July 18, 2022

For years, she was the only woman in the room when decisions had reached the top of a growing organization.

The only one in the room who had committed to a religious vocation, vowing a life of service to her God.

So if she didn’t say much – and there were many times Sister Joan Reichelt didn’t – she didn’t have to. Her presence spoke plenty.

“I try to bring, for one, calmness,” Reichelt said. “I’m not big talker. While I can talk, I didn’t give big lectures to people. But they say, ‘If Sister Joan is at a meeting, she may not say anything, but when she does, you best listen because it makes a lot of sense.’ So I guess I have some wisdom.”

John Porter, who met Reichelt in the early 1970s at a backyard picnic, listened to her for decades as CEO of Avera Health, where she served as his executive vice president of culture. She used to tell him she wouldn’t retire until he did.

Porter stepped down from his role in 2018 after more than 44 years with the Avera system.

“She’s older than me, so when I decided … when I turned 70 to retire, I told Sister Joan,” Porter said. “She said: ‘That’s terrific. I’ve changed my mind.’”

But now, it is Reichelt’s time. She retired at the beginning of the month from Avera, capping seven decades of service to her order and the organization.

“I feel strange,” she acknowledged. “Since I was 14 I’ve had a job in one sense or another. When I finished something, I had something waiting for me … but it was time. I knew it was time.”

From ‘baby nun’ to health care leader

Reichelt has had a lifelong knack of knowing what’s right for her. Her family farm was 12 miles west of Sioux Falls near Tea – a distance that now has shrunk to 3 miles from the city limits.

In 1955 at age 17, she decided to enter the Presentation Sisters’ convent in Aberdeen. She has joked that unlike a “child bride” she was a “baby nun,” but actually she was following the lead of her younger sister, Janet, who entered the Benedictine Sisters’ convent in Yankton.

“She was a year younger and fierce in her determination to enter the convent,” Reichelt said. “My folks thought she was too young, but I thought I’m not going back (to school) … just as a student. So that’s when I made up my mind and went to Mom and Dad and said, ‘Take me to Aberdeen.’ I always thought it was the right thing to do, and I know it sounds strange.”

But it did prove right for Reichelt, who went on to follow her mother’s lead into the health care ministry in 1960. Grace Reichelt graduated from the McKennan School of Nursing in 1928 and worked in private-duty nursing after receiving her RN license.

Reichelt gravitated toward nursing, too, but instead first became a registered medical technologist with a bachelor’s degree in medical technology from Northern State University.

“And then, I went back to school to get my RN license because I always wanted to be a nurse like my mom,” she said.

It led her to see patients at Avera’s St. Luke’s Hospital in Aberdeen and shaped her perspective as a future health care organizational leader.

“In nursing, you learn more of the tragedies people go through because you see the patients,” she said. “You get more compassion, I think, as a nurse, and you have to be understanding. You need that when you approach a patient.”

In the 1990s, she transitioned into community leadership with the Presentation Sisters and served on the Presentation Health System board.

As her term ended in 1998, having been away from front-line health care work for years, she went to Porter and said “let’s think up something for me to do in health care … and this is what we came up with,” she said.

Guiding light

As chief culture officer and one of six sisters serving as Avera system members, Avera’s top leadership entity, Reichelt became a guiding force at the very top of the organization.

“Sister Joan was always the greatest advocate for our people,” Porter said. “She is so peaceful and reflective. She doesn’t say a lot, but when she does, you’d better listen because a lot of thought has gone into it.”

Her wisdom “comes from being a calm person and listening to everybody and accepting everybody,” she said. “And knowing we’re all human and make errors and mistakes.”

Reichelt often would arrive at the corporate office by 6 a.m. and work at least a 10-hour day – longer if there were evening meetings.

When she was in the room, the system’s mission stayed top of mind.

“Sister Joan has advised on virtually every major decision, whether new services, partnerships or facilities,” said Bob Sutton, who became CEO in 2018, adding her “presence and influence have been central to Avera for several decades.”

Additionally, she brought “moral strength, faith and wisdom to Avera leaders, which she delightfully coupled with her sense of humor,” said Sister Mary Thomas, president of the Presentation Sisters of Aberdeen.

In one infamous meeting, Reichelt smuggled a stuffed bear under the conference table on her lap.

“I pressed its paw, and it would snore,” she said. “Nobody knew I had it.”

As Porter “kept talking and talking … I punched its paw,” she continued. “And it gave a snore, and everybody’s head jerked up, including me and John. And he started again, and I did it a second time.”

Then, everyone really stopped and looked, she said.

“And all at once, John said, ‘Joan.’ He knew darn well who did it,” she said. “So I pulled the bear out. I could always think of something funny or witty to say, and I like to play tricks on people. Kind ones.”

That’s not to say she couldn’t be the strongest force in the room, though.

It didn’t happen often, but Reichelt was known to stop a business meeting and call for prayer if she felt it was needed.

Once, “I stopped a big business person,” she said. “And it wasn’t his fault. It was our fault. We had been going back and forth arguing like he wasn’t there. I stopped the meeting. I just stood up and said, ‘This is not Avera.’”

She called for a minute of silence for the team to stop and reflect on her words.

“Do you know how long a minute is? The room went perfectly still,” she said. “When those two businessmen left, I went out in the hall to say goodbye, and the older man said, ‘Would you come with us to our next meeting?’ I don’t think so. But I’m proud I had the courage.”

She’s proud of all her years helping keep the system centered around its mission, she said.

“I’m proud to be part of Avera in any way, shape or form, but I’m proud I was in administration, and I did seem to influence some people and decisions,” she said. “I did speak up when I thought I needed to, and I don’t think you have to go around bossing people around or speaking a lot. But sometimes I was a mission person. Sometimes it’s just your presence that makes a difference.”

That was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic, which found Reichelt confined to her apartment and WebX in its early days but still participating in all incident command meetings. She would pray over those on the calls.

“Just some peace and some strength to know that this was very difficult and that we were doing what Avera is proud of, what Jesus wants us to do and just keep at it the best way we knew,” she said. “I would ask for mercy and compassion for the people we work with, our patients and one another.”

Through her many years of service, she has become a role model and mentor to many, Sutton added.

“We treasure her good humor, down-to-earth nature, kindness, wisdom and wit, expressed in prayers and well-timed words. We will miss her greatly but wish her well; our prayers are with her as she enters this new chapter in life,” he said.

Reichelt will turn 84 shortly and has moved into an independent living community in southeast Sioux Falls.

She’s committed to working through a growing collection of books and taking more time “to relax and pray and be a little social,” she said.

Avera hasn’t named a replacement for Reichelt’s role, though Sutton is working with the system members to determine a plan.

“The role is mostly being present. You don’t have to say a lot. If people observe you walking around and visiting, that’s the important thing as long as you represent our values,” Reichelt said. “And sometimes you don’t have to give a lot of counseling. You just listen to them. You can’t solve everybody’s problems.”