19.03.2004
Changes in LWF Department for World Service Field Offices
New LWF/DWS West African Regional OfficeEffective 1 April 2004, the Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone country programs of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World Service (DWS) fall under the supervision of the newly created West African regional office. Consequently, Mr Arno Coerver, currently LWF representative in Mauritania, becomes the regional representative for the West African region, based in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
As regional representative, Coerver will be responsible for the oversight of all LWF/DWS and DWS-cooperative programs and offices in the three West African countries. His tasks include maintaining close contact with locally employed LWF staff and representatives, and coordinating with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sierra Leone, Lutheran Church in Liberia and other faith-based organizations in the region. The incumbent is also charged, among other duties, with fostering and maintaining coordination with international and bilateral co-operating and co-financing partners especially with LWF’s related agencies, United Nations and European Union, as well as with national and international non-governmental organizations.
Before joining the Mauritania program in 1997, Coerver, 46, worked as project manager of the LWF/DWS Nepal program, 1992-95, responsible for the Bhutanese refugee project in Jhapa. From 1989-92 he was manager of the reconstruction and rehabilitation project of the Nepalese program. Prior to joining the LWF, the Dutch civil engineer worked as a volunteer in Nepal for three years.
Coerver holds a Master of Science in management and implementation of development projects, 1995-96, from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, United Kingdom. From 1994 to 1995, he pursued disaster management courses by distance education with the University of Wisconsin, United States of America. He earned a Bachelor’s in civil engineering, 1976-81, from the Technical College (HTS) in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The Coervers have one child.
Mr Craig Kippels, LWF representative in Jerusalem until January 2004, has moved to the LWF/DWS Uganda office as country representative and program director. Effective February 1, Kippels succeeded Paavo Faerm from Finland, who retired last year. Kippels started working with the Jerusalem program in 1997 as chief executive officer of the LWF-run Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) in East Jerusalem. Between 1999 and June 2000, Kippels served as both AVH chief executive and LWF representative in Jerusalem, until Dr Tawfique Nasser’s appointment as head of the hospital.
Kippels, 53, is a healthcare executive with experience in inpatient and outpatient operations mainly in the United States of America. From 1988-98, he was vice-president for care and network development of the Riverside Healthcare system in Kankee, Illinois. Prior to that he worked for two years as senior vice-president of the St Joseph Medical Center, South Bend, Indiana. From 1985-86, Kippels was assistant director of the American Medical International hospital in Tampa, Florida. He was chief executive officer of the Hamad Hospital Corporation in Doha, Qatar, 1980-84. Prior to that he served in administrative and teaching positions at the Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
Kippels has a Master's in health services (1980) and business administration (1973) from the Universities of Michigan and Nebraska respectively, and a Bachelor of Arts (1969) from Creighton University, Omaha. The Kippels have three children.
DWS serves as the LWF’s international relief, rehabilitation and development humanitarian agency, with 24 service programs in over 31 countries worldwide.
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