The Restorative Justice Team

Justice Janine Geske

Justice Janine P. Geske is a former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice and Marquette Law School Professor who has led conversations on restorative justice at the Vatican and throughout the world.

Justice Geske served as a Distinguished Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School and Director of the Law School's Restorative Justice Initiative. She currently is a member of the Marquette University Board of Trustees. In the fall of 2011, she served as a Visiting Professor of law at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium in Restorative Justice at its Institute of Criminology.  She previously served on the Wisconsin Supreme Court from 1993-1998. From 1981-1993, she was a Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge. Prior to becoming a judge, she served as chief staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee and then as clinical director and assistant professor of law at Marquette University. She frequently teaches at judicial, legal and community conferences on mediation, restorative justice, sentencing, evidence, the courts, and spirituality and work. Judge Geske's complete bio is available here.

Father Daniel Griffith

Father Daniel Griffith was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 2001. In addition to serving as pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes he serves on the faculty of the St. Thomas University School of Law, and serves as the Liaison for Restorative Justice and Healing for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.  In 2017, he was named the inaugural Wenger Family Faculty Fellow of Law at St. Thomas. 

During his priestly ministry in the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis, Fr. Griffith he has also served in a number of council and chaplain roles, and most recently as Archdiocesan Delegate for Safe Environment. During his work as a lawyer, Fr. Griffith has represented clients pro bono in the areas of criminal and immigration law and has taught a number of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) courses.

Father Griffith has spoken on the topic of restorative justice at the University of Arizona School of Law in Arizona; the Oblate School of Theology in Texas: and the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minnesota. Father Griffith's complete bio can be found here.

Timothy O'Malley

Timothy J. O’Malley is the Director of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The creation of this new position was one of the key recommendations called for in the independent Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force Report and Recommendations in April 2014. 

His background includes ove 30 years in local law enforcement, the FBI, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the judicial system. In his role in the Archdiocese, O'Malley has assembled a team of law enforcement leaders that has reviewed hundreds of abuse files from the past 60 years. Their research laid the foundation for what is now seen as one of the nation’s most comprehensive archdiocesan child-protection systems. Mr. O'Malley's complete bio can be found here.

Mark Umbriet, PhD.

Dr. Umbriet serves as Director of the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota. He specializes in facilitating a dialogue between family survivors/victims of severe violence, primarily homicide, and the offender. Dr. Umbreit also serves on the faculty of the Center for Spirituality and Healing in the U. of M. Duluth, Academic Health Center, teaching courses on Peacemaking & Spirituality, and Forgiveness & Healing.

He is an internationally recognized practitioner and scholar with more than 35 years of experience as a mediator, trainer, researcher and author of six books and more than 130 articles, book chapters, and monographs in the fields of restorative justice, mediation, and peacemaking. Dr. Umbreit has conducted numerous multi-site and cross-national studies of restorative justice and victim offender mediation. His most recent book is Facing Violence: The Path of Restorative Justice & Dialogue and it reports on the first multi-site study of victim offender mediation and dialogue in crimes of severe violence, primarily homicide. Dr. Umbriet's complete bio can be found here.

Paula Kaempffer

Paula Kaempffer has served as Outreach Coordinator for Restorative Justice and Abuse Prevention for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis since 2019. Kaempffer began in Catholic Church ministry more than 40 years ago, her last 12 as director of learning at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. Kaempffer said opportunities to discuss the impact of clergy abuse are important for victims/survivors and others across the archdiocese. A survivor of clergy sexual abuse she suffered as an adult working in the Church, Kaempffer said she knows firsthand about the kind of healing that can take place.  She coordinates ongoing monthly support group meetings for victim/survivors and for families of those who have been abused. Contact Kaempffer at 651-291-4429 for more information.

Julie Craven

Julie Craven currently serves as Director of Communications and Strategic Initiatives at Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Minneapolis, and supports restorative justice and healing work in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Following a career in marketing and communications, this former executive and communications expert speaks to secondary trauma and the ripple effects of harm in the Church and in communities. She has completed training in restorative justice and circle practices with the Minnesota Peacebuilding Initiative, Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation, and the University of San Diego. She is pursuing a graduate degree in Restorative Justice at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. Her complete bio can be found here.