Carol Ann Breyer lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with her husband of twenty-eight years, a married priest. Prior to her marriage, Dr. Breyer was a Sister of Mercy of the Union, Baltimore province. She is currently a member of the national board of CORPUS.

Sheila C. Browne, R.S.M., (Brooklyn) is associate director of the Office of Worship for the Diocese of Rockville Centre. She received an M.A. in liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame, and an M.S. in music education from Queens College of the City University of New York. She has recently published in Church Magazine, in Pastoral Music Magazine, and in the Homily Service of the Liturgical Conference.

Helen Marie Burns, R.S.M. (Detroit) is a native of Independence, Iowa. She was a secondary school educator in Detroit and Michigan, a former vice-president of the Sisters of Mercy of the Union (1984–1991), and past provincial administrator of the Sisters of Mercy in Detroit. She served as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (1989–1992). She lectures often on religious life, leadership and charism of the Sisters of Mercy. Currently she is completing doctoral studies in women and religion at the University of Iowa, Iowa City.

Tui H. L. Cadigan, R.S.M., is a member of the Sisters of Mercy, Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand. She is of Maori descent, affiliated to Waitaha, Kati Mamoe and Kai Tahu tribes. During the past five years, she has been studying theology at the University of Auckland. Her M.A. thesis, "The Indigenisation of Religious Life for Wahine Maori in the Context of Aotearoa," analyses the experiences of Maori women religious and articulates the need for change from a Maori perspective. She is a member of the Taumata group of Catholic Maori developing a contextual Maori theology.

Ann Marie Caron, R.S.M., (New York) is associate professor in religious studies at Saint Joseph College (CT). She has published in The MAST Journal and has also researched, presented papers, and written articles on the thirteenth-century book, the Liber specialis gratiae, the revelations of Mechtild of Hackeborn. This continues to be a current project. She received her Ph.D. in liturgical theology from Drew University.

Avis Clendenen is a Mercy Associate (Chicago) and holds a D.Min. and Ph.D. in theology and the human sciences from Chicago Theological Seminary. She is associate professor of religious studies, and Director of the Pastoral Ministry Institute at Saint Xavier University in Chicago. She has served in Mercy education for twenty-five years.

Mary Collins, O.S.B., (Mount St. Scholastica, Atchison, KS) is professor of liturgy and culture in the School of Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America. She chaired the subcommittee on The Liturgical Psalter for the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL).

Mary C. Daly, R.S.M., (Connecticut) lives and ministers at Mercy Center at Madison as an associate program director. She teaches in the School of Spirituality and the Practicum for Training Spiritual Directors as well as giving retreats and offering programs in creativity. She has been a previous contributor to The MAST Journal.

Carol J. Dempsey, O. P., assistant professor of biblical studies and theology at the University of Portland (Portland, OR 97203), received her Ph.D. from the Catholic University of America in 1994. She has published articles on both ethical and ecological issues in relation to the prophets and other biblical texts, and most recently in the New Pastoral Dictionary of Biblical Theology (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1996). She is currently working on a book titled Paradigm Shifts for a New Creation: A Liberationist-Critical Reading of the Prophets, edited by Alice L. Laffey, to be published by Fortress Press. She is co-convener of the Feminist Hermeneutics Task Force for the Catholic Biblical Association and convener of the Scripture section for the College Theology Society.

Paulanne Diebold, R.S.M. (Cincinnati), M.S.S.W, C.S.W, is director of aging ministry, Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Louisville, KY. She is a certified social worker with an M.A. in geriatric social work. Prior to coming to Catholic Charities, she spent several years as director of pastoral care at Sacred Heart Home, a personal care and congregate living facility in Louisville, KY. She holds and M.A. in education, and spent twenty years in elementary schools and administration.

Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, holds a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University, and a J.D. from Stanford University. Interested in the intersection of feminist jurisprudence the feminist theology, she is currently in the doctoral program in theology and ethics at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Married with four children, she is also a founding member of WELS, Women’s Experience in Law and Spirituality. WELS is a network which acknowledges spirituality as a dimension of legal practice and provides a feminist critique of legal concepts and conventions. WELS seeks to educate women about the law and to promote a more conciliatory, less combative approach for settling disputes.

Elizabeth Dowling, R.S.M., is a member of the Ballarat East Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, Australia. She is currently completing a masters in theology at the Melbourne College of Divinity with a focus on New Testament. Elizabeth has experience in teaching at both secondary and tertiary levels.

