LSC welcomes new board members

LSC welcomes five new board members: Tami Hefner, Doug Nelson, David Turner, Hoang Nguyen, and Sharon Graeber.

Tami Hefner of Conover, North Carolina spent 25 years with the Catawba County Department of Social Services. She began as a social worker and then took on the role as assistant director.

Her first social work job was at Trinity Village in Hickory, North Carolina.

Hefner is a graduate of Lenoir Rhyne University where she received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and went on to complete her master’s in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She is a member of Mt. Pisgah Lutheran Church.

Doug Nelson lives in Tobaccoville, North Carolina and is a retired CPA. Before retiring, he was the treasurer of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Nelson previously served on the LSC board for 9 years and is the current chairman of the Board of the NC Lutheran Synod Foundation.

He is a member of Augsburg Lutheran Church.

David Turner lives in Columbia, South Carolina and is the Director of Development for Historic Columbia.

Turner has 20 years of leadership in various denominations in the areas of music and parish engagement. He also currently serves as the Director of Music at Ebenezer Lutheran Church.

Hoang Nyugen of Durham, North Carolina is a director of information technology.

He graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and then attended George Washington University to complete a masters in epidemiology and biostatistics.

He has served as the director of the Project Management Office for Connected Health at ICON plc, and as the global project director for product registration at PRA Health Sciences.

Sharon Graeber lives in Greensboro, North Carolina and is the owner and architect at the Office of Sharon Graeber Architect, PLLC.

After graduating from NC State University with a Bachelor of Environmental Design in architecture in 1981, she continued her education at the university and received a master’s in architecture in 1983.

Graeber was a member of the Board of Directors for Lutheran Services of the Aging from 2006-2010 and a Board of Directors member of Lutheran Health Care in Baltimore, Maryland from 1989 to 1992.

She is a member of Grace Lutheran Church.

ohn and Linda Muhlbach are lifetime Lutherans. They’ve monetarily supported Lutheran Services Carolinas for many years but learning about the Be The Light campaign inspired them to do more.

The campaign created a statewide foster care recruitment team to address the critical need for loving foster families for children in North Carolina. After hearing about the need at church, the Muhlbachs decided to do more than give monetarily, they decided to become foster parents.

“There wasn’t a lot of discussion. We were both like, okay let’s do this,” Linda Muhlbach said.

Linda Muhlbach says the foster care program spoke to her because she has a need to be a mother. The couple are empty-nesters and have filled that void by becoming a host family for international students at Davidson College. The couple said that has been a fabulous and educational experience.

They keep in touch with the students, do emergency laundry, take them to Target, and helped them navigate securing a job on campus.

“A lot of times it’s the first time they are out of their home countries and away from everything that they know. They just need a mother. Someone to pull them off campus and let them just relax and take care of them for a couple of days,” Linda Muhlbach said. “And a lot of times when they have their breaks, the college wants them off campus, so they stay here.”

Working with the college, along with John Muhlbach’s own family experience with foster care helped the couple make a final decision. His grandfather was once a foster child and stayed connected with his foster family and their family members for years after he became an adult.

Fostering through a religious organization was also appealing to the couple.

“Hopefully through a Christian home they will gain what we are all really trying to portray, what it’s like to live when you have Jesus and your Lord and Savior,” Linda Muhlbach said. “It’s (fostering) serving where we have