I was born in Pennsylvania and lived there until my father joined the Foreign Service when I was eight. At that point, my family moved first to the Washington, D.C. area and then on to assignments in Kuwait, Peru, France, England and Grenada with stints in Washington in between. You can guess that from this experience, I love to travel!! I have also been blessed to have friends from all over the world who have greatly enriched my life and learning.

 

           

I married my husband Scott in 1998 and we have two sons – David is 20 and a student at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. Justin is 16 and will be a junior this school year at St. Anselm’s Abbey School in the District. Scott practices law and specializes in telecommunications at the law firm of Arnold and Porter.

 

People often ask me how I came to be a pastor.  I can’t say that I had an experience like Martin Luther where I was stuck in a violent storm, nearly struck by lightning and in fear of my life so promised to become a priest as he did. However, as I grew in my own faith journey and became more involved in the community of the church, I felt pulled in the direction of ministry by the encouragement of others, mentors and friends who saw in me the gifts for ministry, as well as in the quiet voice inside that I knew was God at work within me as I navigated the personal trials that life sometimes throws at us. Knowing the difference that God’s grace has made in my life, and the support and prayers of my community of faith, I decided to enter seminary. I graduated from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 2013.  I subsequently served at Redeemer Lutheran Church in McLean, VA and St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Centreville, VA.

 

In 2016, I went on leave from call to continue my education at The Catholic University of America and completed a second Master’s degree in Religion and Culture, and continued my studies in the doctoral program there, also in Religion and Culture. My particular area of study is the sociological aspects of religion in the American context, and I am interested in the phenomenon on religious and cultural pluralism in American society. By studying these issues, I hope to make a contribution in helping our Lutheran denomination live more faithfully into the realities of the 21st century, where we are confronted with very different issues than were the Lutherans of the past.