Katherine Doyle, R.S.M., (Auburn) is a member of the Auburn Regional Community leadership team. She received her M.Ed. from the University of San Francisco and a masters in liturgical studies from St. John's University, Collegeville, MN. Katherine has been a member of the editorial community developing Morning and Evening Prayer of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas and its companion volume. She is currently working on a study of Mother Mary Baptist Russell, California foundress of the Sisters of Mercy.

Neil Draves-Arpaia, M.Div., is a diocesan priest and Mercy Associate (Baltimore). He holds M.A. degrees in theology and spirituality, and did graduate studies in ethics and psychology at Boston College. As storyteller, poet, and retreat director, he has worked with many religious and lay groups nationally, including twenty-one regional communities of the Sisters of Mercy. He also companions the dying.

Marie Ann Ellmer, R.S.M. (Merion, PA) is director of liturgical ministries at St. Andrew Parish in Newtown, PA. Marie Ann holds a Masters of Music from Catholic University in liturgical music. She remains active in congregational liturgical planning as well as in her volunteer work with the Delaware Valley Transplant Program. She is a member of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians.

Margaret A. Farley, R.S.M., (Detroit) holds the Gilbert L. Stark Chair in Christian Ethics at Yale University Divinity School. She is the author and editor of five books and has published more than sixty articles and chapters of books on topics of theological ethics, feminist ethics, ethics and spirituality, medical ethics, sexual ethics, and social ethics. She is a past president of the Society of Christian Ethics and president of the Catholic Theological Society of America in 1999–2000. She has been a member of the Detroit Regional Community of the Sisters of Mercy since 1959.

Patricia Fox is president of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Australia and is based at the Institute Centre at Lewisham in Sydney. She has recently completed a Ph.D. in systematic theology. A version of her thesis on the retrieval of the triune symbol of God is due to be published by Liturgical Press in 2001.

Ann Miriam Gallagher, R.S.M. (Dallas) holds a Ph.D. in Church History from Catholic University of America in Washington, DC and an M.A. in history. She has been Professor of Church History at Mount St. Mary’s College and Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland since 1979. She taught on the faculty and then served as President of College Misericordia in Dallas, Pennsylvania.

Mary Ann Getty, a founder of MAST, holds her S.T.D. from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium (1975). She considers teaching her vocation and has happily involved herself with other students of the Scriptures since graduating from Carlow College in 1965. Having begun her career teaching first grade, she is revisiting that experience by writing a series of books on Bible stories for children published by The Liturgical Press. The first of the series, God Speaks to Us in Water Stories, was published last fall; the second, God Speaks to Us in Feeding Stories, is forthcoming, with one more to follow each year. Mary Ann has written numerous articles on the New Testament and several commentaries on Paul’s epistles. She is presently working on a volume on Philippians and Philemon for the Sacra Pagine Commentary series. She teaches at St. Vincent’s, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in the College and Seminary.

Rowshan Golshayan is an Associate of the Sisters of Mercy of Vermont. She is currently a graduate student and research/teaching assistant at the Faculty of Religious Studies of McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her area of concentration is feminist theology.

Doris Gottemoeller, R.S.M., is the first president of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. She served as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and was one of the three United States delegates to the International Union of Superiors General in Rome. She was named an auditor to the Synod on Consecrated Life in 1994. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Doris has earned degrees from Edgecliff College, the University of Notre Dame and Fordham University. Her ministry experiences include teaching at the elementary, secondary and college levels and service on numerous health and education boards.

Mary Kathryn Grant, Ph.D., is the executive vice president of sponsorship and mission services for Holy Cross Health System Corporation in South Bend, Indiana. She has worked in various health care organizations; Consolidated Catholic Health Care in Westchester, Illinois; and Catholic Health Association in St. Louis. She was executive director of Mercy Health Conference in Farmington Hills, Michigan. She holds a doctorate in English and American studies from Indiana University, Bloomington, and was involved in Catholic higher education before her career change to health care.

Ellen Greeley, R.S.M. (St. Louis) holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and an M.A. in Music. She served for two terms on the St. Louis regional leadership team and was active in the Leadership Conference for Women Religious. She was a participant in the United Nations Non-Governmental Organization Women’s Forum at the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995. She is presently in Mission Services with the St. Louis Sisters of Mercy Health System.

