Holmgren made international headlines last year when she traveled with her daughter and others on a medical mission trip to Covenant hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo while her husband Mike was coaching the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL. The trip was sponsored by the Covenant-affiliated Paul Carlson Partnership.

Grace Matters host Peter W. Marty interviewed Holmgren, who talked about the choices she and her husband have made and how their faith and family commitments focus on those choices. She said, "You know, it's always been faith, family, and then his profession."

In his reflection on the interview, Marty says that, "Keeping 'the main thing, the main thing in life' is a challenge for all of us. How we focus our internal life, centered in God as it deserves to be, and our external life, centered in service to others as it should be, says a lot about whether or not we have life together. Guest Kathy Holmgren...understands these internal and external dimensions of life extraordinarily well."

Holmgren is a 1969 graduate of North Park College, and continues to be a strong supporter of the university. The Holmgrens attend Mercer Island Covenant Church in Mercer Island, Washington.