In memory and in honor
December 10, 1936 – May 14, 2026
For more than four decades, Loretta “Sis” Wenger worked to ensure that children affected by addiction were seen, heard, and supported.
Remember the children
Sis built her life around a question institutions had too rarely asked: What is happening to the children?
Her work began close to children and families—in volunteer programs, juvenile justice, community education, and the children’s programs she founded and managed at Henry Ford Health System’s Maplegrove Center. She saw the same circumstance surface across children’s stories: addiction in the home was shaping their lives while services focused almost entirely on adults.
From community programs in Michigan to national advocacy in Washington, Sis helped bring children’s experiences into health care, schools, faith communities, treatment programs, public policy, and family recovery.
The person and the leader
Born Loretta Mary Gallagher in Toledo, Ohio, Sis was the only daughter in a family of six children. She graduated from St. Ursula Academy and Mary Manse College, married Donald J. Wenger in 1960, and raised a family that grew to include foster children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Colleagues remember a leader whose kitchen table could become a place for helping a family, planning a program, or gathering people around a difficult problem.
Sis entered NACoA’s leadership in the early 1990s and served as a board member, board chair, executive director, president, and CEO. NACoA records 26 years of her service as president and CEO, from 1996 through June 2022.
She retired as president and CEO and continued serving as chair emerita, remaining a steady advocate for children and families affected by addiction.
Concern put into practice
Sis helped turn knowledge about family addiction into practical tools that caring adults and communities could use.
Sis oversaw NACoA’s work on SAMHSA’s 2003 Children’s Program Kit and its later update, helping give trained facilitators structured resources for child support and education.
She directed the Clergy Education and Training Project, which developed practical education for clergy and faith communities. Its work continues through NACoA’s Faith Leader Institute.
Under Sis’s leadership, NACoA helped expand, train, and support implementation of Celebrating Families!, a trauma-informed program for families affected by substance use disorders.
A lasting reach
Figures are dated historical measures published by NACoA and the Addiction Policy Forum; they are not presented as current program totals.
Recognition across a lifetime
White House recognition during National Drug Abuse Education and Prevention Week.
Senator Harold Hughes Memorial Award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Advocate of the Year, presented by the Addiction Policy Forum.
Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award from Faces & Voices of Recovery.
Help carry Sis’s work forward
The Sis Wenger Memorial Fund supports the continued development and implementation of children’s programs and the Faith Leader Institute, helping more communities respond to children and families affected by parental substance use.
