A week in New York City brings new ideas and perspectives to the 2026 BVM delegation of Wahlert students (front row, l.) Effie, Olivia, Lucy, and Mallory; (back row) BVM Katie Anders, Chaperone Maggie Winkel, BVM Pat Bombard, Associates Linda Heying and Mariah Reeves, and Associate Discerner Elizabeth Maus. Not pictured are delegation members, BVMs Karen Conover and Mary Martens, who attended virtually.
Sometimes a partnership begins with a conversation and grows into something far greater than anyone imagined.
For the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) and the Loretto Community (SL), that conversation began at a Leadership Conference of Women Religious Region 10 meeting in St. Louis more than 15 years ago.
Karen Conover, BVM recalls that Loretto President Cathy Mueller, SL announced that her community was seeking a partner to share its work advancing justice and the rights of women and girls through advocacy at the United Nations (UN), where Loretto had maintained a presence since 1991.
“I don’t know why this is exactly, but it’s the kind of thing we’re looking for,” Karen recalls telling the other BVMs attending the meeting.
Mary Ann Zollmann, BVM, who was president of the congregation at the time, remembers the bond that sparked the collaboration.
“We could do something together,” she says. “We didn’t know what it was going to be, but we had a common spirit.”
That common spirit became Loretto/BVM at the UN, bringing the two communities’ shared commitment to justice into an international setting.
BVM involvement in international advocacy had begun several years earlier. In 1995, BVMs participated in the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, where the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action established a framework for advancing women’s equality.
The Loretto/BVM partnership continues that legacy.
A Shared Mission, A Lasting Commitment
For Beth Blissman, SL, Loretto’s UN representative, working together has been essential to sustaining the communities’ presence at the UN.
“I do not think we would still be around if it were not for the BVMs,” Beth shared during the 15th anniversary celebration.
Each March, the partnership brings sisters, associates, and high school students to New York City for the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), joining more than 6,000 participants from all walks of life around the world.
“We try and frame everything in terms of educating ourselves and our students,” Beth says.
From Global Learning to Local Action
Karen serves as BVM co-representative to Loretto/BVM alongside Associate Mariah Reeves.
For the past two years, Karen has participated virtually in UNCSW, attending 11 sessions her first year and 18 in 2026. The online format allows her to explore a wide range of issues affecting women and girls worldwide, from access to healthcare and education to legal inequities and intergenerational trauma.
“I continue to find connections to things that are related in a social justice way,” Karen says.
Although she does not travel to New York, the online sessions provide a way for her to be an active participant and explore ways to translate global conversations into local action.
For Mariah, the impact of attending UNCSW becomes especially meaningful when students return home inspired to act. She recalls a Wahlert Catholic High School student who, after attending UNCSW workshops, began identifying ways to address inequity in her school and community.
“She connected what she had learned about justice for women and girls with everyday conversations among her peers,” Mariah says.
That connection between learning and action reflects what Beth describes as taking the work “from the global to the local back to the global.”
What began as a shared vision has become an enduring partnership that continues to educate, inspire, and plant seeds of change around the world.
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