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Find us online at luther.edu/ magazine.
Cover: Ricky Portilla Ruiz ’25 is one of our newest grads prepared and inspired to serve the common good. Read more about him and other new grads starting on page 6. Photo by Armando JenkinsVazquez ’21.
Maren Johnson, associate professor of Nordic studies, was interviewed as part of a segment on Luther’s Commencement that aired in Norway. Read more on page 2.
Contents
Senior Snapshots
Eight members of the class of 2025 share their life-changing Luther stories.
12
Healthier Communities
Global health alumni improve health access, equity, and outcomes for their communities.
16
Hearts and Minds
When a Luther grad suffered cardiac arrest during a 10-mile race, a network of support came to his aid—including a fellow Luther grad.
LET’S STAY IN TOUCH
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THE COMMON
Good
Dear Luther Community,
Over the past two years, the Luther College community engaged in a robust dialogue about its identity, purpose, direction, and commitments. We identified core values, revised our mission statement, and articulated identity and vision statements. This new set of elements was affirmed by Luther’s Board of Regents in July and incorporated into the rhythms and rituals of the campus community at the annual Service of Dedication in August, which gathers and grounds faculty and staff at the beginning of each academic year.
Taken together with our compass points (Honesty, Hope, Pride, and Belief), the new elements will support the focus the broader Luther community needs to thrive during a tumultuous time for society in general and higher education in particular. The elements provide clarity about WHO we are (identity statement), WHAT we do (mission statement), WHERE we are going (vision statement), and WHY we act (core values). You can learn more about these elements at luther.edu/ about/mission. I look forward to sharing and discussing them at a series of alumni gatherings over the 2025–26 academic year.
We last revised our mission statement in 2006. While the new elements honor the past and look to the future, what bridges the former mission statement and the new elements is a defining aspect of Luther College and its community: a focus on the common good.
Luther is a place of intersection. It’s a community called and empowered to serve the neighbor so that
all may flourish. This issue of the Luther magazine contains many examples of those intersections and calls: stories of recent graduates who’ve been inspired and equipped to courageously serve the common good; stories of Luther alumni serving the neighbor; stories of Luther elevating individuals, communities, and society, one graduate at a time.
Spend some time with these stories. Share these stories with someone who doesn’t know Luther. This is who we are. This is what we do. We are called. And we are capable.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Bradley M. Chamberlain President
President Brad Chamberlain
Over the summer, students Linh Nguyen ’27 (left) and Armel Donfack ’26 (right) conducted research with associate math professor Phil Iversen ’87 to analyze e-commerce data for Seed Savers Exchange (SSE), a Decorah nonprofit directed by Mike Bollinger ’02 (center).
COMMENCEMENT 2025
Luther celebrated Commencement on Sunday, May 25, adding 268 graduates to the Luther alumni community. Of the graduating class, 124 received Latin honors; 18 percent were first-generation college students; 4 percent were transfer students; 14 percent were international students; and nearly 20 percent were double majors.
Madelyn Kaasa ’25 received the Elizabeth A. and Paul G. Jenson Medal. A fifth-generation Norse, Maddie graduated magna cum laude with a double major in elementary education and Nordic studies. She served in the Student Senate, Norse Against Sexual Assault, the Luther Disability Alliance, PALS, and the Student Philanthropy Council. She was vice president of the Alpha Beta Psi sorority. She plans to earn a special education endorsement, but her next step is to complete her student teaching in Oslo, Norway.
Chris Norton ’14 received the Young Alumni Award in absentia. He is a motivational speaker and best-selling author who beat 3 percent odds of ever walking again after a spinal cord injury. He is founder of the Chris Norton Foundation, which provides rehab technology grants and organizes wheelchair camps free of charge for families living with disabilities. He and his wife, Emily, have adopted five children and been foster parents to more than 23 children.
Luther’s Commencement aired in Norway! The Norwegian national broadcasting network NRK sent their Washington, D.C., correspondent to Decorah to cover it. Along with interviewing Commencement speaker Ine Eriksen Søreide, Norway’s former minister of foreign affairs, and associate professor Maren Johnson, the reporter also interviewed graduating seniors Haakon Rustad ‘25 and Megan Hyla Miller ‘25 . Watch the coverage around minute 25.
THE CARILLON RINGS AGAIN
The Luther carillon has been revived! The idea to bring it back to life started when a few members of the class of 1968 gathered at Mabe’s during their 55-year reunion weekend. At one point, the conversation turned to reminiscing about the carillon bells and wondering why they stopped ringing. Dave Kaasa ’68 and Linda (Aaker) Ritland ’68 decided to form a committee (which included class agent Warren Luckner ’68) to work with the college on a proposal and fundraising effort to bring the bells back to Luther. The goal was to raise about $30,000 to get the bells up and running again in time for Commencement, where Dave would be in attendance to see his granddaughter, Maddie Kaasa ’25, graduate—and receive the Jenson Medal! In May, Dave, his wife Rayna, and a fellow committee member, Nancy (Johnson) Justus ’68—who came just to hear the bells—attended Baccalaureate, where the carillon played “To Luther” right before the program. The group gathered outside the CFL to listen—and shed a few tears! To see video of the magical moment, visit luther.edu/magazine.
From left: vice president for advancement Mary Duvall, Nancy (Johnson) Jutus ‘68, Dave Kaasa ‘68, and Jenna Mockler-Gjerde ’06, associate director of annual giving and campaigns, gathered outside the CFL to hear a newly revived carillon play “To Luther.”
$1 MILLION GIFT
We’re so grateful to Gene ’66 and Miriam (Nelson) Takle ’66, who recently pledged $1 million to establish the Eugene S. and Miriam E. Takle Student Success Fund. The gift will help fund a new holistic, collaborative, and coordinated campus-wide network to support academic success and career potential.
Gene and Miriam are lifelong educators. “We met at Luther College, and we are grateful that we were inspired and prepared to devote our careers to the teaching and learning process,” the couple says.
“What makes this gift even more meaningful is the humility and thoughtfulness of the couple behind it,” says Mary Duvall, vice president for advancement at Luther. “We are honored and deeply grateful that Gene and Miriam have chosen this initiative as the place to make such a transformational and immediate impact.”
PROJECTS FOR PEACE
Three Luther students—Jose Eliano Da Silva ’26, Kim Anh Thy Nguyen ’26, and Resana Zayan ’26—received two $10,000 grants funding communitycentered projects through Projects for Peace, a global program supporting young peacebuilders. Since 2007, 39 Luther students have been awarded Projects for Peace grants.
Jose, an economics and international studies major from Timor-Leste, and Kim, a nursing major from Vietnam, proposed a project focused on education, leadership training, and civic engagement, hosting a weeklong training camp for 40 youth in rural areas of Timor-Leste.
Resana, a visual communication major from Bangladesh, proposed a project focused on rebuilding the Chengi Ideal School, which suffered critical damage during a flood, and creating a sustainable education system for the Indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
ENGLISH TEACHING
ASSISTANT AWARDS
Four Luther grads were awarded English teaching assistantships in Europe for the 2025–26 academic year. Congratulations to Cassandra Norton ’24, who received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program Award to teach in Germany; Lydia Gruenwald ’25, who was selected by the Austrian-American Educational Commission to teach in Austria; and Kellen DeKok ’25 and Alexia Murano ’25, who received teaching assistantships through the Education Office of the Embassy of Spain. More than 45 Luther alumni have received international teaching assistantships since 2000.
Congratulations—and a hearty thank you—to faculty members who were granted emeriti status last spring: Edwin Andereck, professor of music; Storm Bailey, professor of philosophy; Daniel Baldwin, professor of music; Corine (Derscheid) Carlson ’83, associate professor of nursing; Michael Chesher, associate professor of music; Claude Mertzenich, associate professor of chemistry; Kate Narveson, professor of English; and Rita Tejada, associate professor of Spanish.
NEW PROVOST
Welcome to Pamela Bacon! She joined Luther as our new provost after a distinguished career at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in St. Joseph, Minn., where she held roles as a professor, dean of faculty, associate provost, and as a leader in academic affairs and the division of student success.
