Meet our
Speakers and Organizers

Fr. Gregory Ramon D. GASTON, SThD, DComm, Ordained by St. John Paul II in 1993 for the Archdiocese of Manila, Fr. Greg leads the Pontifical Filipino College, a home in Rome for priests' ongoing formation including specialized studies. His education spans the Philippine Science High School; Zoology, Medicine (first two years) and Communication (Doctorate) at the University of the Philippines; Philosophy and Theology (Doctorate) in Spain and Rome; and Bioethics in Boston (short Post-Doctoral). As hobbyist he ventured into home electronics, ham radio, programming, databases and languages. His assignments included clergy formation, parish, migrant chaplaincies, media, bioethics committees, and five years at the Vatican. Now exploring AI for evangelization, he offers a unique lens on how data, technology, ethics, and ministry can intersect in today’s digital world.

Dr. Leo Anthony Celi has practiced medicine in three continents, giving him broad perspectives in healthcare delivery. He holds a faculty position at Harvard Medical School as an intensive care specialist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and is the clinical research director for the Laboratory of Computational Physiology at MIT. He also founded and co-directs Sana, a cross-disciplinary organization based at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT.

Fr. Andrew Gimenez Recepcion is a Filipino Catholic priest, theologian, and internationally respected missiologist. He currently serves as an Associate Professor of Missiology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he teaches courses that explore the Church's missionary identity, intercultural dialogue, and evangelization in the context of globalization. A graduate of the same university, Fr. Recepcion earned his Doctorate in Missiology with a focus on global mission dynamics and the historical development of the Church’s missionary activity. His academic work is distinguished by its integration of theological depth, pastoral insight, and cultural sensitivity.

Fr. Jason H. Laguerta is a Diocesan priest for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila, currently serving as the Director of the Office for the Promotion of the New Evangelization and the Episcopal Vicar for the Implementation of the Archdiocesan Roadmap: Traslacion. Fr. Laguerta also serves as the Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Evangelization and Catechesis of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and the Director of the Philippine Conference on New Evangelization. He holds a Doctorate Degree in Psychology from the University of the Philippines, in Diliman, Quezon City. He is a Professor of Psychology, Philosophy and Theology at the Royal and Conciliar San Carlos Seminary in Makati City where he finished his formation for the priesthood.

Dr. Roxana Daneshjou, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Data Science and Dermatology at Stanford University. She earned her B.S. in Bioengineering from Rice University—before completing both her MD and PhD in Genetics through Stanford’s Medical Scientist Training Program. She subsequently completed a dermatology residency in Stanford’s research track and a postdoctoral fellowship in Biomedical Data Science. Currently, she serves as assistant director of the Center of Excellence for Precision Health & Pharmacogenomics, directs informatics for the Stanford Skin Innovation and Interventional Research Group (SIIRG) and is affiliated with Stanford’s Human Centered AI (HAI) and AI in Medicine and Imaging (AIMI) centers.

Davide Giordano is an IT professional with over 25 years of experience, specializing in network security. He has gained expertise in international settings, including the financial, petrochemical, and military sectors. Driven by a passion for innovation, he furthered his studies in Artificial Intelligence, attending the Department of Philosophy and AI at Sapienza University of Rome. At the Directorate of Telecommunications of the Governorate of Vatican City State, he has worked as an IT specialist since 2016, and since 2023, he has served as the AI focal point, where he evaluates the opportunities and risks associated with this technology. Since 2024 he is member of the AI Commission of Governatorate of Vatican City State.

Sr. Rose Pacatte, FSP, M.Ed., D.Min., is the founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Los Angeles, CA (since 1995) and now leads its international office in Rome. A media literacy specialist and award-winning film critic, she co-authored the Lights, Camera, Faith series, two books on media and faith formation for K–12 educators, and award-winning biographies of the actor Martin Sheen and artist Corita Kent. She is an adjunct professor at the Catholic University of America (2022) and teaches at the University of Dayton online (since 2000.) An international speaker, she has addressed Church leaders, catechists, and communicators on evangelization, digital discipleship and spirituality, Catholic Social Teaching and Media, and AI, most recently at the 2025 World Jubilee of Communications at the Vatican and a two-day conference on Religious Life in a Digital Age to women religious of Romania in June 2025.

Benjamin Crockett is the Director of Content at Longbeard. A California native, Benjamin holds an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley. His intellectual curiosity led him to study philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, concentrating on the ethical implications of emerging technologies and participating in the inaugural virtual reality course at MIT. His interest in technology and the Vatican's moral voice led him to Rome, where he introduced virtual reality to the EWTN Vatican Bureau and covered the Vatican. He currently lives in the Eternal City with his family, exploring the intersection of humanity and machines in pursuit of human flourishing.

About PCNE

The Philippine Conference on New Evangelization was established in 2013 by His Eminence Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle, then Archbishop of Manila, to the XIII Synod on New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Faith. This conference marked a milestone in the journey of the Church in the Philippines – a concrete action answering her call and a reawakening of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines’ (PCP II) vision of renewed integral evangelization.

PCNE invites the faithful to live our communitarian experience of faith in a renewed way and to proclaim it through an evangelization that is “new in its ardor, in its methods, and in its expressions.” Since the founding of PCNE, it has provided the Church in the Philippines with fruitful encounters and nurturing experiences in light of our mission of sharing the Good News and in responding to the signs of the times.