Jordan Haddad

Co-founder, President

jhaddad@sl9art.com

Jordan Haddad, Ph.D. is a Professor of Dogmatic Theology at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, LA. He is originally from Houma, LA, and has studied at Louisiana State University (‘12), Notre Dame Seminary (‘15), and The Catholic University of America (‘22). Jordan has published essays for various Catholic theology journals and is also a Scholar Associate of the Society of Catholic Scientists.

Together with Abigail Reller, he co-founded The St. Louis IX Art Society (SL9) in July 2021 and currently serves as President. Although he is not an artist himself, he deeply appreciates the intersection of the Catholic faith and art, science, culture, and philosophy. 

Jordan’s inspiration behind co-founding SL9 is to revitalize the Catholic culture of South Louisiana. Although this region has a long history of a rich Catholic culture, it is withering away with each passing generation. He hopes that SL9 will not only help stem this tide but also become an active force for the proclamation of the Gospel and the revitalization of Catholic life.

Jordan currently lives in Covington, LA, with his wife, Shannon, and their three children.

Joseph Bass

Vice President of Operations, Senior Design Director

jbass@sl9art.com

Joseph Bass, MA, MBA, is a graduate of LSU ('11), Saint Joseph Seminary College ('15), Notre Dame Seminary Graduate School of Theology ('17), and LSU-Shreveport ('22).

Joe is thrilled to serve as the Vice-President of Operations for The St. Louis IX Art Society and Senior Design Director for Sainte-Chapelle Studios. His professional and ministerial background has instilled a passion for integrating the very best of business innovation and creativity with the proclamation of the Gospel. Having been formed in the heart of the Church for many years, Joe is acutely aware of the power art has to communicate the deepest mysteries of the faith. Ultimately, Joe hopes the mission of SL9 helps to infuse souls with the wonder, joy, and healing of God's beauty. He is deeply grateful for the opportunity to advance the mission of The St. Louis IX Art Society. 

Joe currently lives in Mandeville, LA, with his wife Katie and their two children, Samuel and Lucy.

NAthaniel Frank, A.i.a.

Principal architect

nfrank@sl9art.com

The challenge of building, renovating, and especially maintaining church buildings increases as the Church grows. This is especially important when viewed through the lens of stewardship. This sense of stewardship for the built environment motivates Nathaniel in the pursuit of technical excellence and expertise in the built Catholic tradition.

Nathaniel sees the richness of the theological, symbolic, and artistic aspects of the faith as vehicles through which God communicates his intimacy to mankind, and consistently works to grow in sacramental appreciation of the faith to perfect his craft. Equipped with unique professional skills and experiences, he utilizes best practices for industry technology, consultant and contractor partnerships.

Nathaniel recognizes the mission of the non-profit as more than just a job. It is an opportunity to use the gifts God has given him to work with and for the Church to craft, create, repair, and maintain architectural environments that lift the mind and heart to God. Having served as Director of Operations and/or Project Architect for several commercial architectural firms, Nathaniel brings a wealth of experience to bear in projects of various scales and complexity for the Church. His sensitivity to the tradition of the church informs his work in the design of authentically Catholic structures.

Nathaniel is also the founding principal architect of Sainte-Chapelle Studios, a full-service architectural firm comprised of a passionate team of designers, artists, & theologians that craft each project to the specific needs, budget, culture, and spiritual heritage of each Catholic parish , school, and sites of ministry.  By pairing his skills in cross-disciplinary project management with Building Information Modeling and team management, Nathaniel ensures projects benefit the Church for years to come.

He currently resides in Covington with his lovely wife and two beautiful daughters. 

RACHEL MOORE

Media Coordinator & Designer

rmoore@sl9art.com

Rachel Moore is from St. Charles Parish and grew up around New Orleans. According to her parents, her career as an artist began whenever she first developed her fine motor skills and got caught scribbling Magic Markers all over the furniture (She promises she grew out of that). More formally, she began drawing and painting seriously at age 14 when she inherited art supplies from her grandmother, who was a mixed-media artist. As a total bookworm, she learned how to draw by creating her own illustrations of characters from the literature she’d read. She still honors the themes of storytelling and the moral imagination in the artwork she creates as an adult,  and she has a special admiration for writers who also happen to be outstanding visual artists such as William Blake, Flannery O’Connor, and Kurt Vonnegut.

Rachel attended The Catholic University of America and graduated in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in English Language & Literature with minors in Philosophy and Theology & Religious Studies. Much of the inspiration for her vision and creativity comes from the countless hours she spent wandering the chapels of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which is home to a vast collection of religious images that filled her with wonder and awe during her college years. She, then, continued to reflect on the role of beauty in faith and evangelization as she pursued and completed a Master of Arts in Pastoral Leadership at Notre Dame Seminary.

When she’s not painting and drawing, Rachel enjoys jogging, songwriting, listening to “dad rock,” and spending time with her family and her labrador. You can find her art at rachpaintsart.com. 

Fr. John Brown, S.J., is a Roman Catholic priest of the USA Central and Southern Province of the Society of Jesus and currently serves as the President of Jesuit High School in New Orleans, LA.

Originally from Eunice, LA, Fr. Brown holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and letters from Saint Louis University. At Boston College, he earned a Master of Divinity degree and a second master’s degree in theology focusing on Ignatian spirituality. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2011.

Fr. Brown is excited to serve as the chaplain for The St. Louis IX Art Society because he recognizes that Catholic art is a living tradition that can deliver a sense of the sacred and transcendent to a world that desperately needs it today.