I was born in Janesville, Wisconsin the eldest of five children in an Irish-Scottish Catholic family. I graduated from St. Mary's Hospital School of Nursing in Madison in 1964 (a three year diploma program) and worked as a registered nurse until 2008 when I retired. Most of that time I worked at Badger Prairie Health Care Center (Dane County Hospital and Home), as a staff nurse and then nursing supervisor. Our mission was to provide skilled nursing care to Dane County residents with behavioral, emotional, or psychiatric disorders that kept them from living with their own families, in community settings, or in other traditional nursing homes.

Concurrently, I became a Benedictine Oblate in 2000 at Holy Wisdom Monastery. In the Oblate program, one studies the Rule of Benedict and develops a personal rule for living incorporating Benedictine values. In 2006, I graduated from the Spiritual Guidance Training Program at the Siena Center in Racine. I serve as a spiritual guide and participate in and give retreats. My daughter and I just completed a three year certificate program at the Christine Center entitled "Spiritual Deepening for Global Transformation".

I would describe my ministry as interfaith/ ecumenical within a Catholic tradition. Centering prayer has been my daily practice for the past six years. I am a member of Sunday Assembly at Holy Wisdom Monastery. I have also been active in twelve step programs for over 20 years and my spirituality springs from a study of the twelve steps. I am discerning how to be with poverty in the world and how I might best serve others in the global community. It is difficult to look upon oneself and all others with loving kindness. Thus, I strive for gentleness and compassion. I am the mother of four children.