Dominican Sisters Stories

Educator
Sister Peg Albert, OP, PhD

Sister Peg Albert served as an associate professor of social work, counselor and vice president at Barry University before arriving at Siena Heights as its 10th President in 2006. Under her leadership, Siena Heights has seen unprecedented growth, including the establishment of nursing, football and band programs.

Her student- and mission-centered approach has included physical improvements to the residence halls, athletic facilities and student union. SHU’s On Higher Ground Campaign raised more than $19 million — surpassing its original $13 million goal. Siena Heights was also named a “Best College to Work For” by The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

Scientist
Sister Therese Mary Foote, OP, RPh

After 25 years as a math and science teacher, including three years on the high school faculty at St. Joseph Academy in Adrian, Sister Therese Mary’s professional life took a very different path.

Already the holder of a master of science degree in biology from the University of Notre Dame, she went back to school and earned a degree in pharmacy from the University of Michigan. She then spent the next three decades as a registered pharmacist, first at the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ on-campus pharmacy, Dominican Pharmacy, and then in drug stores in the Detroit metropolitan area. For the last sixteen years of her active ministry, she was a pharmacist at the Cherry Hill Pharmacy in Dearborn, Michigan.

Ecologist
Sister Mary Ellen Leciejewski, OP

Sister Mary Ellen is the Director of Ecology for Dignity Health, the largest hospital system in California and the fifth largest in the nation. Based in San Francisco, Dignity Health has facilities in seventeen states.

Among many other recent efforts, Sister Mary Ellen served on the eco-team that helped create the hospitals’ ecology/sustainability program, developed tools to measure the system’s waste stream, developed a chemical reduction program, and established a hospital vegetable garden. Dignity Health recently became the first health care system in the country to switch to dye-free plastics, considerably reducing its environmental impact.