Current Ministry Location: Maryknoll Sisters Center-Maryknoll, NY
Sister Dolores, of Queens Village, NY, entered Maryknoll in 1950 after attending Grace Institute for secretarial skills. After making First Vows, she worked in the Promotion Department at the Maryknoll Sisters Motherhouse. Then in 1957, she earned her R.N. degree from Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica, NY. From 1958 – 1960, Sister Dolores was a staff nurse at Maryknoll Hospital in Monrovia, CA, caring for patients with TB and other chest diseases.
In 1960, she was assigned to South Korea. From 1960 – 1963 she ministered to the sick at the Maryknoll Sisters Clinic in Pusan. In 1963, Sister was assigned to Kang Hwa Island to help establish an outpatient clinic in the parish which was located in the main town of the island. Then in 1965, she returned to Pusan and worked in the newly constructed Maryknoll Sisters Hospital.
From 1967 – 1971, Sister Dolores earned a B.S. in nursing from the University of San Francisco and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Michigan. Upon her return to Korea, she went back to Kang Hwa Island and did public health work. Then in 1975, she went to Pusan and set up a Community Health Program in which nursing students from Maryknoll Hospital received experience in public health nursing.
In 1979 Sister Dolores was assigned to Dacca, Bangladesh with two other Sisters and joined a Bangladeshi Sister who had established a Natural Family Planning Program. Sister Dolores functioned as Administrator for the program until 1986.
From 1986 – 1991, Sister joined the nursing staff in the Residential Care Facility at the Maryknoll Sisters Nursing Home at Maryknoll.
After her service at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Sister Dolores was assigned to Cambodia. There she worked with the refugees in Phnom Penh from 1991 – 1994. In 1995 – 2001 she was back in Seoul, Korea where she did hospice work and also was the Maryknoll Sister’s regional bookkeeper.
In 2001, responding to a request from the Sisters in East Timor, Sister Dolores joined the four Sisters in that struggling country. Although she planned to stay much longer, after five months, she was asked to return to the Maryknoll Center to become Administrator of the Out Patient Department which is responsible for the health care of Maryknoll Sisters. Sister Dolores filled that role until 2014.
After 6 months’ Renewal, Sister Dolores began working mornings in Treasury and in the Rogers Office. Today, she is continuing this ministry.