Neomi DeAnda, a Tejana scholar/activist and Catholic Lay Marianist, was raised between El Paso and Corpus Christi, Texas. She currently serves as Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Dayton.  She holds a Ph.D. in Constructive Theology.  Her research interests include Latinas and Latin American women writers in religion 1600-1900; Christology; Latin@ Theology; theology and breast milk; the Intersection of race and migrations in conjunction with the Marianist Social Justice Collaborative Racial & Immigrant Justice Team; and developing a border theology in partnership with the Hope Border Institute.  She currently holds the position of President-Elect for the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States.  She has been awarded the Louisville Institute First Book for Minority Scholars grant and fellowships from the Hispanic Theological Initiative and the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religion and Theology.  Neomi gives much credit to her roots at St. Pius X Catholic Community in El Paso and St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas.

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