Immediate Press release
For more information contact evan@cisf.org or 847.295.9308
 
CISF SELECTS NEW PRESIDENT
Orrestad to Lead Christian International Scholarship Foundation
 
Seattle, Wash. – Chuck Orrestad, well-known business and civic leader, is making a career switch and joining the non-profit Christian International Scholarship Foundation (CISF) as president.
 
Effective immediately, Orrestad assumes leadership for the Washington- and Illinois-based foundation, which selects prominent leaders from emerging countries for advanced education at seminaries in the United States and around the world.
 
“I am excited and privileged to accept this challenge,” said Orrestad. “I can hardly imagine a greater calling than to help educate key leaders in the Majority World. Our scholars are widely recognized for leading the way as opinion and thought leaders in their home countries, not only in the church but in society as a whole. They are playing a key role in developing human rights, women’s rights, and reconciliation movements between religions and peoples, as well as providing desperately-needed church leadership.”
 
Orrestad leaves a 30-year career as a senior executive in software, Internet and medical technology businesses. In recent years he has served at chief operating officer in various technology startups in the Northwest.
 
He is a graduate of the University of Washington and has earned a graduate engineering degree from Stanford University. A resident of the Seattle area for more than 20 years, Orrestad currently serves as president of the board of trustees of Bellevue Christian School. He and his wife, Colleen, their four children and a daughter-in-law reside in Bellevue, WA.
 
“We are thrilled to have Chuck on board,” commented Bruce Baker, CISF board chair. “We have ambitious growth objectives, and we know Chuck has the right attributes to help us fill the important needs we see around the globe. We are very blessed.”
 
CISF supports scholars from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Sponsored leaders attend seminaries such as Fuller Seminary, Pasadena, Calif.; Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.; Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Ill.; and several institutions in the United Kingdom, Africa, Hong Kong and South America. These graduates return to make a substantial difference in their home countries.
 
Graduates have established seminaries; led reconciliation efforts between Jews, Christians, and Moslems in the Middle East; organized relief efforts after the bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa; promoted movements to protect African women from abuse such as female circumcision; and led the church in its response to religious violence and the AIDS crisis in Africa.
 
“The scholars CISF supports are leading advocates for the values of just societies,” said Orrestad.


 
 

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