Nancy Salisbury R.S.C.J. (May 15, 1930 – September 27, 2004) was an American Roman Catholic religious sister, educator and academic. Salisbury entered the Religious of the Sacred Heart in 1952 and professed her final vows in 1960. Education Salisbury was educated at a Sacred Heart Academy in Overbrook, Philadelphia. She went on to earn a B.A. degree in history from Manhattanville College in 1952 and a M.S. degree in mathematics from the University of Detroit in 1968. Career Salisbury was the longtime headmistress of New York's oldest independent school for girls, the Convent of the Sacred Heart. In her two decades as headmistress, starting in 1980, she overhauled the school's curriculum, upgraded its facilities and nearly doubled its enrollment. In 1990, the school received a Blue Ribbon Award for Academic Excellence from the United States Department of Education. She previously taught at Sacred Heart schools in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and Greenwich, Connecticut. Salisbury was also vice chairwoman of the board of the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) and headed its accreditation commission. After retiring in 2000, she was a mentor to her congregation's novices in Chicago. She sat on the boards of Sacred Heart schools in Albany, Miami, and Greenwich. Death She died in Atherton, California, aged 74, from respiratory failure after a kidney infection. External links New York Times obituary CMJ236 Woodlands Sacred Heart 2004 Woodlands Sacred Heart Academy newsletter 2005 Almanac News 1930 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American educators University of Detroit Mercy alumni Manhattanville College alumni 20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns Educators from New York (state) 20th-century American women educators 21st-century American Roman Catholic nuns