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July 4, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 13Oakland,
CA
Bay Area Sisters honor lay woman
for service to elders
By Voice staff
Carol Johnson, executive director of St. Mary’s
Center in Oakland, has received the 2005 Public Witness Award from Bay
Area Catholic Sisters, a group of eight religious communities that works
together to promote social justice and human rights.
Six Sisters working at the Center nominated Johnson as an outstanding
individual who “publicly continues the spirit and values of the
founders of St. Mary’s Center. She increasingly empowers poor seniors
to make their voices heard…and clearly speaks with her actions as
well as words on behalf of those in peril on our streets,” said
the nomination letter.
Johnson received her award during a June 1 luncheon at the Center. Notre
Dame Sister Margaret Hoffman presented the honoree with a lithograph print,
designed by Notre Dame Sister Terry Davis.
Oakland Councilwoman Nancy Nadel commended the director for being “a
woman of action.”
Johnson has spent nearly 30 years working in the social services sector
— first at Catholic Charities of the East Bay in prison ministry
and then as director of its Department of Aging. She started at St. Mary’s
Center, initially as senior services director, and now serves as its executive
director.
The Center has 40 staff members and numerous volunteers who keep the Center’s
numerous programs operating. St. Mary’s serves both the elderly
homebound and homeless.
It maintains programs to help and sustain elderly persons who suffer serious
addictions and mental illnesses, sponsors a food program for poor families,
and staffs a pre-school to prepare the poorest children for kindergarten.
The nominating committee hailed Johnson for nurturing and sustaining creativity,
diversity and inclusiveness among the St. Mary’s staff, volunteers
and clients.
“Her goal is to make the issues of justice central to the problems
of poverty…she has raised our role as advocates to a high level,
going public with the plight of the poor reminding all levels of government
of their rights,” said the Catholic Sisters.
Johnson has taken leadership in the East Bay by forming networks with
other service providers, co-sponsoring public witness events at state,
county, and city office buildings and co-sponsoring educational events
around poverty, health and justice issues.
What is especially outstanding about St. Mary’s director is how
she motivates the poor and elderly to serve as their own spokespersons,
said the nominating letter.
Carol Johnson
