I think I’ve always been interested in ministry; it took longer for me to hear that as a call until it became a matter of turning away enough times that I could no longer say “no.” From studying religion academically, to wanting to be there for a community in pain after a mass shooting, to thinking about writing and fiber arts as possible sites of community and care — I now seek to bring these seemingly disparate threads together.

In the academy…

I’ve spent years circling the world of religious studies, first as a religion major at Amherst College, followed by a brief time out of school to work in at the Unitarian Universalist Association in what was then known as the Religious Education Department. I quickly enrolled in the MTS (Master of Theological Studies) program at Harvard Divinity School, though, knowing I wanted more of what I’d enjoyed all along — religion, spirituality, theology, and social action. I studied American religious history with a distinct emphasis on religious liberalism, and I spent as much time as I could with the UU divinity school students. But it would be years before the path of ministry called properly.

In the meantime, I continued studying religion, receiving my Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University in 2010, where I studied religion in America, religious liberalism, gender, and the history of religious practices.