Dr. Ann Mitsakos Bezzerides, Director of the Office of Vocation and Ministry (OVM) at Hellenic College Holy Cross (HCHC) for the last 15 years, addressed the Leadership 100 35th Anniversary Conference on Friday morning, February 22, 2019. She was introduced by long-time Leadership 100 member and former member of the Board of Trustees, Thomas L. Demakes. Helen Carlos, a current member of the Leadership 100 Board of Trustees also spoke in support of her ministry.  The OVM is most well-known for its CrossRoad Summer for Orthodox high school juniors and seniors, which hosts two sessions on our HCHC campus and now a third in Chicago.

Dr. Bezzerides related her personal experience and that of her family in Church youth activities in giving a background to the mission and purpose of CrossRoad, with personal testimonies to its effectiveness. The session went into overtime due to the interest of the audience.

The OVM also recently received a new $1.5 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to work with 14 parishes across the country to research and pilot initiatives in young adult ministry. Dr. Bezzerides teaches Youth Ministry at Holy Cross and is an editor and contributor to two volumes of collected essays that inform the OVM work: Christ at Work: Orthodox Christian Perspectives of Vocation and Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Higher Education. She is a graduate of Middlebury College (BA), St. Vladimir's Seminary (MDiv), and Boston College (PhD). She and her husband Vassilios, a pediatric cardiologist, have three boys and live in Brookline, MA.