Sister Ellen Sinclair

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Sister Ellen Sinclair, SDS began her third term on the North American Province leadership team for the Sisters of the Divine Savior (Salvatorians) in June 2015. It is her second term as Vicaress.

Sr. Ellen formerly served with the Tribunals for the Diocese of Phoenix and Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and with Child Support Enforcement for Milwaukee County. Prior to entering the SDS Congregation, she served as defense counsel, legal assistance attorney, and administrative law attorney as a U.S. Army Judge Advocate (JAG) and government civilian attorney. Sr. Ellen earned her bachelor’s and Juris Doctorate degrees from State University of New York at Buffalo.

In the summer of 2011, Sr. Ellen travelled to East Africa to engage in the SDS Tanzanian Immersion Program. While there, she shared the joy of young sisters preparing for vows and parents celebrating their newborns at the health center run by Salvatorian Sisters. She also witnessed great need – bare shelves in dispensaries, lack of safe drinking water, classrooms without books, and many local sisters suffering malaria flare-ups. Her participation in international meetings has given Sr. Ellen insight into how Salvatorian Sisters respond to such need all over the world. She is also a board member and currently vice president for UNANIMA International, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that advocates for women and children, immigrants and refugees, and the environment. UNANIMA members consist of Catholic women religious congregations from around the world and work out of  United Nations headquarters in New York.

Internationality is part of what drew Sr. Ellen to the SDS Congregation. During her discernment, it was the collaboration with the Society of the Divine Savior priests and brothers and Lay Salvatorian women and men that set the Sisters of the Divine Savior apart from other women religious groups. Shortly before she professed final vows in 2004, Sr. Ellen graduated with a master’s degree in theology from Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wis.