From seed of an idea, Woman of Faith Award becomes tradition

Call it coincidence that our 125^th anniversary of coming to the USA coincides with the 20^th Annual Woman of Faith Award this year. Back in 2001, then-Provincial Leader Sister Sheila Novak started the award to shine a light on exemplary servant leadership by women in the greater Milwaukee area. The award recognizes women whose faith-inspired service models our Salvatorian core values of responsible stewardship, promoting justice, collaboration and improving quality of life, all with a preferential option for the poor.

Establishing the annual award program dovetailed with Sr. Sheila’s lifelong commitment to champion women for their remarkable achievements. “It seemed like a good way to recognize women for their various efforts, as well as highlight their particular cause,” says Sister Sheila today. “Women do the lion’s share of most work, and get little or no recognition. Raising up women lets children and men see what women are capable of and hopefully takes them into account.”

Each year on April 1 we open the call for nominations and share criteria our committee uses to discern the nominee most deserving of the Woman of Faith Award: 

• Actively lives a life of service inspired by the Gospel
• Positively impacts and enriches the lives of people in need
• Fosters respect among people and builds a spirit of community through her life and work
• Heightens awareness of people in need through her service
• Elicits support from others through her servant leadership

While Sister Sheila hasn’t been able to attend the annual award presentations since moving to California more than 16 years ago, she’s grateful the award has endured. “I had no idea how long it would last,” she says, “but since women are so vital in society, I think it could go on forever. We will never run out of women doing wonderful things for others!”

Since 2001, we’ve honored 20 women who have served a wide variety of needs among some of southeastern Wisconsin’s most vulnerable people.  The very first award went to Betty Thompson, retired executive director of Project Equality of Wisconsin. In 2020, we honored Carla Del Pozo for her work as director of Clinical Services at Milwaukee’s CORE El Centro. Due to constraints imposed by the pandemic, Carla’s award presentation was livestreamed to all but a handful of in-person guests. But in keeping with tradition, we presented Carla with a framed print from Sister Karlyn Cauley’s watercolor Woman Series, inscribed with her name and a passage adapted from Romans 14:7, “The faith life of each of us influences others.” Carla’s name has also been inscribed on Sr. Karlyn’s large watercolor artwork that graces the wall in the main hallway at our Community House.

Profiles of our Woman of Faith Award recipients are found here.