History of the St. John Paul II Life Center

The concept to create a Pro-Life crisis pregnancy center developed over a period of years while various people worked to be Voices for Life in the Catholic Diocese of Austin. The vision for The John Paul II Life Center began forming in April 2005 at the time of the death of Pope John Paul II. Our founder, Tim Von Dohlen recalls, “As I contemplated the life of this great man, I kept going over and over in my mind some of his compelling words:

“America your very future as a nation depends on your willingness to protect the Right to Life of the most defenseless in your society. It is the duty of every man to uphold the dignity of every woman. As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.”

I felt challenged. I had to do something.” Within just a few days of the pope’s burial, Tim met with a group of friends to move forward with this idea of creating a center to help build a culture of life. On a trip to California in January 2006, Tim remembers Pat saying to him, “the Catholic church talks so much about saving babies lives, but what is being done to help the mother?” Tim answered, “More needs to be done to help the mothers and their children and that’s what we are going to do at the Center.”

Tim and his wife, Pat, partnered with Chris and Sheri Danze, and John and Cheryl Sauder and together they developed the framework for the John Paul II Life Center and made substantial financial commitments to the primary goal to take the doctrine of the Catholic Church on protection of human life from conception to natural death and put into motion actions that demonstrated to a woman there was an entity which accepted her pregnant condition without judging her and with the clear intent to help her and her unborn child to receive the dignity to which each is entitled at the John Paul II Life Center. It could help women, save babies, and provide healthcare using the medical science of Natural Procreative Technology (NaPro TECHNOLOGY) allowing couples to achieve or postpone pregnancy naturally, and assist women thought to be infertile to have children. The Center would be a true blessing and provide to women the respect and dignity they deserve.

In the first two years they organized the non-profit corporation and received the Center’s 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, but it would be another three years of much hard work and many prayers before the essential players – individuals and organizations and particularly encouragement and support from the Diocese of Austin and Seton Health and finding an OB/GYN physician for the doors to open. That dream became a reality on October 12, 2010.

It took from April 2006 until October 2010 for all the pieces of the puzzle to come together to form the structure of what exists now.

The main challenges and factors faced along the way were:

