Julie Tonnesen

Associate University Chaplain for Community and Religious Life

Rev. Julie Tonnesen (she/her) currently serves as the Associate University Chaplain for Community and Religious Life. In this role, Julie works closely with the staff and student leadership of Wake Forest University’s religious and spiritual communities to ensure that they have all that they need to thrive.  In addition to providing structural and administrative support to these communities, Rev. Julie coordinates ecumenical programming among the religious and spiritual communities.  She also serves on the university’s care team, ensuring that spiritual care is part of the holistic care the university provides to students, faculty, and staff in need.  Rev. Julie also helps to facilitate beloved university traditions such as Lovefeast and the Service of Remembrance.

Prior to serving at Wake Forest University, Julie served as the Associate University Chaplain and LEAF (Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Friends) Campus Minister at Elon University.  In this role, she provided identity-specific care and leadership for members of the LEAF community and helped to implement programming at the university level, such as the weekly Numen Lumen speaker series.  Along with fellow colleagues and students from the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life and the Gender and LGBTQIA Center, Julie helped to develop and establish the Spirit and Pride Initiative which aimed to create spaces for students to foster the fullness of who they are, particularly around the intersection of religious and/or spiritual and LGBTQIA+ identities.

Prior to working in Higher Education, Rev. Julie served as an Associate Pastor at Macedonia Lutheran Church in Burlington, NC, and as an eighth-grade History and English teacher in Greensboro, NC.  Julie loves working in Religious and Spiritual Life in Higher Education because it allows her to explore the intersection of the academy and religious belief and practice on individual and communal levels.  Rev. Julie is passionate about walking alongside students as they explore questions about meaning and identity formation, and hopes that her work helps to ensure that all members of the university who desire to be a part of religious and spiritual life have a community to call home.

Julie is an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Through her work with the ELCA, Julie serves on the North Carolina Synod’s Companion Synod task force and helps to foster connections between Lutherans in NC and Papua New Guinea.  Additionally, she serves on the synod’s Discipline Committee and is the Servant Companion Manager for the 2027 ELCA National Youth Gathering.

Rev. Julie earned her M.Div. from Duke Divinity School and her B.A. of Middle Grades Education from Elon University.  In addition, she completed one unit of CPE at Duke University Hospital and is certified through Safe Gatherings.  Julie is a member of Contemplative Immersion Cohort 6 through the Center for Clergy Renewal.

Julie and her spouse, David, a Wake Forest University Alumnus, live in Greensboro, NC and enjoy spending time outdoors.  Julie is an amateur birder, a lover of both dogs and cats, an avid reader, a proud North Carolinian, and a coffee enthusiast.