Darleen Pryds is Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, CA. She received her BA and MA at the University of Southern California and her PhD. in medieval religious history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A Catholic laywoman, Darleen is especially interested in teaching and researching historical cases of lay religious leadership. She has published several articles and a book on lay preaching within the Medieval Church. Darleen has received many research grants, including a Fulbright Fellowship to Italy; a Research Fellowship at the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame; and a National Endowment for the Humanities… Research grant to research at the Vatican Film Library at Saint Louis University. She remains a loyal alumna of her alma mater, USC, and loves watching USC football games. Her book, Women of the Streets, Early Franciscan Women and Their Mendicant Vocation, was published by FRANCISCAN INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONS in 2010.