Dominican Sister Jamie T. Phelps is the 2010 recipient of the Ann O'Hara Graff Memorial Award from the Women's Seminar in Constructive Theology of the Catholic Theological Society of America.
Phelps, has been a member of the Adrian Dominican Sisters since 1959 and is currently professor of Systematic Theology and Director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies of Xavier University of Louisiana. She has been a member of the faculty of the Catholic Theological Union and Loyola University, both in Chicago, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Theology in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Dayton, Dayton Ohio.
Graff was one of the founders of the Women’s Seminar for Constructive Theology in the CTSA. The seminar now presents an annual award in her honor.
She was a professor of theology and religious studies at Seattle University in 1995 - 1996 after teaching for many years in the graduate program of Loyola University in Chicago. Graff, who received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, was well known for her commitment to the vitality of the church, the role of women in Catholicism, and diversity issues. She sought to bring together academic theological insights and lived experience.
Said Phelps, after receiving the award, “We (Graff and I) worked together on the CTSA board and so this award is very special for me.”
