Sister Frances Ryan, D.C., a professor of human services and counseling in DePaul’s School of Education, received the Alexian Award of Excellence for her unwavering support of Alexian Brothers’ future permanent housing site for homeless people living with HIV/AIDS on Chicago’s South Side.

Sr. Ryan, who has been helping people with HIV/AIDS through Alexian Brothers’ Bonaventure House since 1989, was instrumental in securing a $150,000 donation from the Daughters of Charity’s Mission and Ministry for Alexian Brothers’ plans to convert a former convent on Chicago’s south side into 23 apartments to provide permanent housing for homeless people living with AIDS. Called Bettendorf Place after Brother Felix Bettendorf, founder of the Bonaventure House and a DePaul alumnus, the $4 million housing project will be at St. Mary Magdalena parish at East 84th Street and South Saginaw Avenue.

The Alexian Award of Excellence is given to individuals or organizations which, in an outstanding way, helped the Alexian Brothers AIDS Ministry’s Bonaventure House in Chicago or The Harbor in Waukegan carry out the organization’s values of holism, dignity of person, compassion, care of the poor, and partnership. Also honored with the award was the St. Joseph Residence of the Daughters of Charity and its grant-making body, Mission and Ministry.

Sr. Ryan, who has been at DePaul since 1988, has been helping people living with AIDS at the Bonaventure House, a transitional housing facility for people with AIDS in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood, since 1989. “It was at a time many in society did not want to come close to this mysterious disease,” said Sr. Ryan.