Dr. Derek Nelson, keynote speaker at 2008 Honors Convocation

GREENVILLE, PA – Dr. Derek Nelson, assistant professor of religion at Thiel College, will be the keynote speaker at Thiel College’s annual academic Honors Convocation at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 17 in the William A. Passavant Memorial Center.

Honors Convocation is one of the college’s most prestigious celebrations during the academic year. During this event, 313 students—including scholarship recipients, academic honorary members and dean’s list honorees—will be recognized for their academic achievements earned during the 2007–08 academic year. Freshmen scholarship recipients also will be announced.

“Honors Convocation is one of my favorite Thiel events of the year,” says Dr. Robert C. Olson ’60, president of the college. “It is a time when the Thiel community can gather together to celebrate the success of our students and our constant quest to fulfill the mission of the college—empowering our students to achieve their full potential.”

A native of Goodhue County, Minn., Dr. Derek Nelson came to Thiel in 2006 where he currently is a member of the religion department faculty and a familiar face around campus and in the Greenville community.

Nelson holds a bachelor’s degree from Wabash College, a master’s of divinity from Yale University and a doctorate in systematic and philosophical theology from Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Previously, Nelson has worked as an instructor at the University of New Haven, a teaching and research assistant at the University of California, Berkeley, and a teaching assistant at Pacific School of Religion, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and San Francisco Theological Seminary, where he also served as an adjunct professor. At the end of October, Nelson will be ordained as a Lutheran minister.

He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Nelson is the author of numerous publications in theology and the philosophy of religion, including two books, “Works and Days: Theology in and through Autobiography,” which is schedule for publication next year, and “What’s Wrong with Sin: John Nevin, Albrecht Ritschl and Theologies of Liberation” (2008).

Nelson lives in Greenville.

Thiel College, located in Greenville, Pa., is a liberal arts, sciences and professional studies college related to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

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