Presenters – 2024

Dr. Elaigwu Ameh 

Elaigwu P. Ameh is the Karen Peterson Wilson Assistant Professor in Theater at St. Olaf College. He holds an MA and a PhD in performing and media arts from Cornell University and an MA in development communication from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He is a recipient of the Arrupe College Book Prize for graduating with a First Class in the BA (Hons.) Philosophy program at the University of Zimbabwe, Harare. His many awards/grants include Public Humanities New York Fellowship, Sage Fellowship, HASTAC Fellowship, and the Bouchet Honors Society Award. His teaching and research interests include performance ethnography, dramatic criticism, devised theater, forced migration, postcolonial Africana performances, and race, gender, and inequity. In his work, he underscores the unique priorities and perspectives of socio-politically excluded people. His most recent play, Displaced, was produced at St. Olaf in 2022. His two current book projects are Lives Between the Lines: Performing Internal Displacement in Nigeria and Performing Black Fatherhood: Fabrication, Silence, Repair. He is also working with students on a multimodal performance project, Staging Care. This project will explore and perform care as a concept and how it is inhabited among older adults in the Northfield and Faribault areas.

Dr. Anton Armstrong

Dr. Anton Armstrong is the longest tenured  Conductor of the St. Olaf Choir. He is the Harry R. and Thora H. Tosdal Professor of Music at St. Olaf College. He is editor of a multicultural choral series for Earthsongs Publications and co-editor (with John Ferguson) of the revised St. Olaf Choral Series for Augsburg Fortress Publishers. In June 1998, he began his tenure as founding conductor of the Oregon Bach Festival Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy. Dr. Armstrong currently serves as Chair of the National Board of Chorus America and has returned to serve on the National Board of The Choristers Guild and has served as a guest lecturer, clinician and conductor across the globe.

In recent years Dr. Armstrong  has guest conducted such noted ensembles as the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square, the Utah Symphony and Symphony Chorus, the Utah Voices and Salt Lake City Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Westminster Choir, the American Boychoir, The Houston Chamber Choir, The Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, The Phoenix Chorale, Indonesia Youth Choir, and the Ansan City Choir, South Korea. He has also collaborated in concert with Bobby McFerrin and Garrison Keillor.   

In January 2006, he received the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching from Baylor University. In June 2013 Dr. Armstrong received the Saltzman Award from the Oregon Bach Festival. The festival’s highest honor, the Saltzman Award is bestowed upon individuals who have provided exceptional levels of leadership to the organization. For a complete list of honors, awards and honored guest appearances, please see Dr. Armstrong’s St. Olaf profile.

Keerthana Babu

Keerthana Babu (‘23) is a M. Div. student at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she is Vice Moderator of the Lutheran Student Group. Her hobbies include painting, baking, learning new languages, and traveling. In the future, Keerthana hopes to both seek ordination in the ELCA and to also continue her academic journey by pursuing a doctorate in comparative theology.

Dr. Jo Beld

Jo Beld was appointed vice president for mission in 2014. She serves as executive liaison and secretary to the St. Olaf Board of Regents and as the college’s accreditation liaison officer. She oversees College Ministry, the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community, and the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment, and serves as a member of the St. Olaf Council on Equity and Inclusion.

A tenured professor of political science, Jo joined the St. Olaf College faculty in 1984, teaching American politics, public policy, ethics, and research methods, and serving as director of general education. In 1998 she was appointed faculty director of evaluation and assessment, leading the development of St. Olaf’s nationally recognized program of student learning assessment as well as college policies and procedures for the protection of human subjects in research. Jo has served as a speaker, program evaluator, and workshop facilitator for a variety of higher education organizations, including the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the Association of Governing Boards, the Southern Education Foundation, and the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). She has also provided workshops and keynotes for dozens of colleges and universities on student learning assessment and governance.

At St. Olaf, Jo has led the development and launch of the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community, and the expansion of College Ministry to a multi-faith team that includes associate chaplains for Jewish and Muslim life as well as Lutheran Christian pastors. Since 2020, under Jo’s leadership, St. Olaf has been awarded nearly $2.42 million in grant funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. and the Council of Indpendent Colleges Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) to support a variety of initiatives fostering vocational exploration and discernment within and beyond St. Olaf, engaging students, faculty, staff, and a wide variety of congregations throughout the United States.

Jo completed a B.A. at Bethel University and an M.A., an M.Phil., and a Ph.D. at Yale University, all in political science.

