�������

As the founder and president of The Freadom®️ Road Foundation, Maria Hayley ’71, MALS ’72 has made breaking the cycle of intergenerational incarceration her life’s work. It’s a calling that wouldn’t be possible without her deep connections to the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, she says.

“What I so admired, loved and appreciated was that every one of them—all those Sisters over all those years—cared so much. You felt like they lived for you to do well,” Hayley said. “Their charism and Caritas Veritas is what I brought to whatever job I did—including The Freadom®️ Road Foundation.”

Influenced by her work as a librarian at the Cook County Jail and hoping to spare the children of detainees from the same fate as their parents, Hayley created the nonprofit foundation 30 years ago.

“When I realized that the kids of the incarcerated are likely to follow that same path, I couldn’t bear the idea,” she acknowledged.

Getting books into the homes of these children and children living in at-risk communities has been her mission ever since. Efforts to encourage literacy and make books “part of the environment” begin early—even before a child is born, Hayley notes. This, as well as educational intervention, is made possible through partnerships with area organizations, while research into best practices for helping children thrive is ongoing.

Hayley was an undergraduate at Rosary College when she was drawn to librarianship at the encouragement of students in the library science program. Her first job was as a young adult services librarian—the only one in the Chicago Public Library system at the time, she said.

Nearly all Hayley’s education came from the Sinsinawa Dominicans, and she credits her devoutly Catholic parents for this. After emigrating from Germany, she was enrolled at Epiphany Catholic School in Little Village, where her teachers were Sinsinawa Sisters. That paved the way for her to attend St. Clara Academy for high school and then Rosary College for undergraduate and graduate studies.

Hayley’s admiration for the Sisters drew her to become a Dominican Associate of Sinsinawa, sharing in the spiritual life, charism and Caritas et Veritas motto of the order.

“Being a Dominican associate, I feel like I’m walking behind the Sisters, carrying on their traditions,” Hayley shared. “And it sustains me in my work.”