Margaret Ellen Burke, SC is a guide for the Engaging Impasse: Circles of Contemplation and Dialogue®. She completed her own participation in one of the Circles as well as the Quantum Leap conference. She is a Sister of Charity of New York. She has years of experience in spiritual direction, supervision and retreats (guided, preached and directed) in the US and Canada. As a former faculty member at the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University and as co-director of the Center of Spirituality and Justice, she has been training and supervising spiritual directors for over 25 years. She has a great passion for this aspect of her ministry. She also continues to facilitate discernment processes with religious communities and parish groups. In the 80s, Margaret Ellen and another community member created the Center of Renewal and Education (CORE). She is presently the director. This is a mobile center for lay leadership training and spiritual development in the more rural areas in New York. This ministry includes teaching courses on Scripture, Vatican Documents, Prayer, Meditation, etc. and conducting renewal days and parish Directed Retreats. She has trained numerous lay women and men to be trainers of others for various church ministries. Margaret Ellen began as a teacher in elementary and junior high schools. At the College of Mt. St. Vincent she supervised the women and men who were in a special program there for minorities pursuing a career in teaching. Drawn to pastoral work, she ministered first in a parish and then as a chaplain in a St. Vincent's Hospital in New York working predominantly with the terminally ill and their families. At Calvary Hospital in the East Bronx, she helped create The Career Options Program. A one-year program for religious women who were considering a change of career it exposed them to various departments and experiences in health care. Margaret Ellen completed an MPS in Spirituality at Fordham University following her year as an Associate at the Center of Religious Development in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her previous education includes an MA in Counseling from New York Seminary and Post Graduate Institute for Mental Health and an MS in Biology from St. Bonaventure University. She was also certified by the USCCB as a CPE supervisor. Margaret Ellen's great interest in healing and energy work motivated her exploration of Reiki and Integrated Energy Therapy (IET). She is both a Reiki and IET Master. She loves the outdoors and hikes whenever and wherever she can. Watching the variety of birds that come to her feeders is an ongoing source of delight and joy. Margaret Ellen is seldom seen without her little camera. Return to the Top Back to Who We Are