Born: Dec. 17, 1960 in Washington, D.C., to Bernard E. Shlesinger Jr. and the late Rita Belmont Shlesinger. He is the youngest of six children.

Education: Mount Vernon High School, Alexandria, Va.; Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va., bachelor of science in agricultural engineering, 1983.

Military Service: U. S. Air Force pilot, 1983-90, retired as captain; pilot of the C-130E Hercules out of Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville, N. C.

Seminary Formation: Entered Theological College in Washington, D.C. for the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1990 and studied philosophy at The Catholic University of America. Upon completing pre-theology requirements and a pastoral year, he entered the North American College in Rome, Italy, in 1992. He completed a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1995. He also completed a year of studies for the licentiate in spiritual theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Ordination: June 22, 1996 for the Diocese of Raleigh by Bishop F. Joseph Gossman.

Assignments: Parochial vicar, St.Mary Church in Wilmington, North Carolina; pastor, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Newton Grove, North Carolina, from 1998-2007, while also serving as assistant director of vocations from 1998-2001 and dean of the newly established Newton Grove deanery; director of vocations and seminarian formation for the Diocese of Raleigh, from 2007-2013. For two and a half years during that time, he also served as administrator of Maria, Reina de las Americas Church in Mount Olive and Santa Teresa del Niño Jesús Mission in Beulaville and Santa Clara Mission in Magnolia; director of spiritual formation in the Theological Seminary at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, 2013-2017.