Dave Plisky

Dave Plisky has spent 20 years helping organizations connect with the audiences they serve. For the last decade he was with DeSales Media, a nonprofit in Brooklyn, where he served as Director of Marketing & Digital and Director of Product & Innovation, building teams, launching digital products, and most recently leading the organization into the AI era.

Earlier he worked in digital consumer marketing at Estée Lauder Companies, helped scale the software company Sprinklr through its unicorn years, and began his career at Milan Records in Los Angeles. Dave is a certified Project Management Professional, is pursuing an MA in theology at the University of Notre Dame, hosts the podcast Religion to Reality, and serves as board president of the American Contemporary Classical Orchestra. He lives in Weston, Connecticut with his wife and son.

He runs Second Half Partners, and is serving as Interim Director of Digital Marketing at Blue Meridian through the end of 2026. The name is about bringing a full career's experience to organizations in their growth season. The full work history is on LinkedIn.

Catholic discipleship in the United States

In partnership with Vinea Research, Dave designed and led the first national first-party study of Mass attending Catholics in the United States, producing original data on the faith journey, profile, and unmet needs of Catholic disciples today.

• 3,137 respondents answering more than 100 questions. The general report was published in June 2022 and the segmentation report, with cross-tabulations and two-dimensional segmentation across innovation diffusion and stage of discipleship, in September 2024. Both are freely available.

The findings have been presented in more than twenty recorded and live appearances and covered across national Catholic media.

Builders AI Forum

Media workshop facilitator, Rome, 2025 and 2026. AI for faithful Christian storytelling in media.

The Evangelical Catholic

Presenter, Priests for an Apostolic Age, Dallas, 2023. The unmet needs of intentional disciples.

McGrath Institute for Church Life

Presenter, Church Communications Ecology Symposium, University of Notre Dame, 2022. Formation in Brooklyn.

Napa Institute

Panelist, annual summer conference, 2018. Teach a church to tech, feed it for a lifetime.

Religion to Reality

Creator, executive producer, and host. A six-part webinar series in 2024, then a podcast: eleven episodes and thirteen bonus episodes in season one, with season two launched in June 2026.

Writing

Guest pieces for Catholic-Link and DeSales Media, and coverage in Aleteia and Catholic Stand.

Interviews

More than twenty podcast, radio, and television appearances presenting the discipleship findings, including Currents News, Veritas Catholic Radio, Sacred Heart Radio, Iowa Catholic Radio, Spirit FM, and Catholic Community Radio.

Magisterium AI

Product Advisory Committee, 2023 to present. Guidance on AI product development and ethical implementation for a Catholic AI platform.

American Contemporary Classical Orchestra

Board President, 2024 to present. Governance for a Washington, D.C. orchestra devoted to twentieth century neoclassical repertoire.

Education

Master of Arts, Theology, University of Notre Dame, expected 2027
Bachelor of Business Administration, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst, summa cum laude

Formation

Catholic Social Teaching, CAPP-USA and The Catholic University of America
Church Communications Ecology, McGrath Institute for Church Life, Notre Dame

Certification

Project Management Professional, PMI
Agentic AI and AI Agents, Vanderbilt University
Entrepreneurship, Cornell University
altMBA, Seth Godin