In 1999, the Alumnae and Alumni Association established the Service to Society Award. All graduates are eligible.
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2025 Award Winner
Service to Society Award
The Service to Society Award is presented to a graduate who best exemplifies the ideals of a Notre Dame education through the application of their education, initiative and humanity to socially useful ends in the community, nation or world. In 1999, the Alumni Association established the Service to Society Award. All graduates are eligible.
Sister Charmaine Krohe, SSND ’75 has been a School Sister of Notre Dame for the past 58 years. Her deep love and compassion for the marginalized have been the focus of her religious life. After teaching in Pittsburgh and Southeast Washington, DC, she began her ministry at St. Ambrose Parish in Northwest Baltimore. For 34 years she lived and served the African American community there as teacher, pastoral associate, hospital chaplain and founder of St. Ambrose Outreach Center. The Center served more than 40,000 families and guests each year through its daily meal program, food pantry, adult literacy program, job training and placement outreach, and after-school, summer camp and Head Start programs.
Sister Charmaine envisioned and brought to reality the Cottage Avenue Transitional Housing program that transformed 21 vacant houses into renovated transitional housing units for struggling families with children. This revitalization effort included a state-of-the-art children’s playground and community park. In 2006, Sister Charmaine became president of Mother Seton Academy, a co-sponsored, tuition-free, independent Catholic school for at-risk students in Baltimore City. During her six year tenure as President, she raised more than $7 million dollars, which was used to renovate the Saint Ann school building on Greenmount Avenue to establish a permanent home for the school.
Her community achievements include: first woman president of the Board of Directors of St. Vincent de Paul Society for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Alum of NDMU, Chair of the Corporate Board for Notre Dame of Maryland University and member of the Board of Trustees, recipient of the Kathy Hughes Humanitarian Award from the late Congressman Elijah Cummings, Public Citizen of the Year Award from the National Association of Social Workers, the President’s Medal from Notre Dame of Maryland University, the Loyola University Milch Award from Loyola University, the induction into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame which is on display in the Knott Building at NDMU, and an award from the Baltimore Historical Society for her contributions to the Baltimore area history.
Sister Charmaine has been in provincial leadership since 2012. She currently serves as the Provincial Leader for the School Sisters of Notre Dame of the Atlantic-Midwest Province, a position she has held since 2016. It is clear that Sister Charmaine Krohe is a Maryland woman who has made a unique and lasting contribution to improving the lives of children and families and she has also provided a role model of achievement for tomorrow's female leaders.