Meet our Ministers

Peg Dolan, RSHM Campus Ministry Center Malone Student Center, Suite 210    One LMU Drive MS 8445    Los Angeles, California 90045

Hours Mon - Fri, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m Tel     310.338.2860 Fax     310.338.1845

 

 

Ministers

Campus Ministry is a diverse group of talented men and women -- lay, clergy, and Religious -- Protestant and Roman Catholic -- dedicated to fostering the mission of Loyola Marymount University, especially the service of faith and the promotion of justice. The campus ministers support the many programs and activities that meet the spiritual needs of our students.

Rev. James Erps, S.J., Director of Campus Ministry

jerps@lmu.edu
Fr. Jim Erps, SJ has served as a campus minister since he was ordained a Jesuit Priest in 1980. This is his fifth “incarnation” at LMU. He came here as a freshman in 1966, as a Jesuit scholastic (seminarian) in 1971, as a young priest in 1983, as law school chaplain in 1996 and now as Director of Campus Ministry in 2009. He has also served as Director of Campus Ministry at Boston College and Newman Chaplain at Stanford University. Fr Erps has a strong interest in liturgy and helped develop the program at LMU in the 1980’s. He also brought CLC to LMU in 1991. His one claim to fame is an appearance as a priest on the TV show ER in October 2000 produced by LMU grad Jack Orman.

John K. Flaherty, Associate Director of Campus Ministry, Liturgy

jflaherty@lmu.edu
John has been involved in music and educational ministry for over twenty years as an educator, elementary school principal, music director, liturgy director, and composer. He has taught on the elementary, secondary, and college levels and is presently on the Campus Ministry Team at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he serves as the Director of Liturgy and Music and teaches in the Graduate School of Continuing Education. John has served as the Chairperson of the Liturgy Committee and Music Director for the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress since 1991. He is also a contributing writer for Modern Liturgy, Pastoral Music, Our Family, and Hosanna magazines. He sits on the Editorial Board of Table. His compositions and recordings are published by World Library Publications and GIA Publications. His credits include scoring soundtracks for Lorimar and ABC. He has worked extensively with the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops. John has been married to his wife, Kathleen, for 25 years and they have five children.

Lindy Wynne, Associate Director of Campus Ministry

lindy.wynne@lmu.edu
Lindy Wynne received her BA at Santa Clara University and her MA in Pastoral Care and Counseling from the University of San Diego. She spent her first three years at LMU in Campus Ministry working with the Christian Life Community (CLC) program, the largest collegiate CLC in the country, and now serves in the position of Associate Director of CM. She has been blessed to celebrate five sacraments at Mission Santa Clara, on the SCU campus, including the sacrament of marriage. She lives with her husband and two children in Torrance. One is a teenager, so please pray for her.

Sr. Joanna Carroll, C.S.J., Spiritual Direction

jcarroll@lmu.edu
Sr. Joanna grew up in Compton, California, one of six children. After graduating from Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles with her BA in Child Development/Psychology, she joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange. She served in Catholic elementary schools in both southern and northern California for 20 years as teacher, vice-principal, religion coordinator, liturgy and sacramental program director, and music minister. She then went back to school and earned a certification from the Institute of Religious Formation at St. Louis University and a Masters in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University Chicago. Next she served as Vocation Director for her congregation and then moved into the Spiritual Direction ministry. She has been a Campus Minister/Spiritual Director at LMU for ten years. She has a deep passion for relationship, discernment, reconciliation, and liturgy. She enjoys music, singing, dancing, gardening, nature and animals. She especially loves to hang out with students and throw a party!

Rev. Jason Darden, Protestant, Ecumenical and Multifaith Outreach

jason.darden@lmu.edu 
Jason Darden was born in Berkeley, Ca and raised in various parts of the country due to his father’s service as a lieutenant colonel in the army. Jason joined the LMU campus ministry team in August of 2012 as the minister of ecumenical and interfaith outreach. Prior to LMU, Jason served as the senior minister of a Church of Christ in Northern California. Jason also served as an infantry solider in the Army reserve but now as a chaplain and holds the rank of captain. Jason graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2005 with a Master’s in theology and completed his undergrad work at Harding University while playing NCAA football as a running back. Apart from LMU, Jason loves spending time with his wife Mary and their two daughters Alayla and Izabella. Jason also enjoys working on his golf game, watching L.A. Lakers basketball, recording and performing hip-hop music.

James Day, Outreach

james.day@lmu.edu
Originally from Northeast Ohio, James attended Cleveland St. Ignatius High School, followed by undergraduate studies at John Carroll University where he received his BA in Classical Languages. As a graduate student of LMU's School of Film & Television, James learned more about the California Province of the Jesuits. His thesis film played in numerous festivals around the country. In his Outreach position, James’s duties include operating Campus Ministry’s social media and website presence, liaison with other departments, and coordinating Campus Ministry’s involvement in events such as World Youth Day and LAREC. He is a Resident Minister in Huesman Hall, continues to pursue his film and Roman history interests, and enjoys reading works by his favorite author, Joseph Ratzinger.

