Samaritan Counseling Center Names Thomas Sims, PhD as President/CEO
Thomas Sims, PhD has been named President/CEO of Samaritan Counseling Center. Dr. Sims will replace Paul Hopkins, DMin who is retiring effective June 30, 2010. Sims is a Child Psychologist and has been Director of Quality Outcomes at Samaritan since November 2009. Prior to his employment with Samaritan, Dr. Sims held several leadership positions at ValueOptions, a managed-care company that oversaw behavioral health care for New Mexico, including mental health and substance abuse services. He was President of the NM Psychological Association in 2009.
Samaritan Counseling Center’s Board of Directors unanimously voted to affirm the appointment of Dr. Sims. Robert Garcia, Samaritan’s Board chairman said, “We are extremely pleased to have Dr. Sims on board. Dr. Sims brings a new set of strengths and attributes to the position. Samaritan’s Board of Directors looks forward to working with him.”
Dr. Sims stated, “I have been a clinical psychologist in practice in Albuquerque for over 30 years and am very familiar with the outstanding quality of behavioral health services that Samaritan has provided to the community over the years. I feel very fortunate to be able to be part of this fine organization and staff as well as the many Samaritan supporters in the community".
“Dr. Sims is a superb child psychologist, an able administrator, and a gracious man of faith and integrity,” said Hopkins. “Samaritan’s outstanding staff and dedicated board remain committed to our mission. Our important work of healing will continue with excellence rooted in confident hope. Samaritan’s leadership is in extremely good hands.”
In nearly 20 years, Samaritan Counseling Center has grown from just three therapists serving two hundred clients per year to its current level of twenty-three therapists serving 5,000 people. Samaritan has provided more than $6 million in charitable services in the past twenty years, and is currently the largest private provider of outpatient behavioral health services in New Mexico.
Samaritan Counseling Center helps people in New Mexico find wholeness and healing through professional psychological services and education. The Center’s work integrates medical, spiritual and community resources. Samaritan operates seven programs out of four office locations in the Albuquerque area. www.SamaritanNM.org
The Circles of Names
"The Circles of Names" Campaign of the National Council of Churches honors outstanding women leaders by supporting the Claire Randall Sustaining Fund which is designated for the support and growth of current programming and staff of NCC Women's ministries and gender justice work. The New Mexico Conference of Churches has made a contribution to the Circles of Names Campaign to honor the Rev. Barbara Dua and her years of service through ministry and specifically with the Conference in New Mexico. You may visit the website at the Circles of Names for more information on this project.
State Ecumenical Executives Meet
Jim Baird (front row, left) Interim Executive Director, represented New Mexico at the State Ecumenical Executives retreat at the Spirit in the Desert (ELCA) Conference Center in Carefree, Arizona, February 25 – 28.
Joining the 20 state staff for the conference was Dr. Michael Kinnamon (back row, 2nd from right), General Secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. During the time of worship, reflection, and sharing, participants heard a presentation of A Proposal for Comprehensive Immigration Reform: A Police Chief’s Perspective by Jack F. Harris, Police Chief for the city of Phoenix. Also during the time the group prepared for the Centennial Ecumenical Gathering planned for November 9 – 11, 2010, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Lutheran woman elected NCC President Elect
Mineapolis, November 10, 2009 -- Kathryn M. Lohre, assistant director of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University and an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America representative to the World Council of Churches Central Committee, has been elected the President Elect of the National Council of Churches by the NCC Governing Board.
Lohre will assume the office January 1, 2010. She will also be installed as NCC President Elect Thursday evening, November 12, in St. Mark's Cathedral in Minneapolis. The Rev. Peg Chemberlin, current NCC President Elect, will be installed as NCC President.Chemberlin and Lohre will serve in their new offices until December 31, 2011. Constitutionally, the NCC President Elect succeeds to the Presidency.
Lohre, 32, will be 34 when it is time to succeed to the National Council of Churches Presidency in 2012. She will be the second youngest president of the Council since the Rev. Dr. M. William Howard, an American Baptist, became president in 1979 at the age of 33.
Kathryn Lohre has been assistant director of the Pluralism Project at Harvard since 2005, serving with project director Dr. Diana Eck, a member of the NCC Governing Board and chair of the NCC's Interfaith Relations Commission. Lohre has been a member of the Pluralism Project's staff since 2000.
As assistant director, Lohre supervises graduate and undergraduate student research on religious pluralism, provides leadership to the women's initiative and multi-religious women's network, convenes and plans events including colloquia, conferences, panels and public conversations, teaches workshops, prepares grant proposals and oversees fundraising.
Lohre is a summa cum laude graduate of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., and earned the Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School.
She is a member of Faith Lutheran Church in Cambridge, Mass., and serves on the Bishop's Communal Discernment Task Force in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She is a member of the World Council of Churches U.S. Conference Board of Directors and has served on the National Council of Churches Ecumenical Young Adult Women’s Working Group.
Lohre will be a presenter at Religion Communication Congress 2010 in Chicago April 7-10, 2010.
