Kayla August is a doctoral student at the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Theology and Education with a focus on preaching. She desires to use preaching to impact religious education by inspiring Catholics to deepen their encounters with scripture, tradition, and how God plays an active role in our daily lives. As a lay woman in the Church, Kayla makes a point to preach whenever and wherever she can. She is not only a proud contributor to the voices found on Catholicwomenpreach.org, but she has also preached in a variety of places including McGrath’s Institute for Church Life Saturday with the Saints at Notre Dame, St. Francis of Assisi Parish in New York's 7 Last Words of Christ prayer service on Good Friday, and a variety of churches, youth gatherings, and universities across the U.S.

Her hope as a laywoman is to use preaching to revolutionize the Catholic Church by bringing preaching into nontraditional arenas (social media, podcasts, television, etc.) as a way to reawaken faith and to re-engage an increasingly under-catechized church. Her interest in formation is rooted in her experiences of living and working in young adult faith formation as a University Ministry Intern at Loyola University of New Orleans as well as her professional work as the Assistant Director of Evangelization in the University of Notre Dame’s Campus Ministry department and as the Rector of Lyons Hall. She hopes that through preaching, she can help to enliven the youth and young adult Catholic communities and help to inspire marginalized voices—like her own—in the Catholic faith to play an active role in the Church. She plans to use her education to lift-up and empower these voices that are often overlooked in our church and in our world. She dreams of a Church truly alive with Christ, and she believes her vocation is working toward making that Church a daily reality!

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