Catharine Murray Ryan was born in Bronxville, New York and attended Newton College of the Sacred Heart. In 1993, she earned a Master's degree in Pastoral Ministry from the Theology Department of Duquesne University. Catharine has called Pittsburgh her home since 1969 and has been active in several community and church organizations, has worked as a Chaplain at Magee-Womens Hospital and Forbes Regional Hospital, and served on the Boards of UPMC Children's Hospital and the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation, as well as the Board of Directors at Duquesne University. In 2002, she co-founded the National Institute for Newman Studies (NINS).
On October 5, 2025, our own NINS co-founder Catharine Ryan was invited to give a sermon at St. Mary's University Church in Oxford, at the same pulpit from which John Henry Newman preached 200 years prior.
