about

My name is Kyle Oliver, and I’m an Episcopal priest and an educational media producer and researcher. I’m interested in how we make meaning by making media, especially in faith and faith-adjacent settings.

I serve as head of learning media at Learning Forte and am a doctor of education graduate of the Communications, Media, and Learning Technologies Design Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. My dissertation is a four-part documentary podcast about my fieldwork at a foster youth mentoring network I call Tapestry.

Previously I was communications manager at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, where I still teach Christian formation and missional practices, and digital missioner and instructor in the Center for the Ministry of Teaching (now Lifelong Learning) at Virginia Theological Seminary, where I served as lead developer of the e-Formation Learning Community.

I use media and technology to improve learning and build community in churches, seminaries, and other faith and faith-adjacent communities. Within that general framework, here are some specifics about what I do or have done in the last few years:

• research about making meaning by making media in faith-adjacent settings;
• leading product development, including digital communication audits and on-demand and hybrid ministry training resources, at Learning Forte.
• production of The Way of Love with Bishop Michael Curry and other podcast episodes and series;
• co-production of Faith+Finance: Reimagining God’s Economy, bringing together faith leaders and business leaders to catalyze impactful collaborations for human flourishing;
• research, publishing, and resource development about how religious leadership formation programs address digital literacy;
• research, media production, and advocacy with the Media and Social Change Lab.

I’m married to Kristin Saylor, who serves as rector of St. Lawrence Episcopal Church in far north Chicagoland. We live in Libertyville with our daughter Fiona, aka #vitaminF.

Before seminary I worked as a research and project assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, finishing up a master’s thesis in nuclear fuel cycle systems analysis and editing Teaching and Learning Insights for the Engineering Learning Center.

I served as a house fellow and student board member at St. Francis House Episcopal Student Center and helped out with our website and blog. I also helped found The Hacker Within, a forum for networking and peer training among students and faculty in computational science software development.