Called to Action: A School Sisters of Notre Dame Central Pacific Podcast

In Season 6: The Mission Continues, Episode 7: Educating Girls for Life! we welcome Mary Elizabeth Grimes, President at Marian Middle School. Marian Middle School is the only all-girls private middle school in the St. Louis community serving urban adolescent youth in a faith-based environment. Mary Elizabeth shares with us how Marian Middle School invests in the success of young girls, from 6th to...

In Season 6: The Mission Continues, Episode 6: Helping Immigrants Thrive we welcome Jane Rydholm, Executive Director, at MORE. MORE is a an affiliated SSND ministry that provides support to the wider St. Paul refugee and new immigrant community. Jane discusses how MORE empowers their students to thrive by providing language skills and access to support services, while offering a place of connectio...

In Season 6: The Mission Continues, Episode 5 we welcome Ben Brzeski, Ministry Office Director, to discuss his role working with SSND’s 17 sponsored, co-sponsored and affiliated ministries. We also explore how unique the ministries are and how they all share the same goal of carrying on the SSND mission of charism. Please enjoy this episode and if you have any comments or if you would like any inf...

On Season 6: The Mission Continues, Episode 4: Vocations we welcome two members from our North American Vocations Team (NAVT), Sister Carol Jean Dust and Laurie Lindauer, who walk us through what vocations means from a religious and life standpoint. They also explain what the culture of vocations is and what the mission of NAVT is when approaching conversations with young people about their callin...

Called to Action Season 6 Episode 3: Ministry Work in Guatemala is available! On this episode Sister Gladys Courtade joins us to share stories of her time in Guatemala, what inspired her to do ministry work there and how living with the community impacted her life. We also discuss the roots of SSND and how working with less fortunate communities is what inspired the Blessed Theresa Gerhardinger to...

Called to Action Season 6 Episode 2: Women's Leadership Luncheon is available! On this episode Debbie Rohrich-Tyler, Manager of Donor Relations and Events, joins us to discuss her 34 years of tenure at SSND, how much sisters have impacted her life, and how Women's Leadership Luncheon has grown to be her largest event every year. We also discuss the 2026 Women's Leadership Luncheons...

Called to Action Season 6 Episode 1: Faith and Community is available! Sisters Cindy Weber and Patricia Gravemann join co-hosts Adam Schicker and Sister Jan Berberich to discuss how important faith and community are when working through transitional periods in life. As community leaders at Sancta Maria in Ripa they share how sisters value the importance of living in community, and how that communi...

In the last episode of Called to Action Season 5, Episode 10: Corporate Social Responsibility , we welcome Sister Ann Scholz to discuss her role at SSND working with corporate investing. Sister Ann advocates for better manufacturing and business practices affecting social issues like labor trafficking. This discussion rounds out our five-season series focused on SSND’s commitment to Shalom’s Justi...

On Called to Action Season 5, Episode 9: Shalom Network – Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation Ministry we welcome Lisa Cathelyn, the new Director of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation in the School Sisters of Norte Dame Central Pacific Province. She shares her experience as a new team member, her vision for the future of the SSND mission as it relates to advocacy and also helps better...

On Called to Action Season 5, Episode 8: Sorrow’s Prayer, praying the rosary for victims Sister Susan Adrians joins us to discuss her experience being a member of the human trafficking committee, the S.O.A.P project in Milwaukee and advocacy through prayer. She also explains a different way of praying the rosary by saying the Sorrow's Prayer for the victims of human trafficking. 

On Called to Action Season 5, Episode 7: Animal Trafficking Sister Annette and Sister Kay Fernholz join us to explore trafficking as we expand  awareness to  the fair treatment of livestock to understand what animals are trafficked to produce various products that we may use but have never considered how they are made. Animal trafficking awareness also relates to the SSND commitment to Laudato Si&...

In Season 5 of Called to Action Episode 6: Atlantic-Midwest Province Human Trafficking Committee, we invite Sister Joan Pikiell from the Atlantic-Midwest Province and a member of the human trafficking committee. Sister Joan shares her story of becoming a SSND and some history on when the Atlantic-Midwest Province was created. We also discuss why she became a member of the human trafficking committ...

