Alumni Profiles

calvin.edu/spark

Calvin seeks to equip students to think deeply, act justly, and live wholeheartedly as Christ’s agents of renewal in the world. These stories demonstrate how our alumni are living out that mission.

Brian Brasser majored in nursing at Calvin, and caring for patients has always been his No. 1 priority. Today, he’s the chief operating officer at Spectrum Health, overseeing hospital operations.

As a magistrate judge, Lori Tebben Meulenberg often makes tough decisions. Learn how her Calvin experience gave her confidence and expanded her view of the world. Attah Obande is passionate about new businesses in his city. As the director of dream fulfillment at SpringGR, he works with underserved entrepreneurs.

Studying German at Calvin opened doors for Natasha Bajema. She became an expert in nuclear weapons, worked in Washington, D.C., and now is educating the public about nuclear weapons on YouTube.

Janet Lenger Staal ’98 Brian Brasser ’94 Katelyn Ver Woert Egnatuk ’13 Lori Tebben Meulenberg ’85

Brian Brasser ’94 Nursing Senior vice president, chief operating officer Spectrum Health Grand Rapids Grand Rapids, Michigan

When he was a student at Calvin, Brian Brasser ’94 got a job working at the loading dock at Butterworth Hospital in downtown Grand Rapids. Laundry, food, life-saving medicine, medical equipment—it all passed through the shipping and receiving department where he worked. The job opened Brasser’s eyes to the inner workings of a hospital.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but this job gave me a unique perspective on the complexities that exist in healthcare, and all the coordination that occurs every moment of every day to support our front line caregivers.”

Today, Brasser oversees the operations of the Acute Health service line across the Spectrum Health hospitals, as well as the overall operations at the Grand Rapids hospitals – Blodgett Hospital, Butterworth Hospital, Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center and Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

Since the start of the pandemic, Brasser has served as the leader of Spectrum Health System Command Center, which has coordinated all aspects of the organization’s COVID-19 response: from expanding capacity in the hospitals to COVID-19 testing to the distribution of the COVID-19 booster.

“I see that there’s a real providential journey that the organization has been on.” Several years ago, Brasser led a major technology initiative at Spectrum Health to bring all the hospitals and physician practices onto the same electronic health records system. Being on the same system allowed the organization to speak the same language and coordinate care more efficiently—which are vital in our current times. “We focused on system integration long before 2020, but it equipped us to be able to navigate the pandemic in ways we never would have done before,” Brasser said.

“There have been some really dark times over the past 24 months (of the pandemic), But even then, humanity shines through. Our teams are resilient. They are stretched so thin, and yet they are so compassionate and caring. It’s truly remarkable to see, and it happens again and again.”

It’s times like these, where he says we’re reminded of the limitations of humans and how much we need God.

Brasser’s first wife died 10 years ago, when his five sons were between the ages of 5 and 24. “God’s promises are never more real and sustaining than when we are in a time of grief and crisis. When you don’t know what will come next and things are incredibly turbulent, those are the times that have strengthened my faith.” Today, Brasser is remarried and all of his children – and two grandchildren – are doing well. “We are truly blessed.”

Brasser grew up down the street from Calvin, and said it was evident early on that Calvin would be his college choice. But picking a major wasn’t as clear to him. He switched majors three times, landing on nursing. “What solidified it for me was doing clinical work. I got exposure to interaction between patients and clinicians,” he said. “It’s deeply meaningful work.”

His job at the loading dock helped him secure an externship in nursing, which led to a nursing position working nights. “Someone asked me if I wanted to be in leadership. I could see the hassles leaders have—and I thought there’s not a chance,” he said.

But God had other plans. “Six months after I had that thought, I had my first formal leadership position, and I’ve been on that trajectory ever since,” said Brasser.

He became the chief operating officer at Spectrum Health Kelsey Hospital in Lakeview, Michigan, in 2004, and became the president of that rural hospital in 2013, along with a neighboring hospital in nearby Greenville. He came back home to Grand Rapids in 2016.

“I found that my nursing background was really important throughout my career. My focus is operations, but my clinical background gives me context for the decisions I make,” he said.

Lori Tebben Meulenberg ’85 Sociology and criminal justice Magistrate judge Sandpoint, Idaho

When people meet Lori Tebben Meulenberg ’85 at her job, they’re often afraid. It might be the worst day of their lives. As a magistrate judge for the state of Idaho in Bonner County, Meulenberg often encounters people who are in very difficult situations.

