Hope Benko to lead enrollment office

Dean and President Cynthia Briggs Kittredge has announced the hire of the Rev. Hope Benko to director of enrollment at Seminary of the Southwest effective June 1, 2016. Hope comes to the seminary from All Saints’ Episcopal School in Fort Worth, Texas, where she has served as upper and middle school chaplain and religion teacher since 2011.
“I am looking forward to welcoming Hope to our campus for this important position. Her deep and broad connections throughout the Episcopal Church, her ministry as chaplain in an ecumenical student body at an Episcopal school and her degree in communication and marketing make her a wonderful fit for our team and our prospective student population at Seminary of the Southwest,” says Dean Kittredge.
A life long Episcopalian, the Rev. Hope Benko has served parishes in the dioceses of Missouri and Western Louisiana and comes to Seminary of the Southwest from the Diocese of Fort Worth where she has served as Upper and Middle School Chaplain at All Saints’ Episcopal School, as priest-in-charge at St. Mary’s in Hillsboro and as deputy to General Convention in 2015.  She’s spent her ordained ministry deeply involved in Christian formation and looks forward to supporting the vital work of forming priests and counselors for the Church in her role as Director of Enrollment Management.  Hope is a graduate of Stephens College, where she studied Mass Communication and of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary.  Her husband, the Rev. Andrew Benko is finishing his dissertation for a Ph.D. in New Testament, and they have two children, aged 7 and 5.
Seminary of the Southwest has a campus-based student body of 100. Through the Iona Initiative the Seminary provides resources for local theological education for 130 students in 18 dioceses.