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July 11, 2025, Notre Dame, Indiana – History and congregational archives are important tools to keep the knowledge of the dedicated ministries of U.S. women religious alive well into the future – and even to bring a sense of healing from division.

Those were some of the lessons that archivists of congregations of U.S. Catholic Sisters heard about during a national conference, held June 22-25, 2025, in Notre Dame, Indiana.  

Among those featured in a recent Global Sisters Report article was Adrian Dominican Associate Arlene Bachanov, of the Congregation’s History Office. She and Grand Rapids Dominican Sister Mary Navarre, OP, Director of Archives, noted the healing effects of investigating the past. Their research helped members of the two congregations to understand the division experienced by the Grand Rapids and Adrian Dominicans, who were once separate provinces of the same Dominican congregation in New York. 

“There were all sorts of assumptions about what happened,” Arlene told the conference participants. But their research – collected into a 30-page publication, Golden Links – revealed that, in 1894, Bishop Henry Joseph Richter wanted the Sisters in Grand Rapids to be a diocesan congregation. Sisters could choose to become part of the new Grand Rapids congregation or remain in the New York congregation as part of the Adrian Province. The Adrian Province became an independent congregation in 1923.  

Both Arlene and Sister Mary had extensive help in their research from their respective archives: Arlene through Lisa Schell, Archivist, and Sister Joy Finfera, OP, Secretary of the Congregation and Director of the Office of Information, and Sister Mary through the Associate Director of Archives, Jennifer Morrison.

Read more about the importance of archives for congregations of Catholic Sisters in an article written by Dan Stockman for The National Catholic Reporter’s Global Sisters Reports. 

November 9, 2021, Adrian, Michigan – Archivists from a variety of U.S. congregations of Dominican Sisters gathered virtually October 19-21, 2021, to discuss best practices and common issues and to learn from speakers in related fields. Participating were Sister Beverly Bobola, OP, Assistant Archivist, and other members of Dominican Archivists for a Common Repository (DARC), as well as professional archivists and historians from related organizations. 

About 30 people attended the entire summit, while another 20 or so – including leaders of Dominican Congregations – joined the gathering when possible. 

Lisa Schell

Lisa Schell, Archivist for the Adrian Dominican Sisters and a member of the planning committee, said this year’s summit brought in speakers from a variety of fields and from organizations such as the Detroit Institute of Art, the Queens (New York) Memory Project, and the City of Chicago. “We wanted to look outside ourselves,” Lisa explained. “The idea was to collaborate outside of our comfort zone and be inspired.”

Archivists who work in organizations outside of congregations for women religious have much to teach the Dominican archivists, Lisa said. “We could still get the benefit of sharing best practices of archives and get a perspective of what’s possible.”

One keynote speaker – Eileen Markey, journalist and Assistant Professor at City University of New York Herbert H. Lehman College – noted the importance of archivists of women’s religious congregations. “She spoke of how important it is for archivists to understand that much of American history is patriarchal, centered in the male,” Lisa recalled. The archives of women’s religious communities are treasures that can profoundly influence the understanding of the role of women in U.S. history, Lisa added.     

Another speaker, Katie Gordon, is Co-founder and National Director of Nuns and Nones, which brings Catholic Sisters together with young Millennial spiritual seekers to share community, faith, and experiences. “She had a lot to say about Sister stories and how important they are, making them accessible and available to people of younger generations,” Lisa said.

For her part, Lisa especially loves the opportunity to tell the history and stories of the Adrian Dominican Sisters. A lover of history, she taught high school history for 15 years before changing course. She earned a Master of Library and Information Science degree with certificates in Archival Administration and Records Management from Wayne State University in Detroit and worked for eight years as a corporate archivist before coming to work for the Adrian Dominican Sisters in 2018. 
 
A year later, Lisa hosted the Dominican Archivists Summit in Adrian. The focus then, she said, was on standardizing the archival collections of the U.S. Dominican congregations. Participants at the 2019 Summit worked together to bring consistency to their collections and to the vocabulary they use for those collections in preparation for the time when they might be in a common repository.

Hopes are that the 2023 Summit will be in person. However, Lisa said, she is stepping away from planning the Dominican Archivists Summits after being elected Vice President and President-Elect of the Archivists for Congregations of Women Religious (ACWR), a professional organization of about 350 archivists serving congregations of Sisters in the United States.  

Whether working with Sister Beverly at the Adrian Dominican Motherhouse, with archivists of other Dominican congregations, or with Colleagues from the ACWR, Lisa relishes her work. “I love Sisters’ history and the Sisters here,” she said. “It’s so exciting to be part of a community that is in alignment with things I believe in … It’s a rare opportunity to be a professional woman and surrounded by women.”
 

Feature photo: Katie Gordon, Co-founder and National Organizer of Nuns and Nones – an alliance of Catholic Sisters and diverse spirituality seekers – offers a presentation on programming and outreach engagement during the summit of Dominican Archivists.