Staff
Pastor David Kyllo, Pastor
Rev. David O. Kyllo is the Pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Deerfield, Illinois. He accepted the call and his installation was on April 25, 2010.
A native of Washington State, he grew up on a 600 acre wheat farm near Lacrosse in the Palouse Country. He graduated from Seattle Pacific University with a BA in Education and an English Literature Major. He attended the Lutheran Brethren Seminary in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and graduated from the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California. His pastoral internship was at Bethany Lutheran Church in Fredericksburg, Texas.
He served two churches in Texas before engaging in Clinical Pastoral Education in San Antonio and Austin. His first Chaplaincy position was at Warm Springs Rehabilitation Hospital, Gonzales and San Antonio, Texas. Concurrently he was also the pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Bastrop, Texas. In 1989, he moved to Chicago to be the Director of Chaplaincy at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, a position held until 2010. Dave was a Senior Ethics Scholar at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) and received a certificate in Disability Ethics from RIC and the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC).
David serves on the Ministry (Candidacy) Committee of the Metro Chicago Synod as well as the Bishop’s Advisory Group (BAG) for Calls to Ministries in Chaplaincy, Pastoral Counseling, and Clinical Education. He is a Board Certified Chaplain in the Association of Professional Chaplains and holds lifetime membership in that Association.
Dave has several relatives who are also Lutheran pastors. He and Nan live in Wilmette. He has a daughter as well as a stepdaughter and stepson. His daughter and family live in Seattle, Washington and his stepchildren and their families live in Texas. Besides his family, a car hobby takes some of his spare time.
Dave and Nan are thrilled to be a part of Zion Lutheran Church and its ongoing ministry. Please remember them, as they do you, in prayer.
Leslie Ward, Office Administrative Assistant & Children's Choir Director
Leslie prepares the Sunday worship folder and the monthly Zion Calls Newsletter. Office hours are 9 a.m. till 3 p.m. Tuesday thru Friday.
Leslie has been involved in music since her youth. She has a Bachelor of Music with a specialty in elementary education from Roosevelt University. She taught classroom music for grades K through 6 at the school of St. Mary in Lake Forest. She has assisted in composing music for children's liturgies.
Rae-Myra Hilliard, Director of Music, Adult & Junior Choir Director
Originally from Buffalo, NY Rae-Myra Hilliard began her musical studies on piano and violin at the age of four and seven, respectively. After receiving her first Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics and Physical Education from Oberlin College, she worked in business for eight years. During that time, Rae-Myra sang with the Greater Buffalo Opera Company, Buffalo Opera Unlimited, the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and performed solo recitals in the Buffalo area. In 1991, Rae-Myra returned to school full-time and earned her second Bachelor degree in Performing Arts at the State University College of New York at Buffalo, NY, and earned a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Northern Iowa in 1996. Since then, Rae-Myra has actively performed in the Chicago area as a soloist and professional chorister.
As a professional member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Rae-Myra worked with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Musician Residency Program at the South Shore Cultural Center since its inception in September 1998 until May 2003. She has held the positions of soprano section leader, group and private voice instructor, assistant conductor and guest conductor. In the spring of 2002, she was guest co-conductor and accompanist for the Niles Concert Chorus. In addition to her singing career as a recitalist and freelance accompanist, Rae-Myra is a private voice instructor at the Carl Schurz High School in Chicago, James B. Conant High School in Hoffman Estates and Evanston Township High School in Evanston.