Patricia Hartigan, R.S.M. (Brooklyn) is the Institute justice coordinator. She earned a B.A. and M. A. in history, and holds a J.D. from the City University of New York at Queens College, an alternative law school for public advocacy and public policy. While in law school, she concentrated on environmental and international law. She maintains a small elder law practice. He background includes fifteen years of teaching at the elementary, secondary, and college levels.

Valia Hirsch, 90, attended the University of Illinois at Urbana and the University of Chicago. She worked as rewrite reporter at Inter City Press Service in Chicago, served as executive vice-president for Americans for Progressive Israel, and staffed the American Israel Cultural Foundation. An organist, she used to play for services at St. Agatha (west side) and St. Thomas the Apostle (south side) in Chicago. She and her husband David emigrated to Israel in 1973. Valia edited Progressive Israel, a journal for the left wing socialist labor party Mapam. Since her husband’s death and her return to the U.S.A., she has tutored English, taught Hebrew, copy-edited, added to her memoirs, written poetry and kept up with current best-sellers. She enjoys the role of matriarch to a large, loving and burgeoning family of two children, four grand-children and seven great-grandchildren. She presently lives in Berkeley, California, with her son Morris, a jazz musician and mathematics professor at U.C. Berkeley. His wife Charity is a physician’s assistant at community health care clinics, and founder of WAGE (We Advocate Gender Equity), an organization which supports the legal rights of women academics at universities in California.

Marilee Howard, R.S.M. (Auburn), holds a Ph.D. from Georgetown University with a concentration in bioethics. Her background includes work as a medical technologist. For four years she was director of ethics and justice for Catholic Healthcare West in northern California. She currently serves on the regional leadership team of Auburn, California where she facilitates communications, engagement in Mercy Housing, and a women’s outreach program called the Women’s Wisdom Project. Active on several hospital boards and review committees, she is also a musician and regularly leads the singing at a local parish.

Mary Dolores Jablonksi, R.S.M. (Erie), holds a B.A. in English and an M.A. in religious studies from Gannon University, Erie, PA. She has done additional studies in gerontology at Penn State University, Michigan State University and North Texas State University. Presently she is executive director of the Mercy Center on Aging in Erie and serves as Pennsylvania representative on the National Council of Aging Advisory Board and as chair of the Mercy Network on Aging Advisory Board.

Elizabeth Julian, a Sister of Mercy from Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, where she has been preparing student teachers to teach in Catholic schools as well as adult education. She holds a BA and B. Ed from Massey University, Palmerston North ANZ and an M. Ed. from Boston College. She has done research on the relationship between biblical texts, Mercy spirituality and the indigenous tribal rituals of New Zealand. Currently she is a candidate in the Doctorate of Ministry program at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, where she is completing her thesis on the spirituality of women who teach in Catholic schools in ANZ.

Sharon Kerrigan, R. S. M., (Chicago) teaches social science and religion at Moraine Valley Community College. She received a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Foundation, an M.A. from Loyola and Kansas State Universities and a B.A. from Saint Xavier University. Her most recent research is on the early Christian healing tradition.

Marilyn King, R.S.M., (Burlingame) holds a Ph.D. in systematic theology and spirituality from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. Her research focused on the life and contemplative tradition of Thomas Merton. She presently is the rural religious education consultant for the archdiocese of Louisville, KY. She lives at The Laura, a place of prayer, hospitality and simple living where she attends to the rhythms of nature and the spirit.

Christian Koontz, R.S.M. (Detroit) holds a Ph.D. in English from Catholic University of America. She is Professor of English at the University of Detroit Mercy. Her other areas of study include spirituality and holistic depth psychology, and currently, the implications of the new sciences on the study of language and literature. She is currently developing a website for her work with depth-writing.

Veronica Lawson, R.S.M., is a senior lecturer in theology at the Aquinas Campus of Australian Catholic University, Ballarat. Her doctoral thesis, completed in 1997 at Trinity College, Dublin, is entitled "Gender and Genre: the Construction of Female Gender in the Acts of the Apostles." She is an executive member of the Australia East Timor Association (Ballarat Branch) and a long-term supporter of the East Timorese struggle.

Ann McGovern, R.S.M., (Connecticut) is the coordinator of guidance services at Mercy High School in Middletown, CT. She is also a part-time student at Saint Joseph College in West Hartford.

