When Heidi Schlumpf studied journalism at the University of Notre Dame two decades ago, she had no idea she would end up writing about religion–or that she would primarily write about it online. Today Schlumpf is a prominent Catholic journalist whose work appears regularly in the National Catholic Reporter, U.S. Catholic and a number of other publications. Her claim to fame, such that it is, is that she was once investigated by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for an article she wrote about women who felt called to the priesthood.

Schlumpf is the author of two books and regular blogger for her own site and NCR’s. A former full-time magazine editor, she now teaches aspiring journalists at Aurora University outside of Chicago, and writes in her spare time–something she has less of now that she has two children.

Those children–a son adopted from Vietnam and a daughter from China–were the subject of Schlumpf’s first book, While We Wait: Spiritual and Practical Advice for Those Trying to Adopt (ACTA, 2009).  A year later she published The Notre Dame Book of Prayer (Ave Maria, 2010), which she edited in collaboration with Notre Dame’s Office of Campus Ministry.  That book hit the Catholic best-sellers list.

She also gets to regularly interview other authors of books on religion and spirituality as a freelance writer for Publishers Weekly, the trade publication of the book industry. Other regular freelance gigs include NCR, where she writes a monthly column on popular culture; U.S. Catholic, where she frequently covers stories about women; and InTrust, a publication for members of boards of trustees for seminaries.

In addition to her undergraduate degree from Notre Dame, Schlumpf has a master’s in theological studies from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary at Northwestern University, where she studied feminist theology with Rosemary Radford Ruether and religion journalist with Roy Larson.

Schlumpf is an avid knitter and plans to resume that hobby when her children begin sleeping through the night. Her husband, Edmund, a teacher, is as tired as she is.