ABOUT US
Frontline Catholic Formation renews Catholic education by forming educators who inspire students to discipleship by their authentic witness, after the heart of Christ the Teacher, transforming the frontline of education.
MISSION
A transformed Catholic education community where educators flourish as disciples on the path to holiness, inspiring students and building vibrant, mission-driven schools.
VISION
FRONTLINE CATHOLIC FORMATION
Frontline Catholic Formation (FCF) emerged from a pressing need in Catholic education: empowering frontline educators with personalized spiritual growth, rather than settling for generic professional development that ignores holistic formation. Founded by Jim Owens, a Catholic behavioral scientist with over 20 years in education and clinical practice, FCF bridges these gaps by focusing forming teachers as whole persons.
At its heart is the CEPHAS-45 Assessment, which delivers individualized reports mapping strengths and growth areas across three core domains—Love of God, Love of Neighbor, and Love of Self—in both cognitive understanding and affective experience.
Building on this insight, educators access the FRONTLINE FORUM, a tailored web platform for formation, productivity, and community. It offers a rich library of spiritual practices and exercises, guiding teachers toward integrated lives of faith, peace, and fulfillment.
Ultimately, FCF transforms educators into authentic disciples, curbing burnout, invigorating classrooms, and inspiring students to holiness. Administrators gain anonymized data to refine school strategies, featuring easy implementation, scalable costs, and seamless diocesan alignment. FCF renews Catholic schools by empowering thriving educators who live out the Gospel and nurture dynamic faith communities.
MEET OUR TEAM
JIM OWENS, FOUNDER
COUNSELOR, PROFESSOR & PhD CANDIDATE
Jim Owens is a counselor, professor, and PhD candidate who has spent over twenty years helping people integrate their faith with the messy, beautiful work of becoming fully human. With graduate degrees in both Counseling and Theology—and currently a PhD candidate in Christian Counseling—he researches and writes about the intersectionality of Theology and Psychology to help people discover how to heal their broken relationships with God, their friends and family, and themselves.
For more than two decades, Jim taught graduate courses in counseling and psychology at Siena Heights University, a Dominican Catholic institution, where he mentored and formed hundreds of counselors in the integration of faith and reason. As a licensed counselor, he continues to support the healing of people from all walks of life—married couples, youth, adults of all ages, and religious priests, brothers, and sisters, for whom he feels a special calling to serve.
Jim's work has reached beyond the classroom and clinic: Lighthouse Catholic Media published his Crisis of Happiness lecture, and he served as a featured expert in the Augustine Institute's The Search series, hosted by Chris Stefanick. He's also the author of Divine Relationships: A Counselor's Guide to Loving God, Neighbor, and Self, which draws from behavioral science, Scripture, and the wisdom of the saints to show how our relationship with God transforms every other relationship in our lives.
Through Frontline Catholic Formation, Jim brings a researcher's precision and a counselor's heart to his deepest passion: forming the youth of this world by first forming the educators who shape them. He believes renewal starts with transformed hearts, not technique alone.
Jim lives in Michigan with his wife, a Catholic high school science teacher, and his son, who reminds him daily that formation is always personal, relational, and lived one day at a time.
DOMINIC IOCCO, CATHOLIC LEADERSHIP ADVISOR
PRESIDENT, LANSING CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL (Lansing, Michigan)
Dominic Iocco is a dedicated Catholic educator, leader, and entrepreneur with a deep passion for renewing Catholic schools through the spiritual and human formation of teachers.
Currently serving as President of Lansing Catholic High School in the Diocese of Lansing, Dominic has led efforts to strengthen mission alignment, foster authentic community, and integrate faith deeply into school culture. Under his leadership, the school has seen renewed emphasis on forming students as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.
Prior to his role in secondary education, Dominic spent years in Catholic higher education as Provost and Professor of Business and New Media at John Paul the Great Catholic University in San Diego. There, he helped build innovative programs blending professional excellence with spiritual formation, preparing students to impact culture through media, business, and technology.
