The Rev. Maggie Garberg Falenschek will be inducted as Wartburg College’s Herbert and Cora Moehlmann Chaplaincy Chair on Monday, Oct. 23, during the college’s regular chapel time beginning at 10:15 a.m. During the service, Falenschek also will be installed into her new pastoral call as Wartburg’s dean of spiritual life by the Rev. Kevin Jones, bishop of the Northeastern Iowa Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA).

The community is invited to attend the service.

Falenschek came to Wartburg from Gustavus Adolphus College, where she served as chaplain, director of campus ministries and director of the Gustavus Academy for Faith, Science and Ethics. As dean of spiritual life, she will provide visionary leadership for the advancement of spiritual life on campus, engaging a religiously diverse campus in actively caring for their spiritual selves in and out of the classroom.

“Chaplain Maggie’s impact has been evident on our campus and in our community since the moment she arrived. Under her leadership, we are leaning into our Lutheran identity in new and innovative ways so that all can thrive,” said Wartburg President Rebecca Ehretsman.

A graduate of Concordia College in Moorehead, Falenschek completed her Master of Divinity at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, Calif. It was in California that she fell in love with campus ministry while interning at Stanford University with the Episcopal Lutheran campus ministry team. She returned to the Midwest to serve as a pastor for youth and family ministries in Urbana, Illinois, before landing at Gustavus.

“So much of my work on campus is intersectional and relational. It was really important for me to invite folks from across campus to play an active role in my installation to symbolize that none of this work is done alone,” Falenschek said. “I have felt so welcomed into the Wartburg community in my first two months in this role, Monday is a celebration of that and a really exciting future at Wartburg College.”

The Moehlmann Chair was established in 1990 with gifts from Chaplain Herbert Moehlmann in memory of his wife, Cora, and Lutheran Brotherhood. Herbert graduated from Wartburg College in 1915 and Wartburg Seminary in 1918. He was the first pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Waterloo. In 1930, he joined the U.S. Army to serve as a chaplain and was stationed in Hawaii at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He continued to serve throughout World War II, attaining the rank of Colonel while supervising more than 200 chaplains in the European Theater.