Rev. Deborah Lake

Rev. Deborah Elandus Lake is the executive director of Sankofa Way Spiritual Services, Inc, a 501 (c) (3), nondenominational, interfaith-based organization. Sankofa Way provides community leadership in addressing how we all experience oppression and exclusion in the intersection of racism, homophobia, and sexism.

While a chaplain at the Ruth Rothstein CORE Center, RUSH University Medical Center both in Chicago, Lake provided spiritual care to people living with HIV/AIDS, mental illness and trauma and their families. She began the CORE Center’s support group Body & Soul to help men and women find their spiritual connection while living with HIV/AIDS. “I saw the great need for non-denominational spiritual care for people living with the challenge of chronic illnesses. I also saw that this need was not being met in any consistent way.”

A non-denominational minister, Lake has an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary, 2 years training in clinical pastoral education, post-degree training in trauma, and domestic violence. She is also a Red Cross certified trainer for HIV/AIDS prevention specifically within African/American communities.