“I am asked to solve problems and conflicts every day from birth to after death,” she said, when asked to describe her job in the simplest terms.

Since 2013, she has been a general jurisdiction judge hearing a wide range of cases including child protection, divorce, probate, guardianship, and criminal cases.

What they might not expect from the judge who hears their case is a listening ear. “One of the greatest privileges I have is to listen to people’s stories,” Meulenberg said from her chambers in Bonner County. “People might not always agree with my decisions, but I hope that people would say that I listen to them.” Once a woman came before her for sentencing in a criminal case, and Meulenberg could see from her file that she had lived in more than 40 foster homes. “I looked her right in the eyes and said, ‘I’m sorry that happened to you.’ The woman almost started crying. It was meaningful to her to have someone acknowledge what had happened to her,” Meulenberg said.

Growing up on a farm in central Minnesota, Meulenberg learned how to work hard. “I really liked school, and I always knew I wanted to go to college,” she said. “But there were more people in my dorm at Calvin than there were people in my hometown. At the beginning, Calvin was lonely and overwhelming.”

But Meulenberg found her way. She spent a semester in Spain her sophomore year. “Studying in Spain was a wonderful experience,” said Meulenberg, who loves to travel. Returning from Spain, she was a camp counselor at Camp Roger and met her husband, Dan Meulenberg ’85. She also served as a resident assistant her junior year, and all of those experiences opened her world and gave her confidence.

“Calvin does an amazing job expanding a person’s view of the world and of people. Calvin isn’t afraid of looking at hard issues,” said Meulenberg. “That’s one of the things that we’ve taught our own children. Our daughters are extremely bright, and had we shut them down or given pat answers, I don’t think their faith would be as strong.”

At Calvin, Meulenberg majored in sociology and criminal justice, and planned on going into social work. After working at a law firm in North Carolina while her husband went to medical school, she decided to go to law school.

Meulenberg and her husband graduated from law school and medical school on the same day and headed to Idaho for Dan’s residency. They raised their two daughters while she worked as a prosecutor. “I think our daughters learned a lot from us,” she said. “They learned how to juggle stressful lives and still find time for family, friends, and recreation.”

When the judge position opened up, Meulenberg didn’t want it. She knew she would have to make huge, life-altering choices with imperfect information. “It was one of the only times in my life where God was clearly telling me to do something. I either had to say yes, or stand before him in heaven one day and confess that I didn’t obey his call.”

Today, she’s absolutely positive that she’s where she’s supposed to be. “I pray every day, sometimes right in the middle of a hearing, for God to give me wisdom,” she said.

Attah Obande ’03 Graphic design Director of dream fulfillment SpringGR Grand Rapids, Michigan

Attah Obande ’03 knew God was calling him to something new in 2014. He had spent 10 years working in banking. He had degrees in graphic design and marketing, a growing family, and responsibilities at his church. But he didn’t just want to punch a clock—he wanted a career that would bring him joy and purpose.

“I read that only one in three people have a job they truly enjoy,” said Obande. To beat those odds, he started reading books about finding passion and talking to mentors, including former Calvin professors. He found that the answer to finding purpose and passion was at the intersection of something that frustrates you and something that brings you joy. “I realized what frustrated me most was seeing wasted potential in people, and what I loved the most was helping people reach their goals,” he said.

Today, Obande is the director of dream fulfillment at SpringGR, a nonprofit entrepreneur development organization in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Specifically, the organization helps underserved entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses.

Obande cites several studies to show the importance of the mission. In 2018, LendingTree published a study that ranks Grand Rapids as No. 2 in the nation for new small businesses. But studies also show that Grand Rapids isn’t a good place for all entrepreneurs. It ranks 122 of 182 cities for “Best Cities for Hispanic Entrepreneurs,” and in 2015, Forbes ranked Grand Rapids as second worst in the nation for “cities where African Americans are doing the best economically.”

“Grand Rapids has an awesome economy for business, but those benefits are not reaching people of color,” said Obande. More than 700 people have gone through SpringGR programming; 87 percent of them are people of color, and 68 percent are women.

SpringGR began because The DeVos Family Foundation wanted to do more to support entrepreneurship in Grand Rapids. Restorers, a nonprofit that was birthed out of Obande’s church, agreed to host the initial pilot of the program and asked Obande to be the business coach.