NEW DEAN OF STUDENTS
Welcome to Julie Thornton, who joined Luther as our new dean of students! She comes to Luther with more than two decades of experience in student affairs and student-facing offices, most recently at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., where she was the Title IX coordinator and oversaw equity and compliance.
TRUE BLUE
The most recent National Survey of Student Engagement results amplified what President Chamberlain frequently says: Luther graduates make everyone around them better. Two of the top three career influences on Luther students emphasize community and a commitment to caring for others.
Comparison group: any participating four-year baccalaureate institution in the Career and Workforce Preparation Module. Institutions include large public universities, private liberal arts institutions, and artfocused/design schools. Overall participation in this module was approximately 39,000 students.
To what extent have the following influenced your career plans? Percentage of 2024 seniors who responded very much or quite a bit
ATHLETIC CONFERENCE CHANGE
Beginning in the 2026–27 academic year, the Norse will compete in the Midwest Conference (MWC). The move from the American Rivers Conference will make Luther the 10th core member of the MWC, competing against Beloit College, Cornell College, Grinnell College, Illinois College, Knox College, Lake Forest College, Lawrence University, Monmouth College, and Ripon College. Affiliate MWC members include St. Norbert (men’s and women’s swimming and diving), the University of Chicago (football), and Milwaukee School of Engineering (men’s and women’s swimming and diving).
NEW ATHLETICS
DIRECTOR
Welcome to Megan Wilson, Luther’s new athletics director! Megan previously served at Luther as associate athletics director and advisor to the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. She returns after three years at the University of Dubuque, where she was associate dean of student engagement and intercollegiate athletics.
CONCERT BAND TOURED JAPAN
Concert Band returned in June from a successful two-week performance tour in Japan. The trip took the ensemble—and alumni and friends who traveled alongside—to Kyoto, Hakone, and Tokyo and included five collaborative performances with local wind ensembles. The group shared music, learned more about Japanese culture, and visited historical sites and landmarks.
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA REUNION
In July, nearly 90 alumni musicians attended Luther’s first Dorian Orchestra Reunion. They came from as far away as Oregon and Massachusetts for the chance to play classical music together under the direction of Daniel Baldwin, professor emeritus and longtime conductor of the orchestra.
Luther’s Concert Band on the grounds of the Nagoya Castle, which was first constructed in the early 17th century
SENIORsnapshots
Portraits by Armando Jenkins-Vazquez ’21
Growing and sharing knowledge
Growing up, Chanya Butsayaturt’s parents would drive the family three hours away to an annual book fair in Bangkok. One year, Chanya’s interest was piqued by a book called A Bad Student in an Excellent Education System. The book kicked off an antiauthoritarian movement in Thailand. It also made Chanya decide to study political science.
After graduating from Li Po Chun United World College of Hong Kong, she came to Luther, where she dove headfirst into her political science and international studies majors.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she says, “but I knew what I wanted to learn. I had academic questions. I wanted to know more, write more, interact more, especially on international development, environmental justice, and authoritarianism in Southeast Asia.”
One of Chanya’s goals at Luther was to engage in public scholarship. She presented multiple papers as a Luther student, including at off-campus conferences. She organized panels and brought a documentary screening to campus—not for course credit or as
part of a work-study position, but just to enlighten her campus community. She also involved herself in local politics, attending town halls and helping people get to voting stations on election days.
Chanya had her heart set on inviting a prestigious lecturer to campus. When she came across a scholar who combined many of her interests, she took a chance and reached out to Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a professor at UC–Irvine. She secured funding from three campus departments in order to bring him to campus for a lecture. An avid webinar attendee herself, she wanted a hybrid event, with a virtual option, so she worked with Luther staff to make it happen. “I wanted to make it accessible. I wanted to make it possible for people living under censorship,” she says.
Chanya sees a future for herself as an academic researcher. “Doing research really humbles me,” she says, “and I think there’s a need for Southeast Asian scholarship by people who are Southeast Asian. The knowledge is concentrated in the Western hemisphere because we don’t have this access back home—not only do we not have enough funding, but also censorship there is heavy. So having this opportunity to go to a good college and speak fluent English—I can utilize this privilege for something important.”
—Kate Frentzel
Gaining confidence through a student org
Jannie Gowdy, an English and Nordic studies major, is a stunning illustration of a student who grew both personally and professionally during their college years. One of the earliest and most profound ways was through involvement with the Student Activities Council (SAC).
“One of my biggest regrets about my time at Luther is that I wasn’t really involved in anything my first
year. I was scared and introverted and hadn’t established deep friendships yet, so I kind of kept to myself,” she says. “But by the time sophomore year came around, I’d gained so much more confidence. I realized that I wanted to be heavily involved with things that happened on campus.”
Through SAC—where Jannie started as concert co-chair and ended as vice president—she developed skills like communicating and coordinating with campus departments and off-campus professionals. As she interacted with managers for major music performers like Hippo Campus, she says, “It made me so much more confident. I thought: If I can talk to these people, I can talk to anybody.”
During college, Jannie took this confidence and applied it to creating social media content at several jobs, including for Luther’s Center for Sustainable Communities; her own family’s Christmas tree farm in Melbourne, Iowa; and the Decorah Public Library (DPL).
The content that she scripted, performed, and edited for DPL won her local fans around town. “It was a fun way to showcase my passion for the library,” she says. “The people who work there are so dedicated to making the library a safe and welcoming place. And getting to know the staff and patrons there gave me new insight into the town.”
A lifelong reader and writer—and co-editor of Luther’s Oneota Review, and member of the Sigma Tau Delta English honor society—Jannie ended her time at Luther as a paid research assistant for English profes-
sor Andy Hageman, researching Stephen King’s Dark Tower series and the ecological implications embedded within it.
For her senior project, she penned a memoir of her time studying abroad in Norway, and she hopes to publish her own work someday. She sounds surefooted when she declares, “I owe it to my younger self and to myself right now to see what I can do.”
—Kate Frentzel
Learning deeply through literature
Ryan Malecha has been enamored with the written word for as long as he can remember. “Reading has always been a passion of mine—I often had my head in a book growing up,” he says.
It comes as no surprise, then, to learn that Ryan, a native of Northfield, Minn., so enjoyed his firstsemester Paideia class and the literature class he took the following semester that he declared an English major. “I just kept going with English literature classes because I was interested in them,” he says.
In the spring of his sophomore year, Ryan asked his academic advisor, Novian Whitsitt, professor of Africana studies and English, if he knew of any research opportunities for the coming summer. That simple inquiry secured him a position as a research assistant that would be any avid reader’s dream. For eight weeks that summer, and eight more weeks the following one, Ryan spent almost every weekday in Preus Library reading, and rereading, books by Black authors for the Color of Change
an ongoing anthol ogy by
Whitsitt and Guy Nave, professor of religion, that explores how Black intellectual thought has evolved in the United States over the centuries. “I spent a lot of time with the books,” Ryan says with a smile. “And I learned a lot about Phillis Wheatley, bell hooks, Claudia Jones, Glenn Loury, Ibram X. Kendi, and Pauli Murray.”
The position, Ryan notes, also taught him quite a bit about the value of self-discipline, organization, and daily routines. He applied those lessons to not only his studies—he earned membership in the Sigma Tau Delta English honor society and completed a minor in visual communication—but also his other activities on campus, including positions as assistant hall director of Dieseth and captain of the Luther men’s swimming and diving team. (His favorite strokes? Backstroke and butterfly.)
Ryan is currently taking a gap year to travel (books in hand!), work odd jobs, and apply to graduate programs in media and communications, including several in the British Isles. “I just want to keep learning in a field I enjoy,” he says, in true liberal arts fashion. “I don’t feel like I’m at all done yet.”
—Sara Friedl-Putnam
Preparing for a career in medicine
Ricky Portilla Ruiz traveled more than 3,000 miles from his native Quito, Ecuador, to attend Luther, but the campus felt like home right from the start. “Playing tennis for the Norse [under Adam Strand ’04] was the best decision I made at Luther because of how welcoming the team was,” he says.
