Sr. Damien Marie Savino, FSE, Ph.D.

Sister Damien Marie Savino, a Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist, currently serves as the Melchor Visiting Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences (CEEES) at the University of Notre Dame, with a concurrent appointment in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. She holds a doctorate in Civil and Environmental Engineering from The Catholic University of America, from whom she received the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award in 2022. She also holds masters degrees in theology and soil science.

She was an editor and contributor to Responding to the Global Pandemic as a Systemic Crisis: The Economy of Francesco as a New Paradigm (Angelicum University Press, 2023), the writer and co-producer of the six-episode documentary series, Creation (Salt and Light Television, 2015), and is the founder and director of the “Educating for Laudato Si’ Initiative” (praisebetoyou.org, 2021).

Sister Damien Marie has lectured and written widely on the theme of Catholic social teaching and integral ecology, ecology and theology, science and faith, and ecological resilience. Her new book, Learning the Language of Creation: Catholic Social Teaching and Integral Ecology, will be available from Liturgical Press in January 2026.