President of St. Elizabeth College completes 16-year term

Sister Francis Raftery will step down as head of the College of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown next year, school officials announced.

She will complete a 16-year term and a total of 38 years of service to the College.
In 2012, the college established the DePaul Center for Mission and Ministry in the spirit of St. Vincent DePaul and through the lens of Catholic social teaching. The DePaul Center sponsors programs and initiatives that foster both personal faith life and individual and communal engagement with contemporary issues through the college offices of Campus Ministry, The Geraldine Riordan Center for Volunteerism and Service Learning, and The Center for Ministry and Spirituality.

Prior to becoming president, Sister Francis was the former Provincial Superior of the Western Province of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, and a member of the General Council of the Sisters of Charity, a professor of education, and chairperson of the education department.

During her tenure as a professor of education and department chairperson, she designed and implemented the college’s education major, its field experience component, and its student/transfer advisement program.

“We appreciate all the wonderful, creative work done and the advances made during Sister Francis’ tenure. She will be sorely missed,” said Sister Rosemary Moynihan, chair of the College Board of Trustees, who will coordinate the college’s next presidential search.

As president, Sister Francis has been responsible for many advances during her tenure and the college has seen much growth. Additional programs have been added to include a doctoral program in educational leadership and master’s degrees in management, health care management, psychology and counseling, nursing, and justice and public service. Two totally online graduate programs were implemented.

Sister Francis established the college’s offices of International & Multicultural Affairs, Disability Services, and Mission and Values.

The college bestowed on Sister Francis its prestigious Seton Award in 1991, and she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Seton Hall University in 2004. In June 2011, the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education honored Sister Francis with the Sister Rose Thering Award, given for her support of educational and community programs and activities that combat bias, bigotry and intolerance.

Sister Francis has been active in the community and region, as well as on the national level. She was chairman of the board of trustees and a member of the corporation of St. Mary’s Hospital, Passaic, a member of the corporation and board of trustees of St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson and of Mount St. Andrew Villa in Paramus. She also has served on the Paterson Diocesan board of education, Archdiocese of Newark Task Force on Education and the New Jersey Bishops State Advisory Group for the Pastoral on Education. Sister Francis is a past president of the New Jersey Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and was an active member of several prominent national and state teacher associations. Presently, she serves on the board of directors for the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in New Jersey, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and the Morris County Chamber of Commerce. Sister Francis is a member of the public policy committee of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the New Jersey President’s Council and the executive board for the Independent College Fund of New Jersey. Most recently, she was named secretary of the board of trustees at Saint Clare’s Hospital in Denville.

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Tags: New Jersey, SCNJ, Sisters of Charity