Julie Schisel (second from left) receives the Spannaus Award from Lutheran Community Services Northwest. The award is presented by program director Karen Danz, Jennifer Monteleone, District Director for Lutheran Community Services Northwest – North Puget Sound, and Boots Winterstein, daughter of Ruben and Olive Spannaus.

Lutheran Community Services Northwest recently honored attorney Julie Schisel of Burien with the 2019 Spannaus Award.  For two decades, Ms. Schisel has provided legal services to support LCS Northwest in caring for unaccompanied refugee minors in their foster care program. The award was presented on October 13 at the annual Lutheran Community Services Northwest North Puget Sound fundraising luncheon.

“We can always rely on Julie to do everything possible to establish custody of a child, often in an unreasonably short timeframe, because she understands that the alternative may be homelessness,” said Karen Danz, director of refugee foster care. “She has a depth of expertise with this unique population and the many complex and changing systems involved in our program.”

The Spannaus Award was established in 1992 to recognize the outstanding contributions of individuals and organizations in advancing the agency’s mission of Health, Justice and Hope. The award is named in honor of Ruben Spannaus, the first director of Lutheran Community Services Northwest, and his wife Olive.

Previous award recipients include: City of Arlington Mayor Barb Tolbert (2018), Calvary Lutheran Church of West Seattle (2017), Faith Lutheran Church of Seattle (2016) and the Greater Everett Community Foundation (2015).