Original Accusations | 2020 - April 2022

In 2020 Dr. Julia Sadusky, a licensed counselor spread an opinion that Keenan Fitzpatrick, founder and Executive Director of Avodah, suffers from a personality disorder. This unqualified opinion ultimately made its way to an Avodah board member through Mark Walsh, a former Avodah volunteer. The Avodah board of directors and the nonprofit’s legal counsel issued a letter to both Dr. Sadusky and Mr. Walsh in the interest of stopping them from spreading lies about Keenan and the broader Avodah community. Mr. Walsh and Dr. Sadusky retained counsel to return a letter to Avodah which stated they had no basis or intent to diagnose Keenan with a personality disorder.

In November 2021, a former farm volunteer, Jamie Guilday, claimed to numerous Avodah staff and volunteers that he thought Avodah was a cult, and that it was his mission to "shut it down." The Avodah board of directors and their legal counsel issued a letter to Jamie Guilday asking him to retract his statements. Avodah was motivated to put an end to both the statements and Jamie's involvement at Avodah given concurrent issues of reports from female staff and volunteers that he made them uncomfortable. Avodah made Father Dollins aware of the accusations. Father Dollins responds with: "Sorry to hear about your issues. Thanks for keeping me in the loop."