Skilled in singles and doubles play, Ricky was a focused and driven competitor. He helped the Norse capture four consecutive conference titles and four consecutive national tournament berths while earning honorable mention all-conference accolades his junior and senior years.
His unwavering drive also brought success in the classroom. Ricky’s stellar work as a global health major and biology minor secured him both an on-campus summer research position with Stephanie Fretham ’05, associate professor of biology, and a prestigious clinical immersion internship with Gundersen (now Emplify) Health in January 2024 in La Crosse, Wis.
The internship—during which he spent more than 100 hours shadowing medical rotations, observing surgeries, and attending lectures—helped Ricky better understand how the role of a physician assistant differs from that of a physician, especially in the surgical arena. It also helped him confirm that his calling lies in medicine, and perhaps in surgery. “I’ve always enjoyed being part of a team, and I learned that surgery requires a whole lot of teamwork,” he says.
During his free time, Ricky volunteered at the Decorah Free Clinic as an interpreter for Spanishspeaking patients. “The medical system here can be very intimidating, so it felt good to help patients feel more at ease,” he says of that experience. (He also served as co-project manager of the 2025 Decoride, a fundraising event to support the clinic.)
In June, Ricky began work at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., as a patient care assistant in surgical services. There, he’s responsible for patients’ needs, pre-op and post-op. His long-term goal is to apply to physician assistant programs. “Besides playing tennis, my major passions have always been studying science and helping others,” Ricky says. “That’s why I chose to major in global health, and that’s why my dream is to become a healthcare provider.”
—Sara Friedl-Putnam
Bettering systems through leadership
Chloe Rozga wants to make things better. It’s part of why she got deeply involved in campus leadership.
Her senior year, she served as president of the Student Senate, saying, “I’m so optimistic about what Luther can accomplish and how it can be even better for students. That’s my driving force.”
Chloe’s focus in Student Senate was on increasing transparency at the institutional level. “It’s been fantastic this year,” she says. “We’ve had cabinet members setting up meetings with us monthly to share a bit about their work and take questions from the student body. Sometimes it gets heated and there’s tension, but it’s all for the improvement and the bettering of our campus community.”
Early in Chloe’s time at Luther, she experienced both stalking and sexual violence. She struggled to navigate the formal reporting processes around it, which led to her becoming the two-year president of Norse Against Sexual Assault (NASA) and also a member of Luther’s Title IX Advisory Board and Task Force. “My experience as a survivor who was so angry at the school processes shaped my ability to bring a voice to these groups,” she says. “We need to understand that survivors are going through such a difficult emotional time that it’s not easy for them to comprehend what is in the school’s control and what’s regulated by the federal or state government.” By working to ensure more and earlier education around sexual assault and sexual health, Chloe believes Luther
students will better navigate their college years.
While Chloe, a communication studies and law and values major, has long been interested in improving unjust or faulty systems, she wasn’t sure what shape that would take until an internship with the Third District Public Defender in Rochester, Minn. It confirmed for her that she’d like to work within the legal system. She was accepted into several top law schools—UCLA and Vanderbilt among them—and decided on the University of Minnesota.
“Eventually my goal is to work my way into government,” she says. “After I work with people who I’ll be representing as a lawyer, I’ll be able to voice what I’ve learned on a higher stage and advocate for policy reform. That’s the path I feel like I’m on.”
—Kate Frentzel
Heeding a call toward social work— with a side of music and dance
Anna Stenerson’s four years at Luther were truly transformative.
A talented alto with a deep love of music, she chose Luther for its stellar music education program. Partway through her first year on campus, however, Anna discovered a passion for community and social-justice issues.
“While doing my Paideia paper on unaccompanied immigrant children, I found that I really liked doing research on important issues,” she says. Soon, she was combing through the Luther website exploring other majors and seeking advice from a few professors. “I realized pretty quickly that social work was what I really wanted to do,” says Anna, who also minored in dance and music and served as Nordic Choir president while at Luther.
Two internships in Decorah—a J-Term at the Northeast Iowa Peace and Justice Center and a semester at Northeast Iowa Behavioral Health—confirmed her social work calling. While at NEIBH, Anna assisted with administrative work, observed group sessions, wrote requests to secure federal funding, and helped open the affiliated Chrysalis Children’s Center.
This June, Anna began work not far from her hometown of Maple Grove, Minn., as a case manager at Hammer & NER for adults with disabilities. There, she helps clients navigate the social services system and find employment and housing. “My goal is to help
them have a more independent, meaningful life,” Anna says.
As she entered the working world, Anna also completed certification in Movement Fundamentals, a dance paradigm developed by Jane Hawley ’87, professor of dance. “It’s all about encouraging people to tap into their bodies and move,” says Anna. (She is currently drawing upon her deep dance knowledge to help teach an adaptive class for children with disabilities at her home dance studio.)
Looking back on the last four years, Anna says she’s thankful for the opportunities the college afforded her to explore dance, music, and social work and find connections among the three disciplines. “Luther gave me the opportunity to discover my interests and take them, and myself, seriously,” she says. “I feel very prepared for whatever comes next.”
—Sara Friedl-Putnam
Combining wrestling wins with Iowa DNR internships
Walter West couldn’t have asked for a better stage on which to record his 100th career wrestling victory for the Norse. With Iowa PBS broadcasters in the house, the Luther heavyweight (285 pounds) made quick work of his Central College opponent last February in front of an enthusiastic home crowd to become just the 17th wrestler in Luther history to achieve the monumental 100-win mark.
“It was a fantastic environment to get that win,” says Walter, a Plymouth, Minn., native who overcame a torn ACL his sophomore year to earn 106 total career wins, two national tournament berths (2024 and 2025), All-American honors (2024), and Scholar All-American honors (2024 and 2025) over five seasons at Luther.
Walter cites wrestling for the Norse as one of two main reasons he enrolled at Luther. The other, which he weighed in equal measure, was its strong environmental studies program. “I have always loved being outdoors, and I knew majoring in environmental studies would involve challenging classes like biogeochemistry and a lot of outdoor labs and field trips,” he says.
The opportunity to be immersed in nature inspired Walter to spend January 2023 interning with the Iowa DNR at the Chuck Gipp [’70] Decorah Fish Hatchery. Over four cold weeks, he donned an electrofishing backpack to collect sculpins—“their presence indicates the stream is healthy,” he explains—and combed the surrounds of Volga Lake to measure buffer space along cornfields with an eye for areas of improvement. That experience led directly to a summer internship, again with the Iowa DNR, during which he interviewed trout fishers to gauge how familiar they were with area aquatic invasive species. “The fun part was educating them on how to prevent those species,” he says.
Last summer, Walter enforced navigation laws along the Mighty Mississippi as a seasonal water
patrol officer for the Iowa DNR. This summer, degree now in hand, Walter is—no surprise!—spending his days outdoors doing landscaping work while seeking a position in conservation in or near Rochester, Minn. While he may not yet know what job that will be, he is sure of at least one thing: “I know my next job won’t be behind a desk.”
—Sara Friedl-Putnam
Deepening community connections
Sophie Yakes has a lot of love in her heart, and it’s driven her to engage deeply with community needs of all stripes. It started with animals. Growing up, she had a cumulative total of six guinea pigs, four gerbils, two cats, several beta fish, snails, and a bearded dragon. She gave them, she says, “the best diets my elementary and middle school budget could buy, and they taught me companionship too profound to learn from a human.”
For three years in college, Sophie worked as an animal care lead at the Humane Society of Northeast Iowa. “It helped me avoid keeping a thousand different animals in my dorm,” she jokes. More seriously, she loved that it was hands-on, intentional, purposeful work that connected animals with homes and families. She also appreciated the structured time off campus, in the community. “I loved the opportunity to turn my brain off from academics. And having a completely different set of responsibilities was motivating and challenging,” she says.
previously worked at a Bible camp in Minnesota, where she met Pastor David Severtson ’01. When First Lutheran had a youth ministry position to fill, David naturally thought of Sophie (who’d been playing guitar for worship services) and her partner, Ethan. “My youth group was so formative for me when I was in middle and high school, and so I really understood the importance of it,” she says.
