Dr. F. DeKarlos Blackmon and Kanobia Russell-Blackmon joined the staff of the Archdiocese of Louisville Aug. 1 in key leadership roles.
The couple, who’ll celebrate their 22nd wedding anniversary next month, are originally from Mobile, Ala. They served in several southern dioceses before coming to the Louisville archdiocese this summer.
Blackmon has been appointed vice chancellor for pastoral services in the Archdiocese of Louisville, a newly created role.
Russell-Blackmon is the archdiocese’s new chief communications officer. She succeeds Cecelia H. Price, who retired in June after more than three decades in that role.
Russell-Blackmon said they welcome the opportunity “to continue the good work that is already being done.”
“The work Archbishop (Shelton) Fabre is doing here is great,” she said. “The archdiocese itself, the city of Louisville … it’s a blessing to come here.”
“I look forward to working with the media and the different ministries here … and building on the good work you all are doing,” she said. “I really believe in collaboration. I want to be there to support our pastors, principals” and other church leaders.
Russell-Blackmon served for the last year as the director of communications for the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee in Florida. She also was editor of the diocese’s magazine, The Catholic Compass.
Previously, she was director of development and marketing for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Austin, Texas. Before that, she worked for 16 years as executive producer for WAFF 48 News in Huntsville, Ala.
She graduated from the University of Alabama with a bachelor’s in communication in 1995 and later earned a master’s degree in elementary education from Grand Canyon University.
She’ll be bringing her experience in communications, broadcast news and print to her role in the Archdiocese of Louisville, telling “the Catholic story,” she said.
“That’s one of the good things about having a Catholic paper: You can tell the story of faith. You can hear from the people in the pew about their faith. You can help people who are struggling. It’s sharing the good news about what’s happening across the archdiocese.”
While Russell-Blackmon was serving in the Pensacola area, her husband was still about 10 hours away in a job he loved. At the time, Blackmon served as the director of the Secretariat for Life, Charity, and Justice of the Diocese of Austin.
He previously served in parish ministry, including as a pastoral associate and director of worship.
His previous roles, he said, touched a variety of ministries in the Diocese of Austin, but each was connected by a common thread — promoting the dignity of human life. Pro-life work, often politically fraught, is about “the totality of the Gospel of life,” he said.
He sees his work in the Archdiocese of Louisville, where he is overseeing pastoral ministry, as an extension of that ministry.
“I am doing the work of the church, to engage people to better participate in the life of the church,” he said.
To do that, he said, “We should meet the Lord in stable communities, our parishes. When we leave the liturgy, we are being sent on mission — those are the things I am working on every day in the archdiocese.
“Everyone of us has an obligation to participate in the life of the church by virtue of our baptism,” he added.
‘We should meet the Lord in stable communities, our parishes. When we leave the liturgy, we are being sent on mission — those are the things I am working on everyday in the archdiocese. Everyone of us has an obligation to participate in the life of the church by virtue of our baptism.’
Dr. F. DeKarlos Blackmon
The couple said their first weeks have centered on learning and asking questions in an effort to better understand the church here.
Blackmon said he approaches the work synodally, collaboratively.
“We are walking together,” he said, as “coworkers in the vineyard, companions on the journey.”
They also noted that their work will be rooted in the leadership of Archbishop Fabre.
“The work that takes place should be patterned after the heart and mind of the Archbishop of Louisville,” Blackmon said.
He worked with Archbishop Fabre in a variety of ways over the past 15 years, particularly when the archbishop was serving as an auxiliary bishop and later a bishop in Louisiana. They also served together in the International Alliance of Catholic Knights — Blackmon was president of the organization and Archbishop Fabre was the chaplain.
Blackmon also served as a consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee for Cultural Diversity Subcommittee for African American Affairs from 2012 to 2018 during the drafting of “Open Wide Our Hearts,” the bishops’ pastoral letter against racism.
Blackmon also served in leadership of the Knights of Peter Claver as Supreme Knight, chief executive officer and chairman of the board from 2010 to 2016.
In that role, he and Russell-Blackmon attended the Easter Prayer Breakfast at the White House in 2011 and 2012 at the invitation of then-President Barack Obama.
Blackmon also served for six years in the United States Army Chaplain Corps. He earned a doctoral degree in education from Grand Canyon University, an MBA from Touro University International, a master’s in pastoral ministry from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree from Columbia College. He also attended St. Joseph Seminary College and is a Benedictine oblate.
The couple’s service to the church is rooted in parish ministry. He was active in his childhood parish of St. Francis Xavier in Mobile, where they both grew up. It so happened that Russell-Blackmon’s grandmother was also an active member of the parish.
“I knew her grandmother my entire life,” said Blackmon. “But we hadn’t met.”
They met in 1995, when she came home from college and started helping her grandmother teach religious education.
They became fast friends.
“He was the choir director at one point and I was in the choir,” said Russell-Blackmon. “Faith has always been what brought us together.
“To be able to come here together to do the work of the church was absolutely a blessing,” she said.
The couple have settled in Jeffersontown in East Louisville.
