The Very Rev. Rob Courtney is a South Louisiana native, born and raised in Crowley. He attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in the early 1990s with a major in music media before beginning a career in radio. Rob worked as an on-air personality and program director for successful rock stations in both Lafayette and New Orleans, LA, before leaving radio in 2002 to become the first Parish Administrator at historic Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans. While working full-time at the Cathedral, Rob completed a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration through the University of Phoenix, graduating with honors, and formally discerned a call to ordained ministry with the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana.
In 2006, he and his family moved to Sewanee, Tennessee, where he attended seminary at the University of the South’s School of Theology. He served as student body president during his final year at Sewanee, and earned his Master of Divinity with honors. Rob was ordained to the diaconate on December 27, 2008, to the priesthood on June 27, 2009, and was called as Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Morgan City, LA. In Morgan City, Rob led an expansion of the parish’s outreach efforts to homeless and at-risk neighbors through a partnership with Episcopal Community Services of Louisiana and other local organizations. During Rob’s second year of ministry, Bishop Morris K. Thompson, Jr. appointed him as Dean of the Southwest Deanery of the Diocese. Rob also served a term on the Diocesan Executive Board and on the Diocesan Committee on Racial Reconciliation during that period. In 2012, Rob was awarded a “Citizen of the Year” award by the Tri-City Helping Hearts Foundation for his work on racial healing in the Morgan City community.
In December, 2012, Bishop Thompson appointed Rob as Priest-in-Charge of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church & School in New Orleans, and he was elected as Rector by the Vestry in August, 2013. Rob has since served a two-year term as President of the Diocesan Standing Committee. For the past decade, he has also served as chair of the Blessed Frances Joseph Gaudet Fund Committee, which administers grants and scholarships benefitting community organizations and African-American students throughout the diocese. Bishop Shannon Duckworth appointed Rob as the Dean of the Downtown New Orleans Deanery in 2023. Rob was recently accepted into the New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute’s (NORLI) class of 2024, and is a mentor-coach for other clergy through the Virginia Theological Seminary’s “Thriving in Ministry Initiative.”
Rob likes to play guitar and read in his spare time. He is married and has three children.
