Mary Nordhagen is new to UUCW, though not new to Unitarian Universalism. After moving to Wauwatosa with her family a year ago, having a UU community nearby was important to Mary. She attended orientation sessions and officially joined UUCW last spring.
Mary lives with her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. Her daughter had been working remotely for a Milwaukee-based company from their home in Missoula, Montana, and decided relocating would be beneficial. After a visit confirmed the possibility—and with Mary’s own job transitioning to fully remote—they made the move in less than three months. Mary works as an accountant for an attorney’s liability insurance company and plans to retire this fall.
Mary spent the first 18 years of her life in a conservative small town in southern Idaho, and later realized her parents had chosen their Presbyterian church because it had the most liberal minister in town. When they moved to Moscow, Idaho, they joined the UU church and remained active members for the rest of their lives.
Mary has two children, a son and a daughter. Once they were older, she sought connection and community, discovered a UU fellowship in Missoula, and joined. Through continued learning and involvement, Mary found her spiritual home in Unitarian Universalism.
Over the years, Mary has served in many roles within her congregation, district, and region. She is grateful to have found such a vibrant UU community and looks forward to getting to know others at UUCW.
Deb Stevens has been a committed member of UUCW since 1997. She was born in Milwaukee and raised in the Town of Lisbon in Waukesha County. After earning her degree in Mass Communications from UW–Milwaukee, she worked in local radio and television production. She currently serves as a special education teacher’s aide at Glen Hills Middle School in Glendale. She and her husband, Jeff, have two children—Wren, 25, and Megan, 23—both of whom were raised in the Religious Education program at UUCW.
Over the years, Deb has served UUCW in a variety of roles, including Chair of the Adult Enrichment Committee and as a teacher in the Religious Education program. She has also served on the Nominating Committee and, more recently, on the Safety and Security Committee. She currently serves on the Worship Ministry Team. In her free time, she enjoys attending concerts, theater, and films, as well as feeding the birds and caring for her indoor and outdoor plants. She looks forward to the opportunity to serve on the Board, to deepen connections within the congregation, and to help the open-hearted community continue to grow into the future.
Shawn Kalloway first encountered UUCW in September 2001, shortly after the attack on the World Trade Center. She and her husband, Dave Feil, had recently moved to Wisconsin and were expecting their first child. In search of community, they decided to visit UUCW. Though Shawn had not grown up with organized religion and was unsure if a church could meet their needs, and Dave—who had grown up in a church but was wary of organized religion—suggested Unitarian Universalism as a possible fit. Both felt immediately welcomed and at home at UUCW.
Shawn and Dave raised their two children, Kathryn and Elliott, in the congregation, and both children built lasting friendships through the Religious Education program. Over the years, Shawn volunteered in many roles, including serving on the nursery committee, the cookbook committee, coffee service, and teaching Religious Education for a decade.
Beyond UUCW, Shawn was a long-standing board member of the Waukesha Park Foundation until her resignation earlier this year, when she chose to explore new service opportunities.
Joining the UUCW Board of Trustees offers Shawn the chance to help guide the church she and her family have long called home, and she looks forward to her time of service.
Almuth Soffee was born in southern Germany to parents who had settled there after becoming post–World War II refugees from Czechoslovakia. At the age of 12, she immigrated with her family to the United States, first to Milwaukee and later to a farm near Jefferson, Wisconsin. After her marriage, she and her husband lived on the East Coast and in several Midwestern states before returning to the Milwaukee area to raise their two children. Following her divorce, Almuth and her partner Ed moved to Brookfield. After Ed’s passing, she remained there and is now a twenty-five-year resident of the community.
From 1977 until her retirement in 2015, Almuth worked in sales and client support for several companies. While she continues to enjoy traveling and discovering new places, her greatest passion is gardening, and she devotes much of her time to tending her large garden. Her love of nature also led her to join UUCW’s Earth Ministry Team and to serve on the Board of The Friends of Retzer Nature Center in Waukesha.
Almuth and her husband were members of UUCW in the late 1970s for two years, but it was not until 2002—motivated by her desire to sing in a choir—that she returned. A fellow choir member, Lilo Sewell, invited her to join the Worship Ministry Team, and over the years she has served on many committees, including Earth Ministry, Campus, Nominating, and Endowment.
A New Age spiritual seeker since the late 1960s—especially following the untimely death of her 25-year-old sister—Almuth found her spiritual home when she returned to UUCW in 2002. Attending the weeklong UU Midwest Leadership School in 2018 reinforced her commitment to the congregation, while the Wellspring program offered through the church proved to be life-changing. She continues to be inspired and guided by the deep connections formed in her Wellspring Reunion Group.
Serving on the UUCW Board of Trustees offers Almuth a meaningful opportunity to give back to the community she deeply loves, and she looks forward to her time of service.
Jennifer Luken is a mother, a wife, and deeply committed to making her community and the world a little better. UUCW has become a grounding space for her and her family, and she is thankful to be a part of it.
