The Rev. Kathryn Lester-Bacon

As director of Religious Life, the Rev. Kathryn Lester-Bacon connects students and staff to the spiritual and religious opportunities at Duke. She convenes Duke's multifaith network of chaplains and campus ministers and develops programming to deepen the spiritual welfare of those 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, Princeton Seminary, and Duke Hospital's Clinical Pastoral Education Residency program. 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. She is a published poet and a regular contributor to The Presbyterian Outlook, for which she won an Associated Church Press "Award of Excellence" for her piece "Poetry and the Spiritual Life."

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