karen Przypyszny
Secretary​

Karen has been a member of St. Nicholas for more than 22 years.  Her son attended Pope John XXIII School, graduating in 2015.  While he was a student at the school, Karen was involved in the school board and headed the finance committee, which created the annual budgets for the school.  As her background is in community development finance, she understands the balance sheets for nonprofit organizations.  Karen is a lector at St. Nicholas and for three years served on the Winter Parish Party committee.  She believes that the Parish Finance Council is a good opportunity to contribute and use her finance skills.
Bernard Wall

Bernie recently moved back to Evanston from Chicago and re-joined our Parish.  He is a retired lawyer.  Bernie’s daughter and her family are longtime members of the Parish.​
Michael Ward

Michael, an attorney, and his wife Amy, a teacher, have been parishioners since joining St. Nicholas Church in 1977. Their two sons and a daughter-in-law are graduates of Pope John XXIII School, where a granddaughter now attends. At St. Nicholas, Mike has served the parish with the New Horizons Youth Group, the school board, the parish finance council, the church renovation committee and the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He is also a member of the Cardinal’s Council for Catholic Charities of Chicago. 

    Contact the Parish Finance Council