2020 Outstanding Leadership Award Recipient

We are very pleased to announce that the LCWR 2020 Outstanding Leadership Award recipient will be Patricia Chappell, SNDdeN.

Patricia has spent nearly 30 years committed to anti-racism training and dismantling white privilege, where she modeled inclusivity and witnessed to the truth of the dignity of the human person. During her nine-year tenure as Executive Director of Pax Christi USA she promoted a spirituality of non-violence and asked each bishop in the United States to affirm active nonviolence as a core Christian principle. She has worked with countless religious congregations and lay groups on diversity-racism issues, including the Ignatian Solidarity Network. In 2017 she served as keynote speaker at the 2017 Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice. At the 2019 LCWR Assembly Patricia was one of three panelists who helped members explore the connections between three critical justice issues which LCWR members identified in their discernment of the 2019-2022 assembly resolution: the intersection of systemic racism, forced migration, and the climate crisis.

Patricia was one of the founding members of the Black Sisters Conference and served as its president from 1996-2001.

A member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Patricia served on the provincial leadership team. Recently she was elected to the leadership team of the East-West unit based in Baltimore, MD.

We look forward to honoring Patricia at this year's LCWR assembly in Dallas and learning more about her groundbreaking leadership.

Our deep appreciation goes to the LCWR Awards Committee for compiling all the feedback that was provided from you, the LCWR members, about candidates for this award and making a recommendation for this year's recipient.

Sincerely,

Jayne Helmlinger, CSJ
Elise García, OP
Sharlet Wagner, CSC