Bernadette McNary-Zak received her B.A. in Religious and Classical Studies, with a minor in Philosophy, from the University of Rochester (Rochester, NY). She received her M.A. in Religion and Culture from the Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.). Her Ph.D. is from the University of Toronto, Centre for the Study of Religion, where her area of concentration was Early Christianity with a focus on Christian ascetic and monastic behavior in the later Roman Empire.

While at Rhodes, she has taught courses in Interdisciplinary Humanities, the Apostolic Fathers, early Christian literature, and Christianity in Late Antiquity. Her research interests include study of ascetic literature, in particular, the evidence of literary correspondence among monks in fourth-century Egypt, as well as pedagogical issues related to teaching Religious Studies.