RISA CHARITABLE TRUST
email:info@risafund.org
web: www.risafund.org
TEL: 774.276.0202
9120 173rd Ave SE
Snohomish, WA 98290 USA
Sister Christine Vladimiroff, OSB, has served as prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie since 1998. (As such, she is spiritual and corporate leader for this community of 120 women religious, with ministries ranging from grass-roots support of the disenfranchised in Erie and rural Pennsylvania, to retreat and hospitality programming for more than 4,000 monastery visitors each year, to globally recognized contemporary spirituality publishing.)
Sister Christine was elected vice president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in August of 2003 and will serve as the organization's president beginning in August 2004, representing more than 76,000 sisters from across the United States. She serves on the National Council of Pax Christi-USA. A voice for change in the Church and in society, Sister Christine's articles have appeared in National Catholic Reporter, SALT Publishing, Occasional Papers LCWR, U. S. Catholic magazine, as well as in regular columns on her community's website, www.eriebenedictines.org She has accepted awards from Call To Action and U.S. Catholic magazine for furthering the cause of women in the Church.
CEO and president of Second Harvest from 1991 until 1998, Sister Christine is one of the nation's leading authorities on the issues of hunger and poverty. In June 2004 she was named one of 30 "Hunger Heroes" by Bread for the World for having made a significant impact to increase awareness of hunger in the U.S. and abroad. She also was included in the book 60 at 60 in 2003, honoring those who have positively affected the progress of modern agriculture in the Americas.
Sister Christine entered the Benedictine Sisters of Erie in 1957 and earned in doctorate in Latin American Studies and Diplomatic History from the Universidad International, Mexico, in 1974. She earned her master's degree, Summa Cum Laude, in Hispanic Literature from Universidad Interamericana, Mexico, in 1968, and her bachelor's degree, Magna Cum Laude, in Latin and Greek from Mercyhurst College in Erie in 1965. Sister Christine is fluent in Spanish.
Following 22 years as a teacher, principal and college professor in the Diocese of Erie, Sister Christine served as superintendent of Schools in Cleveland and Secretary of Education for the Diocese of Cleveland from 1982 to 1991.
Updated June 2004