The Chaplaincy Institute's clergy live out their calling to spiritual service through many paths. Some of our clergy work in traditional chaplaincy roles within hospitals and hospice, while others are called to more diverse community ministries. (Click on each clergy person's link for more information.)
Rev. Dr. Suzanne Nichols, JD, MTS
Rev. Dr. Suzanne Nichols is an ordained Interfaith minister (ChI 2007) and the former Acting Managing Director of The Chaplaincy Institute. She holds a Masters in Theological Studies from the Pacific School of Religion. A long-time Oklahoman who transplanted to Berkeley to attend seminary, she previously spent 30 years as an attorney doing mostly public health work in state government. Suzanne returned to Oklahoma in 2008 and is now serving as a part-time assistant pastor at Church of the Open Arms UCC in Oklahoma City. She is also developing a "ministry to ministers" program. She brings the skills from her wide-ranging experiences—as attorney, program administrator, mother, administrative law judge, executive director, board member, and interfaith minister—to her work.
Rev. Judy Ray
Currently, I am a Clinical Chaplain and Manager of The Center for Spiritual Care at Sharp Grossmont Hospital in San Diego, CA. Our facility includes the busiest ER in the county, as well as Woman’s Center, Rehab, Behavioral Health, and Cancer Center programs. We have five per diem chaplains, one part time staff chaplain, one resident chaplain, and thirty spiritual care volunteers providing spiritual care. I use my interfaith skills from ChI to bring Spiritual Care to a diverse patient population and staff, developing in-services and community programs which address the spiritual needs of a multi-faith community. I do so with confidence and skill, gained from my training at ChI. In addition, I serve as co-chair of the bioethics committee, spending time applying ethical principles to help facilitate decisions related to end-of-life, quality of life, and resolution of conflict among staff and families. I have also had a successful Spiritual Direction counseling practice for over 25 years, a practice that allows me to balance the death and dying process that I am intimately involved with in the hospital. Recently I completed training to be a Supervisor of Spiritual Directors.
Rev. Elizabeth River
I am an Interfaith Minister ordained from the Chaplaincy Institute for Arts and Interfaith Ministries in Berkeley, CA. My work and life purpose is to help people develop spiritual intimacy with themselves, with others, and their own divine source. The paths for doing this work are many; my path is to give spiritual direction to individuals and couples, and to marry people and help them deepen their spiritual intimacy with their partner. I also teach, write, give sermons and create sacred ceremonies, such as House and Baby blessings, among others. You can email me at reverend-river@comcast.net. My website is www.reverendriver.com.
Rev. John C. Robinson, Ph.D.
Rev. Dr. John Robinson is an ordained interfaith minister, author, and mystic. He holds doctorates in clinical psychology and ministry. He has taught extensively at men’s gatherings, professional conferences, churches and retreat centers. He is the author of three previous books on the interface of psychology and spirituality. His most recent book, Finding Heaven Here (O-Books), was published in 2009. Dr. Robinson lives on an island in the Puget Sound of Washington State.
Rev. Nancy Schluntz
Rev. Nancy Schluntz was ordained as an Interfaith Minister through the Chaplaincy Institute in 2007, with a practicum in Animal Chaplaincy. She subsequently completed a certificate in Spiritual Psychology, based on Jungian theory and the Kabbalah. Nancy’s primary ministry is with animals and their people, using intuitive animal communication to help animal/human families achieve greater depth in their relationship. She also provides spiritual guidance for people experiencing the deep grief of losing a loved animal companion. As Nancy says, “Animal voices are all around us. Every creature has a specific purpose and relationship with nature. They are so willing to share their wisdom with us, if we will only stop to listen.” In addition, Nancy serves as a co-facilitator of grief support groups for children at Circle of Care (a program of East Bay Agency for Children), helping them to express and move through their grief over the death of a parent. Previously, for many years she was Executive Director of a mid-sized, faith-based human services agency providing shelter and support services for homeless families with children.
Rev. Rebecca Senoglu
Rev. Rebecca Senoglu was ordained by The Chaplaincy Institute in May 2002, and has also completed a certificate program in Children’s Spirituality at First Steps in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Rebecca works as the Cancer Support Program Coordinator at Enloe Cancer Center in Chico, California, where she has developed programs like the “Telling Our Stories” writing workshops, the VIVA! support program for kids living with loved ones who have cancer, and the Enloe Cranes Project community healing arts and outreach project. She is also Project Manager for the Hmong Community Wellness Project for the California Health Collaborative, a volunteer chaplain for the Spiritual Care Team at Enloe Hospice, and Treasurer of the Chico Area Interfaith Council. She performs meaningful memorials and weddings for those who do not have a pastor, and she is employed by Chico funeral homes and by As You Like It Wedding Ceremonies as an officiant.
Rev. Patricia Stamm, M.D.
In my thirties I first experienced a deep desire to become a minister so that I could be a channel for Spirit. Finally, twenty-one years later—after the births of my son Jason and daughter Jennifer, and after establishing a career in psychiatry—I walked through the doors of ChI.
