Two Ursuline Sisters who’ve previously served in leadership in their community will begin new ministries in January 2017.
Sister Michele Morek is joining the Global Sisters Report as liaison to sisters on Jan. 3. A project of the National Catholic Reporter Publishing Co., Global Sisters Report is an independent, nonprofit source of news and information about Catholic sisters and the critical issues facing the people they serve. It is funded by a grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.
Sister Michele, along with Sister Joyce Meyer of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, will work with sisters who write commentary for Global Sisters Report and help guide reporters and editors who report on the missions and ministries of sisters around the world.
Since December 2011, Sister Michele has been coalition coordinator for UNANIMA, a nongovernmental organization representing 21 women religious communities at the United Nations. The Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph are one of those communities.
Sister Michele’s last day at UNANIMA was Dec. 20. For her next ministry, she wanted to make sure she could live in community with other Ursuline Sisters, and the Global Sisters Report affords her that in Kansas City, Mo. Four other Ursulines of Mount Saint Joseph live in the Kansas City metro area.
Sister Michele was congregational leader of the Ursuline Sisters from 2004-10, during which time she was instrumental in the merger of the former Ursuline Sisters of Paola, Kan., with Mount Saint Joseph. She served as a biology professor or academic dean at Brescia College/University from 1971 to 2004, and also served eight years as an elected Council member in Ursuline leadership (1992-2000).

Sister Suzanne Sims will begin her ministry as director of religious education at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Owensboro on Jan. 1. Sister Suzanne’s family was instrumental in establishing St. Pius, and it’s where she went to school from fifth to the eighth grades. In all but one year she was taught by an Ursuline Sister. Her mother taught the third grade at St. Pius for 23 years.
Sister Suzanne has had a varied ministry career. She was an elementary school teacher, a professor of elementary education and campus minister at Brescia College, and a pastoral minister at two small churches in western Kentucky. She was twice elected a member of the Ursuline Leadership Council, the second time as assistant congregational leader (200-2004). She was president of Springfield (Ill.) College, and the first director of Mission Advancement for the Ursuline Sisters. From 2009-16, she was principal at St. Mary of the Woods in Whitesville.