Wendie Libert: Interim Coordinator
Wendie has been a lay affiliate of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration for thirty years and brings with her a wealth of experience in health and healing, spiritual direction, nursing and spirituality education, program administration, and community visioning and strategic planning. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Viterbo College in 1983, a Master of Arts in Servant Leadership from Viterbo University in 2007, and a Master of Arts in Holistic Health Studies-Doctor of Nursing Practice Dual Degree from St. Catherine University in May of this year. Wendie comes to us from Washburn, Wisconsin. She and her husband, Kelly, who will be serving as the Marywood facilities services person, have three grown children and two grandchildren. Wendie, Kelly, and their dog, Wellington, began their new roles at Marywood on Monday, July 10.
Wendie reflected on her journey to Marywood: “I have a photograph taken on the day I graduated from my baccalaureate program at Viterbo College. It is a picture of my husband and me as we walked across the courtyard behind the main academic building. The friend who snapped the photo was behind us, so we are seen walking away from the camera, with St. Rose Convent, the FSPA motherhouse, in the background. I found the picture several years later, and, for the first time, saw so much more that just a charming graduation-day memento. That day I saw the unmistakable image of the moments when I have been called to something important in my life: my call to the Catholic Church as a young college student, my call to my marriage to Kelly, my call to the nursing profession, and my call to affiliation with the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. As I see the photograph today—as it sits side-by-side with the picture taken by another friend on the day this May when I graduated from my doctoral program—I see even more. I see us forty years later, walking hand-in-hand toward the opportunity to share our spiritual deepening with spiritual seekers at Marywood, just as the sisters have shared their spiritual deepening with us. The connections among the events of my life, and with the people whom I have met along the way, are a source of deep amazement for me. I am profoundly grateful to have the opportunity to live and serve with my husband and the staff at Marywood. I can only imagine what this experience will reveal the next time I ponder my miraculous, prophetic photograph.”