Chris de Silva, Music Minister

Christopher.deSilva@lmu.edu 
Chris shares his gift of music ministry at national conferences, diocesan and parish retreats around the US, Canada, Europe and Asia. Chris has served at several faith communities in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, including Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church (Los Nietos) and St. Brendan Church (Los Angeles). Chris is a composer, arranger and recording artist at GIA Publications, Inc. He has recently joined the campus ministry team at Loyola Marymount University as Associate Director of Music and Liturgy, and is excited to journey with the students. Chris is a graduate of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music where he studied Music Composition and Film Scoring.

 

Rev. John Galvan, S.J., Infant Baptism, Marriage, and Confirmation

jgalvan6@lmu.edu
Rev. John Galvan, SJ has worked in Campus Ministry at LMU since August 2009.  His duties involve outreach to the Latino/Latina students, the Confirmation program, LMU wedding ministry; plus chaplain to the Athletic Department. Prior to coming to LMU, he most recently served as Associate Pastor at Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in San Diego, and before that he was engaged in spirituality studies at the Jesuit Tertian Studies Program in Salamanca, Spain. In 1989 Fr. Galvan joined the Society of Jesus novitiate in San Juan Puerto Rico. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Water Science and Engineering at the University of California, Davis in 1983. Fr. Galvan enjoys basketball (Arizona Suns); soccer (both Real Madrid and Barcelona); baseball, (to the consternation of many, an avid Yankees fan).

Christine Nangle, Retreats, Publications

cnangle@lmu.edu 

Kelly Nelson, Coordinator of CLC, Service and Faith Formation

kelly.nelson@lmu.edu 
Kelly grew up and continues to live in Southern California. She received her undergraduate degree in Communications from the University of California, San Diego, and she earned her Masters degree in Theology from Loyola Marymount University. Kelly has worked at LMU since 2007, and worked in the Division of Student Affairs before joining Campus Ministry. In addition to being a Campus Minister, Kelly is currently a Resident Minister, and highly values the process of discernment and contemplation applied to both her personal life and in her work with students. She is an instructor for the Theology of Ignatian Leadership course, and her other interests include traveling, cooking, and spending time with her family and friends.

Rev. Marc Reeves, S.J., Liturgy and RCIA

mreeves@lmu.edu
Fr. Marc is a native of Los Angeles and a proud alumnus of LMU.  He serves as a member of Campus Ministry's liturgy team and coordinates the student liturgical ministries of lector, Eucharistic minister, sacristan and acolyte.  In addition, he directs the R.C.I.A. program and teaches for the Department of Theological Studies as a lecturer in liturgical theology.

 

 

 

Sr. Thuy Tran, CSJ

thuy.tran@lmu.edu
Sister Thuy Tran, CSJ, is a Sister of St. Joseph of Orange. She overseas Taize, XLT-Adoration, Feed the Hungry program and other service programs at the Coordinator for Service and Spirituality for Campus Ministry. Thuy passion is faith formation; planning and designing programs, organizing, leading, and guiding the students at LMU. Previous to joining the LMU Campus Ministry staff Thuy was a parish director of youth ministry at St. Callistus in Orange County. Thuy also serves as a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph Healthcare Foundation Board. She is responsible for reading grants from nonprofit organizations that are seeking funding. She works with the Board to decide how to distribute the grants that best serve the poor. Thuy has led youth and young adult retreats, pastoral retreats and parish retreats. She has also traveled extensively with students international to help immerse them in faith-based service. Currently, Thuy is finishing her certificate in spiritual-director at through LMU and the Art for Spiritual Direction in Orange.

 

 

 

 

Marcela Yerena, Coordinator of CLC

marcela.yerena@lmu.edu 
Marcela was born and raised in Southern California. She attended Chaminade University of Honolulu where she first met the Society of Mary, the Marianist Brothers have been a part of her formation as a minister in many ways and continue to be. After two years at Chaminade she transferred to the University of San Francisco where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Theology. After graduation Marcela began her professional ministry as a program coordinator for the Diocese of San Bernardino in the Ministry Formation Institute. While working she began her Masters Degree in Pastoral Ministry through Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and completed her degree in 2009. For the past seven years she has been a high school religion teacher in the San Fernando Valley. Though she loved working with high school students Marcela looks forward to sharing her gifts and talents with the university community as the Coordinator of Christian Life Community here at Loyola Marymount University. Faith sharing communities have been an important part of her life especially as a college student and she hopes they will be the same for the students she works with. Marcela is blessed to be married to a spouse who is supportive and encouraging of her ministry and together they are parents to their daughter.