COURTESY OF MOUNT SAINT JOSEPH
Ursuline Sisters elect new Leadership Council
PRESS RELEASE
The Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph have elected their Leadership Council that will serve from 2026-2030. During meetings from March 12-14, 2026, delegates chose Sr. Sharon Sullivan to return as congregational leader. Three new members of the Council will join her. Sr. Alicia Coomes was chosen as assistant congregational leader, while Sr. Judith Nell Riney and Sr. Larraine Lauter were each elected as councilors. The new Council will be installed during a ceremony on July 19, 2026.
Sr. Sharon Sullivan served as congregational leader from 2010-16. She was re-elected to the same position in 2022, after the community changed the term to four years, with the possibility of serving an additional four-year term. The native Texan is in her 44th year as an Ursuline Sister, with most of her time spent in ministry at Brescia University, where she was a professor and coordinator of special education, and academic dean.
Sr. Alicia Coomes is in her 47th year of religious life. All of the Henderson, Ky., native’s ministry has been in Kentucky. Since 2022 she has served as pastoral care associate at both St. Peter of Alcantara Church in Stanley, and St. Augustine in Reed. From 2010-18, she was pastoral associate for St. William Parish, Marion; St. Francis Borgia Parish, Sturgis; and St. Ambrose Parish, Henshaw. She also served elsewhere in parish ministry in Bowling Green, LaCenter and Owensboro. She has used her nursing training to serve the Sisters at Maple Mount many times through the years and also served the community as director of Vocation Ministry (2007-10), director of the Temporary Professed (2009-12), director of Local Community Life and coordinator of pastoral care (2021-22). This is her first elected office.
Sr. Judith Nell Riney is serving in her 59th year as an Ursuline. The Daviess County native previously served as an elected councilor from 2016-22. She retired in 2025 as director of library services at Brescia University after 45 years in the role. She has been serving where needed in Owensboro while discerning her next ministry.
Sr. Larraine Lauter is serving in her 47th year as an Ursuline. A Florida native, she grew up in Louisville. She has served as executive director of Water By Women (previously Water With Blessings) in Louisville from 2012 to the present. Water By Women works to provide filters and training to women across the globe so they can bring clean drinking water to their areas. Sr. Larraine has also served as a teacher, a parish minister, and was executive director of Migrant Immigrant Shelter and Support in Owensboro from 2002-2006. This is her first elected office.
Contact Dan Heckel, director of Mission Advancement and Communications at [email protected], (270) 229-2007.
Originally printed in the April 2026 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.
