Sr. Peggy Ann Martin, OP, a member of the Dominican Sisters of Peace, is the senior vice president, Sponsorship and Governance, for Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives. A canon lawyer, she has demonstrated gifts at navigating the critically important intersection of the converging concerns of Church, health care and law so that each may achieve its goals.
Sr. Peggy entered religious life in 1962 and made final profession of vows in 1971. She began her career as an elementary school teacher in parish schools in Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma. Later, she served other parishes as director of religious education and as a pastoral assistant. She also served on the leadership team of her religious community. From 1990 through 1998, Sr. Peggy served as assistant prioress and vice president of the Dominican Sisters of Great Bend, Kan.
In 1996, during her term in community leadership, Sr. Peggy played a key role as a member of the steering committee that formed Catholic Health Initiatives, bringing together health care facilities previously sponsored by 12 different religious congregations. Among the entities combined to create CHI was Catholic Health Corporation of Omaha, Neb., which had already been recognized by the Church with public juridic person status.
Sr. Peggy earned her canon law licenciate from St. Paul University, Ontario, Canada, in April 2000. Later that year, she joined the staff of CHI where she concentrated her efforts on the ongoing development and understanding of the PJP model of sponsorship.
In 2009, the Dominican Sisters of Great Bend became one of seven founding members of the collaborative union known as the Dominican Sisters of Peace. Once more, Sr. Peggy’s gifts of vision and canonical expertise were enlisted in the development of a new entity in the Church. Along with six other representatives of the founding congregations, she served on the committee developing the new constitutions for the new religious institute.
Sr. Peggy continues to share her knowledge of sponsorship and canon law across the health care ministry as consultant and educator, having served as a faculty member in the Collaborative Formation Program for Sponsors of Public Juridic Persons. In all her roles, she demonstrates fidelity to the mission that inspired religious leaders to entrust their precious human resources — their own members — to the ministries of health care.