• NOTE: On April 1, 2025, Rev. Dr. LaKeisha Cook started her tenure as Executive Director of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.
• WATCH: LINK to Rev. Cook’s closing remarks at Day for All People on Jan. 15, 2025.

By, Margaret Edds 

The Rev. Dr. LaKeisha Cook smiled at several hundred participants attending the annual Day for All People legislative lobbying day of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy this past January. Then, she introduced herself in the manner of the Māori people of New Zealand.   

First, place. Second, name. And finally, intention. 

A half-hour speech and a rousing, standing ovation later, the full scope of Cook’s intention became clear. Virginia Interfaith Director Kim Bobo joined Cook at the dais at downtown Richmond’s Centenary United Methodist Church for an announcement.  

“You have just met your next director,” Bobo beamed, prompting a few gasps of surprise, followed by loud applause.  

On March 31, Bobo ended a nine-year tenure at Virginia Interfaith, handing the reins to a successor who combines the passion of a social justice warrior with the rhetorical skills of a Baptist minister. Cook will become the organization’s tenth director and the first African American to head the 43-year-old organization. 

“It’s one thing to raise your voice for justice,” Cook said, reflecting on her upcoming role. “It’s one thing for a congregation to raise its voice for justice. But if we can get multiple congregations and more people to say the same thing at the same time, we’re able to impact history.”  

That solidarity is especially important at a time of turmoil in the state and nation, she told the lobbying-day audience, prompting groans. “Now more than any other time, we need all of your voices, all of your energy and all of your gifts, because who knows what this year is going to bring?”  

The 48-year-old Cook has a composed presence and a soaring, rapid-fire delivery that  captivates her audience. Her arms and hands moves—swirling, pointing—conveying energy and urgency.  

Aware that many of the VICPP faithful were encountering her for the first time, Cook first explained her Māori-inspired introduction, then moved on to her vision for Virginia Interfaith.  

Her place, Cook said, is twofold. First, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, where she was raised. Then, Richmond, her current home. The city is where she first glimpsed a lifelong calling combining faith and social activism. Her professors at Virginia Union University, where she earned an undergraduate degree and a Master of Divinity degree, “activated my love of justice in a real way. They taught me the power of my voice.”  

The journey from Virginia Union to Virginia Interfaith included multiple waypoints: youth work at the First Institutional Baptist Church in Phoenix; a position supporting students at a racially and ethnically diverse middle school and elementary school in the Greater Phoenix area; and—after a season of transition—Cook and her then three-year-old daughter Amaya moved back to the East Coast in 2011, where she held a variety of leadership roles at St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Richmond. 

En route, she earned a master’s degree in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University and a Doctor of Ministry degree from the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. Each role and degree, Cook believes, helped prepare her for her current mission. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic brought changes to St. Paul’s Baptist Church, Cook connected with Virginia Interfaith. She was hired in November 2020 to oversee the organization’s criminal justice advocacy work. Politically, the time was ripe to achieve a goal that had long eluded advocates: the abolition of the death penalty. Cook’s community and faith connections, as well as her political experience, were essential to winning this victory, making Virginia the first Southern state to outlaw capital punishment. 

Watching Cook at work led Bobo to believe that she had found a potential successor. Cook remained on the VICPP board, and last December, she was hired as co-executive director alongside Kim Bobo, with the plan to succeed Bobo (whose final day was March 31), on April 1, 2025. 

Surveying the years ahead, Cook said, “We might have some difficult times ahead,” she told the assembly at Day for All People. “There might be high moments but there also might be some low moments. No matter what comes our way, we need to be focused on our role and our purpose.” 

Cook hopes to bring more young people, a wider range of faiths, and even like-minded individuals with no formal tie to religion to the Virginia Interfaith table.  

Her own intentionality, Rev. Cook said, is closely linked to her daughter, who will turn 17 this year. She said that Amaya’s impending adulthood sharpens her focus, adding, “My intention is to use my power and my position, wherever it is, to make this world better.”