Lutheran Services Carolinas CEO wins national award

SALISBURY, N.C. - Feb. 27, 2015 - PRLog -- Ted. W. Goins, Jr. of Salisbury received the Outstanding Executive Award from the  Association of Lutheran Development Executives (ALDE) on Feb. 26 at the association’s annual conference in Reno, Nev. The award honors a top-level executive who serves the Lutheran church through deed and example.

Goins, who grew up in Hickory, NC, is president and CEO of Lutheran Services Carolinas, a faith-based, not-for-profit ministry sponsored by the North and South Carolina Synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. With both senior services and child and family services, LSC provides compassionate care for the most vulnerable in our communities, from infants to elders.

Goins was selected for his visionary leadership, effectiveness in management and fundraising, inspirational leadership of staff and volunteers, and boldness in proclaiming the importance of Christian stewardship through public speaking or writing.

As a CEO, Goins has an unusually deep understanding of senior services operations. While a student at Lenoir-Rhyne University, Goins worked part-time as a certified nursing assistant, a certification he maintains to this day by completing at least one shift per year in an LSC nursing home. After graduating with a degree in political science, Goins got his nursing home administrator’s license and worked for several years for a large for-profit operation before returning to serve Lutheran Services as a nursing home administrator.  Goins has often noted that this experience was invaluable to him in later years as he moved into the non-profit sector and sought to balance business and ministry in an organization with an annual budget exceeding $100 million.

Goins was elected president of Lutheran Services for the Aging in 2000, largely because of his collaborative leadership style. His approach served him well in 2011, when he shepherded the affiliation of Lutheran Services for the Aging (LSA) and Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas (LFS) under the umbrella of Lutheran Services Carolinas. Combining two organizations with very different cultures required a leap of faith, since at the time of the affiliation LFS was experiencing  financial difficulties.

As LSC president, Goins has seen the organization  through a $5 million capital campaign that has led to the construction of four new nursing homes, several of which replaced deteriorating structures housing a largely indigent and severely disabled population.

For more information about Lutheran Services Carolinas, go to www.lscarolinas.net.