Originally from Ohio, Donna Orsuto is the Co-founder and Director of the Lay Centre. She is also a Professor at the Institute of Spirituality of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, and a Adjunct Professor of the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). She lectures extensively and gives retreats in various parts of the world. Her most recent book is entitled Holiness (London: Continuum 2006). She is involved in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, having served as a consultor for the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and as a member of the Commission for Ecumenism and Dialogue of the Diocese of Rome. On 7 October 2011, Pope Benedict XVI named her a Dame of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of Saint Gregory the Great.
Donna Orsuto’s topic for 2015 Carmelite Symposium is “ Leadership in Tough Times:  Revisiting  St. Teresa of Avila’s Book of her Foundations.”
This paper would build on the November presentation  *See  Marc Foley, OCD,  St. Teresa of Avila: The Book of Her Foundations, A Study Guide (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, revised edition 2012), introduction.