Sophie’s deep interest in people rivals her love of animals and is part of why she majored in sociology and identity studies. She spent her final semester in Rochester, Minn., interning with a public defenders office. She specifically worked with dispositional advisors, helping to flesh out clients’ social backgrounds and argue for case resolutions that best serve them.
In this work, she visited clients in jail, attended court hearings, and even completed a social history for a client who spoke only Spanish (Sophie also speaks Spanish).
Sophie and Ethan recently relocated to Wilmar, Minn., where Sophie’s working as a bilingual (English/Spanish) childcare programs navigator at United Community Action Partnership, helping connect community members with young children to early education opportunities and childcare. Because of her combination of majors, and with a Luther experience behind her, Sophie feels like “there are no boundaries I can’t reach. I don’t have to know exactly what I envision or what I want—I know I have supports and connections and networks that I bring with me.”
A second job that embedded Sophie deeply in Decorah was as interim co-youth ministry coordinator at First Lutheran Church during her senior year. She’d
—Kate Frentzel
SERVING THE COMMON GOOD AS A GLOBAL HEALTH GRAD
by Kate Frentzel
This fall marks the five-year anniversary of Luther’s global health major. It was introduced in 2020, and students since the class of 2022 have been able to graduate with the major. By now, the college has seen about two dozen global health grads, all focused on improving health access, equity, and outcomes for their communities.
As part of the global health major, Sidney Miller '24 (far left) studied in Roatan, Honduras; Jocelyn Demiglio '24 (center top, in mask) studied in Kabale, Uganda; and Britt Fulton '24 (center bottom, in red shorts) studied in Arica, Chile. Far right: Sidney Miller '24 (left), Lexi Hastings '23 (center), and Linnea Johnson Nordqvist '24 (right) spent time volunteering at Clinica Esperanza in Roatan, Honduras.
Program director Angela Kueny ’02, associate professor of nursing, explains that the global health curriculum focuses on systems— political, cultural, and social—that shape health at a population level. It teaches students to recognize challenges facing health systems, understand ways to measure and address them, and identify resources to find solutions. It also teaches them to recognize and address issues of inequity in healthcare. “This major answers the Luther College call to students to become global citizens and to serve the common good,” Kueny says.
It’s no surprise that Luther students excel in this field. The handful of graduates you’ll read about here are leveraging their Luther educations in truly noble ways: to serve their neighbors; break down systemic barriers; use data, research, and analysis to improve healthcare; and work toward better outcomes for all.
Building Coalitions to Face Community Challenges
Kyra Kjeldahl ’22 started at Luther as a chemistry major, then changed to biology, but she couldn’t ignore her keen interest in anthropology, political science, and psychology. “When Luther started advertising the global health major, I was looking at the potential courses within it,” she says. “They were exactly the courses I wanted to take.” She liked that global health “wasn’t a limiting major. There were just so many different pathways. That was really appealing to me,” she says.
After graduating, Kyra worked at Horizon Public Health in central Minnesota, where she coordinated community-led substance misuse prevention. “We focused a lot on youth prevention and on building systems to reduce factors that might make young people more likely to use substances—adverse childhood experiences, like poverty, being unhoused, and other traumatic events,” she says. “Conversely, positive childhood experiences provide a kind of protective buffer. So that work was trying to reduce those root contributors to substance misuse and bolster
some of the things that can help individuals with a history of those adverse childhood experiences.”
Since June, Kyra has worked in Virginia, Minn., for St. Louis County. She focuses on mental health promotion, suicide prevention, and food-access projects in communities from Duluth to the Canadian border. “My work involves coalition-building, so I’m working with community members to identify mental health challenges and community-based solutions,” she says.
Kyra finds working in local government rewarding because of how powerful it can be in making change. What she loves most, she says, is “being a facilitator for community change. There are a lot of great things already going on in my community. I love bringing that forward so more people know about it and then also being able to maybe fill some gaps.”
Patient Care and Education in a Culturally Meaningful Context
When Allegra Garcia ’23 saw a poster in the Union about the global health major, she says, “It talked about community-based work—putting yourself out there and helping to bridge gaps and disparities. Seeing a little bit of that growing up, hearing my own parents’ and grandparents’ stories, some as immigrants and children of immigrants, it just felt like the right call for me.”
A study-away practicum in Dehradun, India, allowed her to work in a rural community clinic and gain exposure to complementary and alternative medicine. “It was cool to see how these different systems operated under the umbrella of what it means to do medicine in India,” she says. “It was super eye-opening to see how they didn’t just address the diabetes or the heart condition—the physical health— but also looked at systemic issues like race, gender, and class.”
A second off-campus experience as an intern at a Mayo Clinic nonprofit in Rochester, Minn., gave her insight into community-based participatory research—specifically looking at high rates of
diabetes, heart conditions, and obesity in immigrant communities. She also contributed to a project that captures Hispanic people’s cancer stories in order to spread awareness about the need for cancer screening.
After a stint in AmeriCorps, Allegra now works in harm reduction as part of a Native-based recovery program at the Native American Community Clinic in Minneapolis, where she teaches classes and also counsels clients one-on-one. The clinic is rooted in the culture and traditions of the people it serves, and its approach to healthcare includes addressing root causes of health disparities, like access to food, housing, and insurance.
A highlight of her work is seeing clients graduate from their recovery programs. Allegra says, “Sometimes they’re as old as 57, 60, and they’re starting the recovery journey or different phases of the recovery journey. To see them get those years of life back after that is amazing.”
With a legacy of nursing in her family, Allegra also feels the pull. This fall, she starts nursing school— while continuing to work full time—at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn.
A Grad Student Super-Sleuth Curbing Foodborne Illness
When Britt Fulton ’24 took Global Health 101, there was a blurb in one of her textbooks about the Epidemic Intelligence Service, a CDC program that trains “disease detectives” to investigate and respond to public health challenges and emergencies. “I remember seeing that and thinking that is what I want to do,” she says.
The biology aspect of global health appealed to Britt. She had an impactful lab experience researching potential antibiotics from soil samples. She’s also grateful for a biostatistics class she took, which helped prepare her for her current life as a graduate student in the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health, where she’s focused on epidemiology. She’s specifically interested in infectious disease as it relates to health equity and environmental exposures.
Alongside her studies, Britt works part-time in the
Minnesota Department of Health’s foodborne disease unit. When a patient tests positive with a reportable illness, Britt is one of the people who reaches out for a follow-up interview about the patient’s symptoms and exposures. “Then we’re able to use that information to monitor the trends of the diseases and detect outbreaks,” she says.
With cuts to government funding and health research, Britt says, “It’s definitely a tough time for opportunities in public health, which is stressful, but I hope to end up working in the public sector of public health, ideally at a government agency.”
Luther’s First 4+1 Grad Supports Vital Programs through Research
As a high school student, Jocelyn Demiglio ’24 was laser-focused. “I did everything I could to make sure I went to college. It was important because I would be the first one in my family—first-generation,” she says. With a particular interest in science, she took all four AP science courses her high school offered—and graduated at the top of her class.
Jocelyn had planned on a career as a medical practitioner, but when she took her first global health class, it changed her trajectory. She decided on a global health and chemistry double major because, she says, “I wanted to solve problems for a community and not just focus on an individual.”
While at Luther, Jocelyn completed a nine-week studyabroad experience in Kabale, Uganda, which further cemented her passion for global health.
STUDENTS IN THIS PIECE STUDIED OFF-CAMPUS IN:
• Roatan, Honduras
• Arica, Chile
• Dehradun, India
• Kabale, Uganda
• Morocco and Spain
• Costa Rica
• Rochester, Minn.
CONCENTRATION AREAS FOR GLOBAL HEALTH MAJORS:
• Science of disease and wellness
• Global health policy and systems
• Society, culture, and human health
• Foundations of public health
In spring 2023, Luther announced a 4+1 Bachelor’s to Master’s Degree Program allowing Luther students to earn a bachelor’s degree plus a master’s degree at the University of Iowa College of Public Health in just five years. Jocelyn was the program’s first graduate. “While it was in progress, I was constantly asking for updates,” she recalls. “I think I applied to the program even before it was publicly announced!”
