Staff

To schedule appointments with Dean Powery, please email the assistant to the dean of Duke Chapel.

To request Dean Powery as a guest preacher or speaker, please fill out this form and email it to Ava West at ava.west@duke.edu.

The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery is the Dean of Duke University Chapel and Associate Professor of Homiletics at Duke Divinity School. A national leader in the theological study of the art of preaching (homiletics), Powery regularly delivers sermons at Duke Chapel as well as at churches throughout the United States and abroad. He is often a keynote speaker and lecturer at educational institutions, conferences, symposia, and retreats.

His teaching and research interests are located at the intersection of preaching, worship, pneumatology, and culture, particularly expressions of the African diaspora. He is the author of Spirit Speech: Lament and Celebration in Preaching; Dem Dry Bones: Preaching, Death, and Hope; Rise Up, Shepherd! Advent Reflections on the Spirituals; and Were You There? Lenten Reflections on the Spirituals. He has co-authored an introductory textbook on preaching, Ways of the Word: Learning to Preach for Your Time and Place. He is also a general editor of the nine-volume lectionary commentary series for preaching and worship titled Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship.

Powery was ordained by the Progressive National Baptist Convention and has served in an ecumenical capacity in churches throughout Switzerland, Canada and the United States. He is a member of the Academy of Homiletics, for which he has served as Secretary; the American Academy of Religion; and the Society for the Study of Black Religion. Powery served as a member of the executive lectionary team for The African-American Lectionary and is the recipient of numerous scholastic fellowships and awards. In 2008, the African-American Pulpit named him one of twenty outstanding black ministers under the age of 40 who are helping shape the future direction of the church. More recently, in 2014, he was inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College for his ethical and spiritual leadership in the academy, church, and broader society.

Prior to his appointment at Duke, he served as the Perry and Georgia Engle Assistant Professor of Homiletics at Princeton Theological Seminary. He received his bachelor of arts in music with a concentration in vocal performance from Stanford University, his master of divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and his doctor of theology from Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto.

He is married to Gail Powery, and the couple has two children.

More information on education and work history can be found in Dean Powery's CV.

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To schedule appointments with Dean Powery, please email the assistant to the dean of Duke Chapel.

To request Dean Powery as a guest preacher/speaker, please fill out this form.

Ava West, former chapter president of Kappa Delta Sorority, graduated Magna cum Laude from Pace University in 2010 with a bachelor of arts in communication studies and a minor in psychology. In 2013, she graduated as a juris doctor from the Law School at Campbell University. After working as a case manager in a criminal defense law firm for two years, she realized that a legal career is not the right fit for her. She joined the Duke Chapel in July 2015.

Ava grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, and went to college in New York City. She moved to North Carolina in 2010, and  now lives in Durham with her husband, Alden, their dog, Captain, and their twins, Owen and Naomi, born in July 2017.

The Rev. Bruce Puckett is an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene. He has been part of the Chapel Staff since 2012. Prior to joining the Chapel staff, he served as the interim pastor for the Congregation at Duke Chapel for two years. He has a master of divinity from Duke Divinity School, and a bachelor of arts in religion from Olivet Nazarene University. He has enjoyed working on the Chapel staff as the director of community ministry, the director of worship and community ministry, and now as the assistant dean of the Chapel. These various roles have enabled him to engage his passion for connecting people with God and with one another. He is a regular contributor on A Plain Account, an online Wesleyan lectionary commentary resource for preaching and study, and is also a contributor to the commentary series titled, Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship.

Rev. Puckett and his wife Renee have been married since 2005. Their son Nolan was born in 2011. They love playing games and sports, attending Duke sporting events, and going to Disney World. The newest member of their family is a dog named Winslow. When he has time, he enjoys playing golf, basketball, and volleyball. He also occasionally enjoys running long distances because it allows him to be outside.

As director of Religious Life, the Rev. Kathryn Lester-Bacon is called to care for multifaith religious leaders and worshiping communities by sharing stories, asking questions, strengthening support systems, deepening dialogue, and building collaboration for the nurture of spiritual life on campus.

She joined the staff in the fall of 2019 and is an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She graduated from Duke University and Princeton Seminary.  Most recently she served as the associate pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia.

