I believe in the power of community. As we build community, we build collective capacity to respond to the challenges and invitations of the times we live in. I co-create spaces where people desiring a more equitable and peaceful world come together to practice empowered interdependence. Do you crave a courageous place where you can listen and be heard?
I believe that each of us has a role in bringing our world closer to wholeness. Every person has gifts, experiences, and wisdom to contribute; some of us are more aware and ready to use them than others. I offer inspiration and tools for people to step more fully into their authenticity. Do you want to step into the fullest expression of your Being?
I believe that every person can be both teacher and student and that when we embrace both roles, our world becomes richer. We can create a greater sense of balance when we lean into both self-trust in what we have to offer and humililty about our limitations and growing edges. I lean into both roles and help others do the same. Do you believe in your own wisdom and curiosity?
I believe in the importance of engaging with complexity. The world we live and our experiences in it are nuanced, layered, and affected by many aspects of our identity (race, gender identity, sexual orientation, country of origin, ethnicity, religion, age, class, and on and on). I offer questions that encourage depth and stories that surprise and challenge. Do you yearn to explore intricacy?
I believe that healing happens when we see the beauty of our experiences, our lives, our hearts. Amid all the harm, struggle, and ugliness in our world, there is also mending, times of ease and joy, glimmers of hope. I offer space to slow down and explore these – through dialogue, Reiki, and art. Do you seek to be seen in your imperfect perfection?
I believe that compassion, truth, gratitude, beauty, and rest are all manifestations of Love. There are so many ways to express and to receive Love for ourselves and for others. I nurture these practices in myself and others, in order to amplify Love in the world.
Will you join me?
Cory Lockhart is a teacher/facilitator, artist, writer, public speaker, and peacemaker. She facilitates classes and workshops for teens and adults on living and communicating with compassion and speaks to groups about the experiences and ideas that have shaped her. She believes in the fundamental dignity of every person and the interconnectedness of all parts of Creation, including humans. She does her best to practice what she preaches, often stumbling along the path, but always getting back up and continuing forward.
Cory loves working with people from all sorts of backgrounds, experiences, and belief systems. She loves exploring both the commonalities and the uniqueness within our diverse human experiences. She has been an adjunct professor at Bellarmine University, teacher at Drepung Gomang Center for Engaging Compassion and the Passionist Earth and Spirit Center, and has offered workshops to local, national, and international groups. In 2020-21, she wrote the program Seeking the Shalom of the City: Revisiting and Re-visioning Louisville for CrossRoads Ministry. When CrossRoads closed in late 2021, the program was returned to her to tend and share. She also wrote the 8-week program Cultivating Nonviolence, Harvesting Peace for JustFaith Ministries (JFM) and continues as a consultant for the organization. Some of her writing can be found on the JFM website. Her essays and poetry have also been published in Writing for Peace’s DoveTales yearly anthologies. In April 2016 in Rome, she was one of about 80 participants in the Nonviolence and Just Peace conference, organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Pax Christi International, and other organizations. She is involved in various local peace and justice initiatives.
Cory has been featured in U.S. Catholic and Today's Woman magazines. She was the 2016 recipient of the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville Angeline Award. In 2017, she gave the annual Fellin Lecture at Benedictine College in Atchison, KS. She was the featured guest on the local FORward Radio program “Solutions to Violence” that first aired on March 18, 2019.
Cory has a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics from Northwestern University, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Bellarmine University and a Master of Arts in Spirituality from Bellarmine University and the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. She was a classroom teacher for 14 years.
Cory has had a passion for social justice her whole life. As a young adult, recognizing the devastating effects of U.S. policies in Latin America, she was involved in Latin American, and particularly Central American, solidarity work. She took her first trip to Palestine in 2009 and knew she would be going back. In 2013 she completed a month-long training on nonviolence and related topics with Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT, formerly Christian Peacemaker Teams) and made a formal commitment to the practice of nonviolence. She is a reservist with CPT and did stints with the Palestine team from 2013 to 2018.
She has also completed three International Intensive Trainings in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) through the Center for Nonviolent Communication and continues to pursue ongoing training in this field, including the role of NVC in social change, NVC and the dynamics of power, and more.
Cory is a trained, attuned, and certified Reiki Master in Usui and Holy Fire Reiki. Reiki training and practice awakened her to her intuitive gifts, which led to the development of Heart Portraits. She continues to explore how those intuitive gifts may best serve the world.
Cory lives in Louisville, KY with her two cats, Patty Petunia and Ralphie, who make her laugh every day.