Rev. Dr. Char Rachuy Cox

Rev. Dr. Charlene Rachuy Cox serves as the Director of Programming, Engagement, and Innovation for Congregational Thriving through the St. Olaf College Lutheran Center. Pr. Char has been described as pastoral and inspiring, thoughtful and empowering, open and welcoming, prophetic and influential. Pr. Char holds a Doctor of Ministry Degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, with an emphasis in Spirituality; a Master of Sacred Theology Degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, with an emphasis in Preaching and Worship, a Master of Divinity Degree from Luther Seminary, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Augustana University, Sioux Falls. She has served as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for over 30 years, serving in congregational, collegiate, and seminary settings. Her ministry passions include preaching and worship, spiritual formation, vocational discernment, mentoring, and being a voice of “great permission” that encourages people to imagine and embrace what it means to be church today. Pr. Char loves reading – especially memoirs and historical fiction, and enjoys writing poetry and poetic prose, traveling, and all things winter.

Rev. Amanda Dahlseng-Monroe

Rev. Amanda Dahlseng-Monroe (she/her) serves as the associate pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Loves Park, Illinois. She is the creator, owner and writer for Faith Fix, a curriculum writing small business working with and alongside churches around the country. Amanda graduated from Luther College in 2009, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Religion and Social Work. She then graduated from Wartburg Theological Seminary in 2022, where she earned her Master of Divinity. Every sermon, devotional, or lesson that Amanda writes is grounded in and celebrates God’s love for everyone and everything that God has created. She has a deep passion to loudly and clearly make it known, that God loves all people. Outside of ministry, Amanda is a marathoner, loves to lose herself in a good book, enjoys playing guitar and singing, can be found cheering loudly at sporting events or live concerts, and is happiest when she is surrounded by her three children.

Jason DeRose

Jason DeRose ‘97 is National Public Radio’s Religion Correspondent, reporting on the ways belief shapes American public life and the ways American life shapes religious expression. He served previously as NPR’s Western Bureau Chief, editing news coverage from Member station reporters and freelancers in California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada,
Alaska and Hawaii. He also edited coverage of religion and LGBTQ+ rights for the National Desk.

Before joining NPR, Jason worked as an editor, reporter, host and producer at public radio stations in Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis and Tampa. His work has been recognized by the Religion News Association (RNA), for two awards from the organization for pieces he reported and three for stories he edited. Jason has also earned awards from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists’ Association (NLGJA) for coverage of the intersection of religion and LGBTQ+ rights as well as coverage of non-binary communities.

Outside of public radio, Jason worked as an oral history interviewer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., a nursing home chaplain in Chicago, and a journalism trainer at the International Center for Journalists in Washington, D.C. He has taught journalism ethics, radio reporting, multimedia storytelling and religion reporting at DePaul University in Chicago and at Northwestern University and frequently guest lectures in journalism classes at the University of Southern California. He currently serves on the board of Holden Village, a Lutheran retreat center in Washington state’s Cascade Mountains, and is an active member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Santa Monica, California.

Jason holds a master of divinity from the University of Chicago and studied religion reporting at Northwestern University. He graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from St. Olaf College with majors in religion and English, and received St. Olaf’s 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award.

Vonda Drees

Vonda draws inspiration from the natural world, the writings of mystics and voices for justice. Contemplative from an early age, creative practices gave her space to converse with the questions and ponderings deepest in her. She writes, “There are things I learn about myself, my particular ways of seeing and being, that through art surprise me and sweep me into Mystery.”

Vonda and her husband, Jim, live in a blue-roofed log cabin named “Sombrero Azul” on the ancestral land of the Tonkawa people near La Grange, Texas. They served as directors of the Grünewald Guild, an art and faith retreat center in Washington State, from 2016-2020. Vonda shares images from her devotional practice over social media, teaches, and hosts online creative journaling communities.

Learn more at vondadrees.com.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vondadrees/

Rev. Dave Efflandt

Dave Efflandt is the lead pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and School in Waverly, IA. He has served congregations in the Southeastern MN, Northern IL and Northeastern IA synods of the E.L.C.A. since graduating from Wartburg Seminary in 2015. Prior to seminary, Dave was a middle school band and choir teacher in Minnesota and California. Along with spending time with his wife, Sarah, and their two adult children, Austin and Isabella, Dave enjoys golfing, composing music, and joining community bands and theater groups as a trumpet player.

