Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) President Ralston H. Deffenbaugh, Jr. will visit Gustavus Adolphus College on Monday, Oct. 29 and Tuesday, Oct. 30. Deffenbaugh will give the homily at daily chapel at 10 a.m. Oct. 29.
LIRS is the cooperative agency of the U.S. Lutheran churches working with refugees, immigrants, asylum seekers, and unaccompanied refugee children. Deffenbaugh has been the chief executive officer of LIRS since 1991.
Prior to accepting his current position, Deffenbaugh was heavily immersed in work for other Lutheran organizations. In 1981 he joined the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Geneva to work on human rights advocacy and in-house legal matters. In 1985, Deffenbaugh became the Director of the Lutheran Office for World Community in New York — the office that represents the LWF to the United Nations and conducts international affairs advocacy for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In 1989-90, Deffenbaugh acted as a legal advisor to Namibian Lutheran Bishops and served as a consultant to members of the committee who drafted Namibia’s constitution.
While on campus, Deffenbaugh will visit several religion classes, meet with faculty members, and have dinner with students.
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