Julene TegerstrandRev. Dr. Julene Tegerstrand
Spiritual director, peace educator, curriculum designer, researcher, and technologist. I am a creator, and I make a place where people can be themselves, and where a whole group can come out of hiding. I live in Hull, Massachusetts, by the ocean, with my husband, Dr. Steve Tumolo, and two cats named Thurman and King.
A place to be yourself.
The people I sit with give themselves to others all day: pastors, nurses, doctors, educators, students. What they tell me they need most is a place to be themselves, where they do not have to perform or be the leader, and where they will not lose their job for saying what is true. I try to make that place.
I listen your soul into speech. People begin to hear themselves, and to see how God is already at work in them. Then I design the same listening for groups, through retreats, courses and seasons. With Steve, I co-founded Everyday Peacemaking.
My faith shapes how I listen. More on how that works.
Sometimes we need to be unformed so we can be reformed.
Dr. Julene Tegerstrand
2012, Boise, Idaho
I went to learn to sit with one person. It changed how I lead.
In 2012 I trained in spiritual direction with Mission Centered Education. I thought I was learning to offer one-on-one direction, which I have done, in higher education and with people in many other settings.
What happened instead was that I saw my leadership being transformed. I was learning to listen in a deeper, contemplative way, and it changed how I met my students, myself, and God. I began to see that I was not only becoming a spiritual director to sit in a chair with someone, although I want to do that. I was also learning to lead in a contemplative way.
That led me to my Ph.D. in Leadership Studies, and to a question I still carry: how do we become more attentive, grounded leaders and organizations, not only in how we practice and pray, but in how we lead?
It shapes everything I create. Sacred Seasons is not meant to give people more information. It is meant to accompany them, and to make space to listen to themselves and for God, so that it reaches their lives and their relationships. I have seen how our inner development and our relational development are tied together. Spiritual formation and conflict transformation are two sides of the same coin: one tends the person, and the other tends our life together in community and society.
I hope people use Sacred Seasons on their own, and that teams and churches can use it together, as a community whose souls have the freedom to come out of hiding. By soul I do not mean something ethereal. I mean the wisest part of us, reached and lived out among other people. We need wise people now more than I have seen in my lifetime.
How I got here.
- 2000 to 2004Outreach Ministry Coordinator, Westport Salvation Army
- 2004 to 2008English Conversation Instructor and associate chaplain, Korean Nazarene University
- 2009 to 2016Director of Student Ministries, Northwest Nazarene University
- 2012Spiritual direction training, Mission Centered Education, Boise, Idaho
- 2016 to 2024Professor of Intercultural Studies, Eastern Nazarene College
- 2021Ph.D. in Leadership Studies, Gonzaga University
- July 2024 to presentPrincipal and co-founder, Everyday Peacemaking
- January 2025 to presentAdjunct Professor of Christian Spirituality, Nazarene Theological Seminary
- August 2025 to presentAdjunct Professor of Christian Spirituality, Northwest Nazarene University
- 2026 to presentLearning and Evaluation Lead (contract), Restwork
What I bring.
Formation and direction
- Spiritual direction, one on one and in groups
- Spiritual formation
- Retreat design and leading
- Pilgrimage leadership
- Sabbatical design and accompaniment
- Contemplative practice
- Preaching and chaplaincy
Leadership and learning
- Leadership development
- Curriculum design
- Experiential education
- Teaching, mentoring and dissertation advising in higher education
- Learning and evaluation
- Program development and management
- Grant writing and management
Peace and conversation
- Conflict transformation
- Compassionate communication
- Dialogue facilitation
- Facilitating hard conversations for teams and organizations
- Intercultural studies and cultural humility
- Reconciliation
Story, research and technology
- Storytelling and podcasting
- Research and writing
- Building digital learning tools
The full record.
The detail, for anyone who wants it. My CV has all of it in one place.
The short version.
- What I do
- Spiritual direction, sabbatical design, and personal retreats. For organizations: workshops, retreats, and curriculum. Communication and conflict work through Everyday Peacemaking.
- Who I serve
- Individuals, pastors and ministry leaders, churches and Christian groups, and organizations in health care, nonprofits, and schools.
- Organizations
- Learning and Evaluation Lead (contract) at Restwork. Principal and co-founder, Everyday Peacemaking (with Dr. Steve Tumolo). Creator, Human is a Verb.
- Teaching
- Adjunct Professor of Christian Spirituality at Nazarene Theological Seminary and Northwest Nazarene University.
