Kaalund was an Associate Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (PTS), where she was the first African American woman in the seminary’s history to be awarded tenure. Before her time at PTS, she was an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College, where she received the Junior Faculty Award from the Faculty Senate in 2020. She received her Ph.D. from The Theological School at Drew University in New Testament and Early Christianity.

Her book, Reading Hebrews and 1 Peter with the African American Great Migration: Diaspora, Place, and Identity (London and New York: Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, November 2018) explores the constructed and contested identities in Hebrews and 1 Peter through the lens of the “New Negro,” a similarly vulnerable identity formed during the Great Migration in the United States in the early twentieth century. Her research interests include Christian Scriptures, contextual Biblical hermeneutics, the study of early Christianity in its Roman imperial context, and African American history, culture, and religion. 

She currently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. She is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Academy of Religion, and the Society for the Study of Black Religion. Her scholarship has been supported by The Forum for Theological Exploration and The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology Religion. Prior to her career in academia, Kaalund worked in the healthcare management industry. She held various leadership roles at Johns Hopkins Health System, Cigna Healthcare, and Wellpoint (Empire Blue Cross BlueShield).