Our Staff

Adrianna Melnyk ,
Vice President of Advancement

Adrianna Melnyk joined Commonweal in July 2020. Adrianna has held senior development positions at Maryknoll Lay Missioners, Hospice Care in Westchester and Putnam, and the Orange Circle, a New-York based NGO. She serves on the board of directors of the Ukrainian Institute of America, and is a member of the Advisory Council for the Ukrainian Catholic University Foundation. She is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.

Claudia Avila Cosnahan ,
Mission & Partnerships Director

Claudia Avila Cosnahan joined Commonweal in 2019, first as a consultant and project manager, then, in 2021 as Mission and Partnerships Director. She was educated at UCLA and Loyola Marymount University where she received a master’s degree in pastoral theology focusing on US Latinx theology, sociological/cultural context of ministry, and spirituality. She is a pastoral consultant and instructor in adult formation in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and surrounding dioceses and is on the coordinating and research committee for the National Conversation on Shared Parish Life. She has published articles and spiritual reflections in Liturgical Training Publications and Commonweal. Daughter of Mexican immigrants and originally from Fontana, CA, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband.

@AvilaCosnahan

Gabriella Wilke ,
Marketing & Audience Development Director

Gabriella Wilke joined Commonweal in 2017, first as an intern, then as a staff member in 2018. She is a graduate from the University of Minnesota, Morris, where she studied English with an emphasis in Medieval Studies. She and her husband live in the Bronx.

@gabriella_wilke

David Sankey ,
Production

David Sankey is an illustrator and designer based in Jersey City. He has worked with nonprofit organizations, publishers, farmers, literary magazines and arts initiatives. He first worked with Commonweal in 2017, began production of the magazine in 2020, and has created artwork for several covers.

@davidsankey

Mollie Wilson O’Reilly ,
Editor at Large

Mollie Wilson O’Reilly joined the Commonweal staff as an editor in 2008, and has been a columnist since 2015. She writes and speaks on culture, religion, and politics, with a particular interest in theater, women in the Church, and the ministry of Pope Francis. Mollie is a graduate of Yale University and lives in Westchester, NY, with her husband and four sons.

@MollieOReilly

Max Foley-Keene ,
Social Media Coordinator

Max Foley-Keene is a doctoral student in political science at Brown University, where he studies political ecology and liberation theology. He is a former Commonweal intern. A proud Maryland native, Max works from Providence.

@MaxFoleyKeene

Susanne Washburn ,
Copy Editor

Susanne Washburn has served Commonweal since 1999. Prior to that she spent thirty-six years on Time, the last long stretch as a senior reporter. An English literature major at Albertus Magnus College, she has an M.A. from New York University. She has published in Stratton and Vermont magazines as well as Commonweal, National Catholic Reporter, and Today's American Catholic. Her Commonweal copyediting is done from her home in Dorset, Vermont. She and her late husband, lawyer Larry Washburn, are the parents of three and grandparents of two.

David Dault ,
Podcast Editor

David Dault edits The Commonweal Podcast, and produces podcasts for clients across the country through his company, Sandburg Media. He hosts the weekly radio show Things Not Seen: Conversations about Culture and Faith and co-hosts The Francis Effect podcast with Fr. Daniel P. Horan and National Catholic Reporter editor Heidi Schlumpf. He is Assistant Professor of Christian Spirituality at the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago. David is the author of the forthcoming books The Covert Magisterium (Lexington) and The Accessorized Bible (Yale). He lives with his family in Hyde Park, on Chicago's south side.

@DaultRadio

Paul Baumann ,
Senior Writer

Paul Baumann came to Commonweal in 1990 and was editor for fifteen years, 2003-2018. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Monthly, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Chicago Tribune, and other publications. With Patrick Jordan, he is the editor of Commonweal Confronts the Century: Liberal Convictions, Catholic Tradition - Celebrating Seventy-Five Years from the Pages of Commonweal (Touchstone).

Rand Richards Cooper ,
Contributing Editor

Rand Richards Cooper is the author of two works of fiction, The Last to Go and Big As Life. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, GQ, Esquire, the Atlantic, and in Best American Short Stories. He has been Writer-in-Residence at Amherst and Emerson colleges. A longtime contributor to Bon Appétit and the New York Times, Rand lives in Hartford, CT with his wife, Molly, and daughter, Larkin. He is the restaurant critic for the Hartford Courant and has been a film reviewer, book reviewer and essayist for Commonweal for over two decades.

Must Reads

Politics

Donald Trump's New York

Maggie Haberman's book shows how Donald Trump’s New York experience set the context for his odd and sometimes dangerous presidential style.

By Paul Moses

February 20, 2023

Religion

The Anti-Francis Gatekeepers

The death of Cardinal Pell exposed conservative Catholic efforts to secure the reversal of the Francis agenda at the next conclave.

By Austen Ivereigh

January 27, 2023

Culture

Alone in the City

Edward Hopper’s paintings created a New York that conformed to the contours of his own life. His lonely characters strike a familiar chord for any city dweller.

By Robert Rubsam

February 9, 2023