He remembers sitting across from an entrepreneur at a cafe. His experience in banking gave him specific helpful insights. “We were going over her numbers, and she looks at me and says, ‘I think this is possible. I’m getting over my fear.’ A lightbulb went off for me right then and there—I knew this was where I was supposed to be,” he said.

Since then, SpringGR developed into its own nonprofit, and Obande’s role has shifted to strategy developing and vision casting. “We like to say that we are an onramp,” Obande said. “The DeVos Family Foundation wanted to fill a gap. We serve the underserved entrepreneurs and get them plugged into existing resources.” His latest initiative is The 250 Project, which will help minority-owned businesses grow. SpringGR found that of the 11,500 businesses in Grand Rapids that make $250,000 or more a year, less than 1% are owned by people of color. The 250 Project targets minority-owned businesses that make $100,000 annually and will help them scale.

In college, Obande didn’t have aspirations to become an entrepreneur himself. “But in retrospect, both of my parents were small business owners,” said Obande, who grew up in Nigeria. His dad owned his law firm and several other small businesses. His mom, who passed away while Obande was a student at Calvin, was a fashion designer and owned a salon.

To honor his mom, Obande has started a side fashion venture of his own, iNFable socks. “When God paints a picture, we may not see how the dots connect. But when we turn back around, we see what he was painting the whole time.”

Natasha Bajema ’98 German Director, Converging Risks Lab The Council on Strategic Risks Washington, D.C.

On the day of her interview with Spark, Natasha Bajema ’98 has quite a few things on her to-do list. She’s recovering from driving almost a thousand miles in her pickup truck over the past few days. She’s working as the director of the Converging Risks Lab at The Council on Strategic Risks. And she’s coaxing her two dogs, Charlie and Luna, down five stories underground into a former nuclear missile silo as part of a travelogue show she’s producing for YouTube.

“Oh, and my friend and I were supposed to have a pajama party tonight at the bottom of the missile silo for YouTube,” she said. But her friend had to cancel their plans due to her boyfriend catching COVID, so Bajema is doing what she does best—going with the flow.

Bajema, who has an MA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and a PhD from Tufts University, is an expert on nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). She spent more than a decade in Washington, D.C., with the National Defense University and as a senior adviser to an assistant secretary of defense at the Pentagon. But in 2019, she quit. Now she’s on a yearlong mission with her camper and dogs to visit dozens of nuclear-weapons related sites. She’s creating short, entertaining videos as she travels, in the hope of using YouTube to educate the general public about nuclear weapons.

“I’m doing this because we’re in trouble. The world still has 13,500 nuclear weapons, and each one can annihilate an entire city. China, Russia, the U.S., and others are modernizing their programs. I ask myself, ‘Is this the future that we want for our country? Do we want a future that’s like the Cold War?’”

Bajema is the first to admit that her trip is experimental, and she’s used her entire life savings to fund the project. “I think we need to speak more with actions and less with words. This is me speaking with my actions,” she said.

Becoming a nuclear weapons expert was an unexpected career path for Bajema, who loved art in high school and had a knack for learning languages.

“My first memory of Calvin was a German class with Jim Lamse,” she said. “He had the energy of an 18-year-old and was eccentric in ways that are hard to describe.”

Lamse, who passed away in 2014, helped Bajema get to Germany a few times to work and study.

“The first time I went, Professor Lamse arranged an au pair job for me. You pick up language very quickly when you’re in charge of small children,” she said.

Bajema discovered an interest in WMDs while getting her master’s degree. “Just like Jim Lamse had done for me at Calvin, I had a professor in grad school who really believed in me. He recognized something in me and told me I should pursue WMDs for my career.”

She was in the middle of her PhD program when the job at the National Defense University opened up. She knew completing her academic program and starting a new job wouldn’t be easy, but she took on the challenge.

“You can’t count on anything in life, and you have to seize what comes to you at the moment,” she said. “We’re not meant to be comfortable. I think that’s what we’re taught in the New Testament with Jesus and his disciples. They weren’t comfortable. When we’re living an uncomfortable life is when we are truly living.”

You can follow along with Bajema’s life on the road on her YouTube channel Radioactive RoadTrippin’ or learn about the novels she’s written at natashabajema.com.