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September
24, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 15Oakland,
CA
USCCB education
secretary named chancellor
for Oakland Diocese
WASHINGTON
(CNS) – Mission San Jose Dominican Sister Glenn Anne McPhee, secretary
for education at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has resigned
to become chancellor of the Diocese of Oakland.
She has headed the bishops’ Department of Education for five years.
Prior to accepting the post in Washington, D.C., she was superintendent
of schools in the San Francisco Archdiocese.
The move to Oakland brings her back to her home diocese and to where both
her religious community and her large extended family are based.
She said the chance to return to the Bay Area came as a surprise, moving
quickly from a preliminary phone call from Bishop Allen Vigneron the day
she returned from vacation Aug. 14 to an interview in Washington with
him four days later, followed quickly by a job offer.
“It was not in my plans,” she said, “but I’d be
a fool to say no.”
Sister Glenn Anne said she had expected to remain as education secretary
for another year, both completing a planned six-year commitment and seeing
the department through a pending reorganization of the offices of the
USCCB. But the opportunity to return to California as chancellor was a
limited-time offer she felt she needed to accept.
“It was like the voice of God, saying ‘There’s a place
for you in California,’” she said. “The hand of the
Lord was very much involved in this. I certainly didn’t seek it.”
Born in Palo Alto, she grew up in Berkeley’s St. Mary Magdalene
Parish, where she attended the parish school. She graduated from Holy
Names High in Oakland in 1961 and Holy Names College (now University)
in 1965 with a major in history and political science. She earned a lifetime
California teaching credential from UC Berkeley.
She received a master’s degree in educational administration from
Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in 1975. In addition, she holds
a certificate in spirituality from Mount St. Mary’s College in Los
Angeles.
She was an assistant superintendent/regional supervisor for the Los Angeles
Archdiocese for eight years, and a principal and teacher in Catholic schools
prior to assuming that post.
After she entered the Mission San Jose Dominicans in 1966, she taught
at St. Joseph School in Fremont (1966-67 and 1968-69).
She has served as a member of the U.S. Department of Education’s
Blue Ribbon Schools National Review Panel and as chair of the California
Catholic School Superintendents.
She has received the Outstanding Leadership Award from the Institute for
Catholic Educational Leadership and the University of San Francisco’s
Distinguished Lecturer Award. She has been an adjunct professor with USF’s
Institute for Catholic Educational Leadership.
She said she is proud of the accomplishments of the USCCB education office
during her tenure, including the publication of a National Directory for
Catechesis and the approval of a national catechism for adults. She also
said she was very pleased to have been able to get federal hurricane relief
aid channeled to Catholic schools in the Gulf Coast region.
The Oakland chancellor’s post has been open since Sister Barbara
Flannery, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, left the position this
summer after 12 years. The chancellor’s job includes responsibility
for pastoral ministries and outreach to survivors of clergy sex abuse.
Sister Glenn Anne said she will begin as chancellor in Oakland on Jan.
2, 2007.
Sister Glenn Anne McPhee, OP
