2007 Awards Recipients

Sr. Joan Berger, SNJM ’50
Excellence in Teaching/Educational Administration

Sr. Joan Berger has been an educator for more than 50 years, but her passion for learning is lifelong. She was a leader in her neighborhood among her friends, and at St. Mary’s among her peers as student body president. She joined a teaching order of religious women, the Sisters of the Holy Names and is highly educated herself, having earned a bachelor’s degree in education and three master’s degrees – in education, in religious education, and in social work.

She taught at the grade-school level for nearly ten years while also coordinating the religious education program in a large Salem parish. She then became principal of Sacred Heart School in Medford. Her extraordinary organizational skills, vision, and good judgment were muchappreciated gifts to that community.

In 1974 she returned to her alma mater, St. Mary’s, first as religion teacher then as chair of that department, then in administration as dean of students. Her manner and tone was replete with genuine respect and compassion for the young women of St. Mary’s Academy.

The year 1991 brought Sr. Joan back to the elementary school level at Archbishop Howard Grade School where she was faced first with the challenge of total reorganization of a library that had been relocated, then with the challenge of moving it again soon after. She led and executed both tasks with an amazing amount of organization, grace, and good humor. As technology became integral in the elementary school curriculum and others among hergeneration panicked, Sr. Joan’s love of learning kicked in. Not only did she teach age-appropriate computer skills to pre-kindergarteners through eighth graders, she became the school’s technology troubleshooter.

Sr. Joan has a gift of seeing a student’s potential – regardless of age, ability, or learning challenges. Her respect for the student as a person has always been one of her hallmarks as an educator. She has a way of inspiring a kinder and better understanding of self, of the situation at hand, and of the impact of one’s actions. Sr. Joan has now returned to St. Mary’s and is working in the registrar’s office and in the library, and the students and staff are blessed to have her among our community. The impacts of Sr. Joan’s work as an educator are far reaching, with her profession having been enriched through her dedication as a teacher and as a lifelong learner seeking the truth.

Kathy Mills Johnson ’61
Woman of Career Achievement

Kathy Johnson would never admit it, but she is recognized as the most influential and powerful nurse in the history of Providence Health System in Oregon. Her attraction to healthcare began very early and she has served in every capacity possible in her 40-year career as a nurse. After leaving St. Mary’s she received her bachelor’s of science in nursing from the University of Portland, began working as an RN, and later went on to earn a master’s of business administration. Although her accomplishments are far-reaching and profoundly significant to nurses, patients, and the field of healthcare, she is most proud of simply being a nurse.

Throughout her career, Kathy has kept a single focus on the most important aspect of hospital care – making life better for the patient. Kathy accomplished this in every positionof her career at Providence by advocating for nurses. She has advanced in Providence from nursing assistant to staff nurse in multiple specialties from the emergency epartment to the orthopedic department to nurse manager to nursing director to chief nurse executive to her current position as chief nursing officer for all of Providence in Oregon – the first person to earn this position at the state level. In this role her strategic vision is realized through her quiet strength and her unwavering dedication to the profession of nursing.

Among her numerous accomplishments includes leading Providence St. Vincent Medical Center to become the first nationally designated Magnet nursing facility in the Northwest, a distinction only a few hospitals in the country receive. She demonstrated admirable courage and vision to face the nurse shortage crisis. As a result of her vision and leadership in 2002, the “Providence Scholars” program was created, partnering Providence ith the University of Portland School of Nursing. Most recently, Kathy has literally reinvented patient care at Providence, injecting her trademark compassion and professionalism throughout the system.

In her quiet but powerful way, she has reminded Providence of its mission and core valuesof revealing God’s love through service with respect, compassion, justice, excellence, and stewardship. She has worked tirelessly to return nursing to its roots of protecting and caring vigilantly for patients. Because of these and other accomplishments, Kathy’s legacy will be felt by every patient and every nurse associated with Providence. Her leadership has also paved the way for many talented young people to find a highly professional and rewarding career in nursing. Kathy has been married for 40 years and has two adult hildren.

