Staff Spotlight: Chris McClead and Lynn Streefland

By Chad Divine
Cardinal Staff

Saint Mary’s University’s Office of Campus Ministry has a new team calling the shots this year.

Chris McClead, director of campus ministry, and Lynn Streefland, assistant director of campus ministry, are drawing upon their unique experiences to change the way members of the SMU community engage their faith.
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McClead, who was born and raised in nearby La Crosse, Wis., attended St. John’s University of Collegeville, Minn. Although he ultimately received a degree in theology with a concentration in pastoral ministry, he was originally interested in pre-engineering studies. “Within the third day of physics class, I could’ve sworn (my professor) was speaking German,” McClead joked about his initial pursuits. “I said ‘I’m done!’ I signed up for Youth Ministry, and I’ve been hooked ever since.”

A huge step in McClead’s formation, he said, was getting out of America. He studied abroad in Australia and, after graduating, was hired by the Japanese government to teach English in Japan for a year. After his teaching experience, he took the money he was given for his plane ticket home and went on a 60-day journey through nine countries, including Cambodia and Indonesia, with the woman who would become his wife.

Influenced by almost everyone he has met, be it friends, teachers or mentors, McClead is thankful of “the chance to learn about (himself) everyday through others,” but also takes pride in operating in his own fashion and in being there to help others in times of their own self-discovery.

Streefland hails from Webster, Minn., near Northfield. She obtained degrees in theology and pastoral and youth ministry from SMU. She attended Notre Dame for graduate school, where she received a Master of Divinity.

Before returning to SMU, Streefland volunteered in Milwaukee with Dominican Volunteers U.S.A. as well as working in a parish in Buffalo, Minn.

Educational immersion trips are a source of great inspiration for Streefland. She had an internship in the Dominican Republic, and her travels have also taken her to Cuba, El Salvador, Israel, Palestine and Jordan. “All of those trips combined, they changed who I am, and they make the world smaller. ... I was able to understand people and hear people and learn that the face of what we do maybe look(s) different sometimes, but that we all have the same hopes and dreams and desires for our world and we just live it out in different ways.”

McClead and Streefland are working together to invigorate the Office of Campus Ministry by encouraging diverse and inclusive participation from students during liturgies and by revitalizing Lasallian Collegians.