Kat Banakis ’09 M.Div.

Known for her commitment to interfaith and inter-denominational efforts, Rev. Kat Banakis currently serves as Rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, Illinois. Banakis has a demonstrated commitment to combining issues of the day with inter-faith and inter-denominational efforts. She is producer and host of the Holy Holy Podcast, which combines contemporary topics, secular experts, and an interfaith panel of Chicago-area faith leaders. She served on the board of the Beatitudes Society, an organization for faith and public life that later became affiliated with the multi-faith Auburn Seminary. Her book, Bubble Girl: An Irreverent Journey of Faith, provides an overview of Protestant, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic approaches to Christian thought. In recent years, she received a Duke Divinity Innovation Grant and has been named a Duke Divinity Leadership Emerging Christian Leaders Fellow, a Louisville Institute Pastoral Study Project Grant recipient, and a Transition into Ministry Lilly Fellow.