04/27/11

Leadership Council Bios/Profiles

Newly elected president and councilors for the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati will serve a four-year term from July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2015.

PRESIDENT Sister Joan Elizabeth Cook, SC Sister Joan Elizabeth Cook, a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati for 50 years, ministered in secondary education in Colorado, Illinois and Ohio for 14 years. She served in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati at the former Marian High School and at St. Xavier (Cincinnati), McNicholas (Cincinnati) and Purcell Marian (Cincinnati) high schools. Sister Joan Elizabeth has a Master of Arts in French from Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt., (1971) and a Master of Arts in theology from Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, (1981). After earning a doctorate in religion from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., in 1989, Sister moved to higher education, ministering as an assistant and associate professor of theology at St. Bonaventure University in Olean, N.Y., until 1997, and then as associate professor of sacred scripture at Washington Theological Union in Washington, D.C. until 2005. Currently Sister Joan Elizabeth teaches scripture at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and serves as Old Testament book review editor for the Catholic Biblical Quarterly. She will assume her role as president of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati on July 1, 2011. COUNCILORS Sister Mary Bookser, SC Sister Mary Bookser will celebrate her golden jubilee in 2012 with 50 years of ministry as a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati. She has served the Archdiocese of Cincinnati teaching at Seton High School (Cincinnati), Holy Angels and Lehman High School (Sidney, Ohio), Mount Notre Dame High School (Cincinnati) and the College of Mount St. Joseph (Cincinnati). Sister Mary has a Ph.D. in women’s studies, literature and spirituality from the Union Institute and University (Cincinnati) as well as master’s degrees from Xavier University (Cincinnati) in theology and guidance and counseling. Sister ministered 11 years teaching religion and music in various Archdiocesan schools and 20 years at the College of Mount St. Joseph, originally working with adult women returning to college. Sister is currently with the Service Learning Program at the College of Mount St. Joseph. Other work includes eight years as the director of initial formation for the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, as a counselor at Cincinnati State College as well as the former Archdiocesan sponsored Christian Family Center. Sister Mary served one year in the Pastoral Planning Office with the Diocese of Covington, Ky., and many years as an adjunct in religious studies and theology at the College of Mount St. Joseph and Xavier University. Her term as Leadership councilor begins July 1, 2011. Sister Lois Jean Goettke, SC Sister Lois Jean Goettke has been a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati for 44 years and has served on the Sisters of Charity Leadership team since 2007. She was re-elected to serve again as councilor for an additional four years, beginning July 1, 2011. Sister earned the master’s degree in elementary administration from the University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio; she also is a College of Mount St. Joseph (Cincinnati) alumna. Sister Lois Jean’s teaching ministry includes service at Little Flower (Cincinnati), St. Bernadette (Westlake, Ohio), St. Boniface (Cincinnati) and St. John the Baptist (Harrison, Ohio) where she began her ministry as co-principal. She served as elementary principal at Bishop Leibold School in Dayton, Ohio, and ministered in the same capacity at St. Brigid School in Xenia, Ohio. Sister Lois Jean returned to Cincinnati in 2005 to study gerontology at the College of Mount St. Joseph and to serve as the ministry coordinator for the Congregation. Sister Louise Lears, SC Sister Louise Lears celebrated 25 years with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati in 2010. Her ministry in pastoral care began in Albuquerque, N.M., at St. Joseph West Mesa Hospital in 1984. She served as vice president of mission effectiveness at Penrose-St. Francis Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colo., from 1989-1994. She earned the doctorate in medical ethics from St. Louis University, St. Louis, Mo., in 2001 and served as staff at the Center for Health Care Ethics. Sister Louise taught philosophy and theology as an adjunct at St. Louis University, at Aquinas Institute of Theology, and Fontbonne University in St. Louis. She also served as pastoral associate at St. Cronan parish in St. Louis from 2005–2008. Currently, Sister is an adjunct professor in the philosophy and religious studies departments at Towson University in Baltimore, Md., and the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore. Her ministry on the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati Leadership Council commences July 1, 2011. S. Christine Marie Rody, SC Sister Christine Marie Rody entered the Vincentian Sisters of Charity of Bedford, Ohio, in 1958. She was serving in Leadership in the Vincentian Community when the merger with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati occurred in 2004. She celebrated 50 years as a religious in 2008. Sister Christine Marie’s past ministries included St. Mary School in Bedford and St. Barnabas in Northfield, Ohio. She earned the master’s degree in theology from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., while serving as a faculty member in the religion department at Lumen Cordium High School in Bedford. In 1975, Sister volunteered for six years at the Cleveland Mission in El Salvador. She was elected to Leadership in the Vincentian Community in 1983, and served two four-year terms before taking the position of Delegate for Religious for the Cleveland Diocese. She returned to Leadership in 1999. When her term ended in 2004, and with a J.C.L. (Licentiate of Canon Law) from The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., Sister began ministering as the defender of bonds for the Cleveland Diocesan Tribunal. Her term as councilor with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati begins July 1, 2011.

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