Five Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph were elected Dec. 30, 2015, to a six-year term as the Ursuline Leadership Council, which they will begin serving on July 17, 2016.

Sister Amelia Stenger, a native of Glennonville, Mo., was elected as congregational leader. She will take office as the 16^th canonically elected leader of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph. Sister Amelia was elected with more than a two-thirds majority of the 42 delegates of the Chapter of Elections, who were previously elected by the entire Ursuline community.

Since August 2010, Sister Amelia has served as director of development for the Ursuline Sisters, which among her many duties includes leading the Mount Saint Joseph Picnic, which has enjoyed its greatest financial success under her direction. From 1997 to 2010 she was director of the Mount Saint Joseph Conference and Retreat Center.

She was an educator from 1971 to 1997, beginning as a teacher at Precious Blood School in Owensboro from 1971-75. She then served as principal and teacher at Immaculate Conception School in Earlington, Ky., (1975-77), Christ the King School, Madisonville, Ky., (1977-82) and St. Joseph School, Bowling Green, Ky. (1982-84). She was superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Owensboro from 1984-91, then served as superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Louisville from 1991-97, when she was asked to return to Maple Mount to lead the Retreat Center.

She has served on numerous boards dealing with education and the environment, and in 2015 was a member of the Daviess County Bicentennial Committee. Sister Amelia is a 1967 graduate of Mount Saint Joseph Academy, and was taught by the Ursuline Sisters while growing up in Missouri. She will be in her 48^th year as an Ursuline Sister in 2016.

Sister Kathleen Condry was elected as the assistant congregational leader. Sister Kathleen was an Ursuline Sister of Paola, Kan., prior to the 2008 merger with that community with the Ursulines of Mount Saint Joseph. A native of Ottawa, Kan., she was the superior of the Ursuline Sisters of Paola from 2002 until the merger in 2008. She also served as a member of the Paola Ursulines’ leadership council for 12 years (1982-90, 1994-98).

All of her ministry has been in Kansas. After entering the novitiate in 1970, following her graduation from Bishop Miege High School in Roeland Park, Sister Kathleen taught French and speech and was dorm prefect at Ursuline Academy in Paola. She then taught at Holy Name School, Kansas City (1972-73) and Bishop Miege High School (1973-77). She was assistant principal of St. Agnes School, Fairway (1977-78). She served as principal of Queen of the Holy Rosary School, (1978-85), Holy Spirit School (1984-88) and Holy Cross School (1986-87), all in Overland Park. From 1988-98, she held administrative roles at St. Thomas Aquinas High School and Church of Ascension School in Overland Park. Sister Kathleen was the assistant superintendent for leadership and mission for the Archdiocesan Education Office, Kansas City, Kan. (1998-2002).

Since 2009 she has served in pastoral ministry for the Church of the Nativity in Leawood, Kan. She will be serving in her 46^th year as an Ursuline Sister in 2016.

Sister Pam Mueller was elected as a councilor. A native of Owensboro, Ky., Sister Pam has served as director of campus ministry at Brescia University in Owensboro since 2005. She began her ministry as a teacher at Precious Blood School, Owensboro, in 1973-74, and was a speech-language pathologist for the Diocese of Owensboro from 1974-79. She was a professor of speech language pathology at Brescia from 1981-92.

From 1992-94 she was Director of the Speech and Hearing Clinic at St. Louis University, and then director for the 1818 Advanced College Credit Program at the university. The program allowed qualified high school juniors and seniors to begin taking college course work while still in high school.

In 2000 she returned to Maple Mount to become director of vocation ministry for the Ursuline Sisters. During that time she was also director of the contact program for her community and was among the first graduates of the Spiritual Direction Training Program at the Mount. She was director of women’s discernment at Brescia from 2004-07. She is a 1968 graduate of Mount Saint Joseph Academy and is serving in her 46^th year as a sister in 2016.

Sister Judith Nell Riney was elected as a councilor. She has served as director of library services at Brescia College/University since 1987, and was staff librarian there from 1980-87. She began her ministry as a teacher at St. James School in Louisville (1971-73) and then at St. Angela Merici School in Florissant, Mo. (1973-78). She was librarian at Trinity High School in Whitesville, Ky., from 1978-79 before leading the library at Brescia, which was renamed for the Rev. Leonard Alvey.

Sister Judith Nell grew up a short distance from Maple Mount and was taught by Ursuline Sisters in grade school and at Mount Saint Joseph Academy, where she graduated in 1965. She will serve in her 49^th year as an Ursuline Sister in 2016.

Sister Pat Lynch was elected as a councilor. Sister Pat was also an Ursuline Sister of Paola prior to the 2008 merger, and was superior of that community from 1994-2002, the terms prior to Sister Kathleen. Since 2009, she has served as office manager/campus minister at the Didde Catholic Campus Center at Emporia State University, in Emporia, Kan.

Sister Pat spent her youth between Pennsylvania and Kansas City, Mo. She met the Ursuline Sisters when she began attending Ursuline Academy in Paola, and she entered the novitiate with the Ursuline Sisters there in 1967, making 2016 her 49^th year as a sister.

She served her first 15 years in ministry at the Lakemary Center in Paola, a residential facility for children with developmental disabilities. She was a speech therapy aide (1971-72), speech pathologist (1974-81) and education coordinator (1981-86). She was elected as a councilor in community leadership in 1982, and for a second four-year term in 1986.

From 1987-94, she was an outreach minister at the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center in Lawrence, Kan., on the campus of the University of Kansas. She left there when she was elected superior of the community. She was elected again as a councilor in 2002, and also served as director of vocations and formation (2002-06) and added spiritual direction in 2006.

The Ursuline Sisters of Louisville came to what is now Maple Mount in rural western Daviess County in 1874, and opened Mount Saint Joseph Academy for girls. The community received permission from Rome to become the independent Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph in 1912. There are currently 134 Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph serving in eight states, Washington, D.C., and in Chile, South America.

The current Leadership Council will continue to serve until July 17, when they complete their six-year terms. They are Sister Sharon Sullivan, congregational leader; Sister Julia Head, assistant congregational leader; Sisters Kathleen Dueber, Rita Scott and Nancy Murphy, councilors. They were not eligible for re-election.