Sister Jane’s first overseas assignment was as Medical Director of our Holy Family Hospital in Berekum, Ghana. She remembers, “Those were five packed years, and then it was off to Fort Portal, Uganda, with a month plus of helping out in Pendjwa, Zaire. I was part of the process in both sites of establishing the approved nursing education programs that were offered to eligible local candidates.” She also directed twice-weekly medical safaris to remote areas in Uganda.

Sister Jane was chosen Superior General at our 1967 Chapter, and moved to Rome, Italy, for six years. She was the first Sister to follow our Community’s Foundress, Mother Anna Dengel, M.D., in that position. During this time of many changes after the Second Vatican Council, she oversaw the expansion of our healing mission into community development and public health work, and the turnover of several of our hospitals to trained local personnel.

Deciding to return to the U.S., Sister Jane responded to a need expressed by the Bishop of Savannah for health care providers in southwest Georgia. In 1977, she began a medical clinic in Lumpkin, Georgia, with three other Medical Mission Sisters. Sister Jane served as the only doctor in the town, and one of only three doctors in Stewart, Webster, and Quitman Counties.

Seven years later, after handing over the practice in Lumpkin to another physician, Sister Jane moved to our North American Headquarters in Philadelphia. She served as our Membership Discernment and Formation Coordinator, and was also on the Property Committee and Long-Range Planning Committee.

From 1993 to 1999, Sister Jane was our District Coordinator in Eastern North America – a responsibility she described as, “being at the service of 100 vibrant women engaged in a variety of very needed and meaningful activities.”