Born and raised on Long Island, New York, Sister Martina was 20 when she entered the Medical Mission Sisters. She earned her R.N. at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, then was certified as a nurse-anesthetist at St. Agnes Hospital in Philadelphia. She later studied nurse-midwifery at the Catholic Maternity Institute in Santa Fe, and received her Bachelor's degree in Nursing at Georgia Southwestern University.

Sister Martina served in Ghana for 18 years, at our Holy Family Hospitals in Berekum and Techiman. Her responsibilities included supervision of the Operating Room, Anesthesia, and Central Supply departments. She returned to the U.S. in 1980.

Settling in Georgia, Sister Martina worked as a nurse at the Medical Mission Sisters' clinic in Lumpkin for 1 year, and at the River Valley Health Care Agency in Richland for 8 years. Her public health and home health nursing focused mainly on elderly patients. "I also made special efforts to give hospitality to the elderly living alone," she remembers. In the fall of 1982, she briefly left Georgia to do refugee relief work in Beirut, Lebanon.

In 1990, Sister Martina became coordinator of the Shalom Unit, an assisted living residence for our Sisters in Philadelphia. She returned to Georgia for 5 years in 1992. "My sister, Pat, came to live and work with me in Georgia in the Migrant Health Program," she shares. "We both thoroughly enjoyed driving to the migrant camps, bringing the people into the clinic, doing follow-up visits, checking on older patients, giving classes in the camps, etc." This work continued until 1997, when Sister Martina spent 6 months in Nangina, Kenya, filling in for a Sister on leave.

Returning to our North American Headquarters in Philadelphia, Sister Martina accepted the position of Eastern District Health Advisor in 1999, in which she continues today. "It is my privilege to help care for our sick, elderly Sisters," she says. "To see that they receive the best possible care, physically, spiritually, and emotionally."