Luisa Derouen was a member of her founding congregation, the Eucharistic Missionaries of St. Dominic, for 48 years. In 2009, they and seven other congregations became the Dominican Sisters of Peace. With a graduate degree in liturgy and credentials in spiritual direction, until the 1980s she ministered primarily in rural parishes in religious education and pastoral ministry.
Michael Sean Winters is the author of Left At the Altar: How Democrats Lost The Catholics And How Catholics Can Save The Democrats (Basic Books, 2008). His biography of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, God's Right Hand: How Jerry Falwell Made God a Republican and Baptized the American Right was published by Harper One in January 2012 to critical acclaim.
Jacqueline Small works for Monasteries of the Heart and Benetvision, ministries of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, which offer resources for contemporary spirituality with a global audience. She completed a master's degree in divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary in 2016 and a master's degree in social work at Rutgers University in 2017.
Karen Jean Zielinski is a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania, Ohio. She has lived with multiple sclerosis (MS) since 1975 and is a monthly contributor to Healthy Living News — a local health magazine — and is regularly published in two national magazines. Her first book, Hope and Help for Living With Illness deals with health and spirituality.
Jeanne Connolly has been a Covenant Companion (or Associate) with the Wheaton Franciscans in Wheaton, Illinois, for more than 22 years, and has served as their director of charism and mission since 2007. Jeanne also offers consulting services and workshops through J.M. Connolly Consulting. Currently, she serves as vice-president of the board of directors for the North American Conference of Associates and Religious (NACAR) and as the president of the Siena Retreat Center board of directors in Racine, Wisconsin.
Janice McLaughlin has been a Maryknoll Sister since 1961, working on the African continent since 1969 in the fields of mass media, adult education and justice and peace. The author of several books, including Ostriches, Dung Beetles and Other Spiritual Masters (Orbis 2009), she has a BA from Marquette University in theology and anthropology and a doctorate from the University of Zimbabwe in religious studies. She was imprisoned in colonial Rhodesia for three weeks and deported by Ian Smith's government for her work with the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace.
Kathleen Kanet is a sister of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary who has worked as a teacher and administrator in an elementary school and as caseworker and supervisor in a preventative service program for preservation of families. She has co-founded several national and international organizations which promote peace and has been involved in multiple educational activities around the issues of peace and justice.
Tinamarie Stolz is the 2017 summer intern for Sr. Joan Chittister and the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania. She is a recent graduate of the University of Dayton’s campus ministry graduate assistant program with a master's degree in theological studies and now works as a campus minister. Previously, she completed a year of service as a food pantry manager with Christ the King Service Corps in Detroit and started a women’s ministry in 2012.
The Life panelists are a group of 20 sisters from across the global north and south who respond to questions about the unique, challenging and very specific lives of women religious.
Sr. Barbara Kane is a Dominican Sister of Peace. She serves as her congregation's justice promoter, educating and engaging sisters and associates in such congregational justice priorities as human trafficking, immigration reform, peace and nonviolence, and eco justice. Prior to this ministry, she served as director of the Dominican Learning Center, principal of Dominican Academy, and as a theology teacher at Bishop Watterson High School in Columbus, Ohio.