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October 3, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – More than 100 people gathered at Weber Retreat and Conference Center September 26, 2025, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Adrian Dominican Sisters Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB).
The theme, “Building on Legacy, Impacting the Future,” permeated the daylong event in which speakers recounted communities and policies changed for the better because of the work of the Portfolio Advisory Board. From challenging corporate leaders to change policies for the benefit of people and planet to loaning money to people in underserved communities, the legacy of the PAB was palpable, as was the challenge to continue the work.
The PAB was established in 1975 in response to a proposal approved at the Adrian Dominican Congregation’s 1974 General Chapter to evaluate its financial investments “in relation to the Gospel social principles and the identification of means to effect change toward justice in the policies and operations of corporations.” The history of the PAB and the story of its efforts over the years were captured in a commemorative booklet by Adrian Dominican Associate Arlene Bachanov.
Over the years, two strategies have been used to effect change: shareholder advocacy, in which the PAB invests in corporations to encourage them to be “fair and responsible” to workers, customers, and the environment; and community impact investing, making low-interest loans to community organizations that benefit low-income people and underserved communities.
The celebration included a day of education during which several people spoke of PAB’s impact. Recordings of both the morning and afternoon sessions are available in the Video Library at adriandominicans.org and at the end of this article.
[Morning video starting at 08:10]
Left: Sister Marilín Llanes, OP, left, Director of the PAB, and Cynthia Crimm, Chair of the Board, serve as co-hosts at the PAB celebration. Right: Sister Janet Doyle, OP, joins others in applauding Sister Carol Coston, founding member of the Portfolio Advisory Board.
In her opening, Sister Marilín Llanes, OP, Director of the PAB and co-host of the event, recognized two Sisters whose longtime ministry with the PAB has had significant impact: Sister Carol Coston, OP, who served on the first PAB Board while ministering as founding director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby, and Sister Frances Lombaer, OP, “the longest-running participant in proxy voting.”
[Morning video starting at 34:40]
Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, offers the opening remarks.
Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Congregation,spoke of the shift in consciousness about our Earth home and the call to respond to the signs of the times that gave rise to the PAB, in remarks titled “One Earth Community.”
[Morning video starting at 57:11]
Laura Krausa, Systems Director of Advocacy Programs for CommonSpirit Health, offered a keynote address on “Building Safe Communities.” She noted the “incalculable” costs of violence on communities and on the people involved and spoke of a 2008 initiative by CommonSpirit Health to address violence. “The best way to combat it is with solutions that reduce risk and build resiliencies.”
Laura attributed CommonSpirit Health’s initiative on community health to the “mandate” set by women religious congregations who had previously sponsored the hospitals and other healthcare facilities that now make up the current healthcare system. The Sisters had been “building cultures of peace” and expected CommonSpirit Health – current sponsor of the hospitals – to do the same, she said.
She described a successful model in which the healthcare system offers funds to communities to develop a plan to reduce violence that involves a broad coalition of stakeholders meeting regularly, listening to local community members, and addressing their areas of concern. Community programs initiated with CommonSpirit Health have included a program for girls that helps girls to understand their own value and power. A boxing program attracts youth “before they fall into gang life and coaches them to understand how they can be better people and maintain a more productive avenue” for their energy, she said. She also spoke of a gun safety program – piloted in rural London, Kentucky – to help residents understand the need to store their guns securely so that children couldn’t get to them.
[Morning video starting at 1:31:50]
Panelists on Case Studies in Building Safe Communities are, from left, Cynthia Ricks-Maccotan, Laura Krausa, and Sister Judy Byron, OP.
Laura led a panel in which Cynthia Ricks-Maccotan, Community Integration Program Manager for CommonSpirit Health, and Sister Judy Byron, OP, PAB member, spoke on their own work in building safe communities.
Cynthia gave the example of a mentoring program developed in one CommonSpirit Health community for young women of color, which included tutoring, free counseling with Brown, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) therapists, and after-school programs. Achievements included a decrease in violent behavior and an increase in school attendance and self-confidence.
Sister Judy spoke about several campaigns for gun safety in the aftermath of numerous mass shootings. In particular, members of the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment (NWCR) and colleagues in the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) purchased stock in gun manufacturers Sturm, Ruger and Company and Smith & Wesson to ask how the companies are addressing growing gun violence. Getting no response, they filed a shareholder resolution with them and most recently filed a lawsuit in federal court against Smith & Wesson, naming the officers for wrongdoing in their sale of AK-47-style firearms.
