Born into a large Catholic family in Worcester, Massachusetts, Sister Joan moved to Arlington, Virginia, at the age of 7. She first heard about Medical Mission Sisters while attending Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School. She earned a B.S. in Biology from Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia, and joined our Community in 1954. After training as a Medical Technologist at Providence Hospital in Washington, DC, she was missioned to Holy Family Hospital (HFH) in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

"I learned how to live in a totally new culture, and to balance that aspect with the responsibility of supervising an extremely busy clinical lab," she recalls. Needing more staff for the lab, she initiated the HFH School for Laboratory Technicians, which trained young Pakistanis through a 2-year program. She also served as our local superior, and was then elected our District Coordinator in Pakistan.

"We began working on a plan to give over more responsibility to the people with whom we lived and worked, as partners in mission," Sister Joan explains. "These years were the most exciting and challenging in my missionary vocation … also the most rewarding in terms of the lessons learned and the growth that I experienced."

In 1991, Sister Joan founded the Connections job development and placement program in New Port Richey, Florida. "Give people a fish to eat for a day, teach people how to fish to eat for a lifetime," is the theme of this program, which she continues to direct. She is also a strong advocate for the homeless in Pasco County, Florida.