Fr. John is President and CEO of Life Directions, an organization working in Public High Schools and among young adults to develop a hunger for positive values and spirituality. He co-founded Life Directions in 1973 with four other concerned Detroiters. The work has impacted over 168,000 young adults in six areas of the country. He has spent his life working among the economically challenged. He is the Pastor of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church with 40,000 people within its boundaries.
Annette Howard is Director of Training at Life Directions. Her primary responsibility is the supervisory and management of programs and overseeing training. Annette has been employed with Life Directions since 2013. She’s involved with the implementation and delivery of the Peer Motivation and Peer Mentor Programs for Middle and High School Students as well as the Summer Youth Employment Program, and oversees training through the Life Directions Training Center.
Rev. G. Alex Steinmiller is a missionary, belonging to the Passionist Congregation of the U.S. In June of 1970 when he was ordained, he was assigned to Detroit, Michigan to participate in conducting retreats with young adults, laymen and married couples.
For 44 years he has been affiliated with Life Directions, which he co-founded, an outreach program to facilitate productive relationships between higher achieving young adults and their lower achieving peers. His work included weekly group work in public schools and in the surrounding neighborhoods with adults in their 20’s and 30’s. In 2006, he was the founding president of Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School in Birmingham, Alabama. Upon his retirement from the school he pastored a multi-cultural parish for three years. He now resides, again, in Detroit working with Life Directions and assisting at St. Paul of the Cross Retreat Center.
He has travelled through southern India four times visiting Passionist missions, and has worked with fellow Passionists in Brazil.
Fr. Steinmiller holds an MA degree in Theology from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.