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OLVM sisters announce new leadership team

The new leadership team of Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters will be installed Aug. 6. The team includes (from left) Sister Mary Jo Nelson, president; Sister Lucille Martinez, vice president; and Sister Ginger Downey, general secretary.
The new leadership team of Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters will be installed Aug. 6. The team includes (from left) Sister Mary Jo Nelson, president; Sister Lucille Martinez, vice president; and Sister Ginger Downey, general secretary. Photo provided.

Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters will formally install its new three-member leadership team during a ceremony Aug. 6 in the Archbishop Noll Memorial Chapel on the Victory Noll campus, in Huntington.

New team members are Sister Mary Jo Nelson, president; Sister Lucille Martinez, vice-president; and Sister Ginger Downey, general secretary.

They were elected during General Chapter proceedings in March at Victory Noll. General Chapter is a gathering of congregation members to guide the direction of the community for the next four years.

The new leadership team’s term will run until 2020.

Nelson, from Portland, OR, previously served on the OLVM Leadership Team from 2000 to 2008. She has also served as general treasurer, vocation and formation minister and mission integration coordinator at Victory Noll.

A graduate of St. Mary’s Academy in Portland, OR, Nelson earned her bachelor’s degree in Interdivisional Studies from Regis University in Denver. She has a master’s degree in religious education from the University of San Francisco and a master’s degree in organization development from Loyola University in Chicago.

Among her ministries, Nelson has served in the Diocese of San Bernardino, CA, as director of catechetical ministry, vicar for religious, director of pastoral planning, vice chancellor and chancellor.

She has also served as consultant and process facilitator for religious congregations in the U.S. and for the Leadership Conference for Women Religious from 2002 to 2016.

Martinez is a native of Chimayo, NM, and previously has served in OLVM leadership with two terms from 1980 to 1988 and also two terms from 2004 to 2012.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in social service from the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne and a master’s degree in religious studies from Incarnate Word University in San Antonio.

She has worked in several states, including California, Arizona and New Mexico, on the parish level as director of religious education and as a pastoral associate. For 10 years she was a pastoral coordinator of several parishes without a priest in the San Bernardino, CA, Diocese.

She currently serves as pastoral associate at Our Lady of Hope Parish in San Bernardino, CA.

Downey, a native of Shoshoni, WY, is in her second consecutive term on the leadership team, serving as general secretary from 2012 to 2016.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Wyoming and a master of theology degree in liturgical studies from St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN.

She has worked as a community vocation director in dioceses in Fort Wayne, Chicago, San Bernardino, CA, Chey-enne, WY and Phoenix, AZ. Her ministry work has included director of religious education, director of liturgy, pastoral associate for liturgy and religious education and director of the office of worship for the Diocese of Phoenix.

Prior to her first term on the leadership team, Downey was a partner with Faith on Fire in Phoenix, AZ. She has had articles published and presented workshops on liturgy and liturgical spirituality.