Megan Engel

From virtuosic organ toccatas to delicate choral arrangements to the grittiest progressive metal, Megan Engel (she/her) loves how music can support individual spirituality and build community. She has served as a church musician since age 13, when she played organ for her small church in rural Southwestern MN. Formal training includes a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance (Indiana University, Bloomington), a Master of Arts in Organ Performance (University of Iowa), and additional graduate work at the University of Minnesota. She has worked with congregations in Minnesota, Indiana, and Iowa, and since 2017, serves as the Director of Music and Worship at Bethel Lutheran in Northfield.

Megan lives in Northfield with her husband, two sons, and two cats (Wolfgang and Swift). In her free time, she enjoys singing with local community choir I Cantanti, listening to true crime podcasts, and puzzling.

Rev. Katie Fick

Pastor Katie is thrilled to be at St. Olaf and the most satisfying part of her call is meeting and talking with students about anything – relationships, vocation, family, stress, faith, doubt, joy, homework – whatever is on their minds! She reads incessantly, runs periodically, enjoys movies and the theater, goes to as many student events as possible, and travels whenever she can, from Washington, D.C. to Germany to South Sudan.

Rev. Nick Fisher-Broin

Pastor Nick Fisher-Broin has been an ordained pastor in the ELCA for 36 years,
serving two rural congregations and a program sized church in SE Minnesota. His
spouse Cindy is also an ordained ELCA pastor. Originally from SE Pennsylvania,
Nick came to the Midwest to attend St. Olaf College and remained here. Having
served as Outdoor Ministry staff at Camp Koinonia and Good Earth Village, Nick’s
parish ministry has been deeply influenced by the creativity and imagination that
comes with outdoor ministry. Over those 36 years, his emphasis has been linking congregation
with ministries of children / youth and Global church partnerships. Music (guitar song-leading
and song-writing) has been a passion for all of Nick’s ministry. Other interests include choral
music, camping, travel, woodworking, log home construction, and operating the 475 acre home
farm with Cindy and their eldest son. Nick and Cindy have raised five children (two of whom
are adopted), four sons and a daughter, several foster children and have four grandchildren.
Nick and Cindy live on the home farm near Wanamingo, MN.

Mac Gimse

Mac Gimse ’58 is a Professor Emeritus of Art at St. Olaf College. He began teaching Sculpture, Ceramics and Art History at St. Olaf in 1970. His areas of specialty were the Visual Cultures of India, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and Africa in the Non-Western world, plus the Arts of Europe and the Middle East. He taught Monuments to Power and Faith to OLES on 35 programs around the world.

The original 24inch HORIZON bronze sculpture, created by Mac Gimse, was built into a 24ft stainless steel sculpture by TMCO Metal + Arts Division in Lincoln NE, and installed on campus next to the wind turbine – BIG OLE – in February 2023. It was sponsored by Greg ’77 and Lisa Nave ’77 Buck. At the dedication of HORIZON in September, 2023, an Art Endowment Fund was established for students and faculty to create a Striving for Peace Garden in the area around the Flaten Art Barn.

Mark Heiman

Mark Heiman is a Northfield, MN based folk musician who has been leading community sing-alongs for more than 35 years, drawing on our country’s rich traditional and modern folk repertoire. He loves helping people to sing together regardless of skill or training, simply for the joy of making music and growing connections.

Katie Houts

Katie Houts is the Sacred Choral and Curriculum Editor for Choristers Guild. Serving CG since 2013, Katie curates and edits sacred choral anthems, collections, musicals, curriculum, and teaching resources; she also serves on the faculty of the Choristers Guild Institute. She studied music at Wartburg College (Waverly, IA), where she majored in Church Music (Organ) and Religion. She has served in ELCA, UCC, and UMC congregations as Director of Music, Worship Curator, Organist, and Children’s Choir Director.

Katie is a published composer and a frequent clinician at sacred conferences throughout the country. She serves on ACDA’s National Committee for Composition Initiatives, working to support and champion the work of living choral composers. Katie is also a sought-after professional accompanist, performing throughout Minneapolis, Boston, and Salt Lake City metro areas.

Katie is based in Salt Lake City, where she leads choral ensembles throughout the community, including Rise Up Children’s Choir – Utah’s premiere contemporary vocal performance group for ages 6-18. She conducts RUCC’s intermediate ensemble, Rise Up Ignite, and is the assistant director and accompanist for the advanced mixed children’s choir. She also teaches second grade music and directs the 5th and 6th grade choirs at Wasatch Charter School (Holladay, UT).

