Glen Bloomstrom

Ph.D.

Director, Faith Community Engagement, LivingWorks Education, Chaplain (Colonel) USA (Ret)

Since 2012, Glen has served as the Director, Faith Community Engagement at LivingWorks Education where he partners with clergy, faith leaders, seminaries, denominations, faith communities, Department of Defense and veterans’ groups to prevent suicide through education and intervention training.

Expert Bio

Since 2012, Glen has served as the Director, Faith Community Engagement at LivingWorks Education where he partners with clergy, faith leaders, seminaries, denominations, faith communities, Department of Defense and veterans’ groups to prevent suicide through education and intervention training. Glen also has served as an Adjunct Professor for Pastoral Counseling at Bethlehem Seminary in Minneapolis Minnesota where he specialized in pastoral counseling and marriage education. In 2015 he developed and facilitated the professional development training course, Pastoral Care in Suicide Prevention, Intervention and Postvention to Navy chaplaincy personnel worldwide. In 2016 he developed a post-graduate certificate course focused on PTSD, moral injury and suicide intervention for chaplains attending the Joint Special Operations University in Tampa Florida. In 2019, he was a plenary speaker at the American Association of Suicidology annual conference and the Utah Suicide Prevention Coalition. In 2020 Glen completed development of an online suicide prevention-training program entitled LivingWorks Faith, for clergy and faith leaders to deepen knowledge and strengthen confidence in helping those experiencing suicide behaviors. This training is informed by the Suicide Prevention Competencies for Faith Leaders: Supporting Life Before, During, and After a Suicidal Crisis developed by the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention and published in 2019, a project for which Glen served as a co-lead. In 2011 Glen culminated his 30 years of active duty with 18 months of his final 36 months as part of Joint Special Operations Task Forces in the Central Command Area of Operations supporting combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. From 1995-2008, following post-graduate education Glen specialized in chaplain training in soldier, marriage and family ministry. Assigned to the Pentagon, as Action Officer and Director of Ministry Initiatives for the Chief of Chaplains and later to the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This ministry phase focused on strategic initiative development, lessons learned and research on marriage and family programs, deployment support, combat stress and suicide intervention programs including the initial development, oversight and implementation of the Army’s Strong Bonds program that evolved from a unit best practice, to a multi-component marriage resilience program that included research by the National Institutes of Health. From 1982-1995 Glen’s operational assignments included units of the 82nd Airborne Division, 10th Special Forces Group, 75th Ranger Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, at battalion, brigade and division levels, with combat support for the invasion of Grenada, peacekeeping in Egypt and combat in Panama. His civilian education includes: Bachelor of Arts, Bethel College St. Paul Minnesota, Master of Divinity, Bethel Theological Seminary, St. Paul, MN, Master of Science, Kansas State University, Manhattan Kansas, Master of Strategic Studies from the US Army War College and is a 2006 graduate of the Georgetown University Leadership Coaching Certificate Program. Glen was a Clinical Fellow of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) from 1996 - 2022. In 2012 he was nominated to be a member of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention Faith Communities Task Force. In 2021, he became co-chair of the Minnesota Suicide Prevention Task Force Subcommittee on Suicide Postvention. In 2022 he became an Elder at Bethlehem Baptist Church. Glen grew up in the Army, the son of a career Sergeant Major. Glen’s family lived in numerous interesting places including Saigon, Viet Nam and Paris, France. He and his wife Ruth have three grown children who serve in the military or vocational ministry. Glen and Ruth now reside in Minneapolis, Minnesota.