Teresa Bednarz, RSM serves as a councilor on the Institute Leadership Team. Sister Teresa “Terri” Bednarz grew up in West Texas where she earned a secondary education degree in learning disabilities and history at West Texas State A&M University (Canyon, Texas). She entered the Sisters of Mercy in St. Louis, Missouri in 1985. She taught at Christ the King (St. Louis), St. Alphonsus (New Orleans), Mount St. Mary High School (Oklahoma City) and Mount St. Mary Academy (Little Rock). She designed service learning and social justice programs, a Mercy SummerCorps immersion program, and helped to establish a transitional housing program for women in Oklahoma City. She served on the governor of Oklahoma’s Volunteerism Taskforce to establish guidelines and funding for state-wide service-learning programs. Sister Terri studied theology at St. Louis University, the Aquinas Institute in St. Louis, and at the Black Catholic Institute at Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana. She earned a Masters in biblical theology from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. After completing a PhD in biblical interpretation from Brite Divinity School (Texas Christian University), she taught Biblical and early Christianity courses at Loyola University-New Orleans and directed the university’s Rome-based study-abroad program.