Meet The Authors
Anna Bonta Moreland
Dr. Anna Bonta Moreland is the Anne Quinn Welsh Endowed Chair and Director of the University Honors Program at Villanova University. A full professor in the Department of Humanities, her academic expertise and research include medieval theology, interfaith dialogue, and comparative theology. She is the author of Known by Nature: Thomas Aquinas on Natural Knowledge of God (Crossroad/Herder, 2010), Muhammad Reconsidered: A Christian Perspective on Islamic Prophecy (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020), and The Young Adult Playbook: Living Like it Matters (CUA Press, 2024). She is recipient of a “Hope in Higher Education” Templeton Foundation three-year grant, and a Lilly funded Educating Character Initiative “Augustinian Leadership and Character Education Beyond the First-Year Experience: Toward a Shared Understanding and Collaborative Practices at Villanova” one-year grant.
She received her B.A. in Philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston College under the direction of Michael J. Buckley, S.J.
Thomas W. Smith
Thomas W. Smith is a transformative academic leader with 30 years experience in higher education. Currently he is Dean of Arts and Sciences at Catholic University, where he led the creation of the Africana Studies Program, the Masters in Public Policy Program, the Spectrum Program to support neurodivergent students, and the Bridge Program, a multiyear co-curricular program aimed at helping college students make a successful transition to adulthood. He was the founding chair of Villanova University’s innovative Department of Humanities. He also served as Associate Dean and Director of the University Honors Program while at Villanova.
An award-winning teacher, he is the author of Revaluing Ethics, and the Young Adult Playbook as well as numerous articles in political theory. His teaching and research interests lie in classical, liberal and contemporary politics. He is the recipient of Templeton Foundation grants and most recently a $1 million grant for character development from Wake Forest University’s character project.
He and his wife have three children.
Tom received his B.S. in Foreign Service at Georgetown University, his M.A. in Politics at Catholic University, and his Ph.D. in Government and International Relations at the University of Notre Dame.