LFL President and Staff

The President and Staff of National Lutherans For Life
Diane Schroeder (LCMS) – President – and her husband, Carl, are parents of four children. Diane has been active in LFL since 1985 when she helped organize the DuPage County chapter in northern Illinois. She also participated in starting the Illinois federation of LFL and served as its president until her election as an at-large member of the national LFL board of directors in 2000. In 1991, she helped organize Word of Hope (formerly known as LFL Healing Hearts), the post-abortion outreach ministry of LFL. In addition to her duties as president, she continues to work with Word of Hope and its director, Grace Kern. She is also on staff at CareNet Pregnancy Services of DuPage as Director of Communications. Diane and her family are members of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Elmhurst, Illinois.
The Reverend Dr. James I. Lamb (LCMS) – Executive Director – grew up in the small, southern Minnesota town of Good Thunder. There he married his childhood sweetheart, RoxAnne. The Lambs have been blessed with two sons and two daughters-in-law, a granddaughter, Jamie, and a grandson, Luke. Dr. Lamb and RoxAnne live in State Center, Iowa. Dr. Lamb received a B.A. in Biology from Mankato State University in 1973. In 1975 he enlisted in the USAF and served as an Emergency Medical Technician at the USAF Academy Hospital in Colorado Springs. He entered Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis in 1978, served his vicarage year at St. Paul, Royal Oak, Michigan, and graduated with a Master of Divinity in 1982. In 1994 he received his Doctor of Ministry from Concordia, Saint Louis. Prior to accepting the position of Executive Director of National Lutherans For Life in April, 1996, Dr. Lamb served as senior pastor at St. Paul, Garner, Iowa, for fourteen years. During this time he also served as Circuit Counselor, member of the board of directors for Lutheran Family Service of Iowa, chairman of the board of directors for a community/school youth program, spiritual advisor for a local Lutherans For Life chapter, and chaplain of the Garner Volunteer Fire Department. He presently serves on the Sanctity of Life Committee for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Life Ministries. As part of his duties at National LFL, he now travels nationally speaking in a variety of settings and sharing the biblical "For Life" message. He is the author of numerous brochures, articles, and essays connecting God’s Word of Life to the life issues.
Lowell Highby (LCMS) – Director of Communications – joined the staff of LFL in January of 1998. Before assuming this position, he served as general manager of KNGN Good News Radio in McCook, Nebraska, from 1992 through 1997. Before 1992, Lowell worked in various capacities at radio stations in Marshall, Minnesota; Antigo, Wisconsin; and Redwood Falls, Minnesota. He received his broadcast training at Brown Institute of Broadcasting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lowell is originally from the Revere/Lamberton, Minnesota, area. He has been active in local congregations, serving as a Sunday school and VBS teacher, LYF advisor, Lifelight group leader, local LLL president, choir member, in various church council positions (board of education, president, and secretary), and as a member of the Clemons Lutheran School board. He is a past president and secretary of the McCook Sertoma Club. Lowell has also been in community theater and local historical societies in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, and Nevada, Iowa. Lowell resides in Nevada, Iowa, and is active at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Ames.
Karen Frohwein (LCMS) - Director of Development - and her husband, Randy, are the parents of two grown children, Michael and Amanda, and a stillborn son, Brian. Prior to joining the staff at LFL in November of 2004, Karen worked for the Iowa Department of Human Services, developing programming and securing funding for community collaborations focused on fatherhood and healthy marriage initiatives. She also made presentations on child support and responsible parenting to inmates in both men’s and women’s correctional institutions in central Iowa. Because of those experiences, Karen has an interest in the effects of abortion on men, prison ministry, and sharing the life message with parents whose children have died through miscarriage or stillbirth. The Frohweins are life-long State Center residents and are members of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Marshalltown, Iowa. Karen is on the Iowa LFL advisory board.
Trisha Adams (LCMS) – Business Manager – has been our staff accountant since 1999. Trisha is currently finishing classes to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration from William Penn University and will graduate spring 2006. Trisha is the mother of one grown son and lives on an acreage near State Center, Iowa.
Amy O'Shaughnessy (ELCA) – Secretary – is a native of Nevada, Iowa. After graduation in 2001, she joined the Navy and served on board the USS Abraham Lincoln. Amy also attended Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for sign language interpreting. She recently moved back to Nevada area where she lives with her daughter. Amy is a member of Fjeldberg Lutheran Church in Huxley, Iowa.
Kim Nessa (AFLC) – Mail Room Supervisor and National Volunteer Coordinator – Kim serves in a variety of capacities as well as coordinating the volunteers who help with the mailing of Life Sunday resources, Directions and other educational materials.
Jerilyn Richard (AFLC) – Administrative Assistant and Renewal For Life Coordinator – joined Lutherans For Life in January of 2006. She received an Associates Degree from the Association Free Lutheran Bible School in Plymouth, Minnesota. She continued her education at Northwestern Bible College in St Paul, Minnesota, earning a Bachelors Degree in Business. Jerilyn was a stay-at-home mom prior to working at Lutherans For Life. She has three children and resides in Garden City, Iowa. Jerilyn and family attend Stavanger Free Lutheran Church in Garden City.
Katie Friedrich (LCMS) – Office Assistant – joined the Lutherans For Life staff in April of 2005 as a part-time data processor. She also works part-time at the Ames Public Library. She received an office assistant’s certificate from Des Moines Area Community College in 2000 and her associate of arts degree from Waldorf College in 2002. She has two brothers, a sister-in-law, and three nieces. Katie lives in Ames, Iowa, and is a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church where she substitute taught in pre-school, taught VBS, and currently teaches Sunday school and sings in the choir.

Word of Hope
Grace Kern (LCMS) – National Director of Word of Hope (888-217-8679) – is National Director of Word of Hope (888-217-8679), a social worker, and a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors. She has been involved in pro-life work for over 27 years, first as president, counselor, and speaker of the Care and Counseling Center of Downers Grove, Illinois, and then as Director of Healing Hearts since it’s founding in 1991. Through her ministry she has helped women and men in congregations, communities, prisons, and military bases throughout the country deal with crisis pregnancies or the spiritual aftermath of an abortion experience. In addition to counseling, Grace is an educator and teacher and does training in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and works with deaconesses through Concordia University, River Forest. Grace started an abstinence-centered education program that has reached well over forty thousand teenagers. She has written a number of articles for LifeDate and has been a guest on national talk radio appearing on Mid Day Connection, Prime Time America and Woman to Woman. Grace and her husband Greg reside in Oak Brook, Illinois. They have three grown children and seven grandchildren and are members of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Elmhurst, Illinois.