The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber has announced the four individuals who will be honored as Great Living Cincinnatians.
Great Living Cincinnatians are recognized for their business and civic attainment on a local, state, national or international level; leadership; awareness of the needs of others, and distinctive accomplishments that have brought favorable attention to their community, institution or organization.
The 2024 honorees, who will join the previous 171 awardees named since 1967, are: John Barrett, Sally Duffy, Donna Salyers, and Delores Hargrove Young.
Sister Sally Duffy’s 40-plus years of advocacy and service as a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati might look like a career to the secular, but to her, it is much more than that.
“It’s not a career,” Duffy said. “It’s a ministry. Because you’re mutually doing what you and the Sisters of Charity Community feel like God is calling you to.”
The middle of nine children, as a young child, she knew she was Irish, Catholic, and a Democrat. And that she was interested in helping others.
“My parents definitely put a focus on the common good and that’s the reason we’re here, is for love and justice,” Duffy said. “To make the world a better place for everyone.”
Her passion for coaching began at a young age. As a sophomore at now Ohio Dominican University, she helped found the girls’ athletic program at Bishop Watterson High School in Columbus. She graduated college in 1971, becoming the girls’ athletic director at Bishop Watterson before coaching women’s basketball at Notre Dame University. Being called to religious life was not on her radar.
Duffy’s father died suddenly and young – just 52 – in 1969. Duffy was left grappling, working out her relationship with God, struggling to remain in conversation with God.
“While at Notre Dame in 1976 a grace-moment from God helped me to conclude that God didn’t cause my father’s death,” Duffy said. “My father was now enjoying eternity, eternal peace and joy and every tear wiped away. So it was more of resolving that his eternal life was better than the void, the emptiness and the loss I was experiencing.”
While at Notre Dame, she was taking doctoral classes in counseling psychology, having previously received her master’s from Xavier University in guidance and counseling. She also began auditing theology courses.
“One of the classes was called the Autobiography of God,” Duffy said. “The professor, John S. Dunne, was a Holy Cross priest, [and] had a quote from Pascal: ‘The heart has its reasons that reason does not know.’ It made me look at the pattern of my life, and the pattern seemed to be clear. I was always being pulled to a larger group of people, rather than just a particular person. I enjoyed time to serve and to pray.”
Religious life offered a synergy in the heart for Duffy. However, the path she was on offered all kinds of potential opportunities for her career.
“The circumstances seemed to be saying, ‘Go for it,’” Duffy said. “And then there’s this other part in my heart saying, ‘Let God lead and follow your heart.’”
So she did. In 1977, she left Notre Dame University and joined the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati. This Women’s Religious Community was founded by Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint and responsible for the advent of Catholic education in America.
It was a literal leap of faith.
“Anytime one of us embarks on a commitment, the unknown is there,” Duffy said. “I love that song by Garth Brooks, The Dance, [with the lyric] ‘I wouldn’t have missed the dance’ – because we don’t know how things will end, but if we don’t do it, we’re missing the dance. God was leading the dance.”
Duffy’s dance later led her to Colorado Springs, a master’s in public administration from the University of Colorado, and working for the Penrose-St. Francis Health System. In 1990 she served at St. Mary-Corwin Regional Medical Center in Pueblo, Colorado as president and CEO. While on sabbatical in Chicago, she earned a master’s of divinity in 1998 and served as vice president of student affairs at Barat College.
In 2000, Duffy was asked by the late Sister Maryanna Coyle, then president of the SC Ministry Foundation in Cincinnati and looking to retire soon, if she would come to the foundation. Two of Duffy’s sisters were in Ohio, one with a special needs child and one recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
“Maryanna’s asking me to come, it just seemed … providential,” Duffy said. “Like God calling me.”
In an ironic twist, Duffy’s employer in Chicago, Barat College, was in the process of being merged into DePaul University, which wanted her to stay. It is ironic because Elizabeth Ann Seton wrote the rule for the Sisters of Charity – which was based on an American lens of Vincent DePaul’s rule.
She made the move, finding her master’s of divinity to be excellent preparation for the administration of her duties as eventual president of the SC Ministry Foundation, a public grant-making organization that promotes the mission and ministry of the Sisters of Charity.
“It was three years of studying theology, spirituality, and social justice, all of that intersects with what you’re trying to accomplish and fulfill in the mission of the SC Ministry Foundation,” Duffy said. “We put a real emphasis on advocating for comprehensive immigration reform, making sure immigrants had legalization services, ending the death penalty was a focus, looking at the systemic or root causes of poverty.”
Poverty was a cause that remained close to Duffy’s heart even after she retired from the Foundation in 2017. She was a co-chair of the Children’s Poverty Collaborative, an initiative with the successful goal of reducing poverty locally for 5000 adults and 10,000 children. She is serving or has served on several boards, including TriHealth as their corporate secretary, Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., US Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking, Ohio Justice and Policy Center, the Greater Cincinnati Port Authority, and as a founding board member of Price Hill Will. She is a consulting member for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and on the development committee for Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio.
In 2017, Duffy was named an Enquirer Woman of the Year. In 2022, she was among the group of women honored by Notre Dame University on Title IX’s 50th anniversary for contributing to the success of their women’s athletic program. This year, she’s adding Great Living Cincinnatian to the list.
“I was a little shocked,” Duffy said. “It’s not something I wake up every day and think about. I am just trying to do my part to make the world a better place and to do what God’s asking me to do. And I’m one Sister of Charity. We believe where one sister is, we all are. And so for me, I think this is hopefully a recognition of what the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati have, are and will continue to do for our city, our region and nationally.”
3 questions with Sister Sally Duffy
What advice do you have for the next generation of Cincinnatians?
*Duffy offered instead questions for Cincinnatians to consider*
Are we focused on the economic disparities and looking at how racism is part of some of our policies and practices? How are we ensuring that everyone can flourish, especially children? What are our priorities? How do we ensure we have more programs like the homesteading program here in Price Hill, where people can move into equity by owning a home? How do we keep building on the Affordable Care Act and putting the emphasis on health? How do we make our criminal legal system a criminal justice system where we focus on restoration for the victim, the perpetrator, and giving people the life skills they need to live a productive life that can contribute to the common good?
Do you have a motto or creed by which you live your life?
“Do your best and leave the rest to God.” St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
“Love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus
Who has been an inspirational figure in your life?
My family, Bobby Kennedy, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Pope Francis, and above all, Jesus Christ.
This article was provided by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. The 2024 Great Living Cincinnatians will be honored at the chamber’s 2024 annual dinner – Legacy & Promise: A Celebration of Leadership – at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 at the Duke Energy Convention Center.
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