ATLANTA--Following the resignation of Anno Hardage as chancellor of operations and development for the archdiocese, Archbishop John F. Donoghue announced Sept. 14 that Betti Knott, current director of Catholic Charities, will become director of operations for the archdiocese effective Oct. 4.

Jim Kantner, director of counseling services for Catholic Social Services, will assume Knott’s responsibilities as director of Catholic Charities.

Even though she has “some anxieties” about her new position, Knott said she is very excited to have the opportunity to serve in this post.

“I have such a deep commitment to this archdiocese. This is my home. I am grateful for any opportunity I have to work here and to be a part of the growth and development in this archdiocese,” said Knott.

Knott has served since March 1998 as director of Catholic Charities, the umbrella agency overseeing Catholic Social Services, Inc., Catholic Housing Initiatives, Inc., Catholic Personal Care Homes, Inc., the Village of St. Joseph, the Office of Family Concerns and Project Aware.

Prior to that she worked for 20 years as an executive of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. From 1979-88 she was executive director of the St. Vincent de Paul Society Particular Council in Atlanta. She then was asked to serve the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Melbourne, Australia, where she worked as a planner, community director and general secretary from 1988-98.

In Australia, SVDP is extensively involved in social services as well as one-to-one ministry to the poor. Her work there included responsibility for a $36 million a year operation with nearly 1,000 staff members. The Society there operates eight homes for the aged, including a nursing home, 87 thrift stores, shelters and other services for the homeless, a community center and youth centers.

“It was a huge operation,” Knott said. “I was constantly working with philanthropic trusts, with the business community and with government to ensure that our programs were funded.”

She anticipates that her work in personnel, in fund-raising, development and grant writing for the Society will be applicable in her new position for the archdiocese. She received her master’s degree in business administration in 1998 from the University of Hull, England, after studying at the Melbourne campus. She also worked as a senior planner for the Atlanta Regional Commission in the late 1970s.

As director of operations, Knott will oversee, among other areas, strategic planning and development within the archdiocese, matters concerning all personnel, excluding priests, and specific ministries such as the Pro-Life Office, Office for Black Catholic Ministry and the Hispanic Apostolate. She said the opportunity to work with special ministries is “icing on the cake.”

“I am very grateful to have that balance of tasks in this position,” she said. “It is not purely administrative. It has the component of service to it, the component of evangelization.”

While serving SVDP in Atlanta, Knott received an award from the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta for exceptional personal ministry in serving the homeless. She is a member of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Atlanta.

In the coming weeks, Knott will learn more about the responsibilities in her new position. Archbishop Donoghue said that he made the appointment based upon the recommendation of Msgr. Peter Dora, vicar general.

“She was appointed to this position based on the fact that we needed to fill the vacancy created by Anno’s resignation,” Archbishop Donoghue said. “We needed to appoint someone to help with the administrative responsibilities of the archdiocese.”

Kantner, who holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Purdue University and a master’s degree in pastoral studies from Loyola University, began working for archdiocesan counseling services in January 1996. As program director, he has guided the development of counseling services throughout the archdiocese, supervised the clinical staff and therapists and has served as a liaison between the archdiocese and parishes needing their services.

“I am honored that the archbishop has appointed me to this position,” Kantner said. “I will do my best to live up to his expectations. It is going to be a personal challenge to go from being a counselor to being an administrator. I am thankful for the strong support staffs that are already in place with the agencies at Catholic Charities and am thankful that Betti will only be a phone call away.”

Kantner also said he looked forward to working with Pam Buckmaster, executive director of Catholic Social Services, as they cooperatively work to serve the poor, marginalized and disenfranchised.

“I count on her knowledge and support as we work together to fulfill the Gospel message,” Kantner said.

Kantner, a member of Our Lady of the Americas Mission, Doraville, was the former director of the Diocesan Consultation Center in Toledo, Ohio. He has served as an associate professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina-Asheville and at Eastern Illinois University. He was also a visiting professor at the Pontifical Catholic University in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Kantner, his wife and two youngest children were also lay volunteers at the Komchen Mayan Indian Mission in the Yucatan region of Mexico before relocating to Atlanta.