Braasch Named Director for Women of the ELCA

     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 NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html