Rev. Deborah E. Lake, author of Your Neighbor Has AIDS and executive director of the Chicago based Sankofa Way, works to provide leadership and space for all people to unite and find new and effective ways to create world-wide change.

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 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 of African descent. I also saw that this need was not being met in any consistent way.”  

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. She offers trainings, workshops, and community forums to address bigotry, and produces radio and television programs to help shape discussions about social challenges while including ethical and spiritual concerns. Lake is an expert in providing spiritual care in secular settings that does not breech the separation of church and state.

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