- Where
- Hull, Massachusetts. Working online and in person.
Where I have worked.
Current work first, then earlier work.
Learning and Evaluation Lead (contract), Restwork
2026 to presentIndependent contract role leading learning and evaluation for Restwork's care and practice for health care teams and other caregivers.
Faculty training, StoryCollab
Once a year since 2024On contract. Each year I co-lead a two-week faculty training in storytelling and podcasting, and in using both in curriculum design.
Principal and co-founder, Everyday Peacemaking
July 2024 to presentBuilding research-informed programs that turn spiritual formation and dialogue theory into everyday habits for workplaces, churches, and civic groups. Co-led with Dr. Steve Tumolo.
Adjunct Professor of Christian Spirituality, Northwest Nazarene University
August 2025 to presentTeaching in the MA in Spiritual Formation, including Nurturing the Inner Life.
Adjunct Professor of Christian Spirituality, Nazarene Theological Seminary
January 2025 to presentTeaching Doctor of Ministry courses in spiritual formation and pastoral practice, including Spiritual Direction, and Pilgrimage and Formation, and advising students from proposal to dissertation. Helping develop the Certificate in Spiritual Direction and consulting on the redesign of the DMin in Spiritual Formation.
Professor of Intercultural Studies, Eastern Nazarene College
2016 to 2024Developed and led the Intercultural Studies major, and taught spiritual formation, world religions, dialogue, and reconciliation and justice. Led student pilgrimages to the Camino de Santiago, Kenya, and Rwanda, and wrote and managed grants for missional education.
Director of Student Ministries, Northwest Nazarene University
2009 to 2016Oversaw mission programs, managed budgets, trained teams, and gave spiritual direction and leadership at campus retreats and chapel.
English Conversation Instructor and associate chaplain, Korean Nazarene University
2004 to 2008Taught English conversation and preaching, and mentored students.
Outreach Ministry Coordinator, Westport Salvation Army
2000 to 2004Coordinated programs for elder women and under-resourced middle and high school students in Kansas City.
What shaped how I work.
- Degrees
- Ph.D. in Leadership Studies, Gonzaga University (2021). Dissertation: Christian Contemplative Praxis for Women Religious Peace Leaders Engaged in Conflict Transformation.
Master of Divinity, cum laude, Nazarene Theological Seminary.
B.A. in Theology and Philosophy, magna cum laude, Point Loma Nazarene University. - Spiritual direction
- Certificate in Spiritual Direction, Mission Centered Education. Member of Spiritual Directors International since 2012. Soul of Leadership, Shalem Institute and Notre Dame Spirituality Institute (2024 to 2025).
- Dialogue and conflict
- Reflective Structured Dialogue Facilitator Training, Bob Stains Conflict Transformation (2021 to 2022). Bridge Building Facilitator Training, Interfaith America (2023 to 2024). Peace Leadership Academy, Heart to Heart (2022 to 2023). Dialogue Practices in the Classroom, Essential Partners (2020).
- Storytelling
- Digital Storytelling and Podcasting, StoryCenter (2023). Storytelling Scholar, Narrative Project with the Christian Century and Sacred Writes (2025 to 2026).
- Ordination
- Ordained Elder, Church of the Nazarene.
- Writing
- “Making Room for Reconciliation,” in One in Christ: Reconciliation, Justice, and Mutuality (Storian, 2013). “Hearing Between the Lines: The Practice of Listening for God,” in Spiritual Formation: A Wesleyan Paradigm (Beacon Hill, 2011).
Rooms I have been invited into.
Non-Violent Communication retreat (2019). The Summons (2021). The Call Retreat (2022). Bridge Building Retreat (2023). A nonviolent communication and leadership retreat for Fontbonne High School (2024, co-facilitated). Spiritual director at Northwest Nazarene University's student spiritual formation retreat since 2013.
Spiritual Directors International annual conferences (2013 and 2014). Wesleyan Theological Society (2023). Gonzaga Leadership Symposium (2015 to 2019). Wesley Conference at Northwest Nazarene University (2010 to 2016). Chapel speaker at Northwest Nazarene University (2009 to 2016).
I have led student and seminary groups on the Camino de Santiago in France and Spain (2022), on a peacemaking course in Kenya (2018), through Rwanda and Kenya (2024), and on a Celtic spirituality pilgrimage in Ireland (2025).
Want to talk about working together?
Tell me what you are noticing, and we will work out whether I am the right person to help.