- New ELCA pastor selected
- The Rev. Charlene Cox has been selected as the chapel’s next ELCA pastor, and will begin in mid-July to work collaboratively in chapel ministry alongside the Rev. James Wetzstein. She has served the past two years as campus pastor at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa.
Ordained in 1991 in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America after earning her Master of Divinity from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., she earned a Master of Sacred Theology from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania in 2008. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D., in 1987. From 2004 to 2009, she served as campus pastor at Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa. She has prior experience as campus pastor for University Lutheran Ministry at Illinois State University from 1997 to 2000.
Pastor Cox succeeds the Rev. Darlene Grega who pioneered the role of ELCA ministry leader and whose April 2010 death was recently remembered during a memorial service at the chapel. The Rev. Phyllis Kersten has served as interim pastor during the 2010-2011 academic year.
Also recently appointed is the Rev. Brian T. Johnson as Executive Director of Campus Ministries at Valparaiso University. In accordance with recommendations from the Provost’s Task Force on Campus Ministries at Valparaiso University, he will direct and supervise campus ministries at Valpo primarily through the leadership, management and coordination of three units: the Chapel, the soon-to-be constituted Institute for Leadership and Service (which will include the present Center for Church Vocations), and the Center for Church Relations (now known as the Office of Church Relations). He will begin his duties on June 6.