ESPAÑOL

New diocesan development director followed God’s call

Kelly Wewers worked at the Mount before rejoining the diocese

Published: June 13, 2024   

By Katie Zakrzewski
Associate Editor

Kelly Wewers, the diocese’s new development director, returned to work for the Diocese of Little Rock after 14 years at Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock. (Katie Zakrzewski)

Kelly Wewers, the diocese’s new development director, returned to work for the Diocese of Little Rock after 14 years at Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock. (Katie Zakrzewski)

Kelly Wewers has excelled in her career by following two things — the numbers and God’s will. 

The daughter of a banker, Wewers knew since she was a teenager that she was destined for a career in finance. 

“From the time I was 16 years old, I worked in a bank,” Wewers said. “I would go in after school and on weekends and during the summer in college.”

After receiving a degree in financial management from the University of Arkansas, she worked for Guaranty Bank in Dallas from 1990 to 1998, where she reached the position of North Texas Region Manager.

In 1996, she converted to Catholicism and moved from Texas to Little Rock — where she was born and raised — in 2002. Wewers and her husband, Eric, became parishioners at Christ the King Church in Little Rock. She began helping with fundraisers and events for the parish as she stayed at home to look after her three children, Logan, Claire and Luke. 

In 2008, she saw an ad in Arkansas Catholic announcing an opening for an administrative assistant in the Diocese of Little Rock’s finance office. 

“I just kept feeling this tug,” Wewers said. “My story’s all about discernment. I would pray, and I would look at the Arkansas Catholic the next week and I would say, ‘OK, if I’m supposed to do this, the ad will be in there. And it wasn’t there. But I just kept feeling like something was up, and I would keep praying about it. Then a couple months later, I opened up the Arkansas Catholic, and there was the ad again.”

Wewers was hired in 2008 as the administrative assistant for finance director Greg Wolfe. After helping with a string of successful fundraisers, Wewers’ efforts were noticed in the Catholic community. 

Just two years later, after organizing an auction and dinner at Catholic High School, where her oldest son was a student, Wewers began working for Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock as the director of special events and database manager. She then transitioned to being the financial administrator and financial and human resources manager. In all, she served at MSM for 14 years.

Then, earlier this year, Wewers felt that familiar tug once again. 

“I felt that tug, that maybe I was supposed to be doing something else,” Wewers said. “I prayed about it a lot.”

God called Wewers back to the diocese to use her new experiences and skills to assist with fundraising campaigns, including the diocese’s annual appeal, Catholic Arkansas Sharing Appeal. Wewers began working as the director of stewardship and development April 29.

She succeeds Dianne Brady, who retired in March. 

“The most important thing to me about being here is, I want to not only raise money, but I want to support the parishes and support the priests so that I can take things off their plate and help them reach the goals they want to reach,” Wewers said.

She hopes to bring dreams to life for Catholics across the state by helping them navigate the financial side of their goals. 

“I want people to be plugged into their parish … have people ask themselves, ‘How can I help build God’s kingdom?’” Wewers said.

As Wewers has followed God’s plans for her, she realized that each career step prepared her for the next thing God had planned for her. 

“Everything you’ve done in your life leading up to what you’re doing now was to prepare you,” she said. “I really feel like we all have a path. And if you stick to your prayers and really listen to the Holy Spirit, you’ll find your path and where you’re supposed to be. That’s all we can really ask for.”

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