Kathleen Edwards-Chase
Lead Pastor
Office: 973.835.1144 ext. 12
Kathleen graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism with an emphasis on Public Relations from the University of Oklahoma. For six years, she worked in Marketing and Communications for Financial Corporations before attending Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ, earning her Masters of Divinity. She was awarded and completed a fellowship post-Master's at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Afterward, she did doctoral work at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, CA. Ordained as a Minister of Word & Sacrament in 1997, her first call was to the Woodstock Reformed Church in Woodstock, NY, where she served from 1997 - 2006 and her second call was to First Reformed Church of Pompton Plains, NJ, where she has served since 2006. She is the first woman to serve at the helm of both congregations.
Kathleen has served in the Reformed Church in America on both a local and national levels. She has served on various denominational commissions and committees, emceed at General Synod events, been a keynote speaker at women’s retreats, and served on leadership teams. She is a proud member of the Pequannock Valley Rotary Club and serves on the Advisory Board of Trustees for our local hospital, Chilton Medical Center. She is on the Board of Directors for Community Partners for Hope, a non-profit organization she helped found. In 2018, Kathleen was named Pequannock Citizen of the Year for the Township.
She is completely devoted to her two children, Emmy & Caden. When not busy with the church, she can be found outside with family and friends doing some adventurous activity. Kathleen loves gardening, running, skiing, biking, and hiking.