Senior Pastor Caitlin Trussell
Born in Boston, raised in Pasadena, married a Nebraskan, and now in Denver for the past 20 years, Pastor Caitlin Trussell has covered a lot of ground literally as well as professionally, personally, and theologically. She was a Registered Nurse for 16 years, working in hospitals with families caring for children with cancer and then managing home hospice teams of RNs, Chaplains, Social Workers, and CNAs who supported families caring for dying loved ones at home. During that time, she received a Master’s in Nursing from UCLA as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Pediatric Oncology, Bone Marrow Transplant, and Pain Management. She moved to Colorado and married Rob in 1995. Their family soon grew to include their two children.
Baptized through the Roman Catholic Church while living with her first father, then baptized again through the fundamentalist Christian tradition of her step-father, Pastor Caitlin spent about ten years as a religious refugee wondering if there was a place to hang her theological hat. When their children were born, Rob’s unscathed Lutheran memories, and Pastor Caitlin’s fond memories of older church ladies, drew the Trussells into a neighborhood Lutheran church.
Pastor Caitlin was captured by God’s love that is constant as we struggle with our flaws, doubt, and despair; and as we delight in life earnestly, ironically, and irreverently. The pastor there invited her to preach which instigated Rob and their congregation’s encouragement of her to become a pastor. By 2011, she completed her Master of Divinity degree at Iliff School of Theology which includes concurrent coursework at Luther Seminary.
The two-year wait for a congregational call found her speaking and teaching at church retreats; leading funerals and weddings by referral; and preaching for various Metro Denver congregations including New Beginnings Church within the walls of the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility which she is still doing intermittently.
A pastor of Augustana since February 2013, Pastor Caitlin preaches, teaches, and leads worship in addition to providing pastoral care and congregational leadership. She is grateful that God bestows grace in and through flawed people called the church and is grateful to be both a recipient and preacher of this grace with Augustana Lutheran Church—a group of people who live into this grace together by tethering into a rich worship tradition and free to figure out what it means to be people of faith in this place and time.
Contact Pastor Caitlin at 303-388-4678 ext. 115 or by email. You can also visit her website: http://caitlintrussell.org/.
Pastor Kent Mueller is currently serving in a parttime interim position at Augustana as Assisting Pastor for Communication Technology and the Arts. He is a lifelong Lutheran who was born, baptized, and brought up in Longmont, Colorado. He attended Augustana University, Sioux Falls, SD, and Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, OH, before serving two parishes in Ohio and one in Denver. He then served on the Bishop’s staff of the Rocky Mountain Synod, ELCA, for 20 years.
Pastor Karen Ullestad has served as a pastor in the ELCA since 2005, with calls in Ohio and Iowa, before retiring to the Denver area in 2022. She has been a lifelong Lutheran with additional interests in church music and nursing. She loves to read, experiment in the kitchen and enjoys traveling. As an Assisting Pastor, her areas of ministry at Augustana include worship leadership, pastoral care and adult learning.
A native of West Caldwell, New Jersey, Andy is a graduate of St. Olaf College and the Cleveland Institute of Music. A recipient of numerous awards, he plays as ensemble organist with the St. Louis Symphony. His first season in 2013 included performing Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes at Carnegie Hall on what would have been Britten’s one hundredth birthday. In addition to playing solo organ recitals and leading hymn festivals, he often accompanies silent film comedies starring Harold Lloyd.
Bill is a long time Coloradan who grew up in Boulder, completed his undergraduate degree at Colorado State University and received a master’s degree in taxation from the University of Denver. He worked in public accounting for 13 years with Ernst & Young before spending the last 28 years of his career in various finance roles at Anthem, Inc. (now Elevance Health). Bill is a retired CPA and, following a brief retirement from corporate accounting, has accepted the Finance Administrator role at Augustana where he and his wife have been members for more than ten years.
When Augustana’s Publications Administrator Lyn Goodrum began working at Augustana in 1992, she used WordPerfect 5.1 in DOS to create Augustana’s bulletins, newsletters, and other print media. Thirty years later, Lyn is grateful for the Windows and Apple environments and Adobe’s great publication software.
Augustana’s Building and Grounds Manager, Asmir (Seki—pronounced Shekee) Hodzic, has been a beloved member of Augustana’s staff since 2000. He and wife, Mira, and daughter, Sanja, and grandson, Blaze, live in Aurora. Originally from Bosnia, the Hodzics immigrated to the United States in 1996 and settled in Denver. When asked what he does on his days off, Seki smiles and says he works. He also enjoys watching CNN and other news channels.