Sister Anne Donovan’s Lasting Legacy at Emmanuel

As we approach the 2025 Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony this October, Emmanuel College is highlighting the achievements of this year’s inductees.

In the weeks ahead, we will share profiles of the student-athletes, coaches, and supporters whose dedication, leadership, and excellence have left a lasting mark on Saints athletics.

This fall, Sister Anne Donovan ’62, SNDdeN, will be inducted into the Emmanuel College Athletics Hall of Fame for Extraordinary Service and Support — a fitting honor for a woman who spent decades ensuring that Emmanuel’s student-athletes had every chance to succeed.

When Sister Anne arrived at Emmanuel College in 1958, a first-year student from Exeter, N.H., she wasted little time finding her place. “I immediately joined the basketball team,” she said, referring to the College’s intramural program. “Sports had always been a big part of my life.”

By her second year, she was already coaching others — driving across town to lead the team at the former St. Joseph’s High School in Somerville. “They needed a coach, and I had a car,” she said.

Her lifelong enthusiasm for athletics extended well beyond those early years at Emmanuel. Donovan grew up with a love of sports — and the New England teams that defined them. “She’s a die-hard Red Sox and Patriots fan,” said Patricia Tower, Emmanuel’s Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer. “She and her father shared that bond — they were together when Ted Williams hit his final home run.”

That lifelong passion extended well beyond basketball. “She also played softball and loved golf and tennis,” Tower added.

Tower, who worked alongside Sister Anne for more than three decades, saw that competitive energy up close. “Among all her other talents and contributions to Emmanuel, one of the things that stands out is her love and support of Emmanuel athletics — especially women’s basketball,” she said. “At her core, she’s a fierce competitor with a desire to win. That was instilled in her growing up.”

That fire — practical, unshowy, and relentless — would shape much of what Emmanuel College is today. Donovan’s name is not in a record book or a scoring chart. It is, however, built into the very fabric of campus — in the facilities she helped make possible and the opportunities she opened for generations of student-athletes to learn, compete, and grow.

Finding Her Calling

Donovan’s father was determined that she and her sister attend college, and though he initially discouraged her from entering religious life, Emmanuel proved transformative. “It was a wonderful four years,” Donovan recalled. “I have always felt that God’s hand was with me, guiding me.”

After graduation, she traveled through Europe with friends, spending time in England, Germany, Belgium, and Italy. In Rome, she made an impromptu visit to the Superior General of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, who asked her two simple questions: “Do you love God? Do you have good health?” The blunt counsel that followed — “Who do you think you are that God should show you a miracle? Get on with it!” — proved decisive.

She entered the Sisters of Notre Dame in 1964 as a postulant in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and soon completed a master’s degree in history at the University of New Hampshire.

Her early ministry began in the classroom, teaching Latin, history, and English at several Catholic high schools in the Boston area. In 1976, she turned her focus to finance, becoming treasurer for the Sisters’ Boston Province, where she streamlined operations and strengthened long-term planning. After earning an M.B.A. from Boston College, she was appointed General Treasurer for the global Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1982, overseeing the congregation’s finances and supporting missions around the world for the next 15 years.

Building the Modern Emmanuel

While serving as General Treasurer, Donovan also reconnected with her alma mater, joining Emmanuel’s Corporate Board in 1982 and later the Board of Trustees. Her expertise in both religious and institutional finance, paired with her deep loyalty to Emmanuel, positioned her to play a pivotal role in the College’s next chapter.

At that time, Emmanuel was an all-women’s college that fielded just five varsity teams. Over the next two decades, Donovan worked closely with coaches and colleagues to secure the resources that would allow the program to expand. Today, the College is coeducational, and the Athletics Department she helped shape has grown to include 18 NCAA Division III programs.

Her leadership was instrumental in the planning and construction of the Jean Yawkey Center (JYC) — a modern, fully equipped hub for competition, recreation, and student life that became the cornerstone of Emmanuel’s modern campus.

In 2009, she was appointed College Treasurer and later Vice President of Finance, roles she held until 2023, overseeing a transformative period of growth that included bold land leases, expanded facilities, and further investment in student athletics.

Her influence is perhaps most visible in the JYC, the glass-and-brick facility that opened in 2004 and quickly became the “living room” of the College. Behind the atrium and gymnasium was Sister Anne’s resolve. “Even before the blueprint stage, Sister Anne understood the importance of including top-notch athletic facilities,” said Emmanuel President Beth Ross. “Today, thanks to her vision, superb high school student-athletes from across the country are enticed by the prospect of competing in a state-of-the-art gymnasium in the heart of Boston. Our gym is also frequently the scene of exuberant expressions of the Emmanuel spirit by our many fans and supporters.”

The Jean Yawkey Center might have been a more modest facility were it not for Donovan’s determination—and the persistence of Andrew Yosinoff, Emmanuel’s longtime women’s basketball coach and fellow 2025 Hall of Fame inductee. “She was the impetus behind the Jean Yawkey Center,” he said. “Initially it was going to be much smaller, but I persuaded her to make it the size it is now so we could host big games. Without her, we’d still be in the old gym.”

Donovan was also instrumental in forging a partnership with the City of Boston to restore Roberto Clemente Field. With support from the Yawkey Foundation and the College, the $4 million renovation produced a synthetic turf field, all-weather track, and expanded facilities. “The partnership with the City of Boston to secure Clemente Field was brilliant,” said former athletic director Pam Roecker. “Her financial commitment to that ambitious project was the catalyst for Saints athletics to become comprehensively competitive.”

Mission and Legacy

For Donovan, athletics enriched the College’s mission. “Athletics plays an enormous role for student-athletes,” she said. “It gives them a built-in community, teaches discipline, and keeps them on schedule academically. Having good facilities, good coaches, and opportunities to compete enriches the student experience.”

“She was legendary for ‘making things happen,’” President Ross said. “The Saints athletics program of today, with 18 Division III teams, is in large measure a testament to her ingenuity and commitment.”

Tower echoed that sentiment: “She may not compete on the court or the field anymore, but she’s used that same drive and discipline to ensure that other student-athletes can find success and personal growth in the way that only sports can offer. In shaping the programs, facilities, and teams at Emmanuel, she has enriched thousands of lives.”

A Lasting Impact

Donovan remains modest about her role. “I wouldn’t dignify it by calling it a vision,” she said. “I just listened to what people needed and asked, ‘How can we make this happen?’”

What happened, in fact, was a transformation. Emmanuel’s athletics program expanded from a handful of teams to 18. Its student body tripled. And in the middle of it all was Sister Anne — a onetime point guard who saw the whole court, and who played to win not for herself, but for generations of Emmanuel students to come.