Title: Braasch Named Director for Women of the ELCA
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
July 18, 1997
BRAASCH NAMED DIRECTOR FOR WOMEN OF THE ELCA
97-24-070-BB**
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Catherine I. H. Braasch, 48, Capron, Ill., has been
named executive director for Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America, the women's organization of the ELCA. Women of the ELCA's
executive board elected Braasch July 12. She will assume her new
responsibilities Sept. 1.
Braasch is no stranger to the ministries of the ELCA, having served
since 1988 as a deployed mission director and director for rural ministry.
She currently serves as director of leadership for outreach ministries in
the ELCA's Division for Outreach.
"I am humbled by this election. I am humbled to be able to follow in
the fine service that Terry Bowes has given in her term as interim
executive director and look forward to the work the organization and board
have called me to. I look forward to the partnership that work entails,"
Braasch said, "and to building a firm foundation for Christ-centered,
purpose-driven partnerships between board, executive director, staff,
constituents, our many churchwide and ecumenical partners, and those among
us who have yet to affiliate with Women of the ELCA."
Sharroll Bernahl, Fort Morgan, Colo., president, Women of the ELCA,
describes Braasch as "a woman of many and varied gifts, a woman of vision.
We are excited about her election and a future for the organization bright
with promise."
Terry L. Bowes, interim executive director, said, "The Executive
Board has made an excellent and wise choice. Cathi brings with her great
energy, great faith and a great love for her church. Women of the ELCA
will be blessed by her leadership."
Braasch described herself as a "product of the mission work of the
Lutheran church ... an adult convert to Christianity."
She said she is excited to work with the women's organization to
focus on the three mission areas: community, growth and action. "These
three mission areas speak to the development not only of the whole person
but to the whole people of God," Braasch said. In choosing these three
areas the women's organization contributes in a powerful way to what our
Lord has called us to do: go and make disciples."
Braasch has experience in leadership training and development,
identification and recruitment of domestic mission personnel, and the
fostering of diversity in the church's outreach leadership. Before joining
the ELCA staff she spend 14 years as a manager in health care, higher
education and human services, and had a consulting practice in
organizational development.
A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
with a major in journalism, she studied agricultural business management
and animal husbandry at California State Polytechnic College, San Luis
Obispo, Calif, and holds a master's degree in organizational leadership
from Gonzaga University, Spokane, Wash.
A "city kid" who at age 12 moved to a ranch, Braasch is a "proponent
for both the values and challenges that come with rural living, she said."
She and her husband, Leroy "Red" Braasch, raise registered Suffolk sheep on
a farm near Capron, Ill., where they are also starting a new Future Farmers
of America chapter. They are members of Capron Lutheran Church. Their
daughter, Sara, is executive vice president of the Idaho Cattle
Association, based in Boise, Idaho.
Bowes has served as interim executive director since September 1996.
"Terry has been a friend to Women of the ELCA. She has brought us many
gifts and leadership skills for transition in the time she has served us.
We are most grateful to her," said Bernahl.
Women of the ELCA is a network of about 500,000 women throughout the
ELCA committed to growth in faith and mission, with a focus on empowering
women to identify and carry out their specific ministries in the church,
society and world. The organization has more than 9,200 congregational
units across the United States and the Caribbean.
[** Bonnie B. Belasic is director for communication of Women of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.]
For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html
