Sister Judith Ann Duvall

Sister Judith Ann Duvall has always had simple aspirations: to be a sister and to belong to God. Even throughout high school, as she participated in sports and extracurricular activities, her plan never wavered. Her brothers were concerned that she would miss out on all the things she could do and could become. But Sister Judith Ann followed the leading she sensed from God.

In seventh grade, she started writing to various religious communities, setting up appointments to visit as she sought direction for a sisterhood to join. “But every time I got an opportunity, I'd get sick, the flu, a cold and couldn't go,” recounts Sister. But when the time came to visit the Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis, nothing stood in the way. “It just felt like home. It was like God was saying, ‘this is to be your home.’ And I can remember going home on the bus crying all the way because I didn't want to leave. So why did I choose this community? Because he wanted me here and actually led me here.”

The leading didn’t stop at the front door. As Sister Judith Ann participated in everyday life at OSF, the Sisters presented her with surprising opportunities. “Every time an opportunity for higher education was extended to me, I was scared, hesitant and yet I figured if God asked, it'll be okay. He'll go with me. And I embraced it.” She took on roles in recruiting and training new community members, each time following the leading of her community and her God, until it eventually led all the way into leadership on the OSF board, as treasurer and then as president and major superior of the religious community.

Sister Judith Ann laughs recalling, “I can still hear my dad say, ‘That’s enough! Stay put and serve.’" Each opportunity was unexpected but she saw them as occasions for obedience, “knowing that if [God] asked, he’ll be with me.”

That didn’t mean all the additional responsibilities came easily. Sister Judith Ann vividly remembers the early days as president of OSF, shortly after the former president, Sister Francis Marie, passed away. “I had no formal orientation to what I was supposed to do or how I was supposed to serve in that, except what I kind of witnessed externally of the sister's life before me. So I sat in this big office with nothing in the drawers, looking out the window, wondering what on earth I was supposed to do.”

Then OSF CEO Jim Moore walked in with a huge stack of papers. “He said, ‘Here, I don't have any time to do this so you take care of it.’ ‘What is it?’ And he said, ‘You've got six months to make sure OSF is in compliance, because in a year and six months, the joint commission is coming and everything has to be up to snuff for us to pass that survey.’ And he walks out of the room. So I stand there with this big pile of paper, not knowing whether I should cry, throw the papers down and run out, or just sit down and begin to figure out how to do it.”

This gruff introduction to the work, and to the man she would work with, did not deter Sister. “I learned that I had to go in [to Jim’s office] with a plan and an idea, and why I thought it was meaningful, and ask him if he had any additional input. Then he'd engage with me. It was wonderful learning that you can learn to work with someone whose personality is so different from yours and yet be able to make it work for the good of all. I respect him highly and I learned a lot from him but it was kind of rough beginning.”

Sister Judith Ann has also walked many other leaders through such beginnings. Michelle Conger, current CEO of OSF, recalls Sister’s influence on her 30 years ago when she was just getting started. “Sister Judith Ann is an incredible mentor. She really has dedicated so much of her life to mentoring the leaders here at OSF HealthCare and assuring that all of us really understand that we've been called to this role, that this is not a job, that it really is a ministry and a mission and extension of the sisters.”

Such dedication does not grow in a vacuum—it was modeled for Sister by one of her biggest influences. “My mother developed cancer and had to have her leg removed to save her life. I had the privilege of being home with her to help care for her as my dad had to go to work each day.”

Sister Judith Ann remembers a crucial conversation she had with her mother during that time. “She told me one day, laying there in bed, ‘You know, it just got to the point where I didn't think I could go any further. I just couldn't handle it. It was too much.’ She said, ‘It was like God reached his hand out to me and held my hand. And then I knew I'd be okay.’ And she said to me, ‘I had to make a choice. I could either be miserable and make your dad and you kids miserable, or I could set an example for you when you face hard times in your life.’”

Sister has followed her mother’s example, patiently enduring and learning from hard times, often using poetry to make the lessons stick. “It was a way of capturing really how [God] was touching my life or teaching me, or how he was loving me, and it meant so much and I never wanted to forget it.” Now over 300 pages, this collection of poems, which she calls “Paw Prints,” serves as a journal of her life. She even shares some of her poetry with OSF executives during Ministry Development.

“When I think about all the opportunities I had,” says Sister, “the one that I love the most and think probably has made the biggest impact on OSF is when I was appointed Coordinator of the Ministry Development program. That's a program to really form our leaders much more deeply in our mission culture and our values, and to do it on an ongoing basis, not a one-time exposure, but a program that has continuity.”

“When you go to Ministry Development,” notes Conger, “She waits at the front door and she greets every single person as you come in. And no matter what burden you've had that day—and health care can be stressful—the people that are coming in, we all know that she cares about us. She knows us and she really is giving us time to grow ourselves and become more connected to us.”

Sister Judith Ann does not take personal credit for this program. Instead, she recalls a time at the retreat center when a couple of executives were struggling to get along. “So I was having a conversation with God, ‘How can I help them get back together again?’ And it was just as if he said, ‘Your role is just bring them here and I will touch their lives.’ So I think he started the Ministry Development program because he has something in mind for each of them. My role is to convene them, speak to them, but he's the one that does the work.”

It’s a work that blends the secular and sacred. “Even in OSF, it's a sacred ministry. But we can use business experience and principles to help guide and support our mission in the service of human life. And then that way, these things that have secular dimensions actually become sacred in the service of human life. And so they work together in beautiful synergy, but all in the service of that one purpose to do good. And right then you have the greatest power.”

After 18 years as major superior, Sister Judith Ann is still following God into new things. “I want to embrace each day and really whatever he asked and embrace it with passion and love the best that I can.” It didn’t take long before Sister Agnes Joseph, her successor, asked her to serve as the Vice President of Strategic Mission Alignment. “It's really a role for a sister to be there with the administrative team, be there with the strategic planning, be there as they engage in challenging departments to be a sister presence, to lift them up, appreciate them, cheer them on. And I thought, well, I'm going to love this again. God's not finished with me yet.”

Sister’s impact will continue to resound for years to come. “I think Sister Judith Ann's legacy is really the people,” says Conger. "She has developed the capabilities so that the mission of OSF HealthCare continues. It continues through all the people she's mentored. It continues through the love that she has shared with all of us.”

Conger specifically remembers being a young leader at OSF and learning from Sister Judith Ann. “She was talking to me about how important words are and she was telling me that, ‘You really have to think about the words that you use when you're referencing the care that we're providing. We don't have customers. We have patients. We have people that we've been called to serve.’ And while that's a small shift, that has stayed with me and will stay with me forever. And I think she leaves that kind of legacy with all of the leaders that she's mentored here at OSF.”

When asked what wisdom Sister would want to pass down from all her years of service, her answer is simple: “God is truly wonderful. That's my name for him. That's what I call him. And listening to him, serving him, placing your trust in him will be the source of your greatest peace and joy.”

Sister Judith Ann still starts every day the same way—with prayer and focus on the presence of God. “We become the face of God to those we encounter and they are the face of God to us, because we're all made in his sacred image and likeness. So no matter how ordinary the day may be, or how many exciting things are lined up on the agenda for that day, that's the neatest part of each day is that encounter with God.”

And that seems to be the biggest aspiration of all.