Margaret Post ’92 is an Assistant Research Professor at Clark University’s Department of International Development, Community and Environment. Post’s field of study focuses on how grassroots organizations influence public policy through social action. After graduating from The College of the Holy Cross with a B.A. in Music and Peace & Conflict Studies, Post earned her M.P.P. in Non-Profit and Public Management from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and her Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University. Post taught undergraduates at Holy Cross and Dartmouth College before joining the faculty at Clark in August 2017. Her publications, speaking engagements, and numerous academic distinctions are vast, but Post is quick to note that she has not made these achievements without help.

“There have been people in my life who have accompanied me in my intellectual development, spiritual growth, and my understanding of how my life can be a response to the hurts of the world,” said Post. The idea of accompaniment is a Jesuit concept, as is another important aspect of Post’s intellectual and spiritual development: discernment. “St. Ignatius talks a lot about discernment and that it is a lifelong process – discerning who we are called to be. That is what I learned at NCDS and then at a Jesuit college. There are so many parallel lines between the Goals of the Sacred Heart and the Jesuit tradition in terms of their focus on intellectual development and social justice.”