Rev. Dr. Lori (Lo) Banfield is a native and resident of Philadelphia, PA, with interdisciplinary expertise in psychology and practical theology. She is a graduate of Saint Joseph’s University (B.S., Psychology), Palmer Theological Seminary (Master of Theological Studies), and Eastern University with a Doctor of Marriage and Family Therapy. Lori grew up surrounded by a host of gifted, community-focused, faith-driven relatives. Her lineage is steeped with trailblazing atmosphere changers, spiritual and physical chain breakers, and truth tellers like her great-grandmother, Bishop Lena Thomas. With a love for studying and enhancing the sacred human experience, Dr. Banfield has dedicated her life, research, and service to fostering spiritual resilience and liberation paths in marginalized communities, especially those returning home from incarceration.

Over the years, she has honed her skills as an instructional designer, curriculum, and program developer consistently lauded for her transformative classroom practices and a pedagogy rooted in capacity scaffolding and sacred space setting. Dr. Lo has a blossoming career in higher education as a Lecturer of Psychology at Eastern University, and Mamher (instructor) of Practical Theology at Meachum School of Haymanot. An attachment-narrative clinician and clergyperson, she remains dedicated to local service as shepherd of the Gates of Heaven Pentecostal Church (GOHPC) in West Philadelphia, PA, and the executive director at Redemption Housing – Reentry Services (501c3).

As a scholar, she has authored the spiritual formation book “Walking Worthy of My Calling: Journey Back to the Likeness of God,” academic journal articles, like, “Fostering Spiritual Resilience in Formerly Incarcerated Persons of African American Descent (2018)” and been a contributing author of multiple books, blogs, and magazines in addition to keynote presentations across the disciplines of psychology, theology, and social justice. You can find her most recent work “Sawubona (I/We See You): Confronting the Disenfranchised Grief of Justice-Involved Persons” within Evan Auguste’s (2025). The Carceral State, Forensic Psychology, and Black Resistance: Let Them Not Be Forgotten

Previously, she has served as Assistant Director of Instructional Design for Palmer Theological Seminary and College, on the Editorial Review Board of Urban Ministries, Inc. (UMI), as well as a Locked In Solidarity member of the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA).

A wife and mother of two children, Dr. Lo endeavors to build atmosphere changers and restore sacred space within and beyond church, school, and prison walls. She reminds us, “Though we are prone to wander, we have been called to walk; keep walking in peace and resurrection power.”