Father Phillip B. Cover is the Assistant Executive Director, Department of Religious Education, serving the National Catholic Educational Association both as department executive staff supporting the Department Executive Director and as executive staff to the National Association of Parish Catechetical Directors (NPCD).

He taught in Catholic schools and was an assistant principal of a Catholic high school, and then was given permission to serve in the Federal government in a number of senior management positions. 

 

Father Cover is also a spiritual director and retreat leader. His training in spiritual direction and the practice of contemplative spirituality is from the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation where he serves as associate staff in the guidance program. Additionally, he has served on the retreat team at the Bon Secours Spiritual Center and has co-led pilgrimages to the Sinai and New Mexico deserts. He is co-author of Journey with Purpose and The Inner Working of Lent.

 

Father Cover holds undergraduate degrees in English from Borromeo College of Ohio, sacred theology from The Catholic University of America, and a master’s in education from The Catholic University of America.

 

Established in 1904, the NCEA is the largest private professional education organization in the world, representing 200,000 Catholic educators serving 7.6 million students in Catholic elementary and secondary schools, in religious education programs, in seminaries and in colleges and universities.