Now, having completed my studies (I was ordained in April), I am thrilled to be expanding my spiritual psychology counseling practice alongside the practice of psychiatry. In addition to returning to songwriting, I look forward to expanding my ministry in the following ways: weddings and celebrations of all kinds; offering interfaith sermons; and chaplaincy work in a neonatal intensive care nursery.
Rev. Shirley Strong
Rev. Shirley Strong is Dean of Students at the California Institute for Integral Studies and is the former Director of Project Change – a National Anti-Racism Initiative. She is also an interfaith minister, ordained by The Chaplaincy Institute in 2004.
Rev. Mary Tarbell-Green, M.A.
Rev. Mary Tarbell-Green, M.A. has been a certified alcohol/drug specialist and eating disorders counselor for 25 years, and has worked in residential and outpatient clinical settings both in Ohio and California. Chaplain Mary earned a Masters in Culture and Spirituality at The Sophia Center at Holy Names University, and she is an ordained interfaith minister through ChI. Her work in death and dying has included study with Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, as well as working with the “Grief and Growing” program that is part of the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center. Recently she completed Residency at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in a year-long CPE chaplaincy program. Currently she is a per diem chaplain at Alta Bates Summit Hospital, and is also a clinical facilitator for Critical Incident De-Briefings through Claremont Behavioral Services.
Rev. Tristy Taylor
In my ministry, I companion others as they craft their own authentic life. My own spiritual path includes making artwork, dreamwork, enjoying nature and journaling. I believe that we are all unique with individual paths, and that everyone deserves to have a minister to companion them. We are always co-creating with spirit, and when we make authentic, heart-felt choices, we craft an authentic, spiritual life.
See my websites: www.trismegista.com and www.churchofcraft.com, and my blog: www.createwithspirit.com.
Rev. Jan Thomas, MSW
Rev. Jan Thomas, MSW, is Program Director of the Chaplaincy Institute and ChI Core Faculty for Vocational Formation. An Interfaith minister, she earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Illinois and was ordained to Interfaith ministry through ChI. Previously Jan has worked as a psychiatric social worker, office manager, program director, environmental educator, curriculum writer, and communications specialist. Her ministry is dedicated to advancing a spiritual paradigm of Interfaith and to supporting ChI students' unfolding ministries. Her lifelong fascination with gleaning the wisdom of the world's sacred texts provides the grist for her monthly ChI website column. As a seminary administrator, her focus is on ministerial formation, curriculum development and coordination, collecting and sharing acapella sacred songs, and growing ChI's website, which she edits.
Rev. Lauren Van Ham
Lauren Van Ham was in the first class of ChI graduates and was ordained an Interfaith minister in 1999. She served as a hospital chaplain at St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco for eight years, specializing in adolescent psychiatry, palliative care, and bereavement support group facilitation. From 2004-2006, she was Executive Director for Green Sangha, a non-profit organization practicing spiritually-engaged environmental activism. In 2007, she renewed her ordination vows and declared herself an “Eco-chaplain,” re-dedicating her ministry to the care of the Earth and all Her inhabitants. Currently Lauren works for Saatchi & Saatchi S, as its Director of Learning and Development. In this work, she develops curriculum and facilitates sustainability training intensives and employee engagement retreats for companies committed to becoming more sustainable in their business practices. Lauren holds a B.F.A. in musical theatre from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.A. in Humanities and Leadership from Naropa University, and in addition to completing the Interfaith Ordination program, she completed ChI's training in Interfaith Spiritual Direction in 2006. In addition to her ministry, which she loves, she enjoys bicycling, backpacking, singing, dancing and laughing.
Rev. Stephanie Warfield, M.A. BCC
Rev. Stephanie Ann Warfield is Chaplain for the Seton Cancer Care Team in Austin, TX. She was ordained as an Interfaith Minister by ChI in July 2005, and is a Board Certified Chaplain through the Association of Professional Chaplains. Most of Stephanie's work involves spiritual care and counseling to adults in an outpatient cancer clinic that serves the working poor, unfunded, underinsured and immigrant population in the Central Texas area. In addition to caring for her patients’ health concerns in a pastoral manner, answered prayer for many also includes simple hospitality, financial assistance, food, housing and clothing. Previously she worked as Family Assistance Coordinator at Ronald McDonald House Houston. All of her clinical training (ten units of CPE) was completed at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, TX, where she discovered her passion for creative ministry while caring for patients (those young and those young at heart), families and staff through creative worship services, the production of two newsletters called “A Chaplain’s Journal” and “Heart Murmurs”, and monthly retreats called “Chillin’ with the Chaplain”. In addition to her ChI ordination, Stephanie has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish from the University of Texas, Austin, and a Master of Arts in Culture and Spirituality from Holy Names University in Oakland, CA. She has self-published three books: a Lenten reflection journal, a handbook on creative pastoral ministry, and a journal of interviews with a teenage cancer patient in the weeks before her death. Stephanie’s mantra: Listen softly and carry a big heart!)
To see the full list of ChI Ordained Clergy, click here.