The Rev. David K. Olson, M.Div., has joined the affiliated staff of the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life as the chaplain of Elon’s LEAF Community. LEAF (Lutherans, Episcopalians and Friends), a voluntary religious and social fellowship among Elon students and staff, began in September 2007 under the leadership of Olivia Hubert-Allen ’09 and Zackary George ’11.
LEAF gained official SGA organizational recognition in spring 2009.
Olson’s ministry is supported by gifts from the North Carolina Lutheran Synod in Salisbury, N.C., and the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina in Raleigh, N.C., as well as generous donations by the parishioners of Holy Comforter Episcopal Church and Macedonia Lutheran Church, both located in downtown Burlington. Olson’s official hiring authority is the LEAF Community Board, Inc., an independent, non-profit community board chaired by Elon alum and Macedonia parishioner Yvonne Rudiscill White ’77.
The current student officers of LEAF are Ross Denyer ’11, president; Roberta Hawthorne ’10, vice-president; and Jeff Serra ’12, treasurer. Larry Vellani, P ’09 and the university’s director of corporate and foundation relations, serves as the LEAF faculty advisor. LEAF joins in worship, fellowship and dinner every Sunday evening at 5:00 p.m. at Holt Chapel during the academic year. All students, faculty and staff are welcome to attend the worship and a home-cooked meal afterward.provided by members of local Lutheran and Episcopal parishes.
Born in Florida and raised in North Carolina, Olson is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, a 20-year-old national coalition of three formerly independent Lutheran bodies. He received his undergraduate degree from Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, N.C. He received his master in divinity degree from the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, S.C. He also has performed graduate work at the Australian Luther College in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia and the School of Divinity at Duke University in Durham, N.C, where he served one year as the Director of Lutheran Campus Ministry.
Commuting from Winston-Salem, where he lives with his wife Andrea, a resident in anesthesiology at Baptist Hospital, and their 3-year-old son Isaac and 1-year-old daughter Maya, Olson maintains office hours at the Truitt Center on Wednesday’s from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., on Sunday’s at Holt Chapel from about 3:30 – 7:30 p.m. and by appointment.
To make an appointment, contact the Truitt Center at 336.278.7729 or drop by Holt Chapel on Sunday evening before the 5 p.m. service and fellowship.