Faculty Profile

Dr. Olaf Lidums

Associate Professor of

Urban and Ecological Studies

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Born in Tallin, Estonia, Dr. Olaf R. Lidums spent his early childhood in Upsalla, Sweden, and youth and college years in Chicago (immigrated in 1950). After graduation in 1965 from Luther College, Decorah, Olaf entered Wartburg Seminary, in Dubuque, Iowa, after a year of discernment while working as a social worker in a nursing home. Dr. Lidums received his MDiv and was Ordained in June, 1970. Over his 37 years of service, Olaf has served in a variety of congregational ministries, such as town and country, suburb, and three different urban churches in the Detroit area.

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He pursued graduate studies in counseling psychology and received his M.S. in Counseling (1977) from U.W.-Whitewater, after which he worked as a Pastoral Counselor for LSS-Wisconsin for 6 years. Half of his 37 years have included other specialized ministries such as directorships in social service, homeless, hospital and addiction treatment ministries. After a long bivalent academic journey between PhD studies in psychology and DMin study at ETS, Olaf focused in on his dissertation work in the practice of trinitarian spirituality and received his DMin from ETS in 2003.