Ethika Politika is happy to welcome our 2015 Via Sapientiae Fellow, Audra Nakas, a recent graduate of The Catholic University of America. We're also very excited to announce the addition of a new junior editor, Alexandra DeSanctis, and new contributing editor, Timothy Kirchoff.

An important part of the work of Ethika Politika is to mentor younger people with a vocation to the intellectual and writing life. This is especially timely as such a calling has become more and more entangled with the particularities of web publishing and reading. By engaging with Ethika Politika’s growing staff, and its mission to draw from timeless wisdom in guiding and fostering prudent decisions, our fellows, junior editors, and contributors learn not only the craft of good writing but also valuable lessons on how, when, and why to bring considered judgments to bear on important conversations.

This year, I'm especially cheered by the strengths of our new members in areas ranging from publication management to social science research to editing experience and more.

Audra Nakas has a special interest in exploring Catholic social teaching through the lens of a double major in psychology and politics. She also has hands-on experience with social policy research, among other things, and has worked with the USCCB's Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

Alexandra DeSanctis, a rising senior at the University of Notre Dame, is a political science major who has also worked in political journalism. She has served as both a reporter and editor of the campus newspaper, the Irish Rover.

Timothy Kirchoff has published a number of essays with Ethika Politika in the past. He is a 2014 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, and is a remarkably thoughtful and engaging writer.

I hope our readers will join me in welcoming our new staff. I expect that their hard work—and ours with them—will pay dividends now and for months to come, and I am excited for our readers to get to know each of them a little better in the days ahead.

Andrew M. Haines is the editor and founder of Ethika Politika, and co-founder and chief operating officer at Fiat Insight.