Dr. Patricia O’Connell Killen is professor of American Religious History and Chair of the Department of Religion at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., where she also directs PLU’s recently established Center for Religion, Cultures and Society in the western United States. Before joining the PLU faculty in 1989, she taught at Loyola University of Chicago. Born and raised in western Oregon, she received her B.A. from Gonzaga University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in religious studies from Stanford University.