Elizabeth McMillan, R.S.M. (Pittsburgh) has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Louvain (Belgium) and an M.A. from Marquette University. She has been teaching philosophy and theology since 1992 at the seminary of the Fraternidad Misionaria de Maria in Guatemala City. She worked in corporate health care ethics at the Catholic Health Association in St. Louis, and taught philosophy at Loyola University of Chicago and Carlow College in Pittsburgh, where she also served as Dean.

Ray Maria McNamara, R.S.M., (North Carolina) is a full time student at the Graduate Theologicaly Union in Berkeley, CA, working on an M.A. in theology. She holds an M.A. in Leadership and Administration from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a B.S. in biology from Clemson University. She has taught the sciences for over twenty years, and is currently working on integrating science and theology.

Joan Nemann, R. S. M., (Cincinnati) is a member of the leadership team, Regional Community of Cincinnati. She received her M.A. in spirituality from Fordham University in 1984. Her master’s thesis was entitled, "The Significance of Mercy in the Spirituality of the Sisters of Mercy." She has served as a spiritual director and retreat director since the early seventies. In addition, she was vocation director in the sixties and formation director in late seventies and early eighties. She has also served as Vicar for Religious for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Mary Ann Nolan, R.S.M. (Merion) is full-time director of life development for her regional community. She holds an M.S. in mathematics from SUNY at Buffalo and an M.T.S. from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Trained by Dr. Richard Johnson, Ph.D., Mary Ann has been training groups of Sisters in the process of Retirement Success Profile for Religious for eight years.

Mary Aquin O’Neill, R.S.M., (Baltimore) is cofounder and director of Mount Saint Agnes Theological Center for Women in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Religion with a specialization in systematic theology from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Mary Aquin has taught at Mount Saint Agnes College and Loyola College in Baltimore, Salve Regina College in Newport, Rhode Island, and the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Her writings span topics in theological anthropology, ecumenical theology, women in the church, and Sacred Scripture.

Mary Paulinus Oakes, R.S.M. (St. Louis), originally from Vicksburg, Mississippi, confesses that she is a history buff with a long interest in the Civil War. She has an M.A. from Xavier University in Chicago and a degree in religious education from Loyola University, New Orleans. For twenty years she was on the adjunct faculty of Hinds Community College in Jackson, Mississippi, teaching American literature. She has also served as elementary school principal and high school administrator. During the last decade, she has worked as a hospital chaplain, and presently does chaplaincy ministry for the chemical dependency unit of St. Dominic’s Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi.

Aline Paris received her D.Min. degree with a concentration in liturgy from Catholic Theological Union at Chicago. She is presently an associate professor of humanities at Trinity College, teaching courses in Scripture and theology. She is also serving on the Regional Leadership Team for the Sisters of Mercy of Vermont and represents the community at the MILD conferences.

Carol Rittner, R.S.M. (Dallas, PA) holds an M.A. in English from Univ. of Maryland, an M.T.S. from St. John’s Seminary in Detroit, and a D.Ed. in Higher Education Administration from Pennsylvania State Univ. She is Distinguished Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Her film, "The Courage to Care," was nominated for a 1984 Academy Award in the Short Documentary category. With Sondra Myers, she edited The Courage to Care: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust. With John Roth, she edited Memory Offended: The Auschwitz Convent Controversy, and Different Voices: Women During the Holocaust. She has contributed chapters to several books and written numerous essays about the Holocaust. Her most recent publication is The Holocaust and the Christian World, edited with Stephen Smith and Irena Steinfeldt, intended for presentation to Pope John Paul II on his visit to Yad Vashem in March 2000. For the past ten years, Rittner has been involved with Holywell Trust, a community development organization in Derry, Northern Ireland dedicated to peaceful solutions to conflicts there. She also serves with the London-based Aegis Trust, a non-governmental organization developing strategies to combat potential genocides around the world.

Eloise Rosenblatt, R.S.M. (Burlingame, CA) is the editor of the MAST Journal and a founding member of WELS (see Chamberlain, above). Her Ph.D. is from the Graduate Theological Union (1987); she served there as associate dean of faculty from 1997–1999. Currently she is studying law. Recent publications include "Gender, Ethnicity and Legal Considerations in the Hemorrhaging Woman’s Story" in Transformative Encounters: Jesus and Women Reviewed, ed. by Kitzberger (Leiden: Brill, 2000), "The Present and Future Status of Women in Religion and Theology," Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (2000); "Collaborations: Jewish and Christian Feminist Biblicists" in The Way Supplement (2000) and "Edith Stein" in The Holocaust and the Christian World, ed. by Rittner (above).

