Julie Higgs to Serve as Dean of the Chapel and Director of Learning for Life

Dear Wartburg Community,

I am delighted to announce the result of our search for the new staff position, Dean of the Chapel and Director of Learning for Life.  We are very excited that Pastor Julie Higgs will be joining us mid-August to serve in this new position.

Pastor Julie Higgs is a Colorado native who has called Iowa her home for the last 29 years. A second-career pastor, Julie first received a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Michigan and worked as a health care fiscal and policy analyst for the California State Legislature before moving to Iowa. A 1996 graduate of Wartburg Seminary, Julie served as an associate and a solo pastor in congregations on the Iowa side of the Quad-Cities, then served as an assistant to the bishop of the Southeast Iowa Synod. For the last eight years she has served as pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Adel, just west of Des Moines. Julie is a pianist who dabbles with other instruments. She and her retired husband, Keith Staley, live with their rescue dog Jessie, a fiercely protective Schnauzer/Australian Shepherd mix, and enjoy trips around Iowa visiting their four (plus one on the way) grandchildren.

Please hold Pastor Julie and her family in your prayers during this time of transition, and join me in warmly welcoming her to our community when she moves to Dubuque in August.

We give thanks to God for Pastor Julie, and look forward to the ways she will enrich and strengthen Wartburg Seminary and our mission in the world with her gifts.

President Kristin Largen

The Rev. Kristin Johnston Largen, Ph.D. [she/hers]
President, Wartburg Theological Seminary
333 Wartburg Pl.
Dubuque, IA  52003
(563) 589-0300