She has served as a chaplain in hospice and pediatric oncology, a director of youth and family ministries, and a moderator for the boards of both Duke and Virginia Commonwealth University Presbyterian campus ministries. She has a certificate in spiritual direction from Richmond Hill in Richmond, Virginia, and a certificate in community organizing and congregational leadership from Johnson C. Smith Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia.

Outside of work, she loves writing, reading, walks, and very dark chocolate. She is married to Michael Bacon, and together they try to keep up with their two young children, Josie and Ben.

In her role as minister for intercultural engagement, the Rev. Racquel C.N. Gill offers spiritual guidance, mentorship, care, and programming to students, particularly students of color, and also deepens relationships between the Chapel and campus cultural and identity centers. Rev. Gill comes to Duke Chapel from Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, where she was the endowed Jack and Jane Presseau Associate Chaplain and also serves as a temporary member at large and pulpit supply minister for the Trinity Presbytery. An ordained Baptist minister, she previously served on the pastoral staff at the St. Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York. She grew up in Winnsboro, South Carolina, and is a graduate of Duke Divinity School.

As the Chapel's community minister, the Rev. Breana van Velzen is present at the intersection of faith and justice on behalf of the Chapel. In her role, she seeks to create opportunities for growing in faith and knowledge among students, staff, and community members. She often partners alongside nonprofits, churches, other faith communities, and local residents of Durham around racism, affordable housing, and prison justice.

Rev. van Velzen is an ordained Baptist minister and holds a master of divinity from Duke Divinity School. She also holds a master of social work degree from UNC Chapel Hill and a bachelor of arts in English education from UNC Wilmington. Her passions include advocacy at the intersections of racial, economic, and environmental justice, and hospitality. These passions led her to work in faith-based advocacy, financial coaching, affordable housing, and immigration reform. When she is not volunteering or traveling, she enjoys slam poetry, science fiction, and nature walks. 

A conductor, composer, and scholar of sacred music, Dr. Zebulon Highben serves as director of Chapel Music at Duke University Chapel. He conducts the Chapel Choir and oversees the Chapel’s extensive music program, which connects students, community members, staff singers, instrumentalists, and professional colleagues in myriad worship services and sacred concerts.

In addition to his role at the Chapel, Highben is an associate professor of the practice of church music at Duke Divinity School.

Prior to his appointment at the Chapel in 2019, Highben was associate professor of music at Muskingum University and director of music at Trinity United Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio. Choirs under Highben’s leadership have performed at numerous choral conferences and festivals, and have toured domestically and internationally. In 2015, he won The American Prize in Conducting in the College/University Chorus Division for his work with the Muskingum choirs. In 2016, he was selected as the Central Division Fellow for the American Choral Directors Association’s International Conductors Exchange Program with South Korea.

Highben has taught courses and given lectures on topics such as choral literature, conducting, rehearsal techniques, and the musical heritage of the Reformation. His scholarly output includes two sacred choral anthologies, numerous articles and essays on the practice of church music, and more than fifty published choral and liturgical compositions.

Highben earned an undergraduate degree in music education from Ohio State University, a master of sacred music degree from Luther Seminary with St. Olaf College, and a doctor of musical arts in conducting from Michigan State University. He is an ordained deacon in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Explore Dr. Highben’s work at his website.

Read more about Dr. Highben's appointment as director of Chapel Music.

As associate conductor for Chapel Music, Dr. Philip Cave provides musical leadership of the Chapel’s weekly Choral Vespers worship service, and also directs the Chapel’s Bach Cantata Series and serves as a liaison for visiting choirs.

Prior to his appointment as at Duke Chapel, Dr. Cave was associate musician at Grace Church in New York City; he was also organist and choirmaster at All Souls Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., at Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill in Alexandria, Virginia, and at St. James’s Church in West Hartford, Connecticut. He has taught at the University of Oxford, Central Connecticut State University, Grinnell College, and The College of New Jersey, and was the artistic director of the Oxford Harmonic Society and of Alexandria Choral Society. He is a recipient of the Byrne Award from the London Handel Society and the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society, and is also an honorary fellow of London’s Guild of St. Cecilia.

More information on Dr. Cave and his work can be found in his extended biography.

Dr. Robert Parkins is the university organist and a professor of the practice of music at Duke University. He first assumed the position of Chapel Organist at Duke in 1975, then joined the faculty of the School of Music at Ithaca College in 1982, returning to Duke in 1985. As the university organist, Dr. Parkins plays for university events and Chapel services on academic Sundays during the school year, and he directs the annual Organ Recital Series.

A graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Yale University School of Music, Dr. Parkins studied organ with Gerre Hancock, Charles Krigbaum, and Michael Schneider, as well as harpsichord with Ralph Kirkpatrick. As a Fulbright scholar, he pursued further organ study in Vienna with Anton Heiller.

Dr. Parkins has concertized throughout the United States and Europe as well as in Central America. His organ and harpsichord recordings have appeared on the Calcante, Gothic, Loft, Musical Heritage Society, and Naxos labels. Still available are several solo CDs featuring the Flentrop, Aeolian, and Brombaugh organs in Duke Chapel, including Early Iberian Organ Music, Brahms: Complete Organ Works, German Romantic Organ Music, Iberian and South German Organ Music, and Organ Music of Frescobaldi. His most recent album, Salome's Dance (recorded on the Chapel's Aeolian organ), was released in the spring of 2019. Including music by late German Romantic and American composers, it can be obtained from Loft Recordings as well as from Duke's Gothic Bookshop.

As the Ethel Sieck Carrabina Curator of Organs and Harpsichords at Duke University, John P. Santoianni maintains and tunes the four pipe organs in Duke Chapel as well as the harpsichords and pipe organs in the Music Department and in the Divinity School.

As staff specialist, Kyle designs and produces bulletins for all weekly Chapel worship services, as well as for regular concert series. She joined the Chapel in August 2021 after graduating from Duke Divinity with her Master of Divinity. While at Duke, Kyle was a part of the Theology and the Arts Certificate program, and wrote numerous musical works that brought together her primary instrument, the saxophone, with her love of theology. Prior to moving to Durham, Kyle served as choir and handbell director for several churches in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Kyle received her Bachelor of Arts in Music from Western Kentucky University in 2013, where she studied saxophone and composition. In her free time, Kyle enjoys listening to audiobooks, brewing coffee, and walking her goldendoodle, Charlie.

Amanda Hughes comes to the Chapel from the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she has been the director of external affairs for eleven years. She has served as the museum’s lead development officer and helped to shape the organization’s identity and image. Amanda has a bachelor of arts in interdisciplinary studies from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a master of fine arts in art and religion from Goddard College. She is the author of several books, articles, blogs, and resource materials, including the Ackland’s Five Faiths Project curricular materials and A Place for Meaning: Art, Faith, and Museum Culture. Other publications include: Lost and Found: Adolescence, Parenting, and the Formation of Faith (Cowley Books, 2004) and Five Voices Five Faiths: An Interfaith Primer (Cowley Books, 2005).

Joni Harris is in charge of business and facilities for the Chapel. She comes to the Chapel after twenty-five years at Duke, most currently from the University Budget Office.

As communications manager, James Todd oversees and coordinates communications for the Chapel, including broadcasts, social media, this website, and publications. He came to the Chapel in 2014 from Duke’s University Communications office where he worked as a writer, producer and, then video manager. Before that, he was a production assistant on WUNC Radio’s The State of Things show. He went to Duke as an undergraduate, majoring in physics. He served as a deacon in the Episcopal Church. He lives in Durham with his wife and five children.

As communications specialist, Aaron Canipe producers visual media for the Chapel, including print materials, online graphics, and photography. A native of Hickory, North Carolina, he earned his master’s of fine arts in experimental and documentary arts from Duke in 2015. He then worked for over five years as the in-house designer and photographer at Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem. As an artist, his work has been exhibited throughout the Southeast, and his books and photographs are held in collections at the Telfair Museums, The Do Good Fund, and the Archive of Documentary Arts at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Together with his wife Meredith, he loves to hike, draw, explore, and read with their daughter. Find examples of his work on his website.

Mark King, originally a native of Pennsylvania, moved to North Carolina with his wife Sandy in 1987 after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business marketing from the University of Indiana Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the Chapel, he was with DukeEngage for four years and the Duke Faculty Club for eight years. Mark comes from a small business background and before joining Duke was previously the owner of both a Domino’s Pizza and Yogurt Pump franchise. Both of Mark’s sons graduated from the University of South Carolina. In his spare time, he enjoys playing tennis, pickleball, reading, and spending time with his wife.

To the role of wedding coordinator, David-Michael brings thirty-five years of experience in producing special events. He finds working with wedding couples and their families to be a most fulfilling endeavor. His goal is to be with them every step of the way.

