Barbara Below

About

Barbara A. Below is serving as assistant to Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Below is the first woman to serve on the executive-level staff for an LCMS president.

Prior to joining the president’s staff in September 2010, Below, a licensed clinical social worker, served for six years as director of social ministry organizations for LCMS World Relief and Human Care, the disaster relief and mercy ministry of the Synod. In that position, Below worked directly with 125 social-ministry organizations recognized by the Synod and served as the Synod’s liaison to Lutheran Services in America, the inter-Lutheran alliance of nearly 300 agencies that is among the largest nonprofits in the country. She also served on the LCMS management team of the Dominican Republic Lutheran Mission.

A native of Bemidji, Minn., Below received a bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1982 from Concordia University Wisconsin, Mequon, formerly known as Concordia College. She received her master’s degree in social work from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1998, graduating magna cum laude.

Before joining the Synod in 2004, Below held numerous case management and clinical services positions. She was a therapist at Kairos Counseling in Elm Grove, Wis., and also served as project manager for a program known as “Healthy Connections with Clergy Spouses.” During the same time, she served as an in-home therapist at Lad Lake Inc., an organization focused on helping at-risk youth and their families throughout Walworth County in southern Wisconsin. From 1998 to 2004, she held various positions in Salt Lake City. Among them, she served as a therapist at Samaritan Counseling Centers of Utah; inpatient admissions counselor at the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Hospital; and as an in-home therapist for the Utah Division of Child and Family Services.

Below is married to Mark Below, an LCMS pastor.