First Communion and Beyond

Katie Prejean McGrady is host of the Ave Explores podcast and The Katie McGrady Showon Sirius XM's The Catholic Channel. She is an international speaker, the author of Room 24: Adventures of a New Evangelist and Follow: Your Lifelong Adventure with Jesus, and the coauthor of Lent: One Day at a Time for Catholic Teens, Advent and Christmas: One Day at a Time for Catholic Teens, and First Reconciliation and Beyond: A Family's Guide for Learning and Living Forgiveness.

Prejean McGrady also serves as host of the Like a Mother podcast and cohost of Family Mass Prep on the Hallow app. She writes for several outlets, including Blessed is She, Our Sunday Visitor, and Aleteia, and contributes coverage on the Vatican and Church news to CNN. Prejean McGrady has spoken at the National Catholic Youth Conference, Steubenville Youth Conferences, and the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, as well as in dioceses and parishes throughout the world.

Prejean McGrady earned a theology degree from the University of Dallas.

She lives in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with her husband Tommy and their children.

Tommy McGrady is a biology teacher at Lake Charles College Prep in Louisiana, cohost of Family Mass Prep on the Hallow app, and a parish coach for the Accompaniment Project with the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry. He is the author of Life Teen's Unleashed: Men of Scripture and coauthor of Lent: One Day at a Time for Catholic Teens, Advent and Christmas: One Day at a Time for Catholic Teens, and First Reconciliation and Beyond: A Family's Guide for Learning and Living Forgiveness.

He has spoken at a number of youth rallies, youth ministry trainings, and diocesan events throughout the country.

In 2016, McGrady earned a distinguished young alumni award from Eastern University, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in biology in 2010. In 2023, he completed his master's degree in educational administration. McGrady previously served as the coordinator of youth and young adult ministry in the Diocese of Scranton and as a campus minister and theology teacher at St. Louis Catholic High School in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

He lives in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with his wife Katie Prejean McGrady and their children.