Our Team
Chris Hoklotubbe
Director
Indigenous Theological CircleT. Christopher Hoklotubbe (Choctaw) is the Director of the Indigenous Theological Circle. He holds a Th.D. in New Testament and Early Christianity and M.Div. from Harvard University Divinity School. He also serves as the Coordinator of Graduate Studies for NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community. He is the author of Civilized Piety: The Rhetoric of Pietas in the Pastoral Epistles and the Roman Empire (Baylor Press, 2017) and the co-author, with H. Daniel Zacharias, of Reading the Bible on Turtle Island: An Invitation to North American Indigenous Interpretation (IVP Academic, 2025)—one of the first books on Native American interpretations of the Bible. He attends and sometimes preaches at Sanctuary Community Church, although he considers himself a Presbyterian at heart and regularly attends the Lake & Prairies Synod School. He lives in Iowa with wife Stephanie and two daughters, Claire and Emily. He enjoys legacy, strategy board games with Iowa dads, hiking in nature, Marvel comics/movies, and worshipping alongside 90’s Christian ska.
Bradley Hauff
Professor of Indigenous Congregational Studies
Indigenous Theological Circle & Bexley Seabury SeminaryThe Reverend Canon Bradley Hauff is Endowed Professor of Indigenous Congregational Studies with the Indigenous Theological Circle. He joined the faculty at Bexley Seabury in 2026, after serving for eight years as the Missioner for Indigenous Ministries on the staff of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. Prior to that, he served in congregational ministries for 27 years in the dioceses of South Dakota, Minnesota, Dallas, Florida, and Pennsylvania. He is enrolled in the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and his parents were survivors of Indigenous boarding schools operated by the federal government and the Episcopal Church. His interests are Indigenous theology and worldviews, Indigenous pastoral care, counseling and psychotherapy, and preaching within Indigenous contexts. He is a graduate of Augustana University, South Dakota State University, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, and the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology. He is an honorary Canon in the Diocese of South Dakota, and he lives in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, the homeland of the Mdewakanton Dakota and the Ojibwe bands of Anishinaabe.
Vance Blackfox
Director of Ecumenical & Tribal Relations
Indigenous Theological CircleVance Blackfox, an Indigenous theologian and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, serves as the Director of Ecumenical and Tribal Relations of the Indigenous Theological Circle. Previously, Vance served the churchwide organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) as the Director of Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations. An alumnus of Texas Lutheran University (TLU) and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC), Vance has served the ELCA in multiple capacities, from taking a post as National President of the Lutheran Youth Organization during his TLU days to later working as a diversity and cultural education professional for the Women of the ELCA, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, California Lutheran University, ELCA Youth Gathering, and LSTC’s Youth in Mission. In addition to serving numerous ELCA and ecumenical teams and committees throughout the years, he has also served as Indigenous Theologian and Coordinating Team Member for the ELCA’s Theological Round Table, as Indigenous theologian for the Faith-Based Initiative for the City of San Antonio, and is the creator and producer of the Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium hosted at LSTC.
Vance is the founder and director of Other+Wise, a multi-site cultural education and cultural immersion program for youth and student groups from across the country. He has also served as the Director of Communications at the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and as the Director of Communications for Native Americans in Philanthropy. Additionally, he has held executive director positions at the Haskell Foundation, which supports Haskell Indian Nations University, and the Oaks Indian Mission.
Mary Crist
Visiting Professor of Education and Indigenous Studies
Bexley Seabury SeminaryThe Rev. Canon Mary Crist, Ed.D., is enrolled Blackfeet (Amskapi Pikuni) from the Douglas family in Babb on the reservation in Montana. She was appointed Coordinator of Indigenous Theological Education for The Episcopal Church in 2019. She serves as priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, serving at St. Michael’s Riverside. She is married to The Rev. Will Crist, the mother of an adult son and a daughter, grandmother of five, and great grandmother of one. She earned the Doctor of Education at Teachers College Columbia University in New York, the Master of Divinity at The Episcopal Theological School/Claremont School of Theology, the Master of Education at Pan American University, and the Bachelor of Arts at The University of California Berkeley. She is the former Dean of the Metcalf School of Education and professor in the Online and Professional Studies Division at California Baptist University in Riverside. She has been active in Indigenous Ministry in The Episcopal Church for many years, as a member of the Executive Council’s Committee on Indigenous Ministry, and is now a member of the Indigenous Missioner’s Advisory Council. She was a preacher at the Holy Eucharist featuring Native Americans at the General Convention in 2012.
Julie Lytle
Director of Distributive and Lifelong Learning Initiatives
Associate Professor of Educational Leadership
Bexley Seabury SeminaryDr. Julie Lytle brings her years of experience in developing curriculum for distributive distance learning and competency-based education to consult the ITC and facilitate conversations around indigenizing the Bexley Seabury Mentor Assessed Pathway M.Div. program and Pathways for Baptismal Living certificate program. She joined the faculty of Bexley Seabury Seminary in 2018 as Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Director of Distributive and Lifelong Learning Initiatives. She has degrees from Boston College, The University of Notre Dame, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Julie teaches courses in congregational development, digital evangelism, educational leadership, and faith formation and has extensive expertise in the area of distance education. She was on faculty at the Episcopal Divinity School and developed their distributive distance learning model for master’s degrees prior to her appointment at Bexley Seabury. Her research interests explore the intersection of theology, faith formation, and technology and the ways people connect with one another and resources to enact the Dream of God. Julie works and teaches from her home in Massachusetts.