Local social justice activist and religious leader the Rev. Jan Griesinger will retire next month after 28 years of service and leadership in Athens.
Griesinger, who is director of United Campus Ministries, was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1970. Griesinger said it's time for new leadership at UCM and now plans on dedicating more time to her elderly parents, who live in Illinois.
Her shoes will be hard to fill
said Andrew Stuart, a UCM board member and Ohio University librarian. His words echo the sentiments of many who have worked with Griesinger. Stuart said she has been the one to carry the torch and work tirelessly even when the other board members were worn out.
Griesinger helped found the Athens AIDS Task Force in 1986, the local women's shelter My Sister's Place, the OU Women's Studies Department, the Susan B. Anthony Memorial Unrest Home Women's Land Trust and the South African Solidarity Committee, which was formed and dispersed in the 1980s.
Griesinger also has leadership positions with Christian Lesbians Out (CLOUT) and Old Lesbians Organizing for Change (OLOC), which she will continue.
Despite her impressive resume, OU students say she is anything but intimidating.
She's known for her Birkenstocks and T-shirts OU sophomore Clarissa Kornell said.
She recalled Griesinger's easy-going manner at a UCM-sponsored International Dance Night at Casa Nueva earlier this year.
I was kind of nervous to dance because it was a UCM thing and I thought I should be more reserved or something
Kornell said. But Jan was there
and she just danced right along with us.
