Alumna of the Year 1999

Sr. HELEN PREJEAN, C.S.J., M.R.E. 73

Sister Helen Prejean was born April 21, 1939, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and has lived and worked in Louisiana all her life. She joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille in 1957. She received a B.A. in English and Education from St. Mary’s Dominican College, New Orleans, in 1962. In 1973, she received an M.A. in Religious Education from Saint Paul University, in Ottawa, Canada. Her ministries have included teaching junior and senior high school students. She was Religious Education Director at St. Frances Cabrini Parish in New Orleans, and Formation Director for her religious community.

Involvement with poor inner-city residents in the St. Thomas Housing Project in New Orleans in 1981 led her to prison ministry, where she counselled death-row inmates in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. She is the author of Dead Man Walking, an eyewitness account of the death penalty in the United States, published by Random House in 1993. She has accompanied men to the electric chair and witnessed their deaths, and has devoted her energies to educating the public about the death penalty by lecturing, organizing, and writing. She has also befriended murder victims’ families. In June 1995, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship which she has used on her second book, a spiritual autobiography, which examines of the question of personal faith and where it takes her. The book includes a segment on justice for women in the Roman Catholic Church. (Expected publishing date is November 2000 by Random House.)

Sister Helen and Dead Man Walking have been the subjects of numerous media stories and reviews in the U.S., Canada, Spain, Holland, England, Scotland, France, and Australia.

She has been featured in New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Good Housekeeping, The St. Anthony Messenger, The Ligourian, The Chicago Tribune, The Atlanta Constitution, The Times Picayune, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New Orleans Magazine, The Tablet, Sisters Today and numerous other print media.

She has appeared on 60 Minutes , NBC’s Today Show, ABC World News Tonight, the Tom Snyder Show on CNBC, Larry King Live (radio), the Phil Donahue Show, BBC World Service Radio, National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition and Fresh Air, an NBC Special on the death penalty, and the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s Man Alive. She was profiled by the BBC’s Everyman in the United Kingdom. ABC did a special on Sister Helen on Prime Time Live and PBS featured her on Frontline.

The recipient of a long list of awards, Sister Helen served as a member of the board of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty from 1985 to 1995 and as chairperson of the board from 1993 to 1995. She also is a member of Amnesty International.

Her book Dead Man Walking was on the New York Times best-seller list for 31 weeks. It was also on the international best-seller list. It has been translated into nine languages. The book was adapted and turned into a movie by director Tim Robbins and its star, Susan Sarandon, won an Academy award for her portrayal of Sister Helen.

For two successive years (1997 and 1998) Sister Helen has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

September 1999