The Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (ORSL) has hired two new chaplains. In a Sept. 7 email, Director of Religious and Spiritual Life and University Jewish Chaplain Rabbi David Teva announced that Assistant Director of Religious and Spiritual Life and Protestant Chaplain Tracy Mehr-Muska, D.Min., would return to the University following her time in ORSL from 2012 through 2020. She started work in mid-October. Additionally, Shaykh Jamir Meah will begin on Dec. 12 as the University’s first full-time Assistant Director of Religious and Spiritual Life and Muslim Chaplain.

Having previously served as the Muslim Student Affairs Coordinator at the University of Westminster, Meah has extensive experience providing educational, spiritual, pastoral, and mental well-being resources to Muslim students.

“I hope that students will connect with these empowering teachers and role models when they are on campus,” Teva said. “Chaplains are people who can help you thrive holistically while at Wes.”

Mehr-Muska joins the University after serving as a parish pastor at Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut, and writing her 2019 book “Weathering the Storm: Simple Strategies for Being Peaceful and Prepared” on her experiences with resilience.

“While I loved the [Asylum Hill] church, the ministry, and the joy of serving alongside two other women pastors who were fun, inspiring, caring, and passionate about justice, I missed working as part of interdisciplinary and interfaith teams dedicated to helping young adults find hope and joy, feel supported and encouraged, connect with sources of emotional and spiritual strength, and thrive,” Mehr-Muska said.

Mehr-Muska is ordained in the Presbyterian Church of the United States, a progressive, LGBTQ-inclusive denomination, and has spent most of her career as an interfaith chaplain in clinical or secular settings. She is also an instructor at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace (formerly Hartford Seminary) and teaches courses about chaplaincy and resilience to interfaith cohorts of graduate students. 

“I believe that students thrive inside and outside the classroom when they have opportunities to authentically discover and connect with the transcendent and/or their own inner strength or inner light,” Mehr-Muska said. “I would love for students to know that my door is always open if they need some support or a caring presence to help work through a difficulty they might encounter.”

In her new role, Mehr-Muksa plans to offer one-on-one support to students. She also hopes to work with students, staff, and faculty to create programs, service trips, and events that increase interfaith literacy, invite students to build relationships with one another and to feel supported, and allow students to discover their own unique spiritual or religious beliefs and identity.

Meah has already met virtually with students, including those involved in the Muslim Student Association (MSA). MSA representative Sean Stetson ’25 emphasized that he is looking forward to Meah’s informal lessons about their religion.

“He’s really dedicated to building a stronger community within the Muslims on campus and then expanding that community to the rest of Wesleyan,” Stetson said. “It was really difficult without a chaplain on campus to coordinate and hold events like weekly Friday prayers or Eid, the celebration after fasting [during] the month of Ramadan, so we’re very excited to have a chaplain again to help us with these events.”

The appointment has been met with support from the University community. ORSL Multifaith Engagement Intern Madeline Carlman expressed her enthusiasm for Meah’s arrival on campus.

“I’m most excited for us to be able to serve a larger variety of religious and spiritual students on campus, instead of just meeting the religious and spiritual needs of one or two communities,” Carlman said. “By the time Shaykh Jamir is here, we will be representing Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Quaker [communities] on campus.”

Teva echoed this excitement and expressed confidence in the chaplains’ capabilities and the positive effect they will have on the University’s well-being.

On Monday, Dec. 12, students will have the opportunity to meet both Mehr-Muska and Meah during the ORSL Mobile Study Break. The event will be hosted in the lobby of Exley at 1:00 p.m., and the chaplains will be giving out homemade chocolate chip cookies and Lara bars.

Rose Chen can be reached at rchen@wesleyan.edu.