Rev. Claire Chuck Bohman, MDiv BCC
Executive Director
In 2012, as a Sojourn Chaplain Intern, Claire fell in love with the General. After several years of volunteer service, they came on board as full time staff in 2015. Claire draws on a professional background in case management and community organizing in their chaplaincy work and holds a deep belief in the personal and collective healing power of social change.
Claire is an Interfaith Minister and a practitioner of Earth based spirituality. They completed a Masters of Divinity program as a Deans Scholar at the Pacific School of Religion with an emphasis on Spiritual Care and Liberation Theology. Claire attended clinical residency at John Muir Health and studied interfaith Ministry with the New Seminary of New York. Claire serves on the ZSFG ethics committee and is an author in both spiritual and medical publications. Claire is the first openly non binary person endorsed by an earth based spiritual community to receive APC board certification and they are committed to the field of spiritual care being more accessible to religious, cultural and gender minorities.
Rev. Keisuke Lee-Miyaki
Staff Chaplain
Rev. Keisuke Lee-Miyaki was born and raised in Japan as an heir of a family temple established in 1598. Ordained by Hongwanji, Kyoto, in 2006 as a Pure Land Buddhist Priest, and endorsed by Buddhist Churches of America in 2018, as a Minister’s Assistant. Following the first unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at California Pacific Medical Center in 2015, he completed his CPE residency 2017-2018 at the Oncology/Hematology Unit of UCSF Medical Center. His primary practice is deep listening and sutra chanting meditation. He holds a Master of Arts, in Pure Land Buddhist Studies from Ryukoku University in Kyoto and currently pursuing a certificate from the Buddhist Chaplaincy program at Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley.
At his best friend’s funeral 15 years ago, he decided to become a Buddhist who can support people in a grief crisis. From 2008 to 2012, he worked as a Honganwaji Priest/staff in Osaka and Hiroshima, which is the largest Buddhist congregation in Japan. He followed the footsteps of his great-grandfather, an Issei Japanese immigrant and Buddhist Minister, then decided to come to the United States. Currently, he is advocating as a public example of Asian LGBTQ+ immigrants and fighting against racial stigma and discrimination. He often publicly speaks about his experience as a gay Asian immigrant and a Buddhist’s perspective on HIV and LGBTQ+ issues in the Bay Area and Kyoto.
Karen Nelson Villanueva, PhD, MPA
Education and Administrative Director
Karen Nelson Villanueva, PhD, MPA is the Education and Administrative Director of Sojourn Chaplaincy at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and previously worked as an interfaith staff chaplain at UCSF Parnassus Medical Center. She is delighted to work at ZSFGH because she feels that it serves her community regardless of the socioeconomic status of the patient.
After graduating from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) with her PhD in Women’s Spirituality, she worked as a Hospice Chaplain and volunteered with No-One-Dies-Alone (NODA). She then went on to do her residency of 4 units of CPE at UCSF.
Karen also has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at CIIS, San Francisco State University, Holy Names University, and the Institute of Contemporary Buddhist Ministry and managed the professional development programs at the College of Extended Learning at San Francisco State University. Moreover, Karen is a Meditation teacher in the traditions of compassion cultivation, Tibetan Buddhism, mindfulness meditation, and grief and loss.
Chaplain Mary Cecile Gee
Staff Chaplain
Chaplain Mary Cecile (MC) Gee has served communities at the edge for more than twenty years — in hospice (since 2000) and at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General hospital (since 2017). As a resident of Los Angeles, Mary-Cecile first served as a volunteer with the Cedar-Sinai Hospital Hospice Program for seven years. In 2006, Mary-Cecile moved north to the East Bay, where she served with George Mark Children’s House (a children’s hospice & respite facility) and then with the Zen Hospice Project in 2009. With ZHP, she served at Laguna Honda Hospital and at the (former) Guest House, until her move to the General in 2017.
Mary-Cecile completed her Buddhist Chaplain training with Upaya Zen Center in 2018. She is currently on a path to lay-ordination, as a Buddhist Community Minister with the Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community. Mary-Cecile is a dedicated visual-artist with a twenty-five year (plus) track record of making and showing. Creativity and the Zen Hospice Project’s precept, Welcome Everything, Push Nothing Away, are twined at the heart of Mary-Cecile’s service as a Multi Faith Spiritual Care chaplain at San Francisco General’s Sojourn Chaplaincy.
Chaplain John McLean Wolff, MDiv
Temp. Staff Chaplain
Chaplain John McLean Wolff started with Sojourn in 2017 as a volunteer and went on to do Clinical Pastoral Education training with UCSF Health. His personal experience on the receiving end of institutional spiritual care informed his call to ministry and work in the public health sector.
John holds a Master of Divinity from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific at the Graduate Theological Union. He is currently in the ordination process with the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of California. John is also a Raja Yoga teacher and educator certified by the International Association of Yoga Therapists. He is passionate about healing, health, and wellness and is inspired by the intersection of social justice, personal and collective transformation, fellowship, and faith. John is deeply grateful to be serving at San Francisco General.
Chaplain Beena Kallely, PhD
Per Diem Chaplain
Chaplain Beena Kallely is an interfaith chaplain, theologian, and a practitioner of Catholic faith and spirituality. She was born and raised in Kerala, South India and served the multi-religious population in Lucknow, North India as a Catholic missionary religious for more than two decades. After several years of theological scholarship, professional chaplaincy training, and ministry as a chaplain in multiple Bay Area hospitals, she presently serves at an elder care facility.
The theological lens of human dignity is the core of Beena’s relational model of spiritual care, and she is skilled at accompanying others through trauma and challenging circumstances. Dedicated to serving the marginalized and those impacted by systemic injustice, she is passionate to serve the people of San Francisco as a per-diem chaplain with the Sojourn chaplaincy team at SF General Hospital.
Beena’s hands-on spiritual care is informed by extensive scholarship and research. In August 2022, she completed her Clinical Pastoral Education residency (CPE) from California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco. As a Presidential Scholar at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, she graduated in May 2021 with a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) with an emphasis on Restorative Justice and Feminist Theology. In May 2016, she received both a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L) and a Master of Theology (Th.M.) from the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. Prior to coming to the United States, she received two baccalaureate degrees in Theology and Economics. She has diploma certificates in counseling and computer applications.
Rev. King Choi, MDiv, DMin, PBCC
Per Diem Chaplain
Rev. King Choi was born in Hong Kong. He came to the U.S. for college in 1974. He studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Rochester and Computer Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology (both in Rochester, NY). He worked as an engineer, lecturer, and research scientist for 26 years and received several patents. During that time, he completed his part-time study in Master of Divinity at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (GCTS in S. Hamilton, MA), and was ordained as a pastor in 2004. He entered pastoral ministry that year and served at the Chinese Bible Church of Greater Boston (Lexington, MA) for 10 years during which he completed his part-time study in Doctor of Ministry at GCTS. He continued pastoral ministry at the Golden Gate Christian Church (San Francisco, CA) for another 10 years before his retirement in 2024.
In 2021, he started his part-time study in Clinical Pastoral Education at the Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services (Grand Rapids, MI) and Kaiser Hospital (San Leandro, CA), and received the APC provisional board chaplain certification in 2023. He continues serving the community as an affiliated clergy at the Stanford Memorial Church and a per diem chaplain at Sojourn Chaplaincy and the San Francisco Kaiser Hospital. He and his wife Anna have two daughters and one granddaughter. He loves reading, swimming, and playing tennis.