Aria Christenson joined Sojourners in 2020 and served as executive assistant to the president. Growing up in Minnesota, Aria was told that public service was “the family business” and it has stuck. She earned a bachelor’s degree in religion and Norwegian from St. Olaf College and founded the Interfaith Coalition for Peace & Justice on campus. The intersections of community, religion, and justice have always fascinated her—from deep involvement in St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul, Minn., to serving for two years as a Lutheran Volunteer Corps member at Luther Place Church in Washington, D.C. She was drawn back to Minneapolis in recent years to serve as executive assistant at Hired, a workforce development nonprofit where she grew interests in strategic planning and fundraising. Happy to be living back in D.C., Aria regularly enjoys rock climbing, tutoring students in Norwegian via Skype, and wishing for snow.