Areas of work: Wilderness Retreats, Gonzaga Explore, Creation Hikes, Integral Ecology Workshops, Sustainability Collaborations, Men's Ministry
It's a profound joy to serve our community as a Specialist for Ecological Spirituality. In animating Pope Francis's Laudato Si': On Care For Our Common Home, the hope of my work is to give students opportunities for encountering God through incarnational, sacramental, and Christological experiences of creation and to invite the Holy Spirit in transforming our "ego-systems to eco-systems." Zags unceasingly inspire me with hope in the creative and life-giving vision they embody, and it's a privilege to be able to accompany our students in their journey.
My calling to ministry began as a catechist at my Korean Catholic home community in San Diego, and my formation was deepened with Franciscans on a farm in Siberia, the Jesuit Refugee Services in Cambodia, the Taizé Community in France, and Dominicans at the University of Oregon Newman Center.
I studied philosophy and psychology at the U of O while working in vineyards and a neuroscience lab, and then I began a ten-year career in wildland fire on helitack units, a prescribed fire module, an interagency hotshot crew, and a military veteran handcrew as a captain, during which I received a master's in organizational leadership from Gonzaga. I continue to deploy now as a fireline EMT on a REMS team.
As pictured above, I conducted prescribed fire operations for ecological restoration, and now I feel drawn to St. Ignatius of Loyola's call to "go forth and set the world on fire" in a new way for the regenerative healing of our world and for the greater glory of God.