Margaret Eletta Guider, OSF, is Associate Professor of Missiology at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and department chair of the Ecclesiastical Faculty.  

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, she completed under-graduate and graduate degrees in education at the University of Illinois and taught in both public and parochial schools in the inner city.  In 1975, she became a lay missioner and ministered in the rural interior of Goiás, Brazil, with the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate. Upon her return to the United States, she entered the congregation, and after a period of formation, she returned to Chicago and served as director of Mission Education for the Archdiocese and as chaplain for the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center. These experiences informed and influenced her ongoing commitment to Franciscan life, her interest in mission and the world church, and her passion for theology and ministerial formation.

Sr. Guider holds theological degrees from Catholic Theological Union, the Weston Jesuit School of Theology and the Divinity School of Harvard University. Her most recent publication is The Grace of Medellín: History, Theology and Legacy: Reflections on the Significance of Medellín for the Church in the United States (Convivium, 2018). Currently, she is working on a manuscript entitled With Hearts Broken Open: U.S. Franciscan Missionaries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa (1879-2009). She is past-president of the American Society of Missiology and vice-president of the Association of Professors of Mission. She has served as an advisor and consultant for religious institutes and missionary societies as well as a board member for a variety of Catholic institutions and faith-based organizations.