Mary Celeste Rouleau R.S.M. (Burlingame) has been a Sister of Mercy over fifty years. She holds a Ph.D. from St. Louis University and has done post-doctoral studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. After finishing many years of teaching philosophy, she continues her research, writing, and presentations on Catherine McAuley’s spirituality and the Mercy tradition. Some of her articles have appeared in Review for Religious and The MAST Journal. Last year she traveled to China, a gift acknowledging her years of serving as archivist for the Ricci Institute of Chinese-Western Cultural History at the University of San Francisco, which was founded on her Jesuit uncle’s research.

Janet Ruffing, R.S.M. (Burlingame, CA), holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and is associate professor in the graduate division of religious education at Fordham University, chairing a concentration in spirituality and spiritual direction. She has lectured on spirituality and spiritual direction in Ireland, England, Australia and India. She has written numerous articles and has authored Uncovering Stories of Faith: Narrative and Spiritual Direction. Other publications include "The Gifts of Celibate Friendship and Intimacy" in Horizons (1998), "Celibacy and Contemplation (1997) and "Going Up into the Gaps: Prophetic Life and Vision in InFormation (1998) "Supervision and Spiritual Development: The Conventional post-Conventional Divide" in Journal of Supervision and Training in Ministry (1997), "As Refined by Fire" in Living Prayer and "Resisting the Demon of Busyness" in Spiritual Life.

Kathleen P. Rushton, R.S.M., is a member of the Christchurch Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has recently returned to Christchurch after submitting her Ph.D. at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Her thesis, entitled "The Parable of Jn 16:21: A Feminist Socio-Rhetorical Reading of a (Pro)creative Metaphor for the Death Glory of Jesus" was supervised by Prof. Elaine Wainwright, R.S.M.

Patricia Ryan, R.S.M., (Burlingame) holds degrees in chemistry and English. Long committed to an alternative feminine style, she inaugurated retreat programs in the 1980’s for women discovering their own spirituality. She has served in various leadership roles, including President of the Burlingame regional community. She was the first Director of Mercy International Centre in Dublin, Ireland, completing her term in 1997. Poet and violinist, she is currently on sabbatical.

Judith Schubert is a member of the regional community of New Jersey. She received her Ph.D. in theology (New Testament) from Fordham University. As associate professor of theology, she teaches at Georgian Court College in Lakewood, New Jersey. She has recently been appointed director of their newly established Master of Theology Program. She has published in Bible Today and The MAST Journal.

Mary Ellen Sheehan, I.H.M., holds an S.T.D., S.T.L., and S.T.B. from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, an M.A. from St. Louis University, and a B.A. from Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan. She is associate professor of theology at the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, and director of the D.Min. programme, Toronto School of Theology, Toronto, Canada. She regularly lectures and offers workshops in Canada and the U.S.A. on feminist theology, women in theological education and practical ecclesiology.

Maryellen Shuckerow, R.S.M., (Connecticut), ministers among the urban poor at St. Vincent De Paul Place as a development and public relations coordinator. Maryellen holds a masters degree in human service administration.

Alice M. Sinnott, R.S.M., a native of Wexford, Ireland, has been engaged in the New Zealand mission since the 1950s. She taught English and religion in secondary schools, and then for fifteen years lectured in biblical studies and religious education at Auckland College of Education. She holds an M.A. from Auckland University, an M.T.S from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and completed her D.Phil. from Oxford University in 1997. Her dissertation was "The Personification of Wisdom in the Old Testament." She has returned as a member of the theological faculty lecturing in First Testament at Auckland University.

Paula M. Smith, R.S.M., (Bathurst) is a member of the Leadership Team of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Australia. She holds a Ph.D. from James Cook University, Townsville in Queensland. Her research has been mainly in the areas of women’s biographies through post-structuralist feminism, especially the theory and writings of Helene Cixous. She is an educator who has worked in both secondary and tertiary fields.

Mary Sullivan, R.S.M. (Rochester) is Professor of Language and Literature at Rochester Institute of Technology. She received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Notre Dame and an M.Th. from the University of London. Her book, Catherine McAuley and the Tradition of Mercy (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995) is a collection of early archival manuscripts by and about Catherine. She serves on the editorial board of The MAST Journal.

