MOTA Staff
Laurie Larson Caesar
Laurie Larson Caesar is co-pastor of Mission of the Atonement and has been journeying with the community for more than thirteen years. Her Master of Divinity was earned in 1992 at Harvard Divinity School, with a focus on Martin Luther and Lutheran theology, women and spirituality, and ongoing interfaith conversations. In 1994, she studied for a year at the Graduate Theological Union and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California.
Her heroes are Sojourner Truth, St. Francis of Assissi, Hildegard of Bingen, and WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes. Her current favorite thinkers are Wendell Berry, Sandra Schneiders, Michael Pollan, Meg Funk, Walter Brueggemann, and the poet Mary Oliver. Right now she’s captivated by the music of the late David Carter and Tracey Grammar (“Buddhist County”), Gillian Welch, Allison Krauss, Justin Townes Earle and Polecat Creek.
Drew, her husband of fifteen years, is a Presbyterian pastor and licensed clinical therapist, who focuses on adolescents, adults and families, and loves hiking, guitar, skiing and baking incredible cinnamon rolls. Sophie, their adolescent daughter, enjoys soccer, basketball, violin, guitar, composing songs, poems and essays, softball, her pet cats, leopard geckoes, new golden-doodle puppy, and dark chocolate.
Laurie's faith was formed by the community of Christ Lutheran Church, Libby, Montana -- an ELCA congregation which her great-grandparents Carl and Anna Larson helped found nearly 100 years ago. Laurie graduated from Libby High School and has been learning about the mystery and majesty of God ever since -- especially from the Benedictine sisters of Our Lady of Grace monastery in Beech Grove, Indiana, and her wise and witty Lutheran colleagues in the Oregon synod, particularly those involved in the project "Practicing the Faith in Salmon Nation."
Laurie enjoys leading spirituality retreats, learning from the ancient wisdom and faith practices of others in other traditions, walking in the woods of the Pacific Northwest, playing basketball, learning claw-hammer banjo and listening to any music that is raw, honest and true.
Mary Follen
Mary Follen is the Minister of Spiritual Programs at Mission of the Atonement after taking the long way home back to her roots as a Roman Catholic. Many years after her undergraduate degrees in Molecular Biology and Medical Technology, she received a Masters in Theology from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago in 2003 where her concentration was in Spirituality, with an emphasis on the mystics and their understanding of God's relationship to human suffering.
Prior to her graduate studies, Mary's background in science and her world travels and experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer confirmed in her St. Bonaventure's claim that God's first book of revelation is the natural world, and the second book, the human experience. She continues to read from those sacred texts but loves sharing her passion for the wisdom literature and spiritual practices that are among the treasures of our common Christian tradition.
Susie Snortum
Susie Snortum brings a small business management background to her position here as office manager. She owned a catering business in California's Silicon Valley for 12 years, then went on to serve as an organization consultant for small businesses. She discovered her love for church office work in 2003, working in the youth department and then worship and music at a large church in California. She brought her two teenage children to Oregon in 2006 and married Knute Snortum, a software developer and church musician. Knute has two grown children. Before coming to MoTA in 2009, she provided member services at the Beaverton Area Chamber of Commerce.
Susie was educated at California State University, Chico, Heald Business College, and the California Culinary Academy. She identifies herself as Presbyterian, but loves the blurring of denominational lines in the interest of worshiping our one God together.
