I grew up during the Cold War—with a father who flew a military spy plane for the Air Force. After my father retired we moved to his hometown—Forest Grove, Oregon—and in my ninth grade year I met Mark, who has been my husband for 28 years.

In 1984 Mark took a position in the psychology department at George Fox. We spent the next nine years in Newberg, where I worked part time as a nurse at Newberg Community Hospital, took classes at George Fox, and eventually earned a Ph.D. from Portland State University. We grew our family during those years, and solidified our ideas about who we were and what we were to be about as citizens of the world nearing the 21st century. Our exposure to Quakers came during this time, and my appreciation for a pacifist response to international conflict resonated with me, even as I continue to appreciate a Christian presence in the military. I found a spiritual home among the Quakers, and continued to be drawn to Quakers during our 13-year sojourn in the Midwest.

In 1993 we left Newberg for Chicago and were blessed with meaningful and enjoyable work at Wheaton College, as well as an opportunity to taste life in the Midwest—including magnificently cold and snowy winters, cardinals, fireflies, sultry summer nights, the Cubs, and the suburbs. I taught in the sociology and anthropology department, and Mark taught in the graduate program in clinical psychology and directed the Center for Church Psychology Collaboration.

After 13 years we responded to our longing for home—to return to our roots and family in Oregon. So in 2006 we closed a satisfying chapter, and opened another as we returned to Oregon. It is good to be home.

When I'm not teaching I'm likely walking, or tending the oaks and ferns in the forest where we live—striving to keep the land around our home hospitable to the deer, butterflies, birds, and squirrels that have called it home far longer than I have. My writing overlaps with some of the courses I teach at George Fox—and emerges out of my hope for the church to be strong hands, feet, and voices, cooperating with God to restore what has been broken. Writing The Contented Soul, my most recent book, was good for my soul. For a year I thought and wrote intentionally about contentment—how we understand it as Christians and what makes it elusive in a culture that has so much at its fingertips. The contented life is ultimately the good life—one committed to holding hope while pursuing justice and mercy; where one walks gently on the earth realizing we belong not to ourselves, but to God, others, and even the earth itself. Contented souls walk among the ruin to see what beauty yet lives, to encourage life and shalom, and to find joy and abundance even in the midst of the world's brokenness.

Mark and I have three daughters who are making their way out of our home and into the world. Rae lives and works in eastern Oregon; Sarah and her husband, Jason, live and work in Michigan; and Megan is studying at Princeton Theological Seminary. We enjoy every opportunity we have to be together, and God willing, hope to one day all reside again in the same state.