Emily King-Nobles

Emily King-Nobles ’25 is a senior social work major with a specific interest in public health. She has worked for The Nourishing Vocation Project for the past two years, connecting with local churches and creating blogs and webinars . Throughout her time at St Olaf, she has been involved in study abroad programs, the writing desk, the creation of the women’s club soccer program, Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity and SOAR freshmen orientation. In her free time, she enjoys long hikes, rock climbing, coaching youth soccer, writing, poetry and spending time with the people she loves. Emily has a passion for the life-changing ministry of churches and bridging the gaps between young people and church today.

Rev. Shellie Knight-Senglaub

Pastor Shellie Knight-Senglaub began her seminary journey in 2017 at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, IA as a distance student. After her first year, she entered into the collaborative program through WTS and the Northern Illinois Synod which placed her as an extended intern with the title of “Vicar” at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Warren, IL while she finished her remaining 3 years of seminary. Upon ordination in 2021 with a master’s degree in divinity, Pastor Shellie took her first call to serve St. John’s Lutheran Church in Pearl City, IL. In the fall of 2023, Pastor Shellie answered God’s call again, and began serving in ministry alongside the people of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Freeport, IL.

“I was invited to the CWTA in July 2021 as part of the 1^st Cohort with the Nourishing Vocation Project and have been able to utilize the resources in my last and current congregations. It has been delightful to see the participants of two very different contexts respond and engage with the NVP studies and worship materials. I am excited to share my experiences, observations, and opportunities for further exploration and learning during our breakout session at this years CWTA.”

Rev. Sue Leibnitz

Pastor Sue Leibnitz has served at Trondhjem Lutheran Church in Lonsdale, MN for just over 8 years.  In her first call, she draws on her life experience and wisdom from her previous vocations as teacher, systems analyst and caregiver.  She loves the variety of ministry in a smaller faith community and is enjoying the experience of participating in the Nourishing Vocation Project.  She lives in Prior Lake with her husband and two adult children.  The cabin is her happy place.  Knitting, kayaking and reading are her happy passions.

Rev. Dr. Matt Marohl

Matt Marohl is the College Pastor at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. A pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Matt has served in congregations in the Chicago-area and in the Quad-Cities. He is also a graduate of the University of St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland, with a Ph.D. in New Testament and has taught at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois.

William Mathis

William H. Mathis retreaded after a 50-year career as a church musician. A graduate of Westminster Choir College, Bill served churches and colleges in the Midwest, California, and Oklahoma. He is an active clinician, leading workshops or guest conducting in 35 states; he’s known for a rehearsal style which leads to greater musical understanding. He is the founder and current music director of Bells of the Lakes, and has been the conductor of Chorus Polaris since 2017.

Rev. DaMisha McFarland-Pollock

DaMisha McFarland-Pollock (she/her) is a pastor serving two churches in Burlington, IA.  She is an eco-womanist theologian who seeks to name the voices in scripture that are often overlooked, misunderstood, or misrepresented so often in sermons and bible studies.  She is an ELCA Coach with a certification in Creation Care and she is working on a certification in Discipleship coaching. DaMisha loves to read, take hikes, write poetry, and dance.  She is passionate about small town and rural ministry. A belief that we are all God’s children and should be treated accordingly guides her daily interactions with herself and those she encounters.

Leslie Mulder

Leslie Ruth Mulder ’03 is an organization development consultant and leadership coach focused on helping people and systems understand their strengths, envision their futures, and navigate change. For the last fifteen years, Leslie has coached executives and leaders to build change capabilities while becoming more effective, influential, and resilient. Leslie consults with groups and organizations, developing leaders through customized programs and facilitation. St. Cloud, MN, is where Leslie calls home. Here, she co-founded the Trauma
Responsive Church Initiative at Love First UMC (2018-) and Parents & Allies of Trans
Youth (2022-).

