Advice that’s 'second to nun'

By Emily Chaffins -

MIAMI | Cristina Gonzalez has encountered many nuns in her life. Having attended St. Brendan Elementary School and Our Lady of Lourdes Academy high school, both in Miami, she met nuns who ranged from “disciplinarian” to laid-back and sees all of them as having a “good influence” in her life. However, for Gonzalez, Sister Elizabeth Anne Worley, a Sister of St. Joseph of St. Augustine, immediately stood out from the rest.

In November 2022, Gonzalez a senior principal at Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, was helping to coordinate the move of her office from Miami Lakes to Brickell. Inspired by ABCD videos, she decided to donate office furniture to the Archdiocese of Miami. Sister Worley, chancellor for administration and chief operating officer at the archdiocese, visited Langan’s Miami Lakes location to pick out furniture for the Pastoral Center in Miami Shores. She and Gonzalez hit it off.

“She was just dynamite from the moment I met her,” said Gonzalez. “When I found out the role she has at the Archdiocese of Miami, I said she should be in a Women@Langan conversation.”

Women@Langan is an employee resource group Gonzalez co-created in the 2010s with Michele O’Connor from New York City and Caryn Barnes from Philadelphia.

“I was the only woman shareholder and for a long time the only woman at executive meetings 10-12 years ago,” she explained. The goal of Women@Langan is to support young businesswomen and inspire them to leadership. The national employee resource group has branches in Langan offices around the country. Offices host conversations with guest speakers – either a member of the firm or a woman from the wider community – “to showcase their work and make sure all the younger women know they have a path,” she said.

When she encountered Sister Worley, Gonzalez thought she would make a great guest speaker. “The fact that she’s a nun, she’s so different from other women out there in business,” Gonzalez said. “She’s a businesswoman, a go-getter. I think people should see what she and others do, who are not your typical women wearing business dresses or business jackets. The work she does should be amplified and noticed.”

Since Gonzalez will be retiring in February 2025 after 40 years at Langan, she felt a sense of urgency to invite Sister Worley to speak to Women@Langan. The Women@Langan: Conversation with Sister Elizabeth Worley event took place Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 1221 Brickell Avenue in Miami. Both businesswomen and men from Langan and employees of the Archdiocese of Miami gathered for the conversation.

Sister Worley’s Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine habit stood out from the business attire of those in attendance! Showing solidarity with the Sisters of St. Joseph, attendees also donated Publix cards and food items for St. John Bosco Clinic at Corpus Christi Parish in Miami, a healthcare resource for underprivileged patients chaired by Sister of St. Joseph of St. Augustine, Rosa M. Lopez.

During her talk, Sister Worley shared her story and mission, cracking jokes and sharing lessons from what she calls her “adventure” of a life.

“Falling in love” with religious life

Born in 1946 and having spent more than 60 years as a religious sister, Sister Worley has obtained multiple degrees, served as chair of Mercy Hospital Board and CEO of Catholic Hospice, and helped administrate two dioceses, including in her current capacity as chancellor and COO of the Archdiocese of Miami. As a child, the only part she could have guessed at was becoming a religious sister.

“Even when I was little, I knew I wanted to be a Sister of St. Joseph,” she said, fondly remembering the nuns who taught her in Jacksonville.

Although Loyola University offered her a full scholarship to major in vocal music, she was determined to enter the convent at 17 years old.

“A vocation is an interesting thing,” she reflected. “It’s falling in love, you understand. It’s not rational. It’s something that I knew I wanted to do, that I was called to do.”

Although she was interested in music, Sister Worley was assigned to undertake a bachelor of science in chemistry at Barry University. Little did she know that she would discover a passion for the sciences, obtain a master’s in chemistry from Villanova University, and pass on her knowledge to students for 15 years from schools including Immaculata-La Salle High and Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory.

“I love teaching – I would have been forever in the classroom,” she said. “But obedience is a vow, and when we’re called, we need to listen to what we’re called to do.”

How to climb a ladder

Sister Worley was tasked to leave teaching and instead serve as chair of Mercy Hospital board for one year – which turned into nearly two decades.

Regarding her time at Mercy Hospital, she said, “The margin is important, but the purpose of the margin is the mission. If you can’t accomplish the mission, then forget trying to get the margin, because we’re not in it for the sake of the money. We’re in it to serve the people of God.”

Sister Worley earned an MBA in healthcare administration at the University of Miami, and graduated valedictorian – prompting the salutatorian to joke he came out “second to nun.”

Next, Sister Worley was enlisted to help reorganize the struggling Catholic Hospice as CEO. Over a period of three-and-a-half years, she helped Catholic Hospice thrive and even expanded it into Broward County.

Her career took another turn when Archbishop Thomas Wenski, then Bishop of Orlando, told her she should apply for chancellor and COO position in the diocese. Sister Worley said that the job was a “dress rehearsal” for her next job starting in 2010 as chancellor and COO at the larger Archdiocese of Miami, the position she holds today under Archbishop Wenski.

“My whole life has been, when God calls, I try to listen, and it has born much fruit,” Sister Worley said. “I thought back to when I was a kid, and it’s been an extraordinary adventure to see where God leads… Seeing all those skills of a lifetime that now merge, and that’s come from simply responding to where I was called to be of service.”

“I’ve never climbed the ladder – it was the ladder that was pulling me up,” she added. “It’s not a matter of me aspiring to do these things. I would probably be in my chem lab given my choice!”

Sister Worley encourages young women to dream big.

“Wherever the need is, you respond as best you can,” she added. “Whatever gifts you have, you put it in the service of God.”