Rev. Kelly J. Stone

The Reverend Kelly J. Stone understands her primary responsibility is to love human beings. For 18 years She has done this work through the lens of spiritual care, specifically in college communities. Since 2014 Kelly has served as Chaplain at Macalester College. Most days, she walks with students, staff and faculty through the “stuff” of life. Some of her contributions to Macalester include: partnering with colleagues to bring Macalester’s Open Pantry as an institutional commitment, launching a Winter Wear Co-op, The Little Free Pantry (A place where local/college community members can leave what they can and take what they need), engendering support for a college wide emergency fund.

Equitable support for students has informed her leadership of the Center for Religious and Spiritual Life. Macalester welcomed its first Muslim Chaplain (2016) under Kelly’s leadership. The Chaplains of the college  support the religious and cultural realities present within Macalester, and in the wider world. The chaplains are a resource for all in the campus community, and trusted for their inclusive welcome and affirmation of our shared project of  being human, together.

Before St. Paul was her home, higher education had her moving about the country. She spent three years at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, five years at Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. She completed her Masters of Divinity at Yale Divinity School and her undergraduate at Elmhurst University. She is currently enrolled in a Doctor of Ministry Program in Interreligious Chaplaincy at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Kelly’s roots will ever-be planted in the farmlands of northwestern Illinois, where she grew up on a hobby farm. She is an ordained minister in the protestant denomination, the United Church of Christ.

Kelly resides in St Paul with her partner, John and two children and an absurdly large lab-mix rescue dog. She loves humans, cooking, and finds absurd delight in a well ordered closet, cupboard, drawer or bookshelf. Poetry is something that she has always admired; and increasingly finds that the power of words is utterly transformative. She likes to swim, loves her people and adores the work that moves us towards individual liberation and collective justice.