Tim Goeglein

Tim Goeglein is Vice President for External Relations and chief of the newly established Washington office for Focus on the Family, taking that office in January 2009. During the George W. Bush Administration, he had been a Special Assistant to the President, reporting to Karl Rove, and was the primary liaison to the Evangelical community. Prior to the White House, he began his career at NBC news affiliate WKJG in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and then spent ten yearsas the deputy press secretary and then communications director for former U.S. Senator Dan Coats, R-Indiana.

While in the White House, he wrote occasional columns for his home town newspaper, the Fort Wayne (Indiana) News Sentinel. In 2008, the newspaper discovered he had plagiarized a number of columns He resigned in February 2009. Focus on the Family issued a press release acknowledging his mistake, but putting it behind them in a spirit of Christian forgiveness. . According to Focus president James D. Daly,

Tim brings with him a wealth of experience and relationships that will prove invaluable to our efforts to defend the sanctity of human life, protect the institution of marriage and ensure the religious-freedom rights of Christians...He will be our eyes and ears in Washington, helping ensure people of faith continue to be heard on the important issues facing our nation...Tim has been forthright about his mistakes and humbly accepted the consequences of them – a pretty rare thing in Washington...He is a Christian, and being a Christian doesn’t mean you’re perfect – only that there is grace and forgiveness when you confess your imperfections. Tim has done that, and we welcome him to our team enthusiastically.”