1. Establish a clear and understandable mission, vision, and goals and follow them so that board members, employees, and consultants are working in harmony to achieve them.
2. Decide if the organization is to help women in crisis only (a crisis pregnancy center – CPC) or, in addition, provide medical care to women of all faiths during pregnancy with a full time OB/GYN physician practice in conjunction with the CPC? The objective was determined to be to serve both through the presence of an OB/GYN physician specialist on a full-time basis. This is where getting to know Dr. Thomas Hilgers and his wife Sue who founded the Pope Paul VI Institute became invaluable. With their assistance and that of the One More Soul website we identified Dr. Jeremy Kalamarides D.O. and his wife Heather who each are NaPro TECHNOLOGY trained, Natural Procreative Technology, the medical science developed by Dr. Thomas Hilgers and the Kalamarides were courageous to come from Buffalo, New York, where Dr. Kalamarides was Chief Resident, to Austin, Texas, to start a new medical clinic committed to finding cures for women’s gynecological problems and not just masking symptoms which occurs with the use of oral contraception.
3. What would the relationship of the organization be to the Catholic Church and local Bishop? A relationship with the Catholic Diocese of Austin was created making clear that the organization was an independent Catholic organization working collaboratively with the offices of the Diocese but not a formal part of the Diocese. It would be recognized in the Diocesan Directory as being a Catholic entity. 
4. Find a Catholic hospital where the deliveries would be done to embrace our mission. Seton Healthcare, now Ascension Seton was selected.
5. How to create the proper relationship between the Hospital and the life center? Alternatives were:
   – Hospital to employ physician for Center.
   – Hospital to assist in recruiting physician who is employed by independent Texas Not For Profit Healthcare Organization as part of the Center.
   – Hospital to manage physician practice.
   – Option (b) was chosen. After lengthy negotiations, Seton offered a Recruitment Agreement to Dr. Jeremy Kalamarides.
6. Determine proper location of the Center and Vitae Clinic and whether to own or lease the office space. First, they needed to be in the same location with separate entrances to recognize the different psychological condition of a woman in crisis and one in a normal pregnancy. It also needed to be no more than a 30-minute distance from the hospital for the physician. Lease of office space near the hospital was chosen at the Jefferson Building (1600 W. 38th Street) first floor. 
7. Determine when to start raising funds because people want to help a cause that is going to be sure to get started and has a good prospect for success. Started raising funds after physician was engaged.
8. Have a professional Business Plan developed by an experienced physician practice management group which has contacts with all the various services needed to start a physician practice. A Business Plan was developed meeting these criteria.
9. Maybe the most difficult and important challenge was to find an OB/GYN committed to our mission and brave enough to start his own practice from scratch. Engaged Dr. Jeremy Kalamarides, D.O.
10. How could the Center hire a physician considering the Corporate Practice of Medicine prohibition in Texas? Through use of the Texas Not for Profit Healthcare Act, the Vitae Clinic, herein “Clinic, was formed through the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners with a Board of three currently practicing Texas physicians namely Drs. Roger Harden, Rebekah Sperling and Kim Warfield who have provided essential assistance in the operation of the Clinic from commencement to the present time. Upon Dr. Harden’s retirement, Dr. Lisa Ellis joined the Vitae Clinic Board.
11. What would the name of the Center be? There were numerous considerations, but all seemed to lead back to Pope John Paul II. Was that name too Catholic? Would non-Catholics feel inhibited from using a Center with a Pope’s name? It was decided to go forward with the name The John Paul II Life Center (with a minor change to the St. John Paul II Life Center once John Paul was canonized). Weighing heavily on the selection were the beautiful writings of Pope John Paul II known as the Theology of the Body which provides direction for the relationship of man and woman and human sexuality.
12. How did all the legal structures required get done? A team effort of Jack Selman and others from the Selman Munson & Lerner firm joined with the Law Office of Tim Von Dohlen to accomplish the myriad of steps to bring the numerous parts together for two 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporations and one Texas Not For Profit Healthcare Organization.
13. Who was chosen as the first and next Chaplain? Much of the support and financial assistance has emanated from and continues to be from St. John Neumann Parish. Father Kirby Garner was the first Chaplain when the Center was formed in 2007-2010 followed by Father Jim Evans since opening in 2010-2020 and now Chaplain Emeritus, followed by Father Dean Wilhelm, 2020 – present. 
14. Who did the day-to-day work of the Center? The first employee of the Center was Amelia Erickson who worked with Dr. Jeremy Kalamarides and the medical staff in getting open. After a year, Kim Speirs joined the Center as Executive Director until late 2018 when Paul Stone became Interim Executive Director until 2019-2021 when Deacon Mark Fair became Executive Director, followed by Linda Ruf, as CEO from December 2021- present.
15. Who provided Board leadership to the Center? The first five years of operation had a Board of Judy and Dick Ames, Nancy and Dr. John Carrano, Sheri and Chris Danze, Heather and Dr. Jeremy Kalamarides and Pat and Tim Von Dohlen. Sherie and Chris, Pat and Tim were the Co-Founders. Nancy and John provided marketing help and the passion to find an alternative to abortion providers. Judy and Dick were the organizers of the Circle of Life. Dr. Kalamarides served as Medical Director and Heather taught NaPro TECHNOLOGY utilizing the Creighton method. The Clinic also recognizes the use of other Natural Family Planning methods. Starting in 2016, DeeDee and Paul Stone and Teresa and Jerry Bowerman joined the Board and Judy and Dick Ames and Pat and Tim Von Dohlen continued with Claudia and Rob Hutton, and Kim and Bill Moore and Deacon Mark Fair joining in 2019 when the Stone’s and Bowerman’s ended their terms. Jay and Kelley Lamy joined in 2020. Linda and Ben Ruf joined the Board in 2021 and Ben withdrew when Linda became CEO. Melissa and Dan French joined the Board in December 2022.
16. What is the direction of the St. John Paul II Life Center, for the future? The Center will continue its unique three-fold mission of:
    – Being a full-time Ob/Gyn practice with Dr. Jeremy Kalamarides, D.O., and our second OB/GYN Dr. Blake Weidaw, M.D., and Nurse Practitioner, Samantha Padilla;
    – Being a pregnancy help center with state-of-the-art sonography, and
    – Being an education component focused on programs that will have a meaningful impact on mothers, their children, and future generations with a program on Human Sexuality and A Glimpse Inside™ (showing a sonogram of an expectant mother and her baby).