Dr. McGuire is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, now retired. She is the former President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Association for the Sociology of Religion. She is also a specialist in environmental sociology and in sociology of health and illness.

Her most popular work includes Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life (Oxford, 2008) and Ritual Healing in Suburban America (Rutgers, 1988), funded by the National Institute of Health.