Current Position
Since April 2000 Christine has served as Chaplain at Hospice of Mercy, Mercy Medical Center, Cedar Rapids, IA. "In this position, I offer spiritual care to terminally ill patients and their families, making home, nursing home, and hospital visits, offering ongoing prayer and support, offering bereavement follow-up services, facilitating bereavement support groups, conducting funeral/memorial services as needed, providing spiritual care to the hospice staff, and offering outreach/education to the broader community as requested."

Career Path
Although Christine attended Grinnell for only a few semesters, she notes "I would have loved to have finished there, but circumstances changed that and I finished my B.A. at the University of Iowa with a double-major in religious studies and psychology." Christine holds a Master of Divinity degree from Boston University School of Theology as well as four Basic Units of Clinical Pastoral Education (New England Deaconess Hospital and Fairview-Southdale Hospital). Ordained as a minister in the Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1988, Christine says she "surrendered those orders in 1994 because I felt I could no longer live with hiding the fact that I was a lesbian in a committed relationship."

After seminary, Christine served as an associate pastor at the First United Methodist Church in Mt. Pleasant, IA and then relocated to Minneapolis where she completed a residency in Clinical Pastoral Education at Fairview-Southdale Hospital. "After giving up my ministerial orders, I worked at the Minnesota AIDS Project as a housing advocate and then at Clinic 42 of Abbott Northwestern Hospital as a Case Manager for people with HIV/AIDS. My partner and I returned to Iowa in 1996."

In Iowa Christine worked first at Goodwill Industries as a case manager for people with brain disabilities. "Subsequently, I worked for a year and a half at the Congregational Church in Iowa City as the Christian Education Director there.

In April, 2000 I took a part-time job as hospice chaplain/bereavement counselor at Hospice of Mercy; this became a full-time position last December. While still part-time, I also served on-call as a chemical dependency counselor at the Sedlacek Treatment Center as Mercy Hospital. For the past 3 years, I have served as an adjunct instructor at Kirkwood Community College teaching introductory ethics courses. I preach at various churches as requested and my partner and I speak at churches and colleges regarding g/l/b/t concerns."

How She Can Help
"Interested students could certainly shadow me in my work for brief periods." She notes that internships are a possibility but that she would have see first if she could work out arrangements with the hospital.

Contact the Career Development Office if you wish to get in touch with her.