Organizers are counting on a compelling keynote speaker to intrigue the 700 guests expected at the Catholic Social Services Palm Sunday Brunch, but also to generate enough funds for its programs within the church and the community at large.

With the 2008 theme of "Amazing Grace," organizers have arranged for Minerva's to cater the noontime brunch. They also are promoting church members from the city's different parishes to come together on Sunday, March 16, for the family-friendly event.

"It's a good place for the whole community to come together and support the work that we do," said Anne Becker, communication and development director of Catholic Social Services.

The funds will support programs that include presentations, adoption and crisis pregnancy, classes and groups, counseling services and youth programming. These programs are naturally an extension of the church, but also serve others outside of the Catholic community.

"We serve people of all faith," she said of the programs.

Becker described the brunch's keynote speaker, Kathleen McChesney, as a dynamic woman with an intriging background who will captivate and inspire with her message.

"As a law enforcement person and even with her whole career with the FBI, she would have had to have had a strong faith," Becker said.

A native of Auburn, Wash., a suburb of Seattle, McChesney grew up in Holy Family Parish, one of two children in a family of Irish-Italian heritage. She first became interested in police work as the result of conversations with a friend in Seattle law enforcement.

In the early 1970s, according to a U.S. News & World Report news story, as the first female patrol officer in Washington State, McChesney faced a frosty reception from some of the staff in the King County Sheriff's Department. She also had to adjust to equipment designed for men.

When McChesney drove the squad car, the 5-foot-2-inch rookie had to pull the front bench all the way forward and down, which meant that her partner, Robert Keppel, couldn't get out or pick up a shotgun from the rack. Once, while responding to a burglary in progress, she jumped out of the car and forgot to move the seat back. Keppel had to lie down to exit.

McChesney later was recruited as a detective to join the task force investigating serial killer Ted Bundy. Her specialty was gathering information from girlfriends and other women who knew Bundy before his arrest.

In 1978, McChesney became a special agent for the FBI in the San Francisco office. She rose through the ranks. In 1983, she was transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., to the Undercover and Special Operations Unit.

In succeeding years, she served in various management capacities in several cities, including directing the FBI field offices in Portland, Ore., and in Chicago. A 31-year law enforcement career was capped by her 2001 appointment as executive assistant director for Law Enforcement Services, the third-ranking official in the FBI. The division she headed coordinated FBI work with the nation's 18,000 police agencies. She left her prestigious FBI position to head the Office of Child and Youth Protection of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

She since has served as vice president for Threat Assessment and Crisis Management for The Walt Disney Co., where she was responsible for identifying threats and vulnerabilites to the company's assets, properties, employees and guests.

If you go

What: Catholic Social Services Annual Palm Sunday Brunch

Who: Kathleen McChesney, former executive director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection of the United States Conference of Bishops

When: Noon on Sunday, March 16

Where: Ramkota Hotel, Disk Drive side

Admission: Tickets are free, but a freewill donation will be accepted. Call 348-6086.