The Reverend Kimberly Hyatt currently serves as Executive Director of the Cathedral Arts Project, Inc. Since taking over this nonprofit in 2002, the annual budget has increased from $70,000 to over $1.2 million and over 1,000 children and youth now receive four hours of standards-based instruction at the hands of qualified teachers in music, dance and the visual arts each week free of charge. With an operating budget of close to $1,000,000, a management staff of eight, a teaching staff of 31, an assistant staff of 52, and a dedicated board of 33 city leaders, Cathedral Arts is the largest afterschool provider of arts instruction in Northeast Florida.

Rev. Hyatt brings a diverse background to this position. She moved to Jacksonville in 1996, following divinity studies at Princeton. She served pastorates at South Jacksonville Presbyterian and Peace Presbyterian churches.

During this time she also served on the Boards of Directors for Hubbard House and Community Connections. In 2000, she was elected as a national commissioner to the 213th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA.

She was chosen for the Leadership Jacksonville Class of 2011, and is also an active member of the Jacksonville Women’s Network and downtown Rotary.

Prior to divinity school, Kimberly was a business lobbyist in Washington, D.C. She represented the interests of the nation’s food retailers and wholesalers before Congress and ran the political action committee FoodPAC, which at the time, was one of the nation’s largest 25 PACs.

During a short stint after college as a reporter for a local newspaper, Kimberly won the South Carolina Press Association’s award for her coverage of ongoing Ku Klux Klan activities in the state.

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1987 from Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, where she was voted Outstanding Senior. She earned her Master’s of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1996.

She was one of 20 Jacksonville citizens chosen for the Inaugural Class of the Jessie Ball duPont Community Building Fund’s Community Coaches.

She received the 2011 Women of Vision Award for Arts Achievement by Girls Inc.