January 23, 2010

BALTIMORE – The board of directors of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) named Linda Hartke as the organization's new president and chief executive officer. Hartke, a Lutheran, begins her new role Feb. 22.

"The board of directors is elated to welcome Linda Hartke as our new president and CEO, and we have great faith in her leadership abilities. She has the demonstrated skills and experience to enable LIRS to build on its firm foundation and to bring a new dimension to our efforts to ‘welcome the stranger,'" said Elaine Richter Bryant, outgoing LIRS board chair.

Hartke comes to LIRS with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the organization's key issues, most recently serving as executive director of the Geneva-based Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance. Prior to this post Hartke worked with Church World Service, serving first as country director in Cambodia until she assumed the role of director of programs and operations.

"Linda Hartke's arrival as LIRS president means that strategic planning has moved back to the top of our board's agenda," said the Rev. E. Roy Riley, Jr., incoming board chair and bishop of the ELCA New Jersey Synod, Hamilton Square. "We are heading into an exciting chapter in the life and work of LIRS, and Linda will help us to cast that new vision."

Hartke hails from Massachusetts and is a graduate of Smith College, Northampton, Mass., where she complemented her studies in religion and biblical literature with a second major in government.

She was most recently a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Geneva, where she served as an elected member of the congregational committee and president of the congregation. Hartke served on national and regional boards of the ELCA and one of its predecessor bodies, the Lutheran Church in America, including appointment to the governing board of the National Council of Churches USA.

"I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to lead Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service," said Hartke. "I have witnessed the breadth and impact of LIRS' service and advocacy for newcomers, and feel privileged to become a part of this organization's great mission. I look forward to working together with the LIRS board, staff, partners and friends across the country to make the United States a more welcoming place for immigrants and refugees."

Hartke succeeds Ralston H. Deffenbaugh Jr., who resigned Sept. 1, 2009. He said the organization needed "new gifts of leadership."

LIRS, based in Baltimore, is one of the nation's leading agencies serving refugees and immigrants. It is a cooperative agency of the ELCA, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Information about LIRS is at http://www.lirs.org/, on the Web.

ELCA News Service
LIRS prepared this report.