Principal, interim president announced for Fr. Tolton Catholic H.S.

Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of the Diocese of Jefferson City has named a new leadership team for Father Tolton Regional Catholic High School in Columbia.

Gwendolyn Roche is the new principal of the school and Deacon Dan Joyce will serve as the interim president, effective July 1.

Deacon Joyce’s appointment is for one year.

“We are very fortunate to be able to obtain someone of Gwenn’s caliber on such a short hiring timeframe,” Bishop McKnight said. “She has a long history in Catholic education and we are happy to have her at Fr. Tolton Catholic High School.”

“I am also pleased that Deacon Joyce has accepted the challenge of stepping into his new role to allow Gwenn to focus her energies on the academic side of the house, while he oversees the financial area and handles such things as strategic planning and community relations,” Bishop McKnight said.

Roche and Joyce take their positions following the resignation of Bernard A. “Bernie” Naumann Jr., who served in the role of president and also had the duties of principal of the high school.

With Bishop McKnight’s appointment of a new principal and president, these roles are being separated for the first time since the high school’s establishment in 2011.

In March, Mr. Naumann said he was departing his position in order to be able to assist with the care of his aging parents in St. Louis. He will be leaving June 30.

“I would like to thank Bishop McKnight for the opportunity to serve the Diocese in this way,” Mrs. Roche said. “I look forward, along with Deacon Joyce, to joining the Fr. Tolton community and continuing to provide the best possible Catholic education to students in this region.”

Mrs. Roche, a native of Kansas City, moved to Columbia in January from Bloomington, Illinois, where she had been serving as principal of Corpus Christi Catholic School since 2013.

She has a 20-year history in Catholic education as a teacher and administrator. In addition to her principal’s duties at the Corpus Christi School, she served as principal for four years at St. Thomas Catholic School in Philo, Illinois, and was a teacher for 12 years in Catholic elementary schools in Champaign, Illinois; Liberty, Missouri; and Kansas City.

She has a M.A. in Educational Administration from UMKC and a B.A. from Avila University in Kansas City.

Deacon Joyce, currently the communications director for the Diocese of Jefferson City, came to the diocese in 2011 after serving nearly 32 years in Missouri state government working in budget, legislative, upper management and legal jobs with the Office of Administration, the Missouri Supreme Court, the Department of Social Services and the Missouri Public Service Commission.

He has a B.A. degree in communications from Marquette University and a law degree from Saint Louis University. He has been assigned as a deacon at Cathedral of St. Joseph parish in Jefferson City since 1999.