Gay Lynch’s interest in the study of religion began when she was a third grade student in 1946, right here at Dominican University, then called Dominican Convent. Even at the age of eight, she was intrigued with the mystery of religious practices to which the loving Dominican sisters exposed her. Gay began her college career at the age of 50 in 1988. Her first class at UC Berkeley was “World Religions.” This class enchanted her. Twelve units before she was to graduate from Berkeley with a BA in Religious Studies, her youngest son Andrew died suddenly in his sleep in 1991. Her Berkeley professors encouraged her to continue her studies at Harvard Divinity School, where she studied cross-cultural responses to death. Following the completion of her Master’s degree at Harvard, Gay returned home to the West Coast, where she completed her doctoral degree in the Cultural and Historical Study of Religion at the

Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.

Dr. Lynch joined the Dominican adjunct faculty in 1996, following her Master’s work at Harvard. She has been teaching at Dominican since that time. She has been married to John Lynch since 1962. They have two surviving children - a daughter, Lindsay Lynch Lytle, and a son, John Lynch - who have gifted them with six grandchildren. The death of her son Andrew has proven to be the ultimate impetus for her advanced academic degrees in the Academy. Her commitment to the students at Dominican University runs deep. Her passion in the classroom is a fusion of serious scholarship with concrete experiences of her students’ lives.