The Rev. Dr. Catherine Taylor

Denomination: Presbyterian Church (USA) (PCUSA)
Organization: Blacksburg Presbyterian Church, Blacksburg, VA

The Reverend Dr. Catherine Taylor began serving as pastor of Blacksburg Presbyterian Church, Blacksburg, VA, in May of 2010 after four years as an interim/head of staff at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Ithaca, New York. 

Catherine grew up in Washington D.C. and the Missouri "boot heel," and graduated magna cum laude from Duke University in 1976 with degrees in history and social anthropology. Before going to seminary in 1987. she worked for many years as a freelance writer and editor, including a stint free-lancing for Newsweek, and as a writer and editor for an ad agency in Mobile, Alabama.

Catherine holds Master of Divinity (‘92) and Doctor of Ministry (‘04) degrees from Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta. After serving three years as an associate pastor with Covenant Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Catherine spent nine years as solo pastor of Church of the New Covenant in the Atlanta suburb of Doraville. She has been a frequent preacher and speaker at national and regional conferences for the PCUSA, and has been featured many times on Day 1, the national radio program formerly known as the Protestant Hour. She has also appeared as a Day 1 panelist on the Hallmark Channel's Sunday morning segment, "America at Worship." In 2004 Catherine was one of two US pastors named as a Campbell Scholar for participation in an international seminar on "The Mission of the Church in an Age of Violence." She is the author of the introduction and notes for the book of First Corinthians in the RENOVARÉ Spiritual Formation Bible published in 2005 by Harper Collins.

Catherine and her husband, Robert Dean, Ph. D., M.D., have two children, Rorie, a college student, and Tucker, an associate producer for Turner Broadcasting's program segment "AdultSwim."