Sisters Elect S. Jennifer Kehrwald as Prioress
    
  “Submitting to the will of God and the call of my sisters, I accept the office of prioress to which I have been elected.” With these words, Sister Jennifer Kehrwald accepted the election by her sisters on April 2. She will serve a six-year term as the community’s twelfth prioress. The election was the final step in the discernment process.   

     Sister Kathryn Huber, President of the Federation of St. Gertrude, conducted the canonical election. The three days of discernment preceding the election  were facilitated by Sister Michelle Farabaugh, St. Benedict Monastery, Pittsburgh, PA, and Sister Colleen Haggerty, St. Benedict’s Monastery, St. Joseph, MN.

     Sister Jennifer succeeds Sister Jacquelyn Ernster who is completing a second four-year term and is not eligible for re-election. Installation of the newly-elected prioress will be on June 4th  during the community’s chapter days.

      As prioress, Sister Jennifer becomes the spiritual and administrative leader of the 133 professed members of the monastery and the four women in formation. She will guide the community in shaping a vision for the future and in setting goals according to that vision  She serves as chairperson of the monastic council and president of the corporate board.

     Currently Sister Jennifer is procurator/business manager of the monastery, an office she will hold until her installation.

    Sister Jennifer is a  native of Yankton,  the first sister  born and raised in Yankton to be elected to the office of prioress in the monastery’s 125-year history.  She is thedaughter of the late Pearl and Walter Kehrwald.

     She received her elementary and high school education with the Benedictine Sisters at Sacred Heart School and Mount Marty High School.

      “As a senior in high school,” she has said, “I began to make plans to enter religious life. For as  long as I could remember, I wanted to be a nun.” Not necessarily a Benedictine, though! However, with encouragement she  entered the Yankton community the day after her 18th birthday. Sister Jennifer earned a BA in German from Mount Marty College, an MA in Religious Studies from St. Louis University, and a Master of Health Administration also from St. Louis. She also holds licensure as a nursing home administrator.

     Sister Jennifer became a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives in 1994, and has completed four quarters of chaplaincy training. She has served as Program Director of the Benedictine Center, Yankton, Administrator of St. Clare Retirement Community, Cincinnati, Regional Director of the long term care facilities in North and South Dakota for the Benedictine Health System of Duluth, MN, and CEO of the Benedictine Health System, Yankton. Prior to this she taught at O’Gorman High School, Sioux Falls, and Mount Marty College, Yankton. She is currently a member of the Mount Marty Board of Trustees, and served as its chair from 2001-2004.

      Sister Jennifer noted that she was elected 33 years from the date of her final monastic profession April 2, 1972, “a date that has since been very special to me,” and will now undoubtedly become even more special.

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