Reverend Dr. James Olson (STH'03, STH'12)
We are pleased to announce that on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, the Illinois Conference UCC Council voted on the recommendation of the Personnel Committee to call the Rev. Dr. 
James J. Olson to serve as Acting Associate Conference Minister for Fox Valley and the Chicago Metropolitan Associations.
The Rev. Dr. James J. Olson, OCC, is from the Boston area, and was baptized and raised in the UCC at First Congregational Church, Randolph, Mass. He earned his M.Div at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, the S.T.M. and D.Min degrees from Boston University School of Theology. Dr. Olson has served churches in Minnesota, Vermont, Connecticut and in Illinois. Additionally, he served as the Associate Dean of Religious life at Marsh Chapel, and as a teaching assistant in the School of Theology, both at Boston University. He is a brother of the Order of Corpus Christi, a covenantal order within the United Church of Christ rooted in the theology and ideals of the Mercersburg liturgical and theological renewal movement of the late 19th c. in the German Reformed church, one of the predecessor bodies of the UCC. Dr. Olson serves as the president of his seminary Alumni association, and has served on the board of the UCC Coalition for LGBT concerns. Most recently, he has been the co-chair of the clergy Fitness Review Response Team in the Illinois Conference.
Dr. Olson is married to the Rev. Darrick D. Jackson, a Unitarian-Universalist minister who currently serves as a member of the faculty and as the Director of Contextual Ministry at Meadville-Lombard School of Theology. They live in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago, with a lot of books and two very spoiled rescue cats. Dr. Olson enjoys cooking, classical and very early American jazz and big-band music. He sings regularly in a large concert choir in Chicago and has performed with choirs worldwide.