Dominican Sisters Stories

Healer
Sister Nadine Sheehan, OP

Caring for the medical needs of the poor has formed the basis of much of Sister Nadine’s ministry as a nurse practitioner. Her work took her to Kentucky, focusing on helping the rural poor get proper medical attention. Among her efforts was to help start the Carter Health Awareness Program in Carter County to assist the elderly and working poor who needed medical services.

More recently, she served at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital (now Henry Ford Hospital) in Macomb County, Michigan, where she helped develop, manage and serve in the Neighbors Caring for Neighbors Clinic to provide free health care to poor persons who were under-served, under-insured and uninsured.

Human Rights Activist
Sister Luisa Campos, OP

A native of the Dominican Republic, Sister Luisa is a writer, attorney, and human rights activist. She has served as the Dominican Order’s Co-Promoter for Justice and Peace in Latin America and is the Director of Centro Antonio Montesino.

Her life’s work has been focused on advocating for and defending the rights of women and the impoverished people of the Dominican Republic.

In 2009, she wrote the definitive biography of Pedro de Córdoba, OP, the Prior of the first Dominican community in the Americas. He and his community denounced abuses against the Dominican Republic’s indigenous people.

Musician
Maura Phillips, OP

Sister Maura, who celebrated her 101st birthday on April 25, 2015, is one of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ premier musicians. She was trained in music from an early age and earned a master’s degree in applied music from Columbia University.

Sister Maura taught music for more than 30 years, including eleven years spent at St. Ambrose School in Grosse Pointe, Michigan; heading the music program at Barry College (now University) in Miami, Florida; and being part of the music department at Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian.

In the 1970s, she earned her certification in clinical pastoral education and became the director of a senior citizens’ center in Miami, working to meet the physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of people including the poor and elderly.