Kari Jo Verhulst
Education
- BA, Calvin University
- MDiv, Weston Jesuit School of Theology (now part of Boston College School of Theology and Ministry)
Profile
Kari Jo Verhulst is pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Newtons, Massachusetts, where she has served since 2018. She is an active member of the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Anti-Racism Advisory Board and also serves on the Synod’s worship team.
Rev. Verhulst previously served as Lutheran Chaplain to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and as associate pastor of University Lutheran Church in Harvard Square. During her time at MIT, she was deeply involved with the interfaith board of chaplains and worked actively with student support services and other offices on campus to address student mental and spiritual health. She has also worked as an interfaith hospice chaplain and, prior to her ministerial training, worked for Sojourners magazine in Washington, D.C. She lives in Newton with her husband Ernesto Valiente, a systematic theologian on the faculty of the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, and their daughter Hannah, who is a high school senior.
Assistant