BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

        Rev. Dr. Steven C. Salaris was born in Gary, IN in 1965. When he was four years old, his family moved to the small mountain town of Granby, CO. In 1983, Steven graduated from Middle Park Senior High School. He then returned to IN to attend DePauw University. He graduated in 1987 with a BA in Biology. Then it was on to graduate school. In 1991, Steven received his Ph.D. from the Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology at Purdue University. His research interests included cardiovascular, hepatic, and renal physiology. His graduate research project involved studying the initiators of lipid peroxidation due to oxidative stress during reperfusion or following trauma in liver tissue. 

        Steven then moved to St. Louis to begin his post-doctoral studies at Washington University School of Medicine. As a post-doctoral fellow, he investigated ways to attenuate ischemia/reperfusion injury in the isolated rabbit heart via the modulation of anaerobic glycolysis. Upon completing his post-doctoral work in 1993, Steven taught biology courses at various campuses in the St. Louis area. In 1993, Steven was married at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in St. Louis, MO. In 1995, Steven and his wife moved to Philadelphia, PA. He was an adjunct professor of biology at St. Joseph's University. 

        In 1997, after a personal journey that began back in 1991, Steven began working on a Master of Divinity degree at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Christian Theological Seminary in Crestwood, NY. While in Seminary, he continued teaching biology at Mercy College and at SUNY-Purchase in New York. Steven's Master of Divinity thesis examined the eucharistic typology of Hannah's sacrifice in the Septuagint version of I Samuel 1:24; he graduated cum laude from seminary on May 20, 2000. On June 11, 2000, Steven was ordained as a deacon. On July 9, 2000, he was ordained to the priesthood. 

        For five years Fr. Steven served as the part-time pastor of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church in Albany, NY. In the Fall of 2000, Fr. Steven began working as a visiting assistant professor of biology at the College of Mt. St. Vincent in Riverdale, NY. He also taught a course at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in Manhattan, NY. In 2003, he joined the faculty of Concordia College in Bronxville, NY as an assistant professor of biology. In the spring of 2005, Concordia College approved his promotion to Associate Professor. He has numerous publications in both scientific and theological journals. He has also received awards for working with physically challenged and minority students. 

        Fr. Steven and his wife have one daughter and four cats. His hobbies include science fiction (Star Trek, Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica), music, reading (his favorite author is H.G. Wells), toy and comic book collecting, hiking, and painting.  In October 2005 Fr. Steven was appointed as parish priest of All Saints of North America Orthodox Church in St. Louis, Missouri.