Hawkins served as Secretary of the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council (GKCIC) from 2005 until 2011, and presently serves as its American Indian Spirituality Counsellor.
Founder of the GKCIC Speakers Bureau until 2019, Hawkins coordinated speaker presentations by faith leaders for the community, and hopes to rekindle the Speakers Bureau now that she comes out of retirement for the community in 2025.
Hawkins completed an apprenticeship of a traditional family Iowa/Otoe way (Grandmother Iron Woman), mentored by Jimm GoodTracks in 2005, and supported the needs of the family community’s ceremonials as its ceremonial cook and lodge leader. Kara is one of the original founders of the Kansas City Pipe Circle, dating back to 1988, and serves as one of its elders and ceremonial leaders. She is its Secretary and Treasurer and writes and sends out the Pipe Circle’s monthly newsletter to its over 250 members.
A past board member of the Institute for Spirituality in Health at Shawnee Mission Medical Center in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, Dr. Hawkins was part of its Clergy-Physician monthly dialog meetings, and was the American Indian Spirituality contributor for the Essential Guide to Religious Traditions and Spirituality for Health Care Providers, a spirituality desk reference published by Radcliffe Publishing in 2013.
Teaching and writing have always been a passion for Kara; and she’s created and presented innumerable workshops for colleges, elementary and high schools, health care providers and civic groups. This past September Kara created and presented a Native American themed Sacred Wisdom of the Plants and Animals for her ministry’s (The Alliance of Divine Love) international fall conference in Jacksonville, Florida, so as to have its ministers envision and actualize the Alliance of Divine Love as an interfaith ministry. Kara was ordained in 1995, and received her DDMS, Doctor of Divinity Metaphysical and Spirituality degree in 2003.
Hawkins has also collaborated on numerous other writing projects including a resource manual for pastoral care givers, “Finding a Sacred Oasis in Grief,” by the late Steven L Jeffers and Harold Ivan Smith, and for many years wrote a monthly column for the Alliance of Divine Love’s newsletter: Kara’s Korner, Native American Spirituality
A mother of two and grandmother of three, Kara takes great delight in her family and revels in playing and being with her grandchildren, ages 7, 11, and 13. A lifetime poet, musician, and songwriter, she currently is the Native American Drum musician for the Bohemian Dandelions, who have been together since 2006, and who on this past New Year’s Eve morning, performed pre-service music for the 39th annual Buddhism Peace Meditation service.
If asked, Hawkins will share why she continues to aspire to live by her 2005 ordination promise in service to those in need;
“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? ‘ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me. ‘”