Cecilia A. Moore graduated magna cum laude from Sweet Briar College with an A.B. in History and Religion and from the University of Virginia with a M.A. and a Ph.D. in American Religious History. She has taught at the University of Dayton in the Department of Religious Studies since 1996 and at Xavier University of Louisiana since 1998, where she currently is the Associate Director of the Degree Program for the Institute for Black Catholic Studies. Her area of specialization is U.S. Catholic history and currently she is working on the history of black conversion to Roman Catholicism in the 20th century. In addition to publishing in numerous scholarly and popular journals, Dr. Moore with Dr. C. Vanessa White of the Catholic Theological Union and Fr. Paul Marshall, S.M., Rector of the University Dayton, co-edited Songs of Our Hearts and Meditations of Our Souls: Prayers for Black Catholics published by St. Anthony Messenger Press in 2006.