At the University of Iowa, Jocelyn focused on epidemiology because it felt to her like the bridge between chemistry and global health. She flourished in her program, earning a first place team finish in the school’s 2025 Global Health Case Competition.
The Monday after she graduated last May, Jocelyn started full time as a research associate at the University of Iowa’s Addiction and Recovery Collaborative. There, she writes and evaluates grant proposals. To date she has contributed to four, two of which have been funded.
In her role, Jocelyn crosses paths with many sectors of public health, from infectious disease and substance misuse to the justice system, maternal health, and more. “I like that my role is flexible and broad,” she says. “And I may not see many patients, but my work contributes to their health because it assures that patient-facing programs are able to run smoothly and achieve their goals.”
Longer term, Jocelyn hopes to earn a PhD focused on tropical disease detection or treatment research.
Analyzing Data to Improve Healthcare Access and Equity
Sidney Miller ’24 began at Luther already knowing that she’d major in global health. Once here, she valued the interdisciplinary nature of the program. She cites as especially formative an English course on medicine and disability in which she read things like Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Timothy Snyder’s Our Malady, and Susan Sontag’s “Illness as Metaphor.”
The class also included personal writing to analyze aspects of the medical system that touched students’ own lives. “I wrote a piece on my grandmother and shared it with my family, and that was really impactful,” she says. “It was a hard thing to write, but it was kind of beautiful to contemplate the medical discipline within my life. A lot of our global health courses centered around the big picture, and narrowing it down to the individual and their feelings gives people the ability to empathize with the issue at hand.”
Sidney studied away in Costa Rica and in Roatan, Honduras, where she volunteered with a community clinic delivering hygiene products and medicines to lower-income areas. She also helped enter four months of backlog into the clinic’s diabetes database.
Since graduating in January 2024, Sidney’s been working at Emplify Health in La Crosse, Wis., first as an intern and now as a data analyst with its Patient Access Strategic Work Team. This new group uses technology to streamline patient experience and access across the system and ultimately to ensure better outcomes for patient care. If there are social determinants of health that prohibit patients from receiving care, Sidney’s team finds ways to connect them with resources.
The work is highly strategic and involves a lot of contact with senior leadership. Sidney is quite junior for the role, but her passion for the field impressed her hiring team. She explains, “I told them about my trip to Roatan and my studies and what I believe in, and they said, ‘Well, you’re not the most experienced person in analysis, aside from a couple of data and analytics internships, but since you’re so passionate about the subject, we’d love to have you on our team.’”
It’s been a great match. “It’s very cool that I fit into this niche that coincides with those global health principles of increasing accessibility and health equity and evaluating social determinants of health,” she says. “It’s really interesting to work in that intersection. I found a great position.”
Hearts AND MINDS
by Kelli Billstein ’07
When Tyler Moon ’16 suffered cardiac arrest during a 10-mile race, a cascade of connections saved his life—including one with Dr. Michael Ackerman ’88.
Around 8 a.m. on October 6, 2019, Tyler Moon took two unnaturally large gasps for air and collapsed face-first onto the pavement. Cardiac arrest, out of nowhere, at age 25. He was at the eight-mile mark of the Medtronic Twin Cities 10-Mile, a race that begins outside U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis and stretches through tree-lined boulevards, including Summit Avenue in St. Paul, where Tyler fell. On the ground, motionless and bloodied, his heart entered “sudden death exit rhythm,” and the final seconds of his life began to tick.
What happened next has been described as a stunning display of the human spirit. Runners in Tyler’s proximity—some of them medical professionals, none of them knowing Tyler—sprang into action. Within seconds, those first responders recognized the severity of what had happened. They called 911, began administering CPR, and took turns as needed to keep his blood pumping through his body. Less than 15 minutes later, an automatic external defibrillator shocked Tyler’s heart back into rhythm. He was rushed to Regions Hospital, then
later transferred to Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
Soon, special details began surfacing, like a Polaroid slowly coming into focus. A reporter covering Tyler’s story discovered that one of the runners who gave CPR, Jesse Bueno, had the given name Jesus—a detail with poetic resonance for Tyler, who had changed his running bib to read “Jesus Saves.” There was also the miraculous fact that, of the 11,050 runners that day, Tyler collapsed in front of people who knew exactly how to help. And then there was the doctor who would oversee his recovery: a fellow Luther grad with ties to Tyler’s family.
To Tyler, who has a strong Christian faith, it all added up to more than coincidence. It was divine intervention. “As a believer, it's clear to me God played a hand in my story,” Tyler says. “This stuff just doesn’t make sense from a worldly point of view.”
Six years later, reflecting on the collapse and what followed, Tyler
still shakes his head at the mystery and meaning of it all.
Top: Good Samaritans jumped in to help when Tyler collapsed during a 10-mile race in 2017. Bottom: soon after his collapse, Tyler recovered at Mayo Clinic.
BEFORE MILE ONE
Tyler grew up in a faith-filled Lutheran house in central Minnesota. At Luther, he played football and earned a degree in business administration.
By 2019, three years after graduating, he was engaged to his now-wife Amy, working at General Mills, and putting down roots in the Twin Cities. He’d been inspired by watching Amy’s brother run the Twin Cities Marathon the year before.
“I just fell in love with the whole scene. It was one of the coolest sporting events I have experienced,” Tyler says. “There are literally thousands of people who are pushing themselves physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. The bug bit me and after that, I was super interested in running it myself.”
On race day the following fall, he remembers Amy dropping him off downtown. He remembers the energy of the crowd, the crisp weather, the vibrant autumn leaves. He remembers seeing Amy and other family members at mile one. But after that—nothing. Doctors tell him that his shortterm memory loss is owing to either a concussion he sustained when he fell or the medically induced coma medication he was put into upon arrival at the ER.
His awareness would flicker in and out over the next week, up to his transfer to Mayo Clinic, where he would meet the doctor who would guide his recovery.
SHERLOCK HOLMES OF THE HEART
Dr. Michael Ackerman ’88 met Tyler just days after the cardiac arrest. A principal investigator in the Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory at Mayo Clinic, Mike is internationally recognized for his work on cardiac channelopathies, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and postmortem genetic testing. You might call him the Sherlock Holmes of the heart.
It’s unusual for Mike to meet patients so soon after their cardiac events. But Tyler’s family needed answers and a second opinion. The initial care team at Regions Hospital had recommended a defibrillator strategy that didn’t sit quite right with Tyler and Amy.
Tyler’s aunt, a nurse at Mayo, knew Mike and called him directly. He arranged the transfer without hesitation.
“Dr. Ackerman came in early in the morning,” Tyler says. “I don’t have much memory of it because I was still in and out, but Amy told me he just set this amazing tone. Like, ‘You’re here. We’re gonna run tests on you, on your parents. We’re going to try to figure out what happened to you.’ He was the calming presence we needed.”
Over the next few days, their connection deepened. In addition to knowing Tyler’s aunt, Mike had roomed in college with someone from Hayfield, Minn., the hometown of Tyler’s father, Jeff. And, most meaningfully, Mike was a
Luther grad too.
“We already really respected him as a doctor,” Tyler says. “But when he told us he was a Luther grad, it was like, Okay, we really like you now
It felt like we turned the corner from a doctor-patient relationship.
I'm so grateful for him and his leadership. And to know he walked the same halls [at Luther], there's just a cool connection there.”
Mike felt it too. “Every family I get the privilege of caring for in these vulnerable situations is special,” he says. “But when you have a great outcome, and the patient is a Luther grad, it makes the moment even sweeter.”
Mike also gave Tyler something invaluable: the confidence to run again. Just 27 days after collapsing, Tyler returned to the course and finished the race he had started.
Dr. Michael Ackerman ’ 88
“I tell people that I have the slowest 10-mile time,” he laughs. “I’m proud of it. I finished, and that was super cool.”
ODDS, OUTCOMES, AND THE UNKNOWN
Tyler’s tests were inconclusive, which, Mike says, is more common than most people think. When there’s no clear genetic cause or underlying condition, doctors call it idiopathic ventricular fibrillation, or IVF.
