Brad A. Held, SJ, 33, was born and raised in Slinger, Wisconsin, the oldest of six children. He and his family were parishioners of St. Peter Catholic Church in Slinger, where Held also attended elementary school. After graduating from Slinger High School, he received a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2006 from Marquette University in Milwaukee, where he was a percussionist in the school band, worked part time for campus ministry and was active in student government. Held arrived at Marquette with an interest in the priesthood, and after meeting Jesuits as professors, he began to discern a vocation to the Society more seriously during his junior year of college, entering the novitiate after graduation. As a novice, he worked on the parish staff of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Mankato, Minnesota. Held was next missioned to Fordham University in the Bronx, New York, where he earned a master’s degree in philosophical resources. He then served as a teacher, campus minister and chair of the spiritual formation department at Red Cloud High School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota for three years. At the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, Held earned a Master of Divinity degree while serving as a deacon at the New Roads Catholic Community in Belmont, Massachusetts. He spent the summer of 2016 in Poland as the MAGIS and World Youth Day project manager for the U.S. Jesuits, coordinating the event for Jesuit and other Catholic university students across the country. Following ordination, Held will work at the Church of the Gesu in University Heights, Ohio, until August and then serve in campus ministry at Marquette University High School in Milwaukee. His first Mass as a priest will be held at his home parish of St. Peter Catholic Church.