Ryan M. Shelley serves as the Director of Spiritual Care with Kate, where he provides compassionate spiritual and emotional support to guests, staff, and volunteers. With a heart for those experiencing homelessness, housing insecurity, and life transitions, Ryan believes that every person deserves to be seen with dignity, heard with compassion, and reminded that hope is always possible. 

Mr. Shelley brings nearly three decades of experience in funeral service, pastoral care, and community leadership, along with a deep commitment to serving individuals and families during life’s most challenging moments. He is a candidate for ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and a graduate of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary and Mid-America College of Funeral Service. 

Ryan is passionate about mental health advocacy and believes that emotional, spiritual, and mental well-being are deeply interconnected. He is committed to reducing stigma surrounding mental illness and creating environments where people feel safe seeking support, healing, and hope. He also has a longstanding commitment to LGBTQIA+ inclusion and affirmation within both faith communities and the broader community, believing that every person is created in the image of God and deserves to be treated with dignity, compassion, and respect.

In addition to his professional and ministry experience, Ryan has served on numerous local and national non-profit boards and community organizations, helping advance missions centered on service, advocacy, outreach, and community well-being. He values collaboration and believes that lasting change is achieved through partnerships that strengthen individuals, families, and neighborhoods.

Ryan is married to the Rev. William F. Reinowski, Pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Lafayette. Together, they share a commitment to serving the Greater Lafayette community through ministries of hospitality, inclusion, justice, and hope.

Email: Ryan@lafayettefamilyshelter.org

Connect with Ryan on LinkedIN

Kate serves as Director of Spiritual Care with Ryan, serving guests, staff and volunteers and describes her work as a purveyor of hope.

Besides serving congregations for over 15 years, she has also served as a hospital chaplain for most of that time and a spiritual director for some of it. She focuses her energies outside of church in ways that are not defined or limited by denomination. Kate credits the people who showed up for her as her greatest theologians and she has devoted her life to doing that for others. She recruited a board and founded a non-profit for disenfranchised women and girls.  She codirected an educational gallery at a college in Ohio, and initiated three arts ministries.  Her current projects are training materials for the Shelter and an arts curriculum for elementary aged girls.

She is an ordained ELCA Lutheran pastor with Association of Professional Chaplains training.  This year she took her vows as a Benedictine Oblate of Holy Wisdom Monastery, Madison, WI, the first non-denominational monastery in the US. 

Though her life seldom looked like it was pointing toward serving the church, she is grateful for her journey.  Her passion is listening to others and helping them connect with themselves, others and the Divine in a way that is authentic for them. She enjoys exploring the human experience through writing and working in textiles. If you ever want to spend an afternoon immersed in the joys and frustrations of artmaking, she’ll be happy to accommodate.

You can find some of her writing on Substack – America, Soil and Spirit under her pen name Kay Flint.

Email: Kate.Crecelius@gmail.com

Michaela Willett serves as the Policy & Housing Advocacy Intern at Greater Lafayette Family Shelter, supporting the organization’s efforts to strengthen guest rights, improve program policies, and advance housing-centered shelter practices. Her primary project focuses on helping redesign GLFS’s guest policies and materials to create a clearer, more practical framework that balances family dignity and autonomy with safety, consistency, and effective shelter operations.

In this role, Michaela conducts policy and legal research, reviews program procedures and forms, and assists with developing plain-language policies, guest rights and grievance processes, and staff implementation guidance. Her work supports GLFS’s broader shift toward reducing unnecessary barriers and keeping the shelter experience focused on helping families move as quickly and safely as possible toward permanent housing.

Michaela holds a Bachelor of Arts in Legal Studies/Paralegal from Purdue University Global and a Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering from Kettering University. Her professional background includes leadership, client relations, process improvement, and developing organizational policies and procedures. She is preparing to attend IU McKinney School of Law, where she plans to pursue a dual J.D./MBA and further develop her interests in housing, public policy, organizational leadership, and access to justice.

Email: michaela@lafayettefamilyshelter.org

Connect with Michaela on LinkedIn