What's Happening

August 20, 2020, Adrian, Michigan – Cynthia Curry Crim was named Vice Chair of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB). In this position, she will be working on the PAB’s executive team with Associate Dee Joyner, Director of Resilient Communities for the Congregation, and Sister Marilín Llanes, OP, Chair.

Established by the Adrian Dominican Sisters more than 40 years ago, the PAB helps the Congregation to use its resources justly, in ways that resonate with its mission. The Corporate Responsibility aspect focuses on using dialogue and shareholder resolutions to keep corporations accountable in areas such as the environment, treatment of workers, and responsibility to local communities. The Community Investment aspect offers low-interest loans to community-based enterprises that serve communities and people in need.

Now in her second year as a PAB member, Cynthia is excited to be serving on the executive team as Vice Chair. The executive team is involved in behind-the-scenes work and strategic planning – “a lot of planning to make sure that each time the PAB meets, we have a productive meeting,” she said. “We’re just trying to make sure that the Board members have the right information, to make the meetings more engaging.”

Cynthia said serving on the PAB fits right in with her work experience. From about 1993 to 1998, she worked in Chicago as director of nonprofit organizations. “All my work centered on family and children, but I also realized you have to look at housing, education, and health,” she said. She wanted to change focus, “not to leave the nonprofit community but I really wanted to see a bigger part of the work.”

Cynthia then served as Associate Executive Director of the Steans Family Foundation in Chicago. The Executive Director was “totally committed to the community and really believed in engaging community residents about the decisions that were going on,” Cynthia said. She compared this work to the Congregation’s focus on helping to form resilient communities in specific geographic areas of the country.

Cynthia and her family moved to St. Louis in 2002. After working for Nonprofit Services Consortium, an intermediary that collaborates with local nonprofit organizations, Cynthia was hired 15 years ago by Dee Joyner to work at Commerce Bank, managing part of its corporate foundation and two family foundations. 

Cynthia said Dee invited her to serve on the PAB. “I had known about her work with the Adrian Dominican Sisters while she was at Commerce,” Cynthia said. “She would talk about being on the PAB, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be asked [to serve on the Board].”

Working on the PAB has enhanced her knowledge. “What I have learned is that investment in the community can be direct or indirect,” she said. She sees the corporate responsibility aspect, and particularly shareholder advocacy, as having an indirect but profound effect on the community. 

“How many people in underserved communities have any idea of the impact that corporations have?” she asked. “So the work that the Sisters are doing – advocating that corporations look at what they’re doing in terms of how they’re polluting the environment – has a major impact on those who have no voice. That is a powerful tool to use.” 

Cynthia sees the work of community investment as being directly involved in the local communities. “I like that during this time of COVID and Black Lives Matter, I have really seen in our last meeting this commitment to walk the talk and try as best as possible to make a difference in the communities, making sure that people who are already struggling can somehow get some relief,” she said. “To be part of this is pretty special.”

August 19, 2020, Chicago – Associate Carol Fowler received third place recognition from the Catholic Press Association (CPA) in the category of Church Professional books for her 2019 book, Human Resources: Best Practices in Church Management.

“Good management is not just desirable – it is essential to upholding the dignity and rights of those who serve the Church as employees or volunteers,” CPA judges wrote in awarding third place to Carol’s book. “The issues which arise in various circumstances are explored in clear language. A bibliography, glossary, and index add to the utility of this manual.”

The award was announced by the CPA during its annual conference – held virtually this year in late June. The book was submitted by Paulist Press and was part of a series of books sponsored by Villanova University. The foreword was written by Sister Donna Markham, OP, President and CEO of Catholic Charities USA and former Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters. 

Carol said she was surprised and pleased by the award, but she hopes that the award will make people more aware of her book. “Anything I can do that would get pastors and business managers of parishes especially to pay attention to how they’re working with and treating their staff is what I want to be able to do.”

During the pandemic, human resources issues are critical, especially for Catholic parishes and other nonprofit organizations, Carol said. “Because of the pandemic and the finances of parishes, so many managers think that their only solution is to let go of the staff,” she said. “That’s not a good solution. It’s a time of very high unemployment, so to let people go if you don’t have to is tragic.” 

Since COVID-19 began, Carol said, she has conducted two webinars on how to help parish personnel deal with the financial crunch without laying off their employees. She suggested “repurposing” the staff for the time being, for example, while churches remain closed. She added that parishes might benefit from another round of federal grants to help businesses with their payroll.

Now retired, Carol drew on 26 years of experience in human resources work with the Archdiocese of Chicago in writing the book. While serving as Director of Campus Ministry for the Archdiocese, she was invited by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s office to apply for the job of Director of Personnel Services. Carol was given the position and, through professional studies, became a certified professional in human resources services.

“Professions and books don’t happen in a vacuum,” Carol said. “The Adrian Dominicans and so many colleagues at the Archdiocese of Chicago have made this book possible.” She gave credit to Dan Gast, a longtime colleague at the Archdiocese of Chicago, and to Peter Gilmour, Professor Emeritus of Loyola Institute of Pastoral Studies. In addition, she noted that Sister Donna had strongly encouraged her to write the book.

“The Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates are so critical to who I am and to my identity and my formation,” Carol added. Her formation as an Adrian Dominican Sister in social justice and Catholic social teaching were also key to her book and to her life’s work as a human resources professional. “It all starts with who I am as an Adrian Dominican,” she said.