Meet Our Director
Welcome to Catholic Charities!
Cathy Weightman-Moore has been named the new director of Catholic Charities Administration and will assume her duties in that position officially on Jan. 4, 2021.
Weightman-Moore is familiar to many in the Diocese as she has spent her career in service to others as the director of the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program for the past 31 years. Before taking on the responsibility as Program Director and Regional Ombudsman she spent four years as a case worker in the Catholic Charities Foster Care Program.
“I am grateful to Bishop Malloy and Msgr. Nelson for providing me the opportunity to take on this new role in Catholic Charities, and I am grateful to Pat Winn and my current and previous colleagues at Catholic Charities who have taught me so much about serving the people of God these past three decades.”
She holds an associate of arts degree from Rock Valley College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Cum Laude in sociology and social work from Loras College. She also completed the Illinois Gerontology Certification Program in 1998 at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Human Services with a concentration in Social Service Administration through the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Weightman-Moore received the Ombudsman of the Year Award in 2005 from the Illinois Department on Aging and was awarded the Culture Change Champion of the Year Award in 2017 from the Illinois Pioneer Coalition.
She holds numerous professional affiliations including being a Senior Issues Committee member of the Catholic Conference of Illinois; is a committee member with the 17th Judicial Circuit Family Violence Prevention Coordinating Council At Risk Adults; is a member of the Older Adult Services Advisory Committee (OASAC) as a Regional Ombudsman Representative and member of the OASAC Executive Committee.
“As I’m soaking this all in and clearing up files, I recently reread an Observer article that my mom had saved from the 1950s. Her parents, my grandparents, John and Margaret Clausen, were foster parents for Catholic Charities when Father McNally was the director. I had heard stories from my uncles when they reminisced about those days. I was moved by the article as it described the mission of Catholic Charities and the respect they had for the individuals and families they served. I could never have imagined that someday I would be responsible for leading this agency,” Weightman-Moore said.
As the new director, Weightman-Moore says she looks forward to “continuing the mission of Catholic Charities as we move into 2021 and beyond.”
Under the current administrative model, Weightman-Moore will be the first female director of the agency since it was organized by Bishop Francis Hoban in 1937.