Mary C. Sullivan, R.S.M., (Rochester) holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Notre Dame and an M.Th. in systematic theology from the University of London. She published Catherine McAuley and the Tradition of Mercy (University of Notre Dame Press) in 1995; her The Friendship of Florence Nightingale and Mary Clare Moore (tentative title) will be published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 1999.

Marilyn Sunderman, R.S.M. (Cincinnati ) Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at St. Joseph’s College in Standish, Maine, where she chairs the department and is developing an M.A. program in pastoral studies. Her book, Humanization in the Christology of Juan Luis Segundo, was recently published. Her current research focuses on the spiritual theology of Thomas Merton.

Patricia Talone, R.S.M. (Merion) is associate professor of humanities, Gwynedd Mercy College and also ethics consultant for Mercy Health Corporation of Southeast Pennsylvania. Her Ph.D. from Marquette University is in theological ethics. She has published a book on the ethical issues of caring for teminally ill patients, Feeding the Dying (Peter Lang, 1995). She serves on the editorial board of The MAST Journal.

Anne Tormey, R.S.M., (Perth) holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and is involved in congregational administration. She is course convenor for the Catherine McAuley Leadership and Service Award for young women (25–40) and is currently involved in the transfer of congregationally owned health and welfare institutions to lay governance. She holds M.A. degrees in both education and philosophy (women’s studies) and has been involved in secondary school education, adult education, and congregational leadership.

Joyce Turnbull, R.S.M. (Burlingame) received her R.S.N. from University of San Francisco School of Nursing in 1958, and her M.N. from the University of Washington School of Nursing in Seattle. She has a credential in public health nursing from the University of San Francisco. She taught at Mercy College of Nursing in San Diego, California from 1965–69 and at USF School of Nursing 1969–77. She has published in The American Journal of Nursing. Emphasizing nursing practice and care of the adult, she has spent fifteen years in home-health nursing practice and as a case manager in California. She is currently instructor of home health nursing at San Jose State University School of Nursing in northern California.

Julia Upton, R.S.M., (Brooklyn), Ph.D., is Professor of Theology and Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at St. John’s Unvieristy in New York. She is the author of A Church for the Next Generation and Becoming a Catholic Christian. She is Executive Director of MAST, as well as the founder and list manager of Mercy-L, an internet site for Sisters of Mercy which recently celebrated its third year of operation. She serves on the editorial board of The MAST Journal.

Senolita Vakata, R.S.M., is a member of the Christchurch Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand. She is currently working in Tonga as coordinator of the Diocesan Commission for Justice and Peace. Senolita trained as a teacher in Tonga and holds a B.A. in theology from Yarra Theological Union, Melbourne, Australia.

Patricia Vandenberg, C.S.C., is a sister of the Holy Cross, and is currently president and CEO of Holy Cross Health System in South Bend, Indiana, a multi-institutional health system consisting of nine major subsidiaries with consolidated gross revenues of over $1 billion and twelve hospitals with over four thousand beds. She holds an M.H.A. from Duke University in North Carolina. Her past administrative roles have included president and CEO of St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho and vice president of clinical services at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Elaine Wainwright is a member of the All Hallows’ Congregation, Brisbane, Australia. She lectures in biblical studies and feminist theology in the Brisbane College of Theology and has recently been appointed program focus adviser to the newly established Program Focus in Women’s Studies in Theology in that college. She has two manuscripts awaiting publication: Shall We Look for Another? Engendering Reading and the Matthean Jesus (forthcoming, Orbis); and New Testament Women, Storytellers’ Companion to the Bible (forthcoming, Abingdon).

Claudia Silke Ward, R.S.M., (St. Louis) is a native of Germany and, since 1996, a U.S. citizen. She recently professed first vows and currently serves as assistant principal at St. Alphonsus Elementary School in New Orleans. This inner city multicultural ministry witnesses to Claudia’s passion for global justice and human rights.

Christine Bucey Wilde, a Mercy Associate (Burlingame), has an M. A. from Northern Arizona University and a B.A. in physical sciences from Stanford. She has taught chemistry, physics, and earth sciences at Central Catholic High School in Modesto, CA for twenty-two years, and at Modesto Junior College for twelve years. Among several national awards for teaching, she was a Tandy Technology Scholar in 1992, a Department of Energy Teacher-Research Associate, and Rotary Teacher of the Year in 1997. She regularly lectures at state and national conventions on science education and has a life-long passion for astronomy.