Dr. Susan McGurgan has served in pastoral ministry and lay formation for 30 years as a parish minister, formation director, professor, and administrator.  She is currently the Director of Lay Ecclesial Formation and Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology for Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology in Cincinnati.  She holds a BA Honors History degree from Oklahoma State University, an MA Religion from the Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary's Seminary, and a D.Min in Preaching from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (Now Bexley-Seabury). She completed three years of doctoral work in Ancient History/Classics at the University of Cincinnati, and a museum internship at the Cincinnati Art Museum in the department of Ancient and Near Eastern Art.

She is active in the Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics, serving previously as Vice-President and President, and the Academy of Homiletics, currently serving on the Executive Committee as Member-at-Large and Co-Convener of the Theology of Preaching Work Group. In the fall of 2020, she was the Marten Visiting Associate Fellow of Preaching at the University of Notre Dame.

Her first homiletics professor taught that every Catholic homily should end in a word of hope. Since that time, the mission of "preaching hope" has driven and inspired her--in preaching, in ministry, and in life. Her current research lies at the rich intersection of memory, gratitude, and hope, and the connection between art and theology.

In 2021, she launched a preaching website offering resources and support for working preachers, Preaching Hope: https://www.preachinghope.org/