Sr. Simone will explore today’s challenges to democracy, community, and the common good. She brings vast experience as an attorney for the poor, as head of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, and as a listener on Nuns on the Bus and later in travels through the South. Seeking the common good across the cultural divide and continuing in her contemplative practice, she will share her special perspective, many remarkable stories, and her Hope. "When you touch the pain of the world as real, there is a solidarity, an engagement with the Gospel, a living faith that blossoms forth."

Sister Simone, a Sister of Social Service, is a religious leader, attorney, author and recipient of a 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom (the highest civilian honor). For 17 years she was executive director of NETWORK, gaining much experience in public healing. There she led Nuns on the Bus. She currently is an Emerson Elder with the Emerson Collective focusing on political healing. Her healthcare policy work was seminal in passing the Affordable Care Act. Her two award winning books are A Nun on the Bus (2014) and Hunger for Hope (2020).