Erica Thomas first joined the Chapel staff in 2017, after working in the Meredith College Admissions Office. She is also freelance bassoonist, holding degrees in instrumental performance from UNC-Greensboro and the University of Maryland, College Park. In her free time she enjoys traveling, cooking, and spending time with her husband, son and 2 lab mixes.

Blanche Williams works closely with the Chapel's wedding coordinator to lead the Chapel's team of wedding directors and assistants. Since directing her first Chapel wedding in 2005, she has watched more than 700 brides process down the Chapel’s grand fifty-yard-long aisle—including her own daughter, who was married in Duke Chapel in 2010. She finds the role to be a perfect vocation for someone who enjoys working with couples to make their Chapel wedding day joyous and memorable. A lifelong North Carolinian, she graduated from Meredith College in Raleigh with a bachelor of arts in religion and sociology, and a minor in elementary education. She is married to Alan and they have two adult daughters. In her free time, she enjoys traveling internationally, English smocking, dabbling in photography, and spending time with her family and three grandchildren.

Ann Hall has worked at the Chapel in volunteer or staff capacities since 1982. As she goes about her responsibilities at the Chapel, she tries to welcome the visitor within the greater context of the Divine. She enjoys reading in the fields of Christian theology and spirituality, as well as American History, and can devour a good biography—Ola Winslow's Jonathan Edwards is her all-time favorite. She is a devoted “mom” to Sam, her black lab-spaniel and her two Chapel kittens, Chris and Andy, whom she named after Chapel staff members.

A prayer that is especially significant to her work at the Chapel comes from St. Stephen's church in London: “O God, make the door of this house wide enough to receive all who need human love and fellowship, narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride and strife. Make its threshold smooth enough to be no stumbling-block to children, nor to straying feet, but rugged and strong enough to turn back the tempter's power. God make the door of this house the gateway to thine eternal kingdom.”

In his role as a visitor relations assistant, Shawn Proffitt greets and assists visitors to the Chapel. He also works as a chaplain at Central Regional Hospital in Butner, North Carolina. He is a member of the Congregation at Duke Chapel and is an avid reader of history.

In his role as a visitor relations assistant, Emerson Cobbs greets and assists visitors to the Chapel. He is a graduate student at Duke Divinity School and a candidate for ministry in the United Methodist Church for the Arkansas Conference. He is grateful to be able to introduce visitors to the building and people of Duke Chapel as a place of sanctuary and worship.

In his role as a visitor relations assistant, Kenyon Davenport greets and assists visitors to the Chapel. He comes to the Chapel after a career as an educator in the field of history. A significant portion of his graduate research on the sources of a twelfth-century English cosmological treatise was at Duke, where, under the watchful eye of an armed guard, he read the fifteenth-century Latin version of the Introductorium of Abū Ma’šar, an eighth-century Persian astrologer. He finds his undergraduate design degree as well as his medieval master’s degree enhancing his appreciation of the structure of Duke Chapel. In addition to serving at the Chapel as a visitor relations assistant, he is also a Chapel docent and a member of the Congregation at Duke Chapel. To all of those roles, he brings the experience of his travels in Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia. In his spare moments, he enjoys continuing his study of Roman hydraulics and mosaic work, Gothic cathedral architecture, animal theology, and philosophical idealism.

In his role as a visitor relations assistant, Benny Edwards greets and assists visitors to the Chapel. He comes to the Chapel after a career in local church music ministry and fine arts higher education. Blending his skills in both music ministry and choral music education provides a unique perspective for visitors to the Chapel, whether their interest is religious, educational, musical, or simply as a curious tourist. His advanced study in music history interfaces well with the strong heritage of music at Duke Chapel, particularly English choral works. In his spare time, Benny enjoys gardening and birding, as well as keeping up with current trends of faith development for youth and young adults.

In her role as a visitor relations assistant, Nikki Manderico greets and assists visitors to the Chapel. She has a bachelor’s in information and library science and a minor in the study of christianity and culture from UNC-Chapel Hill. She’s happy to return to her hometown of Durham and to work in one of her favorite buildings in the city. As an active member in national Asian American organizations, she is passionate about promoting cultural awareness and historical education. She is interested in studying diverse Christian faith traditions, especially Filipino and Filipino-American rituals and theologies. Outside of the Chapel, she enjoys dining at local restaurants and watching musicals at the Durham Performing Arts Center.