Administration
Executive Director, Sr. Mary Frances Seeley, a Sister of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate and a suicidologist, holds a Doctorate in Law, Policy and Society from Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Sister has over 40 years experience in founding and maintaining comprehensive hotlines. Through the years, she has trained thousands of hotline volunteers. The Upper Room opened in 2008 as a unique comprehensive supportive service for clergy and men religious.
Sister Mary Frances has authored all the documents necessary to operate a hotline, including The Policy and Procedural Manual, the training curriculum, data sheets for incoming and outgoing calls, volunteer contact information, and forms for special services. She designed classes for advanced training of experienced volunteers, and the materials for use in two high school hotline programs.
Along with her dedicated services to The Upper Room, Sr. Mary Frances continues to be a guest lecturer in the U.S., as well as throughout Europe and Asia. Her field of concentration is primarily hotlines serving in suicide prevention and information and referral services. She has served on the Board of the American Association of Suicidology as Chief Certification Examiner; as the National President of The Alliance of Information and Referral Systems; holds one honorary doctorate from Lewis University in Romeoville, IL, and has been honored by numerous organizations on both the local and national level.
In addition to her many accomplishments, Sr. Mary Frances has also served on the Editorial Board of CRISIS: The Journal of Suicide Prevention and Crisis Intervention, and continues to serve on the continuing Faculty of Odessa Mechnikov State University in Odessa, Ukraine.