Rev. Dale Poland is currently serving as a spiritual care provider at VITAS Innovative Hospice Care in San Jose, CA.  Dale, a native of Rio, WV, graduated from Gettysburg Lutheran Theological Seminary with academic honors in New Testament Studies in 1991. Previously, he had earned a Bachelors’ of Science Degree in Forestry and Wildlife Resources from Virginia Tech in1987.

Dale was ordained and installed as Associate Pastor of St. Mark Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA), Wheeling, WV on July 14, 1991 and was  rostered with the West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod. In the summer of 1995 he was issued a new call as the sole pastor of St. Mark Church. In 1999 Dale left parish ministry and completed three successive CPE residencies at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, West Virginia University Hospitals in Morgantown, WV, and St. Anthony Hospitals in Denver, CO.

Dale resigned from the ELCA ordained roster in 2002 over its unjust policies toward gay and lesbian clergy. In 2003 he was added to the roster of the ECP and later to the roster of ELM. Dale has worked in hospice care for the last ten years in Colorado and California and currently resides in San Jose, CA with his partner, Mauricio Cuevas

Rev. Dale Poland was reinstated to the ELCA clergy roster through the Rocky Mountain Synod in 2010.