Sister Andrea Nenzel, vice-chair of the board of directors for PeaceHealth, is the new congregation leader of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.
Also elected to the leadership team in April are CSJP Sisters Susan Francois, Kathleen Pruitt, Margie Fort and Sheena George. Their terms run from July 1, 2021, to January 6, 2027.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace is an international Catholic community of vowed women founded in 1884 to promote social justice as a way to peace. Today, the congregation has 125 sisters and 111 associates, serving in three regions: the Western U.S., the Eastern U.S. and the United Kingdom.
In the western region, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace was one of the founding congregations of the Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center, Mercy Housing Northwest, and Jubilee Women’s Center, all in Seattle; and they are the founding congregation of PeaceHealth System, which has hospitals in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.
Until her election in April, Sister Andrea served on numerous committees of the Washington State Hospital Association and the American Hospital Association and volunteered in several social ministries in Vancouver. She also has also served twice as leader of the Western Province and ministered in education. During the war in El Salvador, she was co-director of Calle Real Refugee Camp for the Archdiocese of San Salvador.
Sister Susan Francois, elected assistant congregation leader, has served on the leadership team since 2015. She spent time in Seattle as a social justice educator and advocate at the Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center. She currently writes a regular column for Global Sisters Report on religious life and social justice, serves on the national board of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and is a trustee of Peace Ministries, Inc., in New Jersey and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace Charitable Incorporated Organisation in the United Kingdom.
Sister Kathleen, a past leader of the congregation’s Western Province, serves on the board of the PeaceHealth System and on the community board for Peace Island Hospital. She has served on the St. Joseph Hospital governing board and on the board of trustees for the St. Joseph Health System. Sister Kathleen also is a past president of the National Leadership Conference of Women Religious and was vice president of Pax Christi International.
Sister Margie, who lives in the Pacific Northwest, was most recently on the congregation’s formation team. An educator and licensed clinical social worker, Sister Margie is bilingual and has ministered in parishes and community mental health and with nonprofits serving vulnerable adults affected by poor health, poverty, lack of legal status and homelessness.
Sister Sheena, a native of India, manages a House of Hospitality for asylum refugee women in Jersey City, New Jersey, and has served in young adult ministry and chaplaincy, and served on the board of York Street Project, which shelters, feeds, educates and promotes the healing of those in need.
For more information about the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, visit their website.