Rahel Mwitula Williams Appointed ELCA Executive for Innovation

Chicago — Rahel Mwitula Williams has been appointed executive director for the Innovation unit of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

Mwitula Williams has served as the ELCA’s interim executive for Innovation and its director for innovation and ideas since 2025. Previously, she served as director for ELCA Global Mission Funding (2019-2023), manager for ELCA Donor Relations (2016-2019), and executive coordinator at the Ancona School in Chicago (2007-2012).

“I am honored and humbled to be appointed as executive for Innovation,” Mwitula Williams said. “The message of love, sacrifice and redemption is timeless, but how we carry that message into a world searching for hope, connection and belonging must be reimagined. Rooted in tradition yet agile in response, our call to innovate is grounded in the truth that God is not a distant relic, but a living, present reality, and our work is to help people encounter that in meaningful, transformative ways.”

Mwitula Williams received a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Loyola University Chicago in 2004, a Master of Science in international public service from DePaul University in Chicago in 2011, and an executive scholar certificate in nonprofit management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago in 2022. She was also a recipient of the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Fellowship in 2010.

Mwitula Williams will begin her new role on July 8.

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About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:

The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with 2.7 million members in more than 8,300 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean. Known as the church of “God’s work. Our hands.,” the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA’s roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther.

For information contact:

Candice Hill Buchbinder

Public Relations Manager

Candice.HillBuchbinder@ELCA.org

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