Active duty Army chaplain and priest in the Episcopal Church
DUKE DAYS: “Army chaplains are simultaneously professional clergy and professional officers. As such, we must be experts in our craft as religious leaders and be well-versed in issues of national security and governance. Duke prepared me to hold those roles in creative tension through the Divinity School’s diverse curriculum and the opportunity to study at the Sanford School of Public Policy. I was particularly blessed to be shaped by professors who took seriously the distinctive demands placed on military chaplains and encouraged me to explore the Just War Tradition, moral injury, ethics, and interfaith dialogue and ecumenism. Those courses were not theoretical exercises; they became tools I now use daily. Duke gave me the intellectual foundation and moral imagination to serve faithfully as both priest and adviser.”
Success means: “The Reverend Frederick Buechner once wrote that vocation is found where deep gladness (or where our souls come alive) meets the world’s deep need. At this intersection, for me, is helping others feel seen, heard, valued and loved. I understand my place in the world as someone called to shine light in darkness, offer hope in moments of despair, and cultivate peace amid chaos. This calling is a religious calling that I am privileged to live out as a priest – someone entrusted to represent Christ in our world. Authentic success, therefore, occurs any time my actions align with my purpose, calling and values.”
THE FUTURE: She’s completing her Doctor of Ministry degree in educational leadership from Virginia Theological Seminary and will begin her next Army assignment at Fort Hood, Texas, this summer.
“There are very few professions where one could go from preaching on a Sunday to flying in a helicopter on a Friday, have every other experience imaginable in between, and find sacred meaning in it all.”