Mark grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, and came to Wisconsin in 1969 to attend UW-Madison, where he received a Master’s Degree in Meteorology in 1971. His career consisted of 49 years in the environmental, health, and safety (EHS) field working for Wisconsin Electric Power Company, SC Johnson & Son, and several consulting firms. He has two sons from a marriage to his former wife, who passed away in 2018. In 2022, he married Terese Dineen who is also a UUCW member.
Mark previously served on the Boards of the Elmbrook Little League and the Federation of Environmental Technologists, an organization for Wisconsin EHS professionals. Over the years, he served as a tutor with the Dane County Big Brothers / Big Sisters organization, the Milwaukee Public Schools / YMCA One-On-One program, and the Waukesha Literacy Council. He coached for 5 years in the Elmbrook Little League and volunteered as a dog walker for 5 years at the Elmbrook Humane Society.
Sports is a passion of Mark. He ran track and cross country in high school, was a coxswain on the Rutgers University Crew Team for 3 years, and is an avid fan of the Packers, Brewers, Bucks, and Badgers.
Dogs have been family members of his for the last 45 years. Terese and Mark currently share their home with a 12-year-old lab mix by the name of Nike.
Mark has been a UUCW member for 12 years. He just completed serving on the search team for our new settled minister. Currently, he serves on our Finance and Earth Ministry Committees, and the Membership Team, and also enjoys the fellowship of our Men’s Breakfast Group and weekly meditation group. He has previously served on the Endowment Committee, the Committee on Ministry, the Lay Pastoral Care, CommUUnity Connections and Usher Teams, and the Safety and Security Task Force.
Mark looks forward to joining the Board of Trustees to continue serving this joyous, liberal spiritual community that embraces and cares for its members and promotes many causes aligned with our values for the greater good in our metropolitan area.
Nick is a new addition to the UUCW congregation becoming a member in the fall of 2023. During this time, he wanted to figure out where he fit in and how he could help. After talking with Rev. Julie, he realized he wanted to read and work towards speaking in front of the congregation. Nick also joined the family choir with his two daughters for the Christmas service. He participated with the Solstice Singers to learn more about the winter solstice ritual but could not contribute during the ritual due to his daughter’s surgery.
The UUCW congregation has opened their arms and honestly, feels like home. After hearing there was one spot available on the Board of Trustees, he knew this was his chance to give back to UUCW. Nick can bring an open mind and respectful perspective to the Board.
There is a lot of new change coming to UUCW and he would like the opportunity to be a part of this change.
Lastly, Nick would like to thank everyone for the opportunity to be nominated for the Board and he looks forward to continuing his journey with UUCW.
Natalie has been a member of UUCW since 2008. Before joining UUCW, she attended holiday services at First Church with my (now ex) husband’s mother and felt a connection with the UU church she had never experienced in the Lutheran Church of her youth. When she was going through my divorce, she ran into Reverend Suzelle on the playground (their children were in the same grade at the same school), and she encouraged Natalie to try UUCW. It was exactly what her young children and Natalie needed. Natalie felt like she had been looking for the UUCW community and Unitarian Universalism her whole adult life. UUCW is her spiritual home; she was a participant in the first Wellspring group and found the experience to be transformative. She has been both a participant and a facilitator in Wellspring, having taught in RE, and is a founding member of Kaleidoscope, the UUCW Worship Band. Natalie is also a member of the Twisted Stitchers, a knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, (and any other crafts) group.
Both Natalie’s son and daughter were active in RE and the YRUU high school group, and both were privileged to travel to Boston for a UU Heritage Trip. Her son also made a service trip to the Lakota Indian Reservation; COVID put a stop to some of her daughter’s opportunities, though she was a NAYC delegate and helped plan a number of CONS. She traveled with her son Will to Nicaragua in 2016 as part of the UUCW Bridges to Community group and helped build a house for Maria and her family. Owing to Julia’s youth leadership, she was a chaperone for several YRUU CONS, another amazing and transformative experience.
Professionally Natalie is a lawyer, mediator, and ombuds. She currently works full-time as an Ombuds at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Until May 2022, she split her time between MCW and Marquette Law School, where she taught the small claims mediation clinic for 10 years and helped design and implement a foreclosure mediation program that was used statewide. Through her work at Marquette, she also traveled to Israel 4 times with law students as part of an International Conflict course studying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Natalie has extensive experience serving on volunteer Boards and committees; including the Wauwatosa East Town Neighborhood Association Board, the Friends of Hoyt Park Pool Board, and as past chair of the Wisconsin State Bar’s Dispute Resolution Section and Section Leaders Council. She currently chairs the American Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Section Ombuds Committee Legislation Action Task Force and serves on the Milwaukee Chorister’s Endowment Committee.
Natalie shares a house in Wauwatosa with her 85-year-old mother Judi, who joined UUCW after she moved to Wauwatosa in 2017, a cat, Willow, and a dog, Jemma. Her son Will is 25 and recently moved back to Wauwatosa after finishing college; her daughter Julia is 22 and a first-semester senior at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan.
Natalie was a member of the Interim Search Team, which was a challenging and fulfilling experience and paved the way for her to be a member of the Ministerial Search Committee. She looks forward to the opportunity to continue serving our beloved UUCW community as it moves into the next exciting phase.
