Graduate Profile: Kat Woodard, MDiv '25
Kat Woodard, MDiv '25
“I’ve been changed by my classmates, who have welcomed me into the vibrant worlds they create through their scholarship, their artistry, and their care.”
How I've Changed
With each passing semester, I’ve come to understand my own voice and what I uniquely have to offer the world just a little more clearly. I’ve also become more aware of my own softness, my capacity for deep listening, and my tenderness to the world as it is and as it could be. Perhaps most of all, I’ve been changed by my classmates, who have welcomed me into the vibrant worlds they create through their scholarship, their artistry, and their care. From them, I’ve learned that there are countless ways to be brilliant, grounded, and fabulous in the world, and that it’s possible to live into many of those ways all at the same time.
Message of Thanks
I’d like to thank my parents, whose steady encouragement and unconditional support have sustained me throughout my time at HDS, even from more than a thousand miles away. I’m deeply grateful to my partner, who, among countless other acts of generosity, has kept my spirits lifted with a fresh cup of coffee each morning and a warm meal each night. I also want to thank the friends I’ve gathered in the many places I’ve called home for pulling me away from the books when I needed it most and for reminding me that joy is not a break from this work but an integral part of it. Lastly, I’d like to extend my gratitude to the many ministers in my life, who have ministered to me as I learn what it means to be a minister myself; watching each of you serve your communities has been one of the most profound parts of my education.
Future Plans
In the immediate future, my only plan is to rest and reconnect with the ones I love most dearly. After that, I’m delighted to share that, starting this fall, I’ll be serving as the Nancy S. Taylor Leadership Resident for Mission in the City at Old South Church in Boston, which is the long way of saying I’m blessed with the opportunity to keep doing what I love most: helping communities draw closer to one another and to the divine, through shared justice work, storytelling, and ritual.