Sister Judy also related a success story in which the same group of faith-based investors worked with gun retailers, asking them how they were implementing gun safety measures. The CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods responded immediately, and after the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Florida, “right away he looked to see if they had sold the weapon” to the shooter, Sister Judy said. The sporting goods chain announced that it would no longer sell firearms to anybody under 21 or sell assault-style weapons or high-capacity magazines, she said.
[Afternoon video starting at 0:14]
Duanne Andrade, left, and Sister Corinne Sanders, OP, General Councilor, share a light moment during the panel discussion on Climate Justice.
Sister Corinne Sanders, OP, General Councilor and former Director of the Office of Sustainability, began the afternoon as moderator of a panel discussion on climate justice with Duanne Andrade, CEO of the Solar and Energy Loan Fund (SELF) and Carolyn Shenoy, Manager of Investor Relations for One Acre Fund.
Duanne explained that SELF, operating in 14 states, gives loans to low- to moderate-income families. With a mission to help families reduce greenhouse emissions and improve their homes, SELF manages 2,000 loans a month, tailored to the needs of each family. “We work at the intersection of resilience, public health, safety, and financial inclusion,” she said. “The biggest barrier is lack of access to capital.”
Duanne explained that SELF is independent, not receiving state support. “We survived thanks to the Adrian Dominican Sisters and thanks to Sister Corinne Florek,” who encouraged the organization to apply for a loan from the PAB, she said. “We’re the most established green CFI [Corporate Finance Institute] in the South.”
One Acre Fund works in 10 countries, mostly in Africa, giving farmers “opportunities to secure their livelihood and help to mitigate climate change through planting trees,” Carolyn said. She shared stories of how the PAB’s support of One Acre Fund has allowed farmers to succeed while challenged by climate change they did not create, she said.
One woman, a client from Burundi, learned from One Acre Farm how to increase her yield of crops and produce compost to improve her soil. “The increased harvesting means she’s feeding her family,” Carolyn said. “Sometimes she sells surplus food to buy food that they don’t produce, like meat. Farming is really profitable if it’s done well.”
[Afternoon video starting at 1:38:03]
Juan F. Soto, Organizing Director for Gamaliel Network, closed the education portion of the day. A national network of 43 faith-based affiliates in 14 states, Gamaliel is “committed to empowering ordinary people to participate in the political, social, and economic systems that shape your life,” Juan said.
He emphasized that climate change is “driving displacement,” creating climate refugees. He tied climate issues to immigration issues to environmental issues. “The cry of the migrant is tied to the cry of the Earth,” he said.
“The Church must stand boldly and say we will not separate climate and immigrant justice,” Juan said. “Our social teaching teaches us that creation is a gift from God – not something to be exploited. Pope Francis reminds us that the care of the environment and of immigrants are one.”
Juan called for a public witness among people of faith to begin investing in green, renewable energy rather than fossil fuels and to train leaders who see Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, as a mandate. “Let us together walk as a synodal church: listening, discerning, and acting, so that in the future people will know that the church stood not on the sidelines but on the frontlines of immigration and environmental justice.”
After the day of education and inspiration, participants gathered for a final time for a reception, featuring hors d’oeuvres, socializing, music by Mariachi Jalisco de Detroit, and the premiere showing of a video on the history and work of the PAB.
Feature photo at top: Sister Marilín Llanes, OP, left, Director of the PAB, and Cynthia Crimm, Chair of the Board, serve as co-hosts at the PAB celebration.
September 29, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – Members of the Adrian Rea Literacy Center – adult learners, volunteer tutors, and staff – gathered along with Adrian Dominican Sisters, Associates, and friends to honor a woman who made a difference in their lives. They waited in a long, informal reception line on a Sunday afternoon to thank Sister Carleen Maly, OP, upon her retirement from her position as director of the literacy center.
Founded in 2008, Adrian Rea Literacy Center was one of six literacy centers sponsored by the Adrian Dominican Sisters and located in Adrian and Detroit, Michigan; Chicago; and West Palm Beach, Florida. The Adrian literacy center recently became independent of the Congregation.
