December 2021 Commencement

Sister Patricia Hayden, SC

President, Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati
Commencement Speaker
Honorary Degree Recipient

 

A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Sister Patricia Hayden was taught by the Sisters of Charity at Catholic Central High School in Springfield, Ohio. She has been a member of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati since 1964. Sister Pat holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education from the College of Mount St. Joseph (Cincinnati, Ohio), a Master of Arts in Theology, Christian Community Development from Regis College (Denver, Colorado), and is a Board Certified Chaplain with the National Association of Catholic Chaplains, doing Clinical Pastoral Education [CPE] at Presbyterian St. Luke’s Hospital in Denver.

Early in her career Sister Pat ministered 11 years in elementary education in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then Denver, Colorado. As principal at Sacred Heart in the inner city of Denver, Sister Pat created a new, innovative team approach to school administration. She then ministered as director of religious education and youth minister before she began her 30-year career in health care. In 1992, Sister Pat joined St. Anthony North Hospital, a trauma hospital in Westminster, Colorado. As a chaplain she was a leader in disaster response and debriefing teams. She was on the front line when the hospital’s Flight for Life helicopter crashed in the mountains in 1994 and a first responder at the school shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. She also grew the department by developing a CPE program. For 12 years Sister Pat served as the hospital’s vice president of mission integration and community outreach. She was part of the hospital team that dreamed and created the campus of the future; this resulted in moving the entire hospital and providing comprehensive inpatient and outpatient services that focused on the health care needs of the community as a whole. Sister Pat held this position until May 2019 when she was elected president of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati.