Medical Mission Sister Jean Mouch, M.D., 66, who lived and worked in Camden since 1997, died Jan, 1 of cancer.
A public health specialist, Sister Jean chaired the Medical Mission Sisters’ Office of Community Health Evaluation, Planning and Research and through it consulted on health assessment and improvement programs with Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, the Department of Community Health Improvements, Project H.O.P.E. (Homeless Outreach Program Enrichment) and Health Advocates for Youth. She also was a member and former chair of CAMConnect: Linking Community and Information, and part of the group Camden City Futures that completed the first community health needs assessment of Camden since 1995.
A native of Cincinnati, Sister Jean entered the Medical Mission Sisters in Philadelphia in 1964. She earned her medical degree from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York in 1975 and completed a residency at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Mo., before being assigned to her community’s hospitals in Africa. She served 12 years in Berekum, Ghana, West Africa, where she helped to develop district health services into a primary health care system.
Sister Jean also worked two years in Attat, Ethiopia. Between assignments, she received a master’s degree in maternal/child health from the University of London’s School of Tropical Child Health.
Sister Jean served as coordinator of the Camden County Cancer Coalition, implementing the NJ Cancer Control Plan at the local and county levels.
For her many services to the city, in 2003 she received a “Woman of Outstanding Achievement Award” from the Girl Scouts of Camden County.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated for Sister Jean on Friday, Jan. 6, at 10:30 a.m. at the Medical Mission Sisters’ North American Headquarters at 8400 Pine Road, Fox Chase, Philadelphia. Burial will follow in the Sisters’ Cemetery.