Helen Carney Miller, M. D. ’79
Woman of Achievement in the Science or Medical field

Helen (Carney) Miller left St. Mary’s bound for University of Southern California’s psychobiology honors program, then on to the University of Cincinnati’s college of medicine for her doctorate. After medical school she worked as a pediatrician and pediatric emergency room physician. In 1995 she joined Washington State’s Disaster Medical Team headquartered in Seattle. After serving with the Washington team on several missions, Helen began forming the Oregon Disaster Medical Team. It was successfully founded in 999 with 45 members and was later recognized as a federal Disaster Medical Assistance Team in the Department of Homeland Security’s National Disaster Medical System.

The team has now grown to approximately 130 core members, volunteer healthcare professionals who are plan and train and are available to respond to mass casualty emergencies at a moment’s notice. They interrupt their personal lives and careers to respond when and where they are needed, providing relief healthcare services when local resources are inadequate due to the magnitude of an emergency. The team is configured to respond rapidly within Oregon and can be deployed by FEMA within eight hours anywhere in the US. Helen and her colleagues have provided emergency medical care in places such as rural Haiti, New York City after 9/11, Houston after tropical storm Allison, Florida after urricane Ivan, and Louisiana after hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

In addition to founding the ODMT, Helen has served as team commander for more than ten years and is still active as team leader on missions. She has numerous awards and recognition to her credit and finds the time to share her unique expertise as an adjunct associate professor of emergency medicine at OHSU’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. She is a sought-after presenter at medical conferences and is actively involved in her community by serving on many boards and committees including the Board of Directors of the Lane County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Helen lives in Eugene, Oregon with her husband, Dr. Chris Miller, and their two daughters.Helen truly exemplifies the pioneering spirit of the founding Sisters of the Holy ames who founded St. Mary’s in 1859 and that St. Mary’s continues to instill in the young women who currently attend.

Tracy Poe ’86
The Embodiment of the Mission of St. Mary’s Academy

It is widely known that a St. Mary’s Academy education means far more than the best secondary education available to young women from an academic standpoint. Beyond that, a St. Mary’s student develops spiritually, creatively, and as a leader among peers. She evelops a clear call to service, a commitment to justice, respect for diversity, and a special concern for the economically or emotionally poor and disadvantaged. Tracy Poe has taken these values and this call to service beyond her graduation from St. Mary’s and lived them out in her life and in her work.

Tracy Poe is a dedicated wife and mother of three beautiful children, an intelligent woman with a Ph.D. from Harvard, and a former college professor. She is also a committed philanthropist who cares so deeply about international human rights that she personally involves herself with making the world a better place through her work.

Tracy is a trustee of her family’s Frankel Family Foundation, and her passion drives her to become deeply involved in the work of both the foundation and the causes they support. Half of her family’s funding is international in nature, with focuses on displaced ethnic populations and human rights. Through Tracy’s efforts to maximize the effectiveness of the foundation’s giving strategies, she serves on numerous of boards and committees which focus on both international and local social issues including: Chicago Global Donors Network (current chair), Chicago Promise Steering Committee (current co-chair), American Refugee Committee, Universal Giving, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Millennium Promise, EarthRights International, and Infant Welfare Society of Evanston to name a few. She was recently featured on the cover of “Giving” magazine with 24 other philanthropists including Bill Gates. One of the foundation’s recent gifts was made to EarthRights International to help establish a legal precedent to protect international workers from rape, torture, and urder. She traveled to Burma to see firsthand the needs of the oppressed, and to determine the best ways to help.

Tracy, her husband, and their family foundation also believe in education as a means ofending poverty. St. Mary’s Academy has been among the educational institutions who aregrateful recipients of the generosity of the Frankel Family Foundation. Tracy’s life serves as an inspiration to St. Mary’s students and to all those who wish to utilize their intellect, values and passion for social justice to make the world a better place.

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