Archbishop William E. Lori announced the appointment March 28 of David W. Kinkopf as the next executive director of Catholic Charities of Baltimore.
Kinkopf, 57, will take on the role July 1, although he plans to begin transition duties in May. He will succeed William J. “Bill” McCarthy Jr., who has been executive director since 2009 and who announced last year that he would retire in 2025.
Catholic Charities of Baltimore is the largest private provider of human services in Maryland, second only to the state government itself. It comprises more than 80 programs in 200 locations.
Kinkopf is currently a partner at the Baltimore law firm of Gallagher Evelius & Jones, which he joined in 1995. At the firm, he has been the primary point of contact for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Catholic Charities and other Catholic institutions. The firm also represents other nonprofit and for-profit entities.
Archbishop Lori, who is also chairman of the Board of Trustees of Catholic Charities of Baltimore, said, “I’ve been blessed to work closely with Dave through the years, and I’ve come to know him well. A parishioner of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, he is devoted to his Catholic faith. He has a heart for the poor and the marginalized.
“Dave is a gifted and energetic leader of the highest integrity. He has admirably served both the Catholic community and the civic community, and I look forward to his leadership of Catholic Charities of Baltimore in the years ahead,” the archbishop said.
Kinkopf called the new role a continuation of the work he has been doing in the greater Baltimore community.
“I’ve been privileged to work as a lawyer with Catholic Charities and the archdiocese and so many other great institutions, and to me, it’s just the next step in taking that dedication to service and to the community,” Kinkopf told the Catholic Review. He said he will build on the relationships and skills he has developed over the years to “put those to the service of the mission of Catholic Charities.”
His connection to the agency goes back to his early years in Baltimore when he was a law clerk for a federal district court judge. He heard about a position at a law firm, and one of the things the firm did was introduce him to Hal Smith, who was then-director of Catholic Charities of Baltimore, and Bishop W. Francis Malooly, then an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese.
The conversation focused on the role of Catholic Charities and the archdiocese in the community and how the law firm was a partner in that work.
“I thought, wow, if I could be a part of that mission of serving and sharing God’s love with those in need in the Baltimore and Maryland communities – just to be a small part of that, as a lawyer, that would be really rewarding and it’s a major part of why I came to this law firm. … I’ve been privileged to be able to do it for approaching 30 years now,” Kinkopf said.
He noted that his predecessors – Smith who served for 34 years and McCarthy for 16 – each brought different gifts to the role, and he will too. “I’ve had the opportunity to serve with a lot of great Baltimore institutions and on the boards of a lot of great institutions, and I’ve learned a lot from a lot of great leaders in town,” he said.
Such connections are vitally important, he said, noting that he is “humbled” to join the 1,700 employees of the agency “in the incredible work they do every day to serve Marylanders in need.”
The agency relies on partnerships with other organizations, some 10,000 donors and 4,000 volunteers. “We can only do the great work that we do in collaboration and partnership with so many other people who also believe deeply in the mission and the effective work of Catholic Charities,” Kinkopf said.
He said he has already convinced McCarthy to stay accessible and involved as appropriate as he moves into retirement. “He’s one of those partners that we will need to keep engaged for our future success,” Kinkopf said.
McCarthy, who was not involved in the search committee for his successor, said he is “thrilled and super excited” about the choice. Ironically, Kinkopf was a member of the search committee that selected McCarthy to run the agency in 2009.
McCarthy, also a lawyer and businessman before coming to the agency, said that being counsel for Catholic Charities and being its executive director are different but complementary roles. He believes Kinkopf can meld the roles with an edge to strategically looking to the future. “I think of what is essential for being an effective leader: an incredible passion and love for the mission in our community, as well as the church. And Dave has those things,” he said, “relationships, passion for the mission, technical expertise.”
Although Catholic Charities had only two executive directors for the last 50 years of its 100-year history, McCarthy said, “Dave brings his skills, perspective and insight at a time that the agency needs it most, so it’s kind of a natural that Dave, as the leader and the person he is, is well positioned to lead Catholic Charities to new heights going forward.”
McCarthy said the love for Catholic Charities is in the DNA of the Kinkopf family. In addition to Kinkopf’s work as counsel and on the board of Catholic Charities, his wife, Kristen, worked for the agency for 16 years, including as its first director of mission integration.
Daniel Rizzo, president of the Catholic Charities Board and member of the committee that conducted the nationwide search, said, “I have had the pleasure of working with Dave on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations in Baltimore and appreciate how deeply committed he is to improving the lives of our neighbors in need and making our community.”
Kinkopf said that although he knows many of the people at Catholic Charities from his work with the agency over more than two decades, he plans to do a lot of listening and learning.
“I’ve been inspired by the people working there and their dedication and how effective they are in providing loving services to Marylanders in need and for building the well-deserved reputation they have for excellence,” he said.
At the same time, however, it’s a dynamic time for social services, which does not allow for complacency. “We don’t have the luxury of kind of waiting and just being only in listening mode,” Kinkopf said.
“Now is a challenging time for many of our neighbors and now the work is just more important than ever. But Catholic Charities has the Gospel-inspired mission, and they have the colleagues, the board and the partners to really meet the moment,” he said.
“We have to be a source of stability and support for our neighbors, doing as much as we can, and we’re planning to be able to do that. I know we’ll get through these challenging times together.”
Kinkopf served for five years as a regent for the University System of Maryland, which employs more than 35,000 faculty and staff and has an annual budget of more than $7 billion.
According to a news release, Kinkopf’s passion for service and the pursuit of justice took root during his undergraduate years at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., after which he spent a year as a community volunteer at a soup kitchen and education/job training hub in Cataño, Puerto Rico, outside of San Juan. Following that service work, Kinkopf attended Harvard Law School and then clerked for Chief U.S. District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz in Baltimore before joining the Gallagher law firm.
He and his wife have three children, all of whom have attended Catholic schools from grade school through college, except the youngest, who is still in high school.
Dave and Kristen served the archdiocese as co-chairs of the 2018 Annual Appeal for Catholic Ministries. Kinkopf has also served on numerous charitable boards and foundations including the Crane Family Foundation, the O’Neill Health Care Fund, the Sheppard Pratt Health System and Foundation, and the Baltimore Equitable Insurance Foundation.
Email Christopher Gunty at editor@CatholicReview.org.
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