Alexis is the new host of the Mary’s Touch Radio Program. She will lead the new evangelization of the award-winning, inspirational radio program designed to bring a greater understanding of Mary, to remind everyone of the Blessed Mothers loving presence in the lives of humanity, and to help people everywhere recognize the healing grace she still brings to this world.
“For ten years, Mary’s Touch Radio Show has featured countless stories of Catholic Marian devotion, and that foundation has paved the way for a new generation to be introduced to the teaching, devotion and reality of Mary’s presence in today’s world,” said Susana Garza, executive director of Mary’s Touch. “We are so grateful to our founder Cheri Lomonte for the apostolate she has built over the past decade and we are excited about the start of our second decade with Alexis leading our radio evangelization.”
With the 100 year anniversary of Mary’s apparitions at Fatima, Portugal celebrated this year, Mary’s Touch is poised to draw on the grace of this special Marian year to feature compelling stories from today’s contemporary Marian apostles whose lives bear witness to the Gospel.
“To be a part of a communications endeavor that helps to evangelize and renew the Church as well as call seekers and the fallen away in today’s culture to a life of faith is an honor and an exciting adventure that I will entrust to Our Lady,” said Alexis Walkenstein, Mary’s Touch Radio Show host. “As baptized Catholics we have a missionary call to go out into the whole world and proclaim the Good News, and I am so eager to feature contemporary lay men and women as well as priests and religious who give testimony to the power of Jesus and the love of Mary in their lives. I pray these stories of faith will bring Mary’s touch and the grace of God to as many souls as possible through the airwaves.”
In April 2017 we aired a very special program featuring outgoing host and founder of Mary’s Touch, Inc. Cheri Lomonte and Fr. Jim Evans as they reflect on a decade of Mary’s Touch and introduce Alexis Walkenstein on her first Mary’s Touch Radio Show.
Alexis is an Emmy award-winning journalist turned public relations pro working to evangelize the culture with positive media. A lifelong Catholic and native of Framingham, MA, Alexis resides in Los Angeles, CA where she promotes faith based feature films leading outreach and publicity for Motive Entertainment. Most recent campaigns include, Little Boy, Captive, The Young Messiah, Ben-Hur and The Shack.
She launched her career in television news as an intern for WRC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Washington D.C., as part of American University’s prestigious “Washington Semester” program. After graduation, Alexis was hired by WHDH-TV, Boston’s NBC affiliate, where she served as overnight and then evening assignment editor managing story coverage for the station’s #1 newscast at 11 p.m. Alexis tracked and assigned stories covering everything from blizzards, World Series baseball, high profile murder investigations, political campaigns and elections, Papal visits, the Kennedys, Boston mobsters, health breakthroughs, and entertainment.
Alexis jumped from Boston to New York to join the news team at WCBS-TV as news assignment editor for Nightcast at 11 p.m.., but returned to Boston following September 11 as news assignment manager for WHDH-TV. She provided editorial direction and logistics strategy for day-of news coverage and special events. She served as lead field producer in the U.S. and in Rome managing coverage of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, of which Boston was the epicenter. She was on the ground in Rome to manage the station’s coverage of Pope John Paul II’s historic death and funeral.
After extensive high profile coverage of the sex abuse scandal, Alexis was tapped to manage crisis communications for the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach and was named Director of Communications and chief spokeswoman for Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito and the five-county south Florida diocese. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Alexis was VP of Media and Communications at The Maximus Group, an Atlanta-based media and marketing agency, specializing in feature films, publishing, and grassroots engagement where she led media strategy for diverse client campaigns. She was also Vice President of Media at Schneider Associates in Boston, MA where she led media and publicity strategy for high level client campaigns in finance, real estate, law, consumer and education practices.
Alexis earned a B.A. in Communication from Regis College in Weston, MA and is a member of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation Board of Directors. Follow Alexis on Twitter (@Walkenstein) and via her blog at LexiCaliBlog.com.