The Rev. Frederick Aigner, Ph.D., President/CEO

The Rev. Frederick Aigner, Ph.D. was elected President/CEO of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) in June 1997.

Founded in 1867, LSSI is a statewide not-for-profit social service agency of the three Illinois synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). LSSI provides a broad array of community-based and residential services to people of all ages, races and beliefs, and touches the lives of many thousands of people annually. LSSI has an annual operating budget of more than $110 million and employs approximately 2,200 people.

Under Pastor Aigner’s guidance, LSSI undertook a Strategic Directioning process in 1998 that reaffirmed the social service agency’s vision as being part of God’s vision of shalom or well-being for the world. This led to tightening fiscally and operationally at the agency, and the development of a strategic, three-year integrated business plan and a funding initiative that began in 2004. In 2000, in conjunction with the three ELCA synods in Illinois and the ELCA’s Advocacy Department, LSSI launched what is now known as Lutheran Advocacy-Illinois, a coordinated effort to recruit, train and mobilize the quarter-million ELCA members in the state to speak to their elected officials, urging them to support just, compassionate public policies that strengthen the common good in Illinois.

Pastor Aigner came to LSSI with a long history of personal commitment to the church and social services. From 1983-1997, he served as senior pastor of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Arlington Heights. Under his vision and leadership, Our Saviour’s grew to a membership of 2,500, with an operating budget of more than $1 million. Prior to his work at Our Saviour’s, Pastor Aigner served Christ the King Lutheran Church in Florissant, Missouri, and Christ the Shepherd Lutheran Church in Altadena, California.

He is a graduate of Wittenberg University at Springfield, Ohio. He received a Master of Divinity from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

Pastor Aigner is an inaugural recipient of the Presidential Award for Distinguished Leadership from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. He was a recipient of the 2005 Seeds of Hope Award from Wheat Ridge Ministries. Wittenberg University conferred an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree on Pastor Aigner in 2005 for his work on behalf of the church in the social services sector. In 2008, Pastor Aigner was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in Administration and Leadership by Augustana College at Rock Island, Illinois.

Pastor Aigner served on the LSSI Board of Directors from 1990-1996, and he is also president of the G. J. Aigner Foundation, Inc. He currently is a member of the Chicago Alliance for Collaborative Effort (CACE) and participates in a small, nationwide coalition of major Lutheran Social Services providers as well as Lutheran Services of America (LSA).

Pastor Aigner and his wife, Sally, have two adult children and two grandchildren. His interests include fitness, golf, fishing and oenology.