Erin McNamara Horvat

Erin McNamara Horvat joined St. Martin’s in 1999. She has served on the Vestry once before and has also served on the Nominating Committee for Vestry (twice) and the most recent Discernment Committee that participated in calling our rector, the Rev. Dr. Mary Barber. She has taught Sunday School for many years and has served as a Lector. She is currently also serving on The Chapter at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral. 

Professionally, Erin has had a 30-year academic career at Temple University (1996-2015) and Drexel University (2015-present).  An ethnographer and sociologist of education, her research agenda has explored how race and class shape access throughout the educational pipeline, focusing especially on the role of social and cultural capital in shaping families' interactions with schools, students' college experiences, college access, and high school dropout and reentry.  She has been deeply committed to working with out-of-school youth through her support of YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School as a longtime board member and four-year board chair.  At Drexel she also served in the senior administration in the Provost’s Office for ten years as the Senior Vice Provost for Faculty. 

Erin began her service to the Episcopal church as an acolyte at her childhood parish All Saints-by-the-Sea in Santa Barbara, California. She is an avid oarswoman and enjoys the outdoors, gardening, and all aspects of food, especially cooking and eating at home with her husband and extended family. Erin’s two daughters attended Sunday School and were confirmed at St. Martin’s. They are both now young adults living away from Philadelphia. Erin lives in Chestnut Hill with her husband, Bill Manning.