“It’s a mystery we still haven’t solved,” Mike says. “You search high and low for clues, and sometimes you just don’t find any.”
Oddly, that ambiguity can be a good sign.
“When you don’t have an answer, it almost never happens again—in relatives or future children. So in a way, the best answer is no answer.”
Only 10 percent of people survive out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, and about 50 percent of those survivors experience some degree of brain damage. A lot of things had to go right for Tyler— not just to survive, but to walk away with a complete recovery.
Still, Tyler has an implanted defibrillator—his “shock box”— that acts as an internal paramedic, ready to fire if the same rhythm ever returns. Once a year, he returns to Mayo for a battery of tests to check for emerging clues.
LIVING PROOF
In the wake of his experience, Tyler felt called to share his story. He and Amy launched Moon Family Ministries to speak to faith-based audiences. He also started a secular brand, Living Proof Leadership, through which he speaks to businesses and nonprofits about resilience, growth, and adversity. He’s publishing a devotional book this year based on his experience.
“I tell people how I see the world, how I see death, life, people—it gave me a whole new appreciation,” Tyler says. “I got married three months after the cardiac arrest. I have a son now. To think about him having a son or daughter someday—it’s all such a gift.”
Today, you can still find Tyler running—usually with a stroller in front of him and a pair of dad-grade New Balances on his feet. His one-year-old son, Robby, rides along for the journey.
“The feeling of being able to go for a run is kind of indescribable now,” Tyler says. “I often think, I’m conscious. I can’t believe I’m running. This is awesome. It’s an emotional, spiritual time for me.”
LIVING PROOF
Those invisible threads that once lay hidden? Tyler got to see them. And they gave him his life back. Do you have a meaningful connection with
Top to bottom: Tyler with his wife Amy and son Robby; Tyler and Amy (on rollerblades) train for a marathon in 2020; Tyler's parents, Tyler, and Amy following a 10-mile run in 2020.
Belonging A SENSE OF THROUGH THE ARTS
Karoline (Kari) Myers ’08 directs arts education and community programs that serve more than 60,000 people per year.
As a Luther student, Kari Myers ’08 served on the Performing Arts Committee, helping to bring world-class performers to campus. “That’s truly what opened the door to a career in arts administration,” she says. “That experience made me realize I could use my analytical/organizational brain to be involved in the arts in ways other than being a performer.”
Now, as director of education at Des Moines Performing Arts, Kari oversees an education program that includes a school matinee series, a family series, a speaker series, musical theatre summer camps, professional development for teachers, and robust community engagement. Plus, she administers the Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards (IHSMTA), a yearlong program that gives schools visibility and resources to grow their musical programs. IHSMTA just closed the books on its 13th year and has grown to one of the largest such programs in the nation, with more than 100 participating schools and a history of engaging tens of thousands of students.
who are involved both on and off stage.”
Kari believes that the arts are invaluable for young people. “Oftentimes people look at young people as the audiences of tomorrow,” she says. “But they are audiences today, and we do our young people a disservice if we don’t recognize that their lives are complex. The arts validate so much of who they are and what they experience.”
“We know that when young people experience wonder and inspiration, their worlds are expanded, and they can dream bigger dreams for themselves.”
“What’s been so gratifying over the years is truly seeing the talent level rise in the state,” Kari says. “But beyond that, there’s a network of educators and students that’s been cultivated through this program. They come to learning opportunities throughout the year or to our year-end showcase—a multiday festival of rehearsals and workshops that culminates in one big show of 650 students—and they walk away really feeling like they have a community. The result is better experiences for students, better education, and more gratifying and fulfilling art-making for everyone, from the adults on the production team to the students
Kari strives to create an inviting culture around the arts. “I want young people to know that our cultural institutions are places where they are welcome, that belong to them, regardless of their zip code or their family’s socioeconomic status or whether going to the theater is something that their family has a tradition of doing,” she says. “Because our cultural institutions are places that are core to the fabric and quality of life of our communities, and they help create a big-picture sense of belonging.”
She continues, “We know that when young people experience wonder and inspiration, their worlds are expanded, and they can dream bigger dreams for themselves. The arts are not going to fix everything, but they are a significant piece of the world we want to build for our young people, the world we want them to lead.”
—Kate Frentzel
WHEN A SICK DEER LOOKS HEALTHY
Cory Anderson ’16 works against a spreading wildlife disease with possible risks for human health and agriculture.
When Cory Anderson ’16 took a course at Luther that asked him to look at the West African Ebola outbreak, he says, “It was the first time I was absolutely fascinated by an assignment. I was reading more than I had to, looking into it more than I had to. It showed me that having an understanding of a virus is important, but there’s a bigger picture at play as far as trying to control a disease. It involves cultural and social
communication, as well as politics. That assignment really set me on the path I’m on now.”
That path includes earning a PhD at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health and now codirecting the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Program at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) under Mike Osterholm ’75.
ERIC MILLER/UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
A Powerful Mentor
Cory remembers hearing about Mike at Luther and thinking, “This guy’s the coolest person in the world, but there’s zero chance I’ll ever work with him.” When Cory chose to focus his research on CWD, however, it piqued Mike’s interest, and Mike became a mentor. The COVID-19 pandemic put the two into closer orbit, and when the pandemic settled down, Cory refocused on CWD, now as co-director of CIDRAP’s program on it. COVID was an eye-opening experience for a budding epidemiologist. “It was a huge reality check on how people might perceive information,” Cory says. “I think I went in a little bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and it handed me a lot of reality checks.”
A Tricky Disease
Those reality checks play a role in working to manage the spread of CWD, an infectious neurological disease that affects cervids (deer, elk, and moose). CWD was first detected in the 1960s at a research facility. In the early 1980s, it was discovered in the wild in Wyoming and Colorado. Today, it’s in 36 U.S. states, five Canadian provinces, Scandinavia, and South Korea. Near the town of 1,500 where Cory grew up in southwestern Wisconsin, 40–50 percent of the male deer population is CWD-positive.
There’s no cure for CWD, and it’s always fatal. It’s a prion disease—meaning it’s spread by an infectious protein rather than a virus or bacteria—and when infectious prions are shed into the environment through body fluids, they can persist for years, if not decades, and remain infectious. (There’s no current evidence that CWD can infect humans, but other prion diseases—like BSE, or “mad cow” disease—have been shown to do so.)
Controlling the spread of CWD relies heavily on hunters following the recommendations of wildlife agencies to test deer they kill, dispose of infected deer carefully, avoid transporting infected deer, and more.
Help stop the spread of CWD.
• Learn whether CWD is present where you hunt.
But it’s an uphill battle. “It can take a year-plus for an animal to show clinical signs of the disease after they become infected,” Cory explains. “So the vast majority of CWD-positive deer that are harvested don’t appear clinically ill, but they’re still infectious.” And when a deer appears healthy, Cory says, a hunter may not test the deer, or they may test it and get a positive CWD result, which causes suspicion and mistrust. “Everything about it is difficult from a disease-management standpoint,” Cory says.
A Path Forward
Cory points out that what’s at risk is not just cervid health—or possibly human health or agriculture— but also wildlife conservation funding. Many wildlife agencies identify CWD as the biggest threat to natural resource conservation because most funding for that work comes through the sale of hunting licenses. And most hunting licenses sold in the U.S.—in Iowa, in Minnesota, in Wisconsin—are for deer. Deer population decline from CWD, or a decline in deer hunting if CWD became a definitive risk to humans or livestock, would put this revenue stream—and larger conservation efforts—at risk.
As co-director of the CWD Program, Cory started initiating necessary conversations that hadn’t yet happened. His team at CIDRAP convened working groups, and together they drafted a gap analysis: What do we know and not know about CWD? How do we prepare for its continued spread? For the possibility of its spreading to domesticated (agricultural) animals? For the possibility of its jumping to humans?
Now, as someone on the front lines of this disease, Cory is working to get accurate, accessible information into the hands of hunters and to lay out a roadmap for what lies ahead.
—Kate Frentzel
• If it is and you harvest a deer, get that deer tested. Doing so provides valuable information to wildlife agencies and allows you to make informed decisions about what to do with the animal.
