Maureen H. O'Connell taught for eight years in the theology department at Fordham University before serving as a professor of Christian ethics at La Salle University in Philadelphia. She is the author of three books including If These Walls Could Talk: Community Muralism and the Beauty of Justice (Liturgical Press, 2012). She is on the board of the Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies and is a member of St. Vincent De Paul parish in Germantown, where she is also a member of POWER (Philadelphians Organizing to Witness, Empower, and Rebuild). She holds a BA in history from Saint Joseph's University and a PhD in theological ethics from Boston College.