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After serving as Headmistress of Carrollton from 1998 to 2015, Sr. Cooke left to become the first Head of the Conference of Sacred Heart Education. Recently, she was appointed to be Provincial of the United States-Canada Province – a position which begins August 1, 2021. In this role, Sr. Cooke will be responsible for renewing the Society’s support of, and collaboration with all the schools of the Sacred Heart in the Network to ensure the sustainability of the mission of Sacred Heart education.

In 1980, Sr. Cooke professed her first vows to become a Religious of the Sacred Heart and assumed the position of Dean of Students at Carrollton. She has committed herself to the education of girls in a way consistent with the values of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat as articulated in the Five Goals and Criteria of Sacred Heart Education. 

In June of 1987 Sr. Cooke professed her final vows in Rome and then became Head of the Middle School at Stuart Country Day School in Princeton, NJ. Then, from 1990-1998, she served as Head of School at Forest Ridge in Bellevue, Washington and later transferred back to Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart where she served as Headmistress.

During Sr. Cooke’s seventeen year tenure at Carrollton, she implemented new academic programs to foster critical thinking skills and prepare students for spiritually fulfilling and productive lives. She worked with the Board of Trustees and raised funds which went toward the construction of the Science and Technology Hall, the Pavilion, Cooke Hall, the Wellness Center and the Convocation Center. 

Sr. Cooke introduced Espacio, five minutes of silence, to help Carrollton community members center themselves to be in the presence of God. “Ideally, the greatest gift of Sacred Heart education is the capacity to be a person of prayer,” wrote Sr. Cooke.

Of her years at Carrollton Sr. Cooke wrote, “This is the home of my soul, the home of my heart,” she explains. “It has been both a blessing and a privilege to serve here.”