Elizabeth Ann DeMerchant

August 28, 2016

Elizabeth Ann DeMerchant was received into the IHM Novitiate on Sunday, August 28, 2016. She was joined by sisters and friends for the ceremony and liturgy that was followed by a festive brunch. Sister Elizabeth will reside at the IHM Novitiate House on Capouse Avenue in Scranton.

Elizabeth is the second child of Sylvia and Storer DeMerchant from Easton, Maine. She has an older brother, Storer, and a younger sister, Mary, both of whom live in Maine. Her mother is a retired home economics teacher and her father is a potato farmer.

Elizabeth attended elementary and secondary school in Easton, Maine and earned a BS in Home Economics from the University of Maine at Farmington. She taught home economics for three years in rural Maine before pursuing graduate work at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. She earned an MS and a PhD from Virginia Tech in housing, interior design and resource management. Elizabeth managed a test kitchen for Hamilton Beach/Proctor Silex and taught at Virginia State University for eight years.

Eventually, Elizabeth returned to rural Maine where, as a home tutor, the plight of special needs children touched her heart. She returned to the University of Maine and completed a M.Ed. in special education. For the last nine years she has lived in Brewer, ME and has taught special education at Holbrook Middle School in Holden, Maine. She is certified in the Orton-Gillingham reading method for children with varying degrees of dyslexia and is a certified Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) trainer. Elizabeth established Holbrook’s highly successful Lego club, coached the girls’ basketball team and chess club, founded the Children’s Clothes Closet and the month-long summer Math Camp to help struggling students. Her colleagues describe her as competent, professional, hardworking, compassionate, dedicated and determined to help as many students as possible, especially those who struggle with life and learning.

Her hobbies include: Lego, cross-stitch, sewing, cooking, snowshoeing and hiking. Elizabeth donated a large portion of her Lego collection to the NativityMiguel School of Scranton

Pictured above L-R: Sister Kathy Kurdziel, Director of Formation, Sister Elizabeth Ann DeMerchant, and Sister Ellen Maroney, IHM Congregation President