ALUMNI NEWS
Alumni Profile: Sister Carla Kovack, OP ’69
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ister Carla Kovack, OP ’69 drew inspiration at an early age from the Dominican Sisters who taught and mentored her. Under their tutelage, she witnessed and was moved by the genuine care they showed for those they served, and the love and respect they had for each other. Growing up in Eagle Rock, Calif., Sister Carla was introduced to the community while a Saint Dominic School student. After arriving in San Rafael in 1964, she entered the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael novitiate at Santa Sabina and enrolled at Dominican College. While contemplating a religious vocation, Sister Carla was also drawn to the Dominican Sisters’ sense of individuality. Central to her formation were the models set by Sister Claire Herlihy, OP ’51, and Sister Aquinas Nimitz, OP. Both Sisters emanated a “power of presence” that inspired Sister Carla to a ministry lived genuinely and selflessly. Today, Sister Carla serves as the Prioress General of the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael. She is grateful that all of the Sisters have remained healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that they have been able to carry on their ministry in today’s remote and socially distanced world. They continue to find ways to shift and change with the people they serve, and to embrace their religious community’s respect for a collective leadership model in which all members are responsible for guiding their ministry and direction. While her own experience as a college student may not have been traditional, Sister Carla recognizes how transformative Dominican is for students. She may not have appreciated it at the time, but she now credits Dominican’s humanities program with instilling curiosity and promoting the notion that learning is about wonder, awe and connection. After graduating from Dominican College in 1969, Sister Carla’s first assignment was as a first-grade teacher in Lodi, Calif. Her career included teaching and leadership positions at several schools before shifting to administrative and formation ministry for the Sisters. She returned to Dominican in 2003 as the associate director of campus ministry and a professor of religion.
She also served on Dominican’s Women, Leadership and Philanthropy Council and on the Mother Mary Raymond Scholarship Fund board. It was former campus ministry director Father Bob Haberman who told Sister Carla in her interview that the role of Domincan’s campus ministry is the “ministry of presence.” That simple concept was the backbone of her 11 years working directly with Dominican students. Building on the Dominican tradition of body, mind and spirit, Sister Carla believes that you always begin with the body — and that starts with food. She always has Red Vines or a homemade brownie available for any student or visitor who wanders by her office. Just as the body is fed with delicious treats, the spirit is fed through beauty. Sister Carla truly appreciates all that is beautiful about Dominican. She acknowledges that this place — the campus and people — calls people here and that the community keeps them. Offering a parallel to her vocational calling, she recognizes the campus community as fostering a sense that together we are bigger than who we are as individuals. The concepts of food and sustenance permeate many of Sister Carla’s conversations. She is fond of the saying “hoarded grain rots,” a quote attributed to St. Dominic that underscores her belief that by sharing the gifts that have been bestowed on us, our community and the world are made better. Sister Carla’s early realization that education is about people and not necessarily the process has allowed her to connect deeply with others. She is always grateful to learn from students and colleagues, recognizing that education is a way to seed the future and that future excites her. She revealed that if reincarnation is possible, she would love to come back as a farmer, because she has always been drawn to the soil. Whether it was working on worm composting, building a community garden on the Dominican campus, or reaping the bounty of what has grown with others through this work, it is evident that she is a farmer who continues to seed our future.
THE TORCH | SPRING/SUMMER 2021
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