Adrian Rea offers free, one-on-one training to adult learners, most of whom are learning English as a Second Language (ESL). The center also offers tutoring to adults whose first language is English. The focus is on listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills – in a welcoming, safe environment
Christine MacNaughton, Chair of the Board of the Adrian Rea Literacy Center, began a short program during the retirement celebration. She presented a plaque to Sister Carleen that read, “In grateful appreciation for dedicated service, Sister Carleen Maly, OP, the heart and soul of the Adrian Rea Literacy Center, 2008 to 2025.”
More personal messages were written on Sister Carleen’s next gift: a quilt made of squares on which Adrian Rea adult learners, volunteer tutors, staff, and board members had written of their appreciation for Sister Carleen.
For her part, Sister Carleen expressed gratitude to the people gathered and gave a heart-felt plea for more people to volunteer as tutors. “We’ve got to help people, especially now that they don’t even know what’s coming,” she said.
She was moved by the people who came to the celebration and by the work that went into preparing it. “The key moments were the beautiful way that my colleagues transformed what was our workspace and our teaching and tutoring space into a royal room – a regal room, because it was lined up with places where people could sit and get to know each other,” she said.
An educator for much of her life as an Adrian Dominican Sister, Sister Carleen also engaged in parish ministry and in 1994 was elected Chapter Prioress (Superior) of the Congregation’s Florida Chapter. In 2000, at the conclusion of her term, she moved to Detroit to be closer to her mother after the death of her father.
She was invited to live at the convent of Dominican High School and work with Sisters Marie Damian Schoenlein, OP, and Sarah Cavanaugh, OP, at the Dominican Literacy Center. “It was my first taste of adult literacy,” Sister Carleen said. She worked there for three years until the Congregation asked her to serve as Director of Vocation Outreach.
When Sisters Marie Damian and Sarah opened Adrian Rea Literacy Center in Adrian, they asked Sister Carleen to join them. Sister Carleen succeeded Sister Marie Damian as director.
“My biggest challenge was training and keeping tutors,” Sister Carleen said. “We had no trouble finding people who wanted to be tutored.” But, she added, much of the literacy work in the Adrian area was focused on teenagers. “To offer a program of literacy for adult learning was new to a lot of people in this area.”
Sister Carleen emphasized that the people who are tutored are referred to as adult learners – not as students. “Their children are students.” Being called learners “elevates the adults. Some of them already have a first language of their own. They’re coming here to learn another language,” English, she said.
Sister Carleen expressed admiration for the adult learners – for the hard work they do in their jobs and their determination to learn English. “A lot of the work they do is hard,” she said. “There have been summers here that have been brutal. They’ve been outside eight hours a day … in manual, back-breaking labor.” Yet, she added, they are willing to put in the extra time and effort to come to the literacy center to develop their skills in English.
“The joys are knowing that we are able to change people’s lives because we are able to give them the gift of being able to read, write, and speak in English,” Sister Carleen said. She also finds joy in “giving them the ability to achieve their goals: to help their children [with their homework], to be able to know what the doctor is saying, and to get a better job.” Their commitment to learning also serves as a good example to their children – and a bridge between parents and children who are also learning. “They don’t hesitate to say, ‘My children are teaching me,’” she said.
Many adult learners also ask for help to prepare for the U.S. citizenship test. “We ask the tutors to help their learners study the 100 questions involved in the citizenship test,” Sister Carleen said, and many have become U.S. citizens.
Sister Carleen is pleased with the dedication of the volunteer tutors, who themselves experience joy as they help the adult learners to improve their English skills. But, she added, Adrian Rea is always in need of more tutors. One-on-one, individualized tutoring “is the best way and the most tried and true way for most adults to learn,” she explained.
Now that she is retired, Sister Carleen said she hopes to continue volunteering in places where there’s a need to help adults, perhaps helping to bring in more tutors. “I believe in our program,” she said. “I’d like to introduce people to our literacy center, that we have a good place for people to come and learn to speak English. This is one of the few literacy centers in this area. It opens new horizons.”
For more information on how to become a tutor or a learner, contact Adrian Rea Literacy Center at 517-264-7320 in English or 517-264-7327 en Español, or email [email protected]. The Center’s hours are 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Wednesdays.
Caption for above feature photo: Sister Carleen Maly, OP, left, and Christine MacNaughton, Chair of the Board of Adrian Rea Literacy Center, display a quilt of squares containing messages from tutors, adult learners, and staff of the literacy center to Sister Carleen.