By Gretchen Keiser

The current director of development for the archdiocese, Carroll Sterne, has been named to head the social service agencies of the archdiocese, a position vacated last December by Steven Brazen.

Sterne, whose appointment becomes effective Oct. 1, will be responsible for overseeing four corporations, Catholic Social Services, Inc., The Village of St. Joseph, Catholic Housing Initiatives, and Catholic Personal Care Homes. His title, which reflects a change in the name of the post, will be Secretary for Catholic Charities.

In addition, Pam Buckmaster, who has been interim Secretary since December, has been appointed executive director of Catholic Social Services, Inc. (CSS). A split in the two positions had been recommended by Brazen when he left for a job in the private, non-profit sector. He had been both director of CSS and what was then titled Secretary for Social Concerns.

A local search committee was formed in 1993 and national advertising was begun, but so far had not yielded a candidate meeting with local approval, according to Monsignor Edward J. Dillon, moderator of the curia to Archbishop John F. Donoghue.

The search committee proposed extending the process, but the archbishop concurred with the recommendation of Monsignor Dillon that it was inadvisable for the post to remain vacant longer and appointed Sterne to the post and Mrs. Buckmaster to direct CSS.

Sterne has been director of development since August 1991. A graduate of Vanderbilt University majoring in business administration, his professional background is in banking, and he was vice-chairman of the board of Southern Banking Group, Inc., a bank holding group, prior to working for the archdiocese.

A member of the Cathedral of Christ the King, he was a board member for Goodwill Industries for over 10 years and chairman for two years. He has been chairman of the archdiocesan finance committee.

"I think what they hope is with my management background that I can provide the framework for the professionals to do their job" in social services, Sterne said, and "worry less about management and fiscal issues." He said he would be concerned with developing good relationships among staff and with volunteer boards of the corporations and with promoting awareness of the work of the agency.

The combined budgets of the four corporations are over $5 million, Mrs. Buckmaster said. CSS is the largest with a budget of 3.5 million and approximately 50 staff members.

Under CSS alone are crisis pregnancy and adoption services, counseling services, in-home services for the elderly and homebound, Hispanic services, immigration services, migration and refugee services, CSS Athens and Rural Social Services in Cumming.

Mrs. Buckmaster, who has worked at CSS in a variety of posts since 1985, holds a bachelor's degree in social work from the University of Kentucky and a master's of science from Georgia State University in urban affairs and gerontology. She was assistant director of CSS from September 1988 to December 1992 and prior to that the parish outreach coordinator for CSS services to the elderly programs.

She is a member of Our Lady of Lourdes parish, Atlanta.

Among her priorities as director of CSS will be exploring the possibility of a closer working relationship between the parishes and CSS, Mrs. Buckmaster said, particularly utilizing volunteers.

She also cited a need to find ways to bring CSS into community outreach programs, in particular, the Atlanta Project, and to develop a closer collaboration between CSS and the Secretariat for Black Catholic Ministry.