Helen LaKelly Hunt has been active within the women’s movement for the past twenty-five years. She is the founder of The Sister Fund, a private women’s fund dedicated to the social, political, economic, and spiritual empowerment of women and girls. She helped to found a number of other women’s funding institutions, including the Dallas Women’s Foundation, the New York Women’s Foundation, and the Women’s Funding Network. Hunt has served on the boards of directors of the Ms. Foundation for Women, Women and Foundations, and the New York City Women’s Agenda. Among her major civic activities has been active membership on the Childcare Commission for the Mayor of the City of New York.
In 2004, Hunt completed a doctoral degree at Union Theological Seminary in New York City where she explored how spiritual perspectives have fueled the work of women’s activism. Her dissertation became the basis of her book, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance, published by Atria books in the summer of 2004. Hunt’s doctorate built on her past academic studies, which include three degrees from Southern Methodist University: a B.A. in Secondary Education, an M.L.A. in Liberal Arts, and an M.A. in Counseling, along with an honorary Ph.D. from the Chicago Theological Seminary.
Along with her studies and activities on behalf of women and girls, Hunt has coauthored seven books with her husband, Harville Hendrix, and has been instrumental in the development of Imago Relationship Therapy, which he founded. Feeling strongly that our ability to function with integrity and wholeness begins with our family relationships, Hunt focuses a great deal of time and energy on sustaining connections with her husband, their six children, and four grandchildren.
