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Villanova, Pa., November 3, 2025 - The Villanova School of Business (VSB) is proud to announce that Maureen Day, PhD, theologian, sociologist, and church scholar, will serve as a Visiting Research Fellow of the Center for Church Management (CCM) effective November 1.

“I became more aware of Villanova's Center for Church Management after reading Catholic Parishes of the 21st Century, co-authored by Chuck Zech, PhD, who established the Center in 2004,” Dr. Day said. “Since then, my admiration of CCM's insightful and useful research continues to grow. I am thrilled to be working alongside my colleagues at VSB as we bring both theoretically and practically important findings to the Church and academia.”

Dr. Day is an award-winning author and researcher who has collaborated with CCM since 2018 and is well-versed both in the Catholic tradition and social science methods. She completed a study that explored pastoral strategies and parishioner motivation as it relates to Hispanic Catholic stewardship, and she authored a case study on clergy and lay staff budget management decisions. 

Last year, she released Cultural Catholics: Who They Are, How to Respond (Liturgical Press, 2024) and delivered talks throughout the country to share her research on evangelization and how to improve the parish experience for those less engaged. Earlier this year, she was the lead author of Catholicism at a Crossroads: The Present and Future of America’s Largest Church (NYU Press 2025), which synthesizes the findings of a survey of 1,500 Catholics in addition to interviews with nearly 60 Catholic leaders.  

Dr. Day previously served as an associate professor of Religion and Society at Franciscan School of Theology in San Diego and has affiliations with the University of Southern California Center for Religion and Civic Culture and Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, and the University of Oxford Las Casas Institute.

“On behalf of VSB, I am excited to welcome Maureen as a Visiting Research Fellow,” said Matthew Manion, PhD, ’11 MSCM, the David Grenon Family Faculty Director of CCM. “We look forward to the research and writing she will offer in service to leaders of churches and faith-based ministries. She is an accomplished scholar and a thoughtful collaborator who will help CCM continue to expand the reach of our programs and serve as a valuable source of church management knowledge for leaders around the globe.”

Dr. Day will begin working on several mission-critical projects including an edited volume of research on global models of leadership in the Catholic church as well as research on stewardship and synodal decision-making.

“As we look to support Pope Leo's vision for the Church, research that explores the global context of stewardship, leadership, as well as synodality is especially timely,” she said. “This will undoubtedly broaden our understanding of what unity--rather than uniformity--and collaboration mean for today's ecclesial leaders.” 

The Villanova School of Business (VSB) undergraduate program is top-ranked among business schools in the nation. Its online graduate business programs are ranked #19, and its part-time MBA program is ranked #27 by U.S. News and World Report. VSB has been at the forefront of business education since it was founded in 1922. Serving over 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students, VSB is home to five Centers of Excellence – the Daniel M. DiLella Center for Real Estate, the Elenore and Robert F. Moran Sr. Center for Global Leadership, the Center for Business Analytics, the Center for Marketing & Consumer Insights and the Center for Church Management – with each designed to foster innovative, cross-disciplinary research and applied opportunities for students. VSB is known for academic rigor; creativity and innovation; hands-on and service learning opportunities; a firm grounding in ethics; and an applied education that prepares students to become outstanding leaders and global citizens within the ever-changing, complex, and fast-paced world of business. For more, visit business.villanova.edu.