Lego sculptures. The sounds of a majestic pipe organ ringing out “Baby Shark,” the children’s song that serves as the unofficial anthem for Washington Nationals baseball team. An op-ed entitled “Have We No Decency? A Response to President Trump.”
These things may not be what you typically associate with the Washington National Cathedral. But thanks to Kevin Eckstrom, CCAS BA ’97, chief communications officer at the Cathedral, its story is being told in creative and innovative ways.
“We take our work seriously, but try not to take ourselves too seriously,” says Eckstrom.
The recent World Series offers a great example, with social media filled with videos of the Washington National Cathedral Choristers singing, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and the aforementioned organ rendition of “Baby Shark.”
“With the Nats, we saw a way for this town to come together and find a sense of unity that we seem to have forgotten,” says Eckstrom. “We were happy to help the city get excited about something and find a sense of common purpose and unity—and frankly a little bit of fun.”
That feeling was joyfully expressed in the tweet that Eckstrom composed for the Cathedral’s Twitter page soon after the final out that made the Nats world champions: “We don’t give thanks for winning a ball game; we give thanks for the @Nationals bringing joy and unity to a city in desperate need of both.”
Eckstrom, who received his bachelor’s degree in political communication, says that the importance of working together is something he learned at GW. In fact, he credits much of his career success to his years on campus.
“I spent a lot of late nights at the GW Hatchet learning how to do this crazy business,” he says. “The first time I saw my name in print, I knew this was what I wanted to do for my career. And nearly everything I learned about journalism, I learned at GW.”
He says that one of the most important parts of his GW experience was the practical real-world education he received outside of the classroom. “The four internships I had all played a distinct role in me landing at the next step in my career,” says Eckstrom. “I had a work-study job in the admissions office, and I spent four years as a campus tour guide that taught me a lot about telling stories and how to talk about a place, which is an experience that I still use today.”
Steve Roberts, GW’s J.B. and M.C. Shapiro Professor of Media and Public Affairs, and his late wife, Cokie, were instrumental in Eckstrom’s life. “They were undeservedly wonderful to me,” says Eckstrom. “When I was applying to grad school, I wasn’t sure how I would be able to afford it.”
The Robertses gave Eckstrom a loan that enabled him to attend grad school. “When I graduated and told Steve that I wanted to discuss repayment plans, he wouldn’t let me pay him back.” That loan-turned-gift became GW’s first annual Dorothy and Will Roberts Prize, awarded to “graduating seniors who have demonstrated academic achievement, professional promise and community service.”
During Eckstrom’s tenure as a reporter in Florida, Cokie Roberts helped arrange for Eckstrom to interview her mother, Lindy Boggs, who was serving as the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, while Eckstrom was on vacation in Italy.
“Interviewing someone like that is something no 22-year old should have license to do,” laughs Eckstrom. Eckstrom and Steve Roberts still get together a few times each year.
“Being at GW and in DC cemented my love for this town,” he says. “I have been here since 1991 which I think makes me practically a native.” Eckstrom was raised in Massachusetts where he says, “I grew up in what I describe as the only Southern Baptist family in the state.”
But it was circumstance that created religion as the through line in his career. After receiving his master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he took one class in religion reporting, Eckstrom got a job at a small newspaper in Florida.
“On my second day of work, there was an announcement that the local Catholic bishop was resigning for sexually abusing minors,” Eckstrom recalls. “My editor said to me, ‘Kid, you’re the closest thing to a religion reporter that we have got; go write about it.’”
He became that paper’s religion editor six months later and then in 2000, he returned to DC as a reporter with Religion News Service (RNS), the nation’s only syndicated wire service that writes about religion. He spent 15 years at RNS, including six years as a reporter and nine as editor-in-chief. He joined the Cathedral in 2015.
“My job is to shape the Cathedral’s public voice through social media, traditional news media, our website, video, and photography,” he says. “Essentially anything that is printed from the Cathedral comes through my office, including signs, brochures, concert booklets, and our yearly calendar.”
The Cathedral’s rally around the Nationals’ World Series run wasn’t the only fun Eckstrom has on the job; he’s also responsible for marketing the Cathedral’s LEGO project, which aims to raise $1 million for earthquake repair by assembling the world’s largest Cathedral ever built out of LEGO bricks.
“Most people know the Cathedral as the place where America buries its presidents, but there is so much more to this place,” he says. “The Cathedral tells the tale of people of faith, but also of the people of America.” Eckstrom says that his role is to help tell those stories and to amplify the Cathedral’s message of radical welcome and safety.
His job is not all fun and games. Eckstrom serves as the liaison between the Cathedral and the news media during state funerals, a responsibility he undertook for the late President George H.W. Bush and Senator John McCain.
“There are 500 media who are credentialed for an event like that and I’m working with them, the family, the staff of the president (or senator), the military and the Secret Service on logistics,” he says. “My life basically stops for seven days and I literally sleep at night in my office. It’s exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.”
Eckstrom was especially moved by being part of last year’s interment and service for Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old man who was murdered in 1998 in an anti-gay hate crime. “I was an emotional wreck in all of the best ways,” he says. Eckstrom and his husband, Grant Montgomery, are the parents of seven-year-old twin boys, Alton and Gustav.
During a recent Sunday at the Cathedral, Alton and Gustav got to assemble LEGO bricks with presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, who had come for Sunday services.
“GW was a big part of my coming out experience because it was a safe space where I could do that,” says Eckstrom. He cites the support of Cary Einhaus, CCAS BA ’88, with whom Eckstrom worked in admissions. “Cary took me under his wing and helped guide me along the way.”
“I am grateful that I am now able to be authentically who I am: as a person of faith, as a gay guy, and as a journalist,” says Eckstrom. “The Cathedral, like GW, is a place I can be welcomed and accepted and celebrated for who I am.”
–Michele Lynn
