Phyllis Zagano

Zagano was born in Queens, New York in 1947. She graduated from Sacred Heart Academy in 1965. She has a BA from Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York (1969); master's degrees in communications from Boston University (1970), in literature from Long Island University (1972), and in theology from St. John's University (1991); and a PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1979. ==Career==

Zagano was program officer at the National Humanities Center from 1979 to 1980, and taught at Fordham University from 1980 to 1984. She received the Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice from the Paulist Center of Boston in 2014. Two years later, in 2016, Pope Francis appointed Zagano to the Papal Study Commission on the Women's Diaconate. Prior to disputing with her ideas, Crisis Magazine described Zagano as "one of the most high-ranking feminists in the Catholic Church" in 2019. Zagano's career also includes over 30 years as public affairs office in the U.S. Navy Reserve. She retired from the Navy Reserve at the rank of Commander. Beginning in 2008, she has regularly donated her papers to the Women and Leadership Archives of Loyola University Chicago. ==Publications==

Zagano's publications include: • ''Woman to Woman: An Anthology of Women's Spiritualities'', 1993, editor. . • Women & Catholicism: Gender, Communion, and Authority, 2011; Catholic Press Association Book Award in category B15, "Gender issues". • Women Deacons: Past, Present, Future, 2011, with Gary Macy and William T. Ditewig. • Women in Ministry: Emerging Questions about the Diaconate, 2012. • Mysticism and the Spiritual Quest: A Crosscultural Anthology, 2013. • Ordination of Women to the Diaconate in the Eastern Churches: Essays by Cipriano Vagaggini, 2013, editor and translator. • Sacred Silence: Daily Meditations for Lent, 2014, 2024. • In the Image of Christ: Essays on Being Catholic and Female, 2015. • Women Deacons? Essays with Answers, 2016, editor and translator. Catholic Press Association Book Award in category B15, "Gender issues". • The Light of the World: Daily Meditations for Advent, 2016. • Women: Icons of Christ, 2020, Catholic Media Association Book Award for 2021 in Gender Issues-Inclusion in the Church category • Elizabeth Visits the Abbey, 2022 • Just Church: Catholic Social Teaching, Synodality, and Women, 2023. ==References==