The Rev. Dr. Laurie Ann Kraus serves the national offices of the Presbyterian Church USA as Director of Humanitarian and Global Ecumenical Engagement, in the ministries of Compassion, Peace and Justice. This work coordinates and supports holistic collaboration among the offices of disaster response, migration accompaniment, hunger and development, peacemaking and advocacy for the self-development of people (SDOP). Working alongside faith based, civil society and ecclesial partners across the globe, this work seeks to accompany vulnerable people in the US and around the world; supporting and advocating their efforts to build sustainable and abundant communities for all, especially in times of disaster, violence, or food insecurity. Prior to her present assignment, Laurie served for 10 years as director of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. Laurie is on the board and executive committee of ACT Alliance, a consortium of 155 world-wide disaster response, development and advocacy church and faith based organizations. She is a certified spiritual director and compassion fatigue/trauma-informed spiritual care provider.

Dr. Kraus is ordained in the PC(USA) and served congregations in New York and Florida. She served in pastoral ministry for 30 years, in Upstate New York and Florida. Laurie earned her M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and D.Min. degrees from Columbia Theological Seminary and Florida Center for Theological Studies, a multicultural ecumenical seminary in Miami, Florida, where she also directed the D.Min. program and taught homiletics, liturgy and practical theology related to disaster response practice and theology.

She is the author of two books, “Recovering from UnNatural Disaster” (WJK 2017) and “Tuning My Heart: the Melody of the Liturgical Year in Proclamation, Poetry and Praise,” (Wipf and Stock 2008). Laurie is married and part of a family of professional classical musicians including her husband, daughter, and son-in-law; her contribution is limited to folk guitar and back-up harmonies.