• If the deer tests positive for CWD—even if it appears healthy—consider that other prion diseases (like BSE, or “mad cow” disease) have been shown to infect humans. The CDC and WHO recommend NOT eating meat from CWD-infected animals.
Science
UNDER GLASS
Matthew (Peterson) Rusek-Peterson ’17 manages the lab for the world’s largest experimental ecosystem.
Matthew (Peterson) Rusek-Peterson ’17 fell in love with geology during rock-hunting trips with his dad, a high school science teacher. But attending Luther as a biology and environmental studies major, he says, turned him on to a new scientific interest: “When I took botany, I learned about mutualistic relationships between different plants and how they share resources through what’s called a mycorrhizal fungal network. That just grabbed me, that interchange between biology— the aboveground plants and animals—and geology, which is that deep time. It made me aware of the convergence of plants, soil, and microbes. That drove me through to where I am today.”
After working at Pacific Northwest National Labs in Washington, Matthew earned an MS at Texas A&M, focusing on soil microbial communities. He then joined his now-wife, Carly (Rusek) Rusek-Peterson ’16, when she found an occupational therapist position in Tucson, Arizona. That’s when he encountered Biosphere 2. Biosphere 2 is a world-renowned research facility featuring a diverse array of complex, interconnected biomes and active experimental systems. Originally launched in the 1980s as an ambitious closed-system experiment, the 3.14-acre sealed glass enclosure contains multiple distinct
biomes—including a 700,000-gallon ocean with a coral reef, tropical rainforest, mangrove wetlands, savannah grassland, fog desert, and more. It gained international attention in 1991 when eight people were sealed inside for two years to test the viability of sustained life in a closed environment. Today, Biosphere 2 is owned and operated by the University of Arizona, which conducts cutting-edge research on climate change, ecosystems, and sustainability within this unique facility.
As the analytical lab coordinator for Biosphere 2, Matthew supports this research by managing storage, preparation, and processing of samples; collecting data and readying it for publication; maintaining and troubleshooting instruments; and teaching undergraduate students analytical methods. Basically, he says, “I have to figure out how to mitigate issues while actively moving research forward.”
“Unlike in the natural world, scientists at Biosphere 2 can precisely control and isolate environmental variables, allowing them to study interactions that are otherwise impossible to separate in nature.”
Biosphere 2 is such a valuable place to research, Matthew says, because “unlike in the natural world, scientists at Biosphere 2 can precisely control and isolate environmental variables, allowing them to study interactions that are otherwise impossible to separate in nature.” For instance, by injecting various concentrations of CO2 into its rainforest, scientists can quickly and clearly observe how plants respond to various stressors such as increased temperatures and flooding. In the Landscape Evolution Observatory, they simulate rainfall on hillslopes to better understand and model how chemical weathering and soil development occur on a primary substance like basalt. In the early 2000s, researchers conducted some of the world’s first studies on the impacts of elevated ocean CO2 on coral growth, and now they’re working to reintroduce coral on the degraded reef. Future coral research will investigate radical interventions for coral resilience and reef restoration.
Matthew says, “Biosphere 2 is a fantastic place for collaborative efforts to observe, model, and rapidly collect data at the confluence of biogeochemical responses across a variety of environments.”
—Kate Frentzel
Class Notes
Notices as of June 30, 2025
1964
Sam Platts of Sylmar, Calif., is the liturgist at Church of the Foothills.
1965 Gary Peer of Kansas City, Kan., is a retired biology teacher.
1968
Mark Reisetter of Lewiston, Minn., was awarded Minnesota Trout Unlimited’s Thomas Waters Award for Minnesota Conservation. The lifetime achievement award was in recognition and appreciation of outstanding contributions to coldwater conservation in Minnesota.
1971 Michael (Mundt) Forde of Eden Prairie, Minn., is a mediator at Forde Mediations.
Kris Melroe of Seattle received the National Lifetime Achievement Award for the development of effective teacher training procedures. She conducted this training in over 50 U.S. public schools, on Native American reservations, in South African townships, and at Saudi Arabia’s first women’s college.
Janet Preus of Laporte, Minn., directed her play Hank & Jesús, premiered a new musical she cowrote called Water from Snow, and launched her book, The Thirteenth Crime: The Ghosts of Injustice in Frontier Otter Tail County, Minnesota.
Steve Sheppard of Decorah wrote a book called Beanie and Me: An Angel on Our Shoulders.
1973
Bev Hale Halleckson of Prior Lake, Minn., works with the horticulture team at Centennial Lakes in Edina and at Bachman’s. Her yard is NWF certified, and she enjoys putting her love of horticulture and wildlife and her Luther biology degree to good use!
Barbara (Elmer) Nickell of Salina, Kan., retired after 38 years of teaching as an associate professor of communication studies and theatre arts from
Kansas Wesleyan University, where she received the Exemplary Teacher of the Year Award. She was inducted into the Music and Fine Arts Hall of Fame and received the Collegiate Teacher of the Year Award from the Kansas Speech Communication Association.
1978 Linda Ruth Short of Moorhead, Minn., has authored five books, all available in the Luther Book Shop. Her most recent book, Are Your Miracles Red or Blue?, is a tribute to †Weston H. Noble ‘43, renowned music professor at Luther College.
1979 Randy Balk of Rothschild, Wis., retired as president and CEO of Intercity State Bank in the Wausau, Wis., market area after 34 years of service. Randy continues as a member of the bank’s board of directors.
1980 Jim Francis of Kirkland, Wash., retired as a math professor at Lake Washington Institute of Technology.
1983 Jim Veglahn of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, retired as application development manager from United Life Insurance after more than 41 years. Jim began working there directly after graduating from Luther.
1985
Joanne Hillery of Dubuque, Iowa, is a sales and fit specialist at Brown’s Shoe Fit.
Jen Roslien of Rochester, Minn., retired from Mayo Clinic after 35 years as an RN and nurse educator.
David Shook of Marietta, Ga., retired from the Georgia Institute of Technology as associate professor emeritus of Spanish after 34 years of service.
1987 Dean Pribbenow of Madison, Wis., was elected as the 17th president of Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., by their board of trustees.
1990 Cathy (Begalske) Koebrick of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is director and HR partner–avionics at Collins Aerospace.
Tara (Rypka) Morrison of White Bear Lake, Minn., is executive director of the Dragonfly Project, as well as manager of the band Storyhill.
1993 Anjie Shutts of Des Moines, Iowa, was named the 2025 Drake Law School Alumna of the Year.
1998 Ash Sakam of Maple Grove, Minn., is vice president of technology at Ameriprise Financial.
1999 Lindsey (Smith) Munson of Milan, Ill., earned an MEd in special education K–12 from Grand Canyon University.
2000 Tonje Brokke of Notodden, Norway, earned an MEd in pedagogy and educational management and works as a senior advisor for the University of South-Eastern Norway.
2001 Ryan Garvan of Deforest, Wis., is a surgical technologist at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics.
2002 Bill Mabuce of West Des Moines, Iowa, was co-recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers Region 7 Professional Progress Award for 2025.
Andy Wagner of Portage, Wis., was promoted to chief risk officer at Westby Co-op Credit Union.
2003 Arvid von Taube of South Boston, Mass., a partner at the law firm of Rich May in Boston, and his wife, Laura Corda von Taube, attended the 31st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, followed by the gala afterparty.
2004 Nicole (Oliver) Daeger of Roseville, Minn., is a fiduciary advisor at Bremer Bank.
2005 Shannon (Johnson) Gravelle of Appleton, Wis., is director of choral studies at Lawrence University.
Lauren (Mackey) Jefferson of Barrington, Ill., is an adaptive physical education teacher at Lake Zurich School District 95, head dance team coach at Prairie Ridge High School, and dance teacher and choreographer at the Academy of Ballet Wauconda.
Holly (Kreps) McGuire of Rochester, Minn., is a middle school social studies and math teacher at Rochester Public Schools.
Katie (Mindrup) McKean of Silvis, Ill., earned a child psychology certificate from Penn Foster Career School.
Brad Paulsrud of Hutchinson, Kan., is vice president of sales at ZeroWheel.
