Bio

Theresa Rickard graduated from SUNY Orange following standout careers for both the women s basketball and softball squads. In 1976, within the span of several months, she helped lead both teams to state titles.

Rickard was a starter for the Colts basketball team that won the New York State Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women championship and placed third in the Eastern Association Regional Tournament in 1976. She topped that title-winning squad in assists and steals, and was second in scoring.

A softball outfielder, she batted .381 in 1976 to help the Colts capture the New York State title. She also played in the National Women's Tournament in Huntington Beach, Calif. Rickard won the Mary B. Diana female Athlete of the Year Award in 1976 in just the second year of the award's existence.

Presently, she is a Dominican Sister and serves as president and executive director of RENEW International, a Catholic not-for-profit organization located in Plainfield, N.J., with satellite offices in Latin America and South Africa. RENEW develops and implements pastoral programs that help people to deepen their faith and live it through works of charity and acts of justice.

Rickard is a nationally known speaker and a contributing author to the books Preaching in the Sunday Assembly and Preaching Christ Crucified. She authored The Living Gospel: Daily Devotions for Lent 2014. In 2007, she was inducted into the St. Mary s High School Hall of Fame in Manhasset, N.Y., where she played varsity volleyball and basketball.

This past September, she was selected by the American Bible Society to receive its 2014 Christian Leader Award for her leadership in Bible engagement ministry.