About Our Volunteers

Jump-starting a career in social justice

Click on the image for a larger view.
Margaret Kowalsky, who grew up in Yakima, Wash., attended Sister Rebecca Berghoff’s peace and justice school, studied Spanish and traveled to Mexico with Sister Josie Ramac, and watched Sister Karin Dufault compassionately lead in community healthcare for the poor.

Today, Margaret is a leader in her own right, and has convened humanitarian policy meetings in Iran, Mali, Switzerland, Austria and the United States.

Margaret, who resides in Boston, is the daughter of Mary Doherty, a Providence Associate who lives in Olympia, Wash.

Intrigued by life and culture of South America

After graduating from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, Margaret requested the opportunity to engage in the charism of the Sisters of Providence by living and working in the sisters’ orphanage and school in Valparaiso, Chile. She had been intrigued by Sister Roberta Rorke’s insights into the life and culture of South America.

In Chile, Margaret helped take care of the girls and involved them in recreation, including helping them see themselves as soccer players.

During the months with the Chilean sisters and children, her spiritual life was deepened, her Spanish language skills were renewed to fluency, and her love and respect for the work the sisters are doing with the poor worldwide was invigorated.

Commited to the growth of girls raised poor

She developed and sustained a bond for girls who grow up in poverty and who can blossom through access to education and interaction with role models of strong and loving spiritual women.

Margaret returned to the United States after four to five months in Chile and then earned a master’s degree in theology from Harvard University with special interest in religious pluralism.

Today, she is manager of the program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPRC), housed at Harvard, which is at the forefront of bringing academic research to current problems of conflict prevention/management and humanitarian affairs worldwide.

HPRC, which operates within the United Nations system, has a goal of allowing participants to transform the ways in which their institutions, governments and organizations work.