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We are pleased to announce that Mary E. Johnson, MA, BCC and CPE supervisor, will receive the NACC’s 2010 Distinguished Service Award at our 2010 National Conference. Mary has been a chaplain at the Mayo Clinic since 1980, and has devoted many years in service of professional chaplaincy and the NACC.
Mary served on the Certification Commission from 1994 to 2000 and as the Vice Chair of the Commission from 1998 to 2000. She was a site visitor on the USCC Commission on Certification and Accreditation from 1988 to 2000. She trained chaplains as the Coordinator and Supervisor of the NACC accredited CPE Program at Saint Marys Hospital and Mayo Clinic from 1984 to 1997. In 2004 the program honored her with their Educator of the Year Award. Mary was a member of the Universal Standards Task Force representing NACC from 2003 to 2004. Mary serves our profession as a Co-Editor of Clinical Learning Vignettes for The Journal of Supervision and Training in Ministry and is on the Editorial Board, Special Articles Section, for the Journal of Clinical Oncology from 1999 to the present; she is published in more than 10 national journals including Vision. Since 1995 she has delivered 126 invited presentations both nationally and internationally. At Mayo Clinic, Mary represents the profession as an Assistant Professor of Oncology in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and as a faculty member in the Mayo Medical School for the following programs: Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship, Continuing Medical Education, Palliative Medicine, Wellness Orientation, Sexual Medicine, Bioethics, Medicine and Spirituality, Convocation of Thanks, and Continuing Nursing Education. In 2001 the Mayo School of Health Sciences granted her their Faculty Service Award. Employed at the Mayo Clinic since 1980, Mary has been the Coordinator of Education for the Department of Chaplain Services since 1997, and the principal investigator of four research studies in spirituality and a co-investigator of seven others.
We are also pleased to announce that Sister Kay L. Sheskaitis, I.H.M, the executive director of United States Catholic Conference of Bishops Commission on Certification and Accreditation (USCCB/CCA), will receive NACC's 2010 Outstanding Colleague Award at our 2010 National Conference. Sister Kay became executive director of the USCCB/CCA in 1991, and has guided the Commission’s efforts through remarkable years.
As ministry in the Church has grown and evolved, Sister Kay has directed the efforts to ensure the establishment of high quality professional certification standards, policies, procedures for the NACC and other professional ministry groups, as well as the accreditation standards, policies, and procedures for the USCCB/CCA accredited CPE programs and ministry formation programs. She deserves this award because of her passion and commitment in her service to the Church, her attentiveness to the training of professionally competent Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord, and her willingness to extend herself to assist dioceses and centers seeking accreditation of their programs.
A strong supporter of excellence and professionalism, Sister Kay is an educator who gives presentations on the role of and the need for accreditation of programs for ministry. She has been especially dedicated to diversity and inclusion of lay people in ministry. An efficient administrator working under budget constraints and limited staff, she is tireless in her service to the Commission and the Church.
Sister Kay has been one of NACC's biggest supporters in our certification endeavors, and continues to challenge and walk beside the NACC in our mission to professionalism and certification. She has also been very helpful to us in strengthening our relationships with the bishops and diverse ministry groups within the Catholic Church. It will be an honor to stand and applaud Sister Kay as our 2010 Outstanding Colleague.