Alumni/ae Profiles

Editor’s note: Mykal Slack began his professional life as a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT and HIV/AIDS Rights projects and then served as a law clerk in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. After discerning a call to ministry and graduating from Union, he served in

What do you do? In terms of employment, I’m bi-vocational and currently earn my living through my political career, directing community outreach for New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.  As a priest, I am pleased to count as my “altar home” the Episcopal Church of St. Andrew and Holy Communion in South Orange, NJ,

What do you do?     I’m an interim pastor for the Southeastern Minnesota Synod of the ELCA. Ordained in 1978, I have served the Lutheran Church in America (LCA), now the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), for 38 years in various capacities as a parish pastor, staff for a council of churches, interim pastor, and

What do you do? That’s the question! I’ve recently retired and am sorting through life again, now that I’m no longer serving a congregation or doing counseling. Author Dan Kadlec speaks of this as “the real retirement struggle,” defining oneself as more than the sum of a long career. For 28 years I’ve been a

What do you do?  I am the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Security Cooperation. I lead an office responsible for overseeing the Department’s policy and strategy relating to U.S. defense engagements with partner nation militaries and defense ministries around the world. What do you like best about what you do? I’m fortunate that my

What do you do?  I teach at retreats and workshops combining theology, philosophy, and the arts in an effort to inspire. I’m also a writer, and this spring for the first time I had a short story published by a literary journal. I’ve just completed my first novel and am searching for an agent and

What do you do?  Arguably, bi-vocational ministry is on the leading edge of what ministry looks like now. I am deep in it. I serve as the Manager of Spiritual Care Services at Pathways Home Health and Hospice, the second largest home health and hospice agency in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am also

What do you do?  Technically I’m retired, but am nearing the close of several years’ research for my book entitled Claiming Different Forms of the Good News: Road to a Larger Gospel; Overlooked Bible Foundations for Growing in the Faith. (I would be pleased to hear of any faculty member or other person associated with

What do you do? I’m the full-time pastor of the First United Methodist Church of San Fernando, CA, and I also serve as the volunteer coordinator of Peace with Justice for the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church, which means I have at least one and a half jobs. Right now, my organizing efforts

What’s the best thing about your job? The best thing is working with a talented team of people to address pressing issues of the manipulation and misuse of religion to justify violence. It is also a great privilege to serve my religious vocation in a way that addresses some of the most pressing issues in