YOUR STORY MATTERS HERE: Katie Mannas

By Tim Wesley

Katie Mannas has a long list of hobbies.  

She enjoys crafts. Loves baking, especially cakes. Participates in a women’s bowling league and sports an average of 150, with a high game of 246. Hunts deer with her husband, Kyle, creating “another way for us to bond.” Serves with the Ladies Auxiliary of the Cranberry Township Volunteer Fire Company, supporting her father and Kyle, who are firefighters. (Her father is a Cranberry Township police officer, too.)

Katie also has a passion for music, especially country music, especially Rascal Flatts, along with Casting Crowns and even Elvis. Over the years, that passion evolved naturally into singing.

“As long as I can remember, I have been singing in church, probably since I was 3 or 4 years old,” said Katie, 29. “Music speaks to people differently, and it can help if you’re going through something difficult.”

Like, for example, a funeral.

At 15, Katie was asked to sing her favorite song at her grandfather’s service. The song? “I Can Only Imagine” by MercyMe, a tearjerker in any setting. So how did she manage to sing it at such an emotional family occasion without breaking down?

“Barely,” she said. “God was clearly with me, and I knew I needed to get through it. Other people needed to hear it that day. So, I made it through, then sat down and had my own meltdown.”

These days, when Katie sings with Dutilh’s praise band and choir, the songs don’t always cause meltdowns, but her passion comes through loud and clear.

“I just feel that music is a good way for people to communicate and get a message out of the song,” she said.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Katie moved to Cranberry Township with her family – parents Bill and Becky Ahlgren, and younger sister Sara – in 2006 and graduated from Seneca Valley High School. She married Kyle, also an SVHS graduate, in 2019.  

A year later, she and her mom were church shopping. They checked out Dutilh in February 2020, shortly before the pandemic caused a switch to virtual services.

“Initially, we just loved how welcoming and friendly Dutilh was,” Katie said. “And we’re still meeting people after two years, because some members are just starting to come back to live services. It makes you want to keep coming back every week.”

Katie said she values the role that faith plays in her life, including in her job at Greater Pittsburgh Ob/Gyn. As a medical assistant, she escorts patients into exam rooms, takes their vitals and helps doctors during exams. In particular, she enjoys working with expectant mothers because she sees them often enough to build relationships and eventually might meet their babies during post-partum visits.

“I really enjoy hearing all of the names that parents come up with, sometimes some pretty unique names,” she said. 

Katie offered this advice to anyone who wants to work in the medical field: “Be open-minded and open-hearted. It takes a special person to work with people who might be going through difficult times, and a lot of understanding to see what they are going through.”

In her job, she’s seen patients experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  

On a typical morning she might enable an expectant mother to hear a tiny heartbeat for the first time. That afternoon, she might also meet with a woman who just lost her baby to a miscarriage. Through it all, Katie strives to show compassion and empathy, and relies on her faith – including Dutilh’s mission statement to Love God, Love Others and Love to Serve – to remain steadfast.

“Being in the medical profession, I think that mission statement is a good motto to live by,” she said. “You can experience some difficult times, and just realizing God is by your side in those situations is a nice reminder. You really have to be a listening ear for some people.”

Her biggest on-the-job challenge has been helping patients through the grieving process.

“Patients who have miscarriages have to come back to the office and go through the process of grieving and of getting their bodies back to a healthy point to be able to try have a family again,” Katie said. 

“We try to counsel them in a way that makes them comfortable, offer our condolences for what they’ve gone through, and make sure they know we can provide resources for them.”

For Katie, faith helps to provide the strength to have those conversations.

“I need a lot of strength to get through those visits with them,” she said, “to provide that shoulder for them to be able to express their feelings to me.”

Along with regular attendance and singing at Dutilh, Katie nurtures her faith through a weekly Bible study with her mom and sister, and her Aunt Pam. Currently, they’re reading a book called “100 Stand-Alone Bible Studies,” and it has helped Katie learn and apply some vital life lessons. 

“It’s helped me to realize that I need to enjoy life and not let circumstances overwhelm me, especially things I can’t control,” she said.

Sounds like that study group is another good hobby for her long list.