A Sister of Divine Providence, I am a life-long educator, community organizer and advocate. For 15 years I was an enthusiastic secondary math and science classroom teacher. My assignment in Louisiana during forced integration led me beyond the diocesan-approved white-flight situation into community organizing with agricultural farm workers in that same State and later with textile workers in Appalachia. Years later, when my own mother was experiencing ongoing decline in a “typical”, institutional nursing home, I searched for solutions to what I saw as systemic problems.
It led to my ministry in aging services, initially, as a long-term care ombudsman. Shortly thereafter, I completed a graduate program in applied gerontology at the University of North Texas With a nursing home administrator’s license in hand, I served as Director/Administrator at all levels of care for several years. Since 2008, as Founder and Director of In Service to Our Own, I have focused my energies on aging and aging services among Sisters across the United States — and our call as religious to prophetic witness to an aging and ageist society –through writing, consultation and presentations.
