Katherine Ragsdale

The Very Rev. Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale is an Episcopal priest and the former President & CEO of the National Abortion Federation (NAF). Prior to joining NAF, she was the President and Dean of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA, and Senior Fellow at the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. Prior to assuming the presidency of EDS, Katherine was Executive Director of Political Research Associates and Vicar of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Pepperell, MA. Since leaving NAF, she has served as Managing Partner at RNL Associates LLC.

Katherine served for 17 years (9 of them as chair) on the national board of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. As Chair, she led the Coalition through a change of its name, mission, and organizational structure. During that time the Coalition’s budget, staff, and office space more than doubled in size. She has also served on the national boards of NARAL Pro-Choice America and The White House Project. She has been featured on NPR and PBS. She has appeared on Wm. F. Buckley’s Firing Line, on Debates/Debates, Faith Under Fire, Religion and Ethics, and many news broadcasts. She has testified before the United States Congress as well as numerous state legislatures and was a featured speaker at the 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, DC. She is widely sought as a speaker on issues of public policy affecting women, professional ethics, and lesbian/gay rights.

Katherine is the editor of Boundary Wars: Intimacy and Distance in Healing Relationships; the author of “The Role of Religious Institutions in Responding to the Domestic Violence Crisis” in Albany Law Review (vol. 58, number 4, 1995); and Hannah, a short story about later abortion care, as well as many other articles and speeches. She has a B.A. in English and Religion from William and Mary; Master of Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary; and a Doctor of Ministry from Episcopal Divinity School. In her spare time she kick-boxes and flies herself to meetings in a single engine airplane.