Creighton University

It is my great privilege to serve as Director of Campus Ministry at Creighton University!  I have spent the best years of my life at Creighton University since 1997, when I began teaching Scripture in the Theology Department.  Since that time, I have been blessed with stupendous colleagues, outstanding students, and a talented, enterprising Campus Ministry staff.  I have been overwhelmed by the generosity, hospitality, and the spirit of service permeating the Creighton community, and it's a wonderful place to call "home."

My journey to Creighton's Department of Campus Ministry has taken me through two other midwestern Jesuit universities, where, like many of our students, I was "ruined for life" in the best way.  Jesuit education, as you may know, has a way of forming students who want to change the world, discover and live their holiest passions, and be exemplary team-players and leaders in their communities.  They are the "Magis" people who strive to be greater, to give more fully of themselves, to ask the more profound questions of life, and to serve others without constraint.  I knew that I would have to stay connected with these principles to nourish my intellectual, spiritual, and professional development, and that is what I did.

St. Louis is my home (Go Cardinals!  Go Blues!), so, like many of the Jesuits in the Wisconsin Province, I ended up at St. Louis University (SLU), where I studied philosophy, theology, and classical languages as an undergraduate.  Besides my full-time work at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital on Grand Avenue, several blocks from SLU, I was very involved in University and parish ministry.  When I wasn't working at the hospital, studying, or learning my lines for some theatrical production, I made myself available for service in the local community and the Church.  I worked in shelters and nursing homes, and learned the fundamentals of spiritual direction and retreat ministry.  In Catholic parishes, I coordinated R.C.I.A. (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) programs, taught religious education classes to children, adolescents, and adults, worked with lectors and other pastoral ministers, and even played liturgical music.

A few years later, I earned my doctorate, specializing in Scripture, at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Go Packers!).  When I moved away from my large German-Catholic family in South St. Louis, some of my friends and family wondered if I would take a break.  Not a chance!  At Marquette, I served as an administrator for an international center for information on school choice, while finishing my studies.  It was in Milwaukee that I became a founding member of the Ignatian Associates of the Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus.  (Check out our web site:  http://www.ignatianassociates.com)  Experiencing the Spiritual Exercises anew changed my life completely!  Since that time, I have served in a variety of apostolates connected with the Ignatian Associates and the Jesuits, including tutoring, teaching ESL, and leading summer camp for Jesuit middle schools, teaching Scripture at a Jesuit high school, and serving twice as a formation leader for Ignatian Associates in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Omaha.

I have appreciated many opportunities for growth as an Ignatian Associate, but I have most loved my mission at Creighton.  I consider myself a lifelong student, so life experience is my continuing education, along with my disciplinary research and a healthy hunger for acquiring greater breadth and depth of knowledge in related fields of study.  I know from engaging students as a Theology teacher, advising undergraduates, and accompanying them on retreats and service experiences, that Creighton students are fabulous.  I can count on them to be my teachers and fellow students of life.  If you would like to visit me, you can find me on the second floor of St. John's, in the heart of our campus.  I'll be the short one behind the big pile of books!