Jeanne Knoerle

In April 2012, she was named a Wabash Valley Woman of Influence by the United Way.

Knoerle participated in projects with Monastic Interreligious Dialogue and initiated the Brookland Commission, an inquiry beginning in 1988 into the place of intellectual life among communities of women religious.

In 1988 Knoerle began as a program director of the Lilly Endowment, overseeing the Religion Division. In this role, she particularly championed telling the story of colleges founded by women's religious congregations.

In her role as president, she participated in a number of symposiums and conferences, including the 1976 Congress of Presidents in New York City and as keynote speaker at the 1977 Indiana state deans' convention.

Knoerle then served as assistant president of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College until she was named the twelfth president of the school in 1968, a position she held until 1983. As president of the College, Knoerle started the Women's External Degree program (now called Woods OnLine) in 1973 as a distance learning option for women with families. It is now one of the largest online degree programs in Indiana.

Knoerle was born in Lakewood, Ohio to parents Harold M. Knoerle and Bernadine Seufert. On July 22, 1949, she joined the Sisters of Providence and took the religious name Sister Mary Gregory. She became a fully professed member of the Congregation on January 23, 1957.

Sister Jeanne Knoerle, S.P., (February 24, 1928 – June 10, 2013) was an author, educator and theologian. A Roman Catholic religious sister, she was a member of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. She was president of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana from 1968 to 1983. Other posts were with the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (board chair, 1979–80) and with the Lilly Endowment.