With a background that spans successful business ventures, digital marketing, and academic leadership, Dominic brings a unique blend of entrepreneurial vision and pastoral sensitivity to the challenge of Catholic school renewal. A revert to the faith—inspired profoundly by Pope Saint John Paul II—he is committed to the truth that true educational renewal begins not with programs or curriculum, but with forming the hearts of the adults who serve in schools.
Dominic is the author of 30 Days to Reclaim Your Life: Boot Camp for the Catholic Man in the Digital Age. He and his wife are blessed with nine children and live on a small farm in Michigan.
BRIAN FINK, EDUCATIONAL ADVISOR
TEACHER, RESURRECTION SCHOOL (Lansing, Michigan)
Brian Fink herds middle-schoolers and milk goats in and around Lansing, MI. He and his dear wife Sarah live on a small hobby farm where they raise all manner of domesticated animals, including a brood of six small and medium-sized humans. He has educational roots in English, Philosophy, and Theology: earning a BA in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master’s Degree in Philosophical Studies from Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, MD.
Brian has been working in the education field for close to 20 years, formally and informally, teaching adults, high school students, and middle schoolers, and is currently serving as the middle school Religion and History teacher at Resurrection School in Lansing, MI. He brings to Frontline Catholic Formation the wisdom and experience that comes from decades in the classroom balanced with living out the vocation of marriage, and a gift for fostering growth in wisdom and virtue in his students.
In his abundant free time, Brian enjoys making things out of wood (though he’s not very good at it); he also likes to box and write poetry (sometimes simultaneously), wishes he had more books and more time to read them, but treasures above every other earthly good each moment he gets to spend with his bride and his children. He’s written and self-published a poetic retelling of the Nativity for children entitled The Christmas Word and also runs a small Catholic apparel company called WiseGuy Catholic Tees.
SARAH FINK, TECHNOLOGY & ED. ADVISOR
HOMESCHOOL EDUCATOR
Sarah Fink is a wife and a mother of six children. She earned her BSBA in Business Information Systems and Marketing from Boston College, with a focus on database management, systems development, and web and digital design. She has worked in industry in the development, management & execution of integrated marketing strategies. And she has nearly two decades of experience developing and coding systems & websites for a variety of businesses, organizations, schools and other non-profits. She has served as Director of Technology at a Catholic high school, configuring school data management systems, websites, and networks. In her “spare time, ” she serves as the webmaster and graphic designer for Resurrection School and The Church of the Resurrection, where she and her family are parishioners. She especially enjoys graphic design and incorporating style and creativity in her projects.
Sarah also brings a unique perspective to Frontline, combining her technological expertise with a substantial and diverse career as an educator. She’s taught engineering and technology in Catholic high school and middle school settings, and now homeschools her children. History and geography have grown to become some of the favorite subjects to study as a family, and Sarah loves to come up with great projects and read great historical stories with the kids.
Sarah adds to Frontline’s Advisory board an intricate understanding of data systems and analysis, providing expertise to Frontline’s mission of delivering accurate, timely, easily accessible, and manageable supports for teachers and administrators.
FR. JIM ROLPH, SPIRITUAL ADVISOR
PASTOR, IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY PARISH (Lansing, Michigan)
Father Jim Rolph is a priest in the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan, ordained on June 14, 2014. Born in 1988 and raised in Ann Arbor, he entered seminary out of high school. He graduated from the University of St. Thomas with a degree in Philosophy and Catholic Studies and then from Sacred Heart Major Seminary with a Masters in Divinity and Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology. His ministry has included service at St. John the Evangelist in Fenton, chaplaincy at Powers Catholic High School in Flint, and has served as Pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Lansing since 2022, where he also serves as Dean of the Western Deanery. Known for his reflections on discipleship, vocation discernment, and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Father Jim emphasizes spiritual growth and embracing life's challenges with faith.