Catawba College is pleased to welcome back to campus Rev. Kendra Joyner Miller, an alumna of the Class of 2011, as the new Chaplain and Director of the Lilly Center for Vocation and Values. She will provide strategic leadership and a comprehensive vision to support Catawba’s religious and spiritual life.
Kendra assumed the role on November 7, 2022, succeeding longtime Chaplain Dr. Kenneth Clapp who retired after 33 years of service to the Catawba community.
“Through a national search process, Rev. Joyner Miller emerged as the clear fit to succeed Dr. Clapp,” said President David P. Nelson. “As an alumna, she embodies Catawba’s values, and as a minister of the United Church of Christ, she deeply resonates with Catawba’s rich history in that tradition. I’m deeply grateful for her sense of calling to the work of helping students to discover their own sense of vocation. We are thrilled to welcome Kendra and her family back into the Catawba community.”
Kendra is an ordained clergyperson with the United Church of Christ (UCC) and has served as a Moderator Designate and Moderator Elect for the Fox Valley Association of the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ from 2018-2020. Since 2014, she has ministered at the First Congregational Church of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, first as the Minister of Youth and Families and then as the Associate Minister focusing on adult education, pastoral care, and community engagement.
She graduated from Catawba College with a bachelor’s degree in Religion and Philosophy. While at Catawba, she was the 2011 recipient of the Whitener Award, which recognizes a graduating student who exemplifies the values of Catawba College. She also served as Student Government President and ran cross country. Kendra has a Master of Divinity degree from the Yale Divinity School, where she received the Tweedy Award for Promise in Pastoral Ministry in 2014.
Kendra shares her experience of her alma mater: “Catawba gifts students with more than an education, it creates a family, inspires academic and personal excellence, cultivates character, and leads students, faculty, and staff to use their gifts for the greater good. Catawba transforms individuals and through them the world; I have seen it and felt it.” Describing her impression of Catawba on her first visit to campus as a prospective student, “It felt like home,” she said.
During her time as a Catawba student, Kendra enjoyed walks in the Stanback Ecological Preserve and studying in the Center for the Environment. Some of her favorite Catawba traditions that Kendra recalls fondly include the “12 Days of Christmas” skit at the annual campus Christmas tree-lighting, the Catawba House of Pancakes during finals, any and all Danceworks performances, Lessons and Carols, camping trips with the Outdoor Adventure Club, and spiritual growth retreats hosted at Dr. Ken Clapp’s mountain cabin. Long lunches, moving from table to table in the dining hall talking with different groups of friends, and runs with her cross-country team members to Main Street in Salisbury and back remain highlights.
“I am thrilled to be able to once again call Catawba home. I know Catawba, believe in Catawba, and have hopes and dreams for what Catawba will be in the future. Providing presence, care, and support are not only gifts I will bring as chaplain, they are the foundations of Catawba College.”
Kendra relocated to Salisbury with her husband Dan, daughters Josephine and Eliza, and their black lab mix, Connie.
