Lara Beth Webb Fors began her law career working to benefit children, and she's never changed her focus.
The 1995 graduate of University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law worked on child-support enforcement for the Jackson County prosecuting attorney's office and has continued those efforts in Greene County.
Fors joined the child-support division of the prosecutor's office in 1999 and became a senior assistant prosecuting attorney in 2003.
"Part of my motivation for being a leader is that I care," Fors says. "I try to make our office work better, try to get the noncustodial parents to work better, and I try make the federal program of child-support enforcement work better."
Her efforts encompass both her work and the larger community.
In her role as co-chairperson of the Greene County Prosecuting Attorney's Vicarious Trauma Committee, Fors worked with fellow prosecutors and staff members to draft a drug-testing policy in the prosecutor's office and a policy relating to the trauma prosecutors sometimes experience from dealing with sensitive cases. For her efforts, Fors was named prosecutor of the month in August 2008.
Also last year, Fors completed a three-year term as president of the Missouri Child Support Enforcement Association. Fors is in her first year as secretary of the executive committee for the Eastern Regional Interstate Child Support Association. She cites these professional affiliations as her proudest accomplishments.
Fors prefers to "teach and explain rather than demand and exhort," whether mentoring new prosecutors or encouraging noncustodial parents to actively engage in their children's lives.
"I think it is important to be honest with people and communicate to them what your expectations of them are," she says. "I think that an organization will be more successful as each of its members is encouraged to participate in the vision and the implementation of that organization."
Fors is a member of Springfield Mid-American Singers, which presents four public concerts per season and other special appearances.
She also devotes time to helping noncustodial parents through area agencies, such as Missouri Career Center, Community Partnership and Ozarks Area Community Action Corp.
"I have made it my No. 1 priority for the last 10 years to serve the families of Springfield and Greene County," she says.[[In-content Ad]]