Eric Parrish

Mr. Eric E. Parrish holds a Masters of Music degree from the University of Northern Colorado and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Gustavus Adolphus College where he toured annually as a member of the Gustavus Choir. He is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Directing at Minnesota State University, Mankato, while continuing as instructor of music and theater at Minnesota West Community and Technical College, and serves as Director of Music at First Lutheran Church in Worthington, MN. Since 2006, Mr. Parrish has been the conductor for the Worthington Chamber Singers and has commissioned three works by Minnesota-based composers for the ensemble. He has also studied at Middlebury College, Colorado College, Sarasota Opera, and Nautilus Music Theater/Wesley Balk Institute, and has studied church music with Mark Sedio, David M. Cherwien, and Dr. David Fienen. As a bass/baritone, Mr. Parrish has performed throughout the upper midwest, Colorado, Michigan, and Vermont.

Rev. Sergio Rodriguez

Rev. Sergio Edson Rodriguez (el/he/him) serves as the pastor of parish life at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas. He currently serves the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod on its council, as the chair of its elections committee and LGBTQA+ coalition and on the Latinex Strategy team. Sergio graduated from Baylor University in 2012, where he earned a Bachelor’s of Arts in Religion. He then graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary with a Masters of the Arts in theology with a thesis over the Graeco-Roman Rherotical devices in the Good Shepherd Discourse. He graduated from Wartburg Theological Seminary, where he earned his Masters of Divinity degree, Hispanic Ministry concentration. His preaching, and teaching are firmly grounded in a theology of the cross as made manifest through complexity of life in Christ. In particular, his focus is on expanding perspectives regarding the breath, length and depth of Lutheran life and practice as found in Mexican cultures. Outside of ministry, Sergio enjoys gardening, a good book of poetry, and spending time with his fiancée, Justin and their two cats, Alucard and Johann Sebastian.

Rev. Teresa Stewart

Rev. Natalia Terfa

Natalia is a Lutheran pastor and author who lives in Minneapolis with her hubby, kiddo, and kitty babies. She loves to bake, to read, practice yoga, and find nature adventures. She is passionate about the church of the future, one with no boundaries and filled to the brim with love and grace and laughter and snark and a lot of fellow “not that kind of Christians.”

Dr. Deanna Thompson

Deanna A. Thompson is Director of the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values and Community and Martin E. Marty Regents Chair in Religion and the Academy. Thompson’s work at St. Olaf focuses on advancing the mission and programming of the Lutheran Center and promoting inter-faith dialogue both within and beyond St. Olaf.

As a white Lutheran theologian, Thompson has addressed white privilege and anti-blackness in dominant forms of American Christianity in her writing (“Calling a Thing What It Is: A Lutheran Approach to Whiteness” in Dialog, 2014), speaking in churches on the topics of white privilege and structural racism in American Christianity, and teaching Contemporary African American Religious Thought for over twenty years. She believes it’s her responsibility as a white Christian to educate herself and others on the historical and present realities of racism in Christianity and to actively work against those structures in her professional and personal life.  

The author of five books, Thompson’s Crossing the Divide: Luther, Feminism, and the Cross (Fortress, 2004) was one of the first to bring Martin Luther’s theology into sustained conversation with feminist thought. Since her 2008 diagnosis of incurable cancer, Thompson has written Hoping for More: Having Cancer, Talking Faith, and Accepting Grace (Cascade 2012), a theo-memoir on living with cancer; The Virtual Body of Christ in a Suffering World (Abingdon, 2016) on how digital tools can help the church better live its mission of caring for those who suffer; and Glimpsing Resurrection: Trauma, Cancer, and Ministry (Westminster John Knox, 2018), a text that uses research on illness-related trauma to explore places in the Christian story for those undone by serious illness and help them glimpse resurrection. In 2014 Thompson also published a theological commentary on the biblical book of Deuteronomy for the Westminster John Knox Belief commentary series and was awarded “Reference Book of the Year” by the Academy of Parish Clergy. In addition, Thompson’s writings have appeared in the Huffington Post, Christian Century, Living Lutheran and Gather. She is a sought-after speaker nationally and internationally, speaking recently at McGill University, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Brigham Young University and the University of Victoria, B.C.

Thompson has also held leadership positions in the American Academy of Religion (AAR), serving as President of the AAR’s Upper Midwest Region for six years and on the AAR Board of Directors for eight. Prior to coming to St. Olaf in 2019, she taught religion at Hamline University for more than two decades, and received teaching and scholarship awards from students, faculty, alumni and the Hamline Board of Trustees. In 2016 she was inducted into the Burnsville High School Hall of Fame. When she’s not writing, speaking or teaching, Thompson can be found hiking in a national park with her husband and two children.