Holy Mary: She's a doctor

Caitlin Cipolla-McCulloch ’12 planned on becoming a medical doctor. As an undergrad she was a Berry Scholar; she graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in biology and in religious studies.

She did become a doctor, but not a medical one. She holds a doctorate in theology from UD with a Marian doctoral certificate.

Her path in 2012 led from Dayton to Peru where she put her science and theology education to work doing water testing and pastoral ministry during a year of service. From the house where she lived, she could see the roof of a shrine that housed an image of La Virgen de la Puerta (Our Lady of the Door). Mary is a strong theme in Cipolla-McCulloch’s life.

Before she enrolled in UD’s doctoral program, her path took a few turns. She did a stint with the Marianist sisters, which allowed her to volunteer in San Antonio, working with migrant women and children.

“My ministry was simple — I cleaned toilets, changed over rooms, helped prepare meals and accompanied people listening to their stories of migration.”

"I liked school, and I loved Mary.”

She later worked as a pastoral associate. Laid off from that job, during COVID she worked as a bilingual contact tracer and manager for the Ohio Department of Health. At that point, she said, “A terminal degree looked like a good way not to end up unemployed in the future. I liked school, and I loved Mary.”

As an undergrad, she had been a founding member of the Marianist lay community Ahava, a Hebrew word for self-emptying love. “Many of us moved away after graduation,” she said. “Most are now back in Dayton.”

She returned as a student to campus in 2021 to UD’s doctoral program in theology. At first, she thought her dissertation would be on the shrine in Peru. That ended up being just one chapter. “My dissertation was formed and informed,” she said, “by my Marianist education and by my experiences with the Marianist family.”

Besides earning her doctorate in 2025, she also gained a doctoral certificate in Marian studies, an option for religious studies doctoral students.

In addition to her studies, Cipolla-McCulloch taught undergrads, an experience that led her to reflect on why students (and their parents) should choose a Catholic education. The welcoming part of it certainly plays a role, she said. But, so does formation for the good. A Catholic and Marianist education is broader than some notions of education; it deals with the whole person, with the spiritual, with the common good.

As a teacher, Cipolla-McCulloch said she wanted her students “to develop skills to discern, through the lens of theology, to become critical thinkers, critical readers, critical writers.” She saw the classroom “as a safe place to learn to practice dialogue and talk about things they may disagree on.”

For the last year, she has been a program administrator at the North American Center for Marianist Studies, located at the Marianist Mount St. John property near Dayton. Although there are other such centers in India and Kenya, NACMS is the largest. It’s a combination think tank and heritage center, providing resources for the Marianist family, lay and religious.

“And it’s a good place to be a scholar,” Cipolla-McCulloch said. Her scholarship most recently led to a paper (on Marianist lay communities and synodality) for presentation in Rome at the Pontifical International Marian Academy.

“We should think about Mary in our midst, not far away, but with us. So, I think and write about her, both as the mother of God, and with us.”

She noted that Pope Francis ended his encyclicals with a prayer to Mary and an invitation to us to pray with her. “We should think about Mary in our midst,” Cipolla-McCulloch said, “not far away, but with us. So, I think and write about her, both as the mother of God, and with us.”

A version of this article appears in print in the Autumn 2025 University of Dayton Magazine, Page 14.  EXPLORE THE ISSUE — MORE ONLINE