DR. NICHOLE M. FLORES is associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia where she is also the Director of the Catholic Studies Initiative and Co-Director of the Forum on Religion and Democracy. She researches the relationship between religion, aesthetics, and democracy with emphasis on the Catholic and Latine theological and ethical traditions. 

Dr. Flores is author of The Aesthetics of Solidarity: Our Lady of Guadalupe and American Democracy (Georgetown University Press, 2021). She has also published essays in the Journal of Religious Ethics, the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, and Modern Theology among other academic journals and edited volumes. Her research on La Virgen de Guadalupe and democracy has been profiled on the popular podcasts Things Not Seen and Know Your Enemy and featured on CBS Saturday Morning.

In 2015, Dr. Flores was honored with the Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award for best essay in academic theology by a junior scholar from the Catholic Theological Society of America. Dr. Flores earned an A.B. in government from Smith College, an M.Div. from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in theological ethics from Boston College. 

Originally from Denver, Colorado, she lives in Crozet, Virginia with her husband and two sons.