Alyssa Pasternak Post earned her bachelors degree in Theology from Wheeling Jesuit University and her Masters in Theological Studies from the University of Dayton. Post-college Alyssa served in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps at WomenRising in Jersey City, New Jersey, followed by a few years as a theology teacher at St. Dominic Academy in Jersey City and later at Archbishop Alter High School in Dayton, Ohio. She also facilitated theology courses on the subjects of morality, prayer and Catholic social teaching for The Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation at the University of Dayton. During her graduate work Alyssa loved thinking and writing about theology in the context of her native Appalachia. Alyssa’s Master’s thesis – “Dare to Speak:” This Land Is Home to Me from Idea to Proclamation (May 1973 – February 1975) and Beyond – studies the history and theology of the first pastoral letter from the Catholic Committee of Appalachia (CCA) as Appalachian liberation theology. It can be accessed at https://etd.ohiolink.edu/ap/10?0::NO:10:P10_ACCESSION_NUM:dayton1303843106. Alyssa served on the committee for the writing of the CCA’s most recent pastoral letter The Telling Takes Us Home (2015). Having lived most of her life in West Virginia, Alyssa now resides in Pennsylvania with her husband and their two young daughters. Alyssa presently serves of the Director of Children, Youth and Family Ministries at Saint James Episcopal Church. She writes periodically for Women in Theology, Ignatian Solidarity Network’s Just Parenting, and Godly Play, and she has contributed to the Catholic Women Preach project. When finding balance in life, Alyssa loves the way that playing with her children and being in nature draw her into the joy of present moment.