Sister Ann was born May 8^th, 1948 in Louisville, Kentucky to Margaret Ruth (Clark) Hayden and Francis Herman Hayden. She had two brothers and one sister. Sister Ann graduated from Holy Rosary Academy in Louisville in1966 then studied medical technology at Catherine Spalding College in Louisville finishing just before entering the Congregation in St. Louis, MO in 1968. She attended Saint Louis University where she changed her major to nursing, earned her Bachelor’s Degree and became a registered nurse in 1972. Sister Ann pronounced First Vows April 8^th, 1972 in St. Louis and her Final Vows February 20^th, 1981 in Korea.

Sister Ann then worked with the Visiting Nurse Association in East Saint Louis for six months before being assigned to Korea later in 1972. After a year of language study, Sister Ann was assigned to Jeong Pyong in 1973 for a work-study period as a nurse in the Maryknoll Clinic of Jeong Pyong.

After a second year of language study, Sister Ann returned to Jeong Pyong in 1975 as staff nurse in the clinic and as public health nurse in the clinic’s community outreach health programs, including maternal and child care.

At the end of 1977, Sister Ann was back at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY for a year of reflection and study in preparation for final vows. During that time, she studied in the core theology program at Maryknoll Society’s School of Theology.

When Sister Ann returned to Korea in January 1979, she became a team member of the joint Maryknoll Society and Maryknoll Sisters labor apostolate. The team worked with young women factory workers, giving workshops and offering a safe place, listening ears and opportunity for them to share their experiences in what was often an abusive workplace.

Sister Ann was called home in 1981 for family ministry, and in 1984, returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center to serve as the outpatient clinic nurse. In 1985, Sister Ann answered a call to volunteer, with another Maryknoll Sister, for six months of refugee work with Save the Children, an international non-governmental organization that promotes children’s rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries. She contributed much needed health care in response to the Ethiopian refugee crisis in Sudan.

In 1986, Sister Ann received a new assignment to Nicaragua. After language study, she began work in Villanueva, Nicaragua, where she helped develop a community-based volunteer health promoter program in the rural communities around the town. She also helped to start a low-cost pharmacy in a community development organization providing small loans for family economic projects; and a women’s center to promote adult education and skills training for women.

Sister Ann transferred to Jinotepe, Nicaragua in 1997, and became a member of a mobile, skills-training team that gave adult education/community development workshops in villages all across Nicaragua.

Returning to NY in 2001, Sister Ann was named director of nursing services at the Maryknoll Sisters residential care unit in the Sisters Center in New York, where she ministered to our elder, frail and infirm Sisters. Sister Ann has many talents, not the least of which is her prowess as a poetess, and as a member of the congregation’s choir, enhancing our many liturgies with her beautiful singing voice.

At the Maryknoll Sisters General Assembly in 2008, Sister Ann was elected to a six-year term on the Congregational Leadership Team. As that term expired, Sister Ann became a member of the US Region of Maryknoll Sisters. Currently, she is providing services in a Catholic parish in Penitas, TX near the Texas/Mexico border.