Nursing Professor Doubles as Mission
Effectiveness Director

Having always “felt a special calling to care for the sick and elderly,” S. Sharon Ann Haas tries to live Benedict’s words, “to care for others as if they were Christ himself.” As an assistant professor of nursing at Mount Marty College, she endeavors to instill in her students the honor and privilege it is to care for the sick.”

S. Sharon Ann has put her educational background of a BSN from Mount Marty and an MSN from St. Louis University to good use, in more than 30 years of healthcare ministry. This has included four years as monastery infirmarian, 16 years in various nursing positions at St. Thomas More Hospital and Progressive Care Center, Canon City, CO, including 10 years as director of nursing; one year as staff nurse in Home Health & Hospice at Avera Sacred Heart, Yankton; and on the college nursing staff since 1994. Her primary areas of teaching responsibility are in Nursing Management and Health Care Ethics for the senior students. 

Another, and very important, aspect of S. Sharon Ann’s ministry is in mission effectiveness. Chair of this committee at Mount Marty since 1996, she says, “It has been an enriching experience to work with administration, faculty, staff, students, and board of trustees in promoting the understanding and integration of MMC’s mission and values.”

Her philosophy is well stated in her own words: “I’m a community person by nature and believe so strongly that we can accomplish together far more than we can as individuals.” She goes on to say, “I count on members of my religious and professional communities to challenge and support me each day. I appreciate being a part of a community that prays together daily. That gives me inner strength and peace.”

A special experience for S. Sharon Ann was the opportunity to attend the 1990 Rome Conference for English Speaking Benedictine women. “It was so enriching  to  be  in Rome and learn about the early church and elsewhere in Italy to walk where Benedict did.” Another wonderful part of this experience was “visiting Maria Rickenbach, the Convent from which Sacred Heart Monastery was founded.”    

She enjoys reading, music, nature, concerts and visiting with friends. “I look to others,” she says, “to share times of fun and relaxation. St. Benedict speaks a lot about balance and moderation and that is a continual challenge for me.” 

S. Sharon Ann was born and grew up in Epiphany, SD, one of six children of Margie (deceased) and Henry Haas.