RCC convention speaker named National Council president-elect

A featured speaker at RCC's 2009 National Convention has been named National Council of Churches president-elect.

Kathryn M. Lohre, 32, was installed Nov. 12 during a ceremony at St. Mark's Cathedral in Minneapolis. She officially begins her duties Jan. 1 and is to become NCC president Jan. 1, 2013. She is to be the second youngest president since the Rev. M. William Howard became president in 1979 at 33.

Lohre, assistant director of Harvard University's Pluralism Project, told RCC convention-goers March 28 in Cambridge, Mass., about resources they could tap through her organization. She is scheduled to discuss "Tools to communicating in a multi-faith America" during Religion Communication Congress 2010 April 7-10 in Chicago.

As project assistant director, Lohre:

• Supervises graduate and undergraduate student research on religious pluralism.
• Leads the women's initiative and multi-religious women's network.
• Plans colloquia, conferences, panels and public conversations.
• Teaches workshops.
• Prepares grant proposals.
• Oversees fundraising.

Lohre joined the project staff in 2000. She has been assistant director since 2005, serving with Diana Eck, project director and a member of the NCC Governing Board.

Lohre is a member of Faith Lutheran Church, Cambridge, and an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America representative to the World Council of Churches Central Committee. She serves on the ELCA Bishop's Communal Discernment Task Force, is a member of the World Council of Churches U.S. Conference Board of Directors and has been on the National Council of Churches Ecumenical Young Adult Women's Working Group.

Lohre is a summa cum laude graduate of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., and earned the Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School.