On September 8, Religious of the Sacred Heart, Associates, Province staff and Heads of Schools gathered in the spirit of gratitude, grace and hope for a Province-wide Zoom prayer service. During this occasion that marked the beginning of Suzanne Cooke's second term as Provincial of the United States – Canada Province, the larger community thanked outgoing provincial team members Marina Hernandez, RSCJ, and Imma De Stefanis, RSCJ, for their time, dedication and service to the province over the last three years, and welcomed new team members Maureen Glavin, RSCJ; Paula Gruner, RSCJ; and Mary Kay Hunyady, RSCJ. Lynne Lieux, RSCJ, who served on the previous provincial team will remain on the team for a second term.
Maureen Glavin
Maureen Glavin is originally from upstate New York. Among her past ministries in the Society, Sister Glavin served as a math and science teacher, an assistant principal of Our Lady of Guadalupe School in Houston, Texas, and as director of the junior high school at Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Miami, Florida. For 13 years, she was head of school at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles, Missouri. She served on the Society’s provincial Bicentennial Planning Committee leading up to the Bicentennial celebrations in 2018. Sister Glavin was on the United States – Canada provincial team from 2018-2021. She currently lives in Indonesia, where she serves on the Society’s District of Indonesia leadership team.
Early in her career, Sister Glavin worked as a technical specialist in a pharmacology lab at Upstate Medical Center; a teacher in Eastern United States schools. She was a lay volunteer at a junior seminary in Tanzania, East Africa, serving as an instructor of secondary level English, math and science. Sister Glavin was also on the boards of Villa Duchesne School of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis and the School of the Sacred Heart in Montreal.
She earned a bachelor’s in chemistry from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, and earned her master’s in theology at St. Thomas University in Houston.
Paula Gruner
Paula Gruner was born and raised in south central Ohio. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion from Capital University in Bexley, Ohio, a Master’s of Divinity degree from the Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio, and a Master’s in Business Administration from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.
Sister Gruner has served as a trustee of several member schools of the Network of Sacred Schools. Currently, she is on the Board of Trustees of Maryville University, in St. Louis, Missouri, and on the Board of Governors of the Sacred Heart Schools of Halifax in Nova Scotia. She has held positions within the Network of Sacred Heart Schools at Josephinum Academy in Chicago, Schools of the Sacred Heart in San Francisco, and Doane Stuart School in Albany. Since receiving her degree in business administration, she has been the assistant treasurer and accounting manager for the former United States Province, the assistant to the provincial bursar for the Uganda – Kenya Province, and the business manager for Sprout Creek Farm, a former sponsored ministry of the Society in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Sister Gruner is currently serving as the canonical treasurer of the Antilles Province of the Society of the Sacred Heart (Puerto Rico, Haiti and Cuba) and, most recently, was a delegate for the United States – Canada Province at the Society General Chapter 2024 in Nemi, Italy.
Mary Kay Hunyady
A graduate of Barat College of the Sacred Heart, Mary Kay Hunyady entered the Society in 1978 and was a religion teacher at Duchesne Academy in Omaha, Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau and Woodlands Academy in Lake Forest, Illinois, where she was also campus minister and in charge of the social awareness program. Sister Hunyady then became involved with community and political organizing around issues of social justice and compassion. She pursued these areas of ministry for several years. She was arrested several times during the course of her political/community organizing work for acts of civil disobedience and spent time in jail, though never had to spend the night.
After professing her final vows in the Society in Rome in 1987, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to continue working on social justice issues in diverse ways. Ultimately, she decided to start focusing her ministry on individuals, couples and families through the work in psychology and began doctoral studies in psychology in Berkeley, California.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies and the humanities from Barat College which was in Lake Forest, a master’s in education from Boston College, and a master’s and a doctorate in psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley. Her doctorate is in psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley. She is a licensed psychologist in the state of California and a trained spiritual director. She continues her work in both fields.
Lynne Lieux
Lynne Lieux attended the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, as a boarder. After receiving her bachelor's degree in mathematics from Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri, she spent her first year in the Society at Villa Duchesne School of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis teaching math and physics. She received her master’s degree in physics from Washington University in St. Louis and her doctorate in educational administration from the University of New Orleans.
Sister Lieux has spent most of her ministerial life working in the Network of Sacred Heart Schools as a teacher, dean of students, upper school head, and head of school. She has also served as an adjunct professor in the graduate education program at the University of New Orleans and has worked with the Jacobs Institute on Innovation in Education at the University of San Diego. She is currently a trustee of the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, the Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, The Regis School of the Sacred Heart in Houston and Maryville University. She has served on the provincial team of the United States – Canada Province since 2021.
