Nancy Schreck, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Dubuque, Iowa, has been a lifelong leader. She was vice-president of her congregation for eight years and president for six. During her time in office, she served as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and as a US delegate to the International Union of Superiors General. She has exercised leadership in her decades-long ministry in rural Mississippi, co-founding Excel Inc. in Okolona, a community service organization serving the needs of this impoverished community. There she has been the program director and now the executive director. These leadership ministries followed several years as a secondary school educator in biology and theology, service as a pastoral administrator in a Mississippi parish, and eight years as her congregation’s director of initial formation.
Nancy is a student at heart whose love of learning began in her hometown of Templeton, Iowa where she was educated by the Dubuque Franciscans in elementary school and the LaCrosse Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in high school. She went on for studies at Briar Cliff University for two years before entering religious life. She finished her undergraduate studies with a bachelor of science degree in biology. Later, she received a master of arts degree in religious education from Boston College and a doctor of ministry degree from the Pacific School of Religion at the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, California. Her experience and expertise lead her to service on boards of directors of numerous nonprofit organizations. She was also an adjunct faculty member at Briar Cliff University and the Aquinas Institute of Theology. She is a co-author of the book, Psalms Anew, a resource designed to help people pray using inclusive language.
Her reputation as an outstanding educator, presenter, and homilist has made Nancy a sought-after speaker worldwide. She has addressed most of the national and regional organizations serving religious in the United States as well as religious in countries on six continents. For LCWR alone, she has given service for more than 30 years at its assemblies, New Leader Workshops, Leading from Within Retreats, and on many advisory groups and think tanks.
What characterizes Nancy best is her loving, tender spirit for all. Her own sisters say this of her, “She has been companion-in-chief, always the affirming word, the reaching out, the discreet challenge, the loving contact, the probing question, the tender presence at the bedside of a dying friend.” Nancy’s authenticity and commitment to embodying the Gospel message has inspired thousands who see in her what they too most aspire to be.
