Meet the Polaris Staff
Administrative Assistant: Position Open
This full-time, on-campus hourly position provides administrative support to the Polaris team and programs. We are looking to find a teammate who delights in detail work as we continue to grow our network and programs. Find out more here!
Interested candidates should submit a resume, cover letter, and three references to apply@ptsem.edu. Please name your documents as follows: Last Name, First Name – Document Name.
Azucena “Ceni” De La Torre, Program Coordinator
Ceni works closely to implement the Polaris Fellowship, supporting cohorts through a year-long leadership acceleration program. She has worked in parish and university ministries, directed retreats, and lived as a residential rector. She presented a TEDx Talk, “The Unexpected Gift of Death”, an exploration of the ways grief grants us the blessing of sameness. She holds a BA from DePaul University and earned her MTS at Duke Divinity School. She is a graduate of Worsham College of Mortuary Science. Ceni is a community-builder, steadfast encourager, an advocate for young adults navigating life in ministry, and a Catholic laywoman intentionally dedicated to ecumenical collaboration. She lives and writes in Chicago.
Brooke Foster, Program Coordinator
A young adult herself, Brooke supports catalytic leaders by creating and kindling opportunities for connection and learning. She is enthusiastic about cultivating welcoming, safe, and encouraging spaces of community for folks of all ages and is eager to begin serving alongside and connecting with the many young adults already at work in their own neighborhoods. Brooke holds a BA from Lipscomb University and an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary with certificates in Theology, Ecology, and Faith Formation, and Women, Theology, and Gender. In her free time, you can find her curled up on her porch with a good book, a hot cup of coffee, and her corgi, Friday.
Shari Oosting, Project Director
Shari leads the Polaris team and develops the network’s research and program offerings. A lifelong Christian, her call was clarified in her early 20s when she was invited to lead in campus ministry. She is insatiably curious about God’s unfolding story and loves hearing how people join God’s work in diverse and imaginative ways. She has experience discerning vocational next steps with seminary students and ministry professionals, leading teams, preaching, teaching, and designing educational programs and resources. She holds a BA from Grand Valley State University and an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary. As the host of Princeton Seminary’s podcast The Distillery, Shari delights in exploring book and research projects. An intuitive networker, she helps people connect so that they can learn together, form friendships, and generate new ideas. She resides in Holland, Michigan, with her spouse Jason and their four children Asher, Ezra, Elia, and Ada. They worship together at Second Reformed Church in Zeeland, Michigan.
Kenda Creasy Dean, Faculty Senior Strategist
An ordained United Methodist minister, Kenda teaches practical theology, youth ministry, education and formation, and social innovation at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she serves as the Mary D. Synnott Professor of Youth, Church, and Culture. She has extensive experience in new ministry development, grant writing, and nonprofit ministry, especially with young people. Kenda is the author of a dozen books including Delighted: What Teenagers are Teaching the Church About Joy (with Wes Ellis, Abigail Rusert, and Justin Forbes); Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church; and The Godbearing Life (with Ron Foster). She is a frequent speaker and consultant on young people and church innovation and has worked with dozens of seminaries, judicatories, congregations, and other faith-based entities. A graduate of Miami University in Ohio, Wesley Theological Seminary, and Princeton Theological Seminary, Kenda served as a pastor in suburban Washington, DC, and as a campus minister at the University of Maryland before coming to Princeton. She and her husband Kevin live on campus and love hanging out at the beach with their grown children.
Abigail Visco Rusert, Associate Dean of Continuing Education
Abigail experienced a call to ordained ministry as a young adult, pursuing ordination in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She has served in a variety of ministry roles, including associate pastor, youth director, chaplain, camp counselor, and as Director of Princeton Seminary’s Institute for Youth Ministry. She is passionate about researching and designing programs that serve congregational leaders and transform Christian communities, and she has facilitated more than $8 million in grant funding to foster changemaking in the church. A graduate of Valparaiso University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and a current PhD student at the University of Notre Dame Maryland, she is the co-author of the book Delighted: What Teenagers are Teaching the Church About Joy. Abigail and her husband, Thomas, have three kids—Dorothy, Solveig, and Frank—and live in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where Abigail serves as a small group leader at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Sofia Na, Support Staff
Sofia is an MDiv student at Princeton Theological Seminary. She grew up in the PC(USA) and received her BA in Philosophy (Eastern University), after which she worked as a kindergarten and first grade teacher and office administrator at a private school in Bryn Mawr, PA. Over the years, she has been heavily involved in youth ministry, serving as a counselor for middle and high school students at the New Wilmington Mission Conference. She was also an ambassador for Springtide Research Institute’s 2021 study “The State of Religion and Young People,” which allowed her to network with a diverse group of young adults from across the country in a data collection and community building research program. She is excited to be a member of the Polaris team, and is interested in better understanding how her experience in early childhood education connects with the formation of confident, inspired, and spiritually driven young adult leaders.
Brenna Salverson, Content Editor
Brenna works with the nitty gritty grammar details on the Polaris Blog and helps uplift the voices and stories of our incredible contributors. She also develops content for Polaris’s social media channels. She is currently an MDiv student at Princeton Theological Seminary. She is passionate about encouraging storytelling and mitigating the sense of isolation. She holds a BA from Georgia Southern University where she fell in love with the Old Testament and poetry.
