Alumni News
SHARI (JULSON) SEIDL is operations manager for the Nielsen Company in Green Bay, Wis.
1993 ERIK BEGUIN is founder, president, and CEO of Austin Capital Bank SSB in Austin, Texas. STEVEN OLSON is IT network manager for Highland Bank in St. Michael, Minn. ANJIE SHUTTS was selected by her peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2015 and Great Plains Super Lawyers 2014. She is an attorney and partner at Whitfield and Eddy PLC in Des Moines, Iowa.
1994 NATHAN BOERSMA is communications leader for Alcoa in Pittsburgh.
HEATHER CLEFISCH is division general counsel–global batteries and appliances, division vice president, and assistant general counsel for Spectrum Brands in Madison, Wis.
ALISA (PRANTNER) PONTARELLI earned an associate’s degree in nursing from Harper College. She is an inpatient registered nurse for Seasons Hospice and Palliative Care in Des Plaines, Ill.
SARAH (RUBLE) SLADEK provides advice on how to engage Generation Y in her book Knowing Y: Engage the Next Generation Now. The book offers insight on how this generation will wield tremendous influence on society and why they need to be incorporated into organizations. She is a writer for ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership in Minneapolis. SARAH TOBIASON is assistant elementary principal for EddyvilleBlakesburg–Fremont (Iowa) Community School District.
1996 JOSH BYRNES of Osage, Iowa, was reelected to serve as a state representative for Iowa House District 51.
1997 BRETT BOSTRACK
earned an M.B.A. degree from Concordia University–Wisconsin and is regional vice president for DentaQuest in Milwaukee.
OVER THE TOP PHOTOGRAPHY
AMY (GRAHAM) NEWELL is interim executive director at The Arc of Winnebago, Boone, and Ogle (Ill.) Counties.
SEAN TARPENNING ’96, a dentist in Eau Claire, Wis., participated in the sixth annual Dancing with the Eau Claire Stars event on Sept. 12, 2014, to raise money for the Eau Claire Children’s Theatre. The event raised more than $34,000 this year. Other Luther alumni who participated were JONATHAN LUECK ’11, director of vocal music for the Altoona (Wis.) school district, and LUKAS ANTHONY ENGRAV HOFFLAND ’00, director of listener engagement for Mid-West Family Broadcasting. Tarpenning says he put in six weeks of training with his professional dance partner, Rachel McIlquham, to learn two routines. He has served as an adjunct fixed prosthodontics instructor at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry and has twice been the president of the Chippewa Valley Dental Society. He is shown with dance partner McIlquham.
1998 MEGAN (SHELSTAD)
DAHL is account executive for Caliber Home Loans in Maple Grove, Minn. PETER KOWITZ earned a master of divinity degree from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary. He is pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church and Immanuel Lutheran Church in Proctor, Minn. SCOTT KUNCE graduated from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and is a third-year psychiatry resident at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. KATIE SNOW is a behavioral health provider for Women’s Health Associates/Lifeworks Northwest in Hillsboro, Ore.
HEIDI (FROSTESTAD) KUEHL is director of the law library and associate professor for Northern Illinois University.
Kai, daughter of MATT REBRO ’94, shows some Norse love with a Luther foam hand given to the family by DOUG NELSON ’82, Luther senior gift planning officer.
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Luther Alumni Magazine
MARK SCHMID is executive pastor for St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church in Plymouth, Minn.
1999 KATE (STARZ) and
NATHAN BOONSTRA live in Urbandale, Iowa. She is parenteducator connection at Heartland Area Education Agency. He is a pediatrician at Blank Children’s Hospital and was awarded the CDC Childhood Immunization Award 2014 for Iowa.
JAKE EASTMAN is an ESL instructor for Academy of Art University in San Francisco. DANIELLE (ASKELSON) LAYBOURN is an administrative assistant for the Decorah Community Schools. ERIN (KRUGER) STEWART is a real estate agent for Iowa Realty in West Des Moines. MATT WILLIAMS is an associate pastor at Calvary Lutheran Church in Willmar, Minn., specializing in children, youth, and family ministries.
2000 NORAH BRINGER and DAVE WAKE live in Washington, D.C. She serves as the clearance counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office on temporary assignment from her permanent job at the Department of Justice. He is a senior associate at WilmerHale. BETH BROGAARD-ALLEN is country director in Burundi for Population Services International in Washington, D.C.