Kelly Ryan

Communications Specialist, The Evaluation and Communications Project at the Center for Congregations

kryan@div.duke.edu

Kelly Ryan works to strengthen the communication capacity of Lilly Endowment grantees in religion through the Evaluation and Communications Project at the Indianapolis Center for Congregations. From 2020 through June 2023, she facilitated a learning community of grantees as the director of the Thriving Congregations Coordination Program. Prior to that, she spent 12 years as senior director of communications for Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, overseeing its online learning resource Faith & Leadership. Her professional experience also includes communications strategy at Duke University and newspaper reporting for the St. Petersburg (now Tampa Bay) Times in Florida. She is a candidate for ordination to the vocational diaconate in the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina and serves as the children’s minister at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Durham, N.C. Previously, she was an active lay leader at her home parish of 18 years, serving on the vestry, rector search committee and the racial justice and reconciliation committee and as a children’s teacher in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program. She is completing a Master of Divinity at Duke Divinity School, where she earned a master’s degree in Christian practice, and has a bachelor's degree in journalism and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.