On Called to Action Episode 5: St. Bakhita Catholic Worker House we speak to Executive Director Ann Haines. We also welcome back Sister Vicki Jean Chambers who is a board member for the St. Bakhita Catholic Worker House. Sister Vicki helps provide the history of St. Bakhita Catholic Worker House and the relationship SSND has with them. Ann educates us on the history of St. Josephine Bakhita, expla...

In Season 5 of Called to Action Episode 4: Alliance to End Human Trafficking, we welcome Katie Boller Gosewisch, Executive Director at Alliance to End Human Trafficking. Katie shares the beginnings of the organization, which was originally called Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking. She also explains the work they do to educate and advocate for victims. 

In Season 5 of Called to Action Episode 3: TraffickCam app: A way everyone can help, we welcome Kimberly Ritter who is Director of Operations at Nix Conference and Meeting Management. Kimberly has a strong connection to SSND having daughters that went to Notre Dame High School,  St. Louis, and was the guest speaker in 2019 at Women's Leadership Luncheon. In this episode, she shares how she be...

In Season 5 of Called to Action Episode 2: Advocacy in Effingham, Illinois, we are joined by Sister Jane Boos to discuss why there is a need for human trafficking advocacy in Effingham. She also describes what the 57/70 Task Force has done to educate the community. We hope everyone can take the information from this episode and be encouraged to take action in their local communities as well.

In Season 5 of Called to Action Episode 1 we explore our topics systemic roots and the importance of advocacy with our guest, Sister Helen Marie Plourde, who provides background for when the SSND Central Pacific Province Human Trafficking Committee was created. We also discuss how language and pornography lead to the ongoing exploitation of women and discuss why sex trafficking continues to permea...

In Episode 10: Racial Justice, A Call to Action  we welcome Tim Dewane, Director, Office of Global Justice and Peace at SSND. Tim discusses the need for racial justice and how it is a call to action for all of us by outlining the three pathways the racial justice committee follows. We hope you found this season inspiring and educational, and we can't thank you enough for joining us this seaso...

In Episode 9: High School Students Views on Social Justice  we welcome two students from Notre Dame High School in St. Louis to discuss our country's youth and where they stand on the topic of social justice. Joy Garavaglia and Elizabeth Merrill share their experiences learning about social justice in high school and how they apply it to their relationships with their friends and family. We h...

In Episode 8: Ecological Economics and Environmental Racism we welcome Sister Ethel Howley from the Atlantic-Midwest Province joins us to share her experience with Laudato Si' and help us explore ecological economics and environmental racism. We hope you get some helpful information from this episode and we appreciate you listening to Called to Action.

In Episode 7:  Learning about Segregation and Generational Poverty we welcome Sister Vicki Jean Chambers who discusses why there is still segregation in cities across the United States and why generational poverty is part of the systemic racism present in the country. We hope you get some helpful facts from this episode as we educate ourselves on segregation and generational poverty.

In Episode 6:  Understanding White Privilege and White Supremacy we welcome associate Judy Gregor who shares her experience as a SSND Associate and what she has learned as a member of the Racial Justice Committee. We hope you enjoy this episode as we explore understanding white privilege and white supremacy.

In Episode 5: Preserving the History of Indigenous People we welcome Sister Connie Schmidt who shares her experience working in ministry for 21 years on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation located in South Dakota. We hope you enjoy this episode as we explore the importance of honoring the history of indigenous people. 

In Episode 4: Understanding White Privilege, White Fragility; and Mircoagression we welcome Sister Rose Mercurio to help us define these terms, be aware of them, and address them to enact change. We hope you enjoy this episode and that you listen to each episode, available every other Wednesday!

In Episode 3: Learning Our Common History we welcome Sister Addie Lorraine Walker to help us dive into our common history and how banning books affects the narrative of American History. We hope you enjoy this episode and that you listen to each episode, available every other Wednesday!