2006 Angie (Reichert) Griffin of DeWitt, Mich., earned an MSN from Northern Kentucky University and is an instructor of nursing at Alma College in Alma, Mich.
Michelle Krantz of North Liberty, Iowa, earned a DNP and is an advanced registered nurse practitioner at the University of Iowa Health Care.
2007 Dana (Norris) Kruse of White Bear Township, Minn., is a middle and high school faith formation coordinator at Trinity Lutheran Church.
Anna (Amundson) Oksnevad of Minneapolis is a senior marketing manager for membership marketing at Best Buy.
Rebecca Westphal of Verona, Wis., is lead product manager at Blankfactor.
Luke Wigle of Justin, Texas, is an emergency management specialist at the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Denton, Texas.
2008 Kacie (Clement) Garver of Boone, Iowa, earned a graduate certificate in adult gerontology clinical nurse specialist from University of Detroit Mercy and is an infection prevention and employee health coordinator at Boone County Hospital.
2009 Jill (Sundby) Yordy of Littleton, Colo., earned a PhD in public affairs from the University of Colorado–Denver School of Public Affairs.
Six Luther alumni make beautiful music together in the Rochester Pops Orchestra. Front row (from left): Janna Carroll-Boldt ’10, Kimberly (Hornseth) Johnson ’88, Shawn Kennedy-Lee ’97. Back row: Ethan Erickson ’24, Jim Potter ’69, Lilah (Estrem) Aas ’67
Luther grads from the class of 1980 and 1981 recently gathered in Oregon to explore wine country, beaches, and hiking trails. They couldn’t resist a stop at famous cheese-maker Tillamook. From left: Barb (Perry) Lutz ’80, Jodi (Palma) Young ’81, Barb (Hodge) Miller ’80, Michele (Wylder) Reese ’81, and Chris (Lee) Levesque ’80
At Don Bosco High School’s College Signing Day event in Gilbertville, Iowa, incoming Norse and student musician Caitlin Wayson ’29 was recognized as a Luther College Herseth Scholarship recipient and as the first student musician in her high school’s history to be selected for the Iowa All-State Band for three consecutive years. Caitlin’s admissions counselor, Sam Sunderland ’23, and music recruiter Jana (Larson) Vorvick ’97 represented Luther at this special day, which included students, teachers, staff, family, and friends of the signing-day participants. Pictured is the Wayson family: Blake Wayson ’02, Jen (Crawford) Wayson ’04, Caitlin Wayson ’29, Brady, and Bo; Sam Sunderland ’23 (far left) and Jana (Larson) Vorvick ’97 (far right).
Scott Henry ’82 arranged an opportunity to catch up with his former Luther residence hall director, Nancy (Nelson) Knowles. Nancy and her late husband Keith Knowles were the resident adults in Olson Hall, where Scott spent his sophomore through senior years. Scott took this photo when he visited Nancy at her senior living apartment in Des Moines, Iowa.
Regent Sandro Raniolo ’88 graciously hosted the college’s Malta Semester program at his home last spring, bringing together more than a dozen Luther alumni for a memorable evening of connection and community. Alumni in attendance included (standing, from left): Victor Galea ’83, Paul Micallef ’89, Gordon Grima Baldacchino ’90, Vinay Aarohi ’91, Ranier Fsadni ’87, Joshua de Giorgio ’99, Andrew Mangion ’92, Sandro Raniolo ’88, Chris Mizzi ’87, Steve Apap Bologna ’89, and Peter Delia ’83. Seated alumni include: Nikki Bonello ’86, Marguerite Camilleri ’88, Sandie (Mangion) Galea ’86, and Ian Mizzi ’82
Four generations of teachers and students attended this year’s Commencement! From right: professor emeritus Dennis Barnaal and professor emeritus Uwe Rudolf, teachers of Craig Cornelius ’74, whose student was Phil Iversen ’87 (who was also a student of Dennis), whose student was Ryan Holt ’25, newly inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
Friends from the class of 2007 celebrated together in Cancun, Mexico. From left: Megan (Finholt) Beck, Krista (Remme) Peterson, Amy (Harrison) Kline, Kay (Nadkarni) Sheridan, Emily (Brueggen) Lilly, Megan (Manthey) Ellingson, Anna (Amundson) Oksnevad, Sarah (Kneller) Krantz
Blake Doss ’05 attended the 2025 convention of the American Guild of Organists in Arizona, where he was able to connect with Yvonne Kuhlman and emeritus professor of music William Kuhlman, who gave a performance at Catalina United Methodist Church in Tucson on June 20.
2010 Josh Qualley of Dallas is the owner of Carrie’s Pilates Plus.
2011 Kyla Betts of Janesville, Wis., earned a master of professional studies degree in applied sciences leadership from the University of Minnesota and is a regulatory affairs manager at Maker’s Pride.
Peter Magnuson of Madison, Wis., earned an MSW from Boise State University and an LCSW through the state of Massachusetts.
Anna Rick of Minneapolis is an associate attorney at Johnson Becker in St. Paul, Minn.
2012
Amy Dorman of Hugo, Minn., earned a PhD in social work, with an emphasis on social policy, from the University of Minnesota.
2013 Kodi (Glesne) Adelson of Oshkosh, Wis., is a front desk care coordinator at Davis Child Care Center.
Daniel Faas of Reedsburg, Wis., published a book called The Granger Railroads of Wisconsin: When Midwestern Farmers Fought Big Industry.
Blake Funke of Nashville, Tenn., is an assistant professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
2014
Willy Leafblad of Lake City, Minn., received a Distinguished Service Award from the Minnesota Band Directors Association. Willy is a middle school band director at Princeton Public Schools.
2015 Dietrich Jessen of Waunakee, Wis., is regional director of operations at Great Lakes Management Group in Madison, Wis.
2016
Carly (Densmore) Jessen of Waunakee, Wis., is a management consultant at MMC Consulting.
Abhi (Mathema) Pradhan of West Des Moines, Iowa, is a commercial lending product manager at Bankers Trust Company.
Olive (Peterson) Winter of St. Paul, Minn., earned an MA in instrumental music education from the University of St. Thomas.
2017 Mikayla Brockmeyer of West Des Moines, Iowa, earned a DO from Des Moines University and is a resident physician with the Des Moines Internal Medicine Residency Program at Iowa Methodist Medical Center–University of Iowa.
Marissa Wales of St. Cloud, Minn., is a Fire in the Forest Burn
Crew manager at the Nature Conservancy in Cushing, Minn.
2018 Martha Hall of Long Island City, N.Y., is a business development manager at APE Studio in New York.
Barb (Stier) Slagter of Waukesha, Wis., is director of contract administration at Best Version Media.
2019 Genevieve Ehlers of Clinton, Iowa, earned a doctor of optometry degree from University of Missouri–St. Louis College of Optometry and is a resident optometrist at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.
2020 Samantha Morgan of Monroe Center, Ill., earned a DO from the University of New England and is a resident physician in the University of Wisconsin’s Pediatrics Residency Program.
2021
Chloe (Cleven) Bendt of St. Paul, Minn., earned a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Hanna (Dodd) Ferguson of Chicago is a writer at Simple Truth Communications.
Bernard Kenyi of Portland, Ore., is a research associate at
Dana (Norris) Kruse ’07 shared this beautiful reflection with us about her experience as a Luther alum at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Raleigh, N.C.:
When we moved to North Carolina in August of 2019, we only knew two people and didn’t really have a place to land, so I knew we needed to find a church home. While I was checking out places, I showed up at a Bible/book study one morning and felt entirely out of place. It’s hard to be the new person in the room when everyone knows everyone else. I awkwardly introduced myself to a few folks, when out of nowhere a very kind woman came up and said, “Did you go to Luther College?” A little taken aback, I was shocked when I looked down at my sweatshirt and saw I was wearing a Luther alumni shirt. The woman introduced herself as Marcia (Larson) Kalarites ’69 and told me that she was a Luther grad too. We had a chance to talk about our time in Decorah and the changes to campus life between her time and mine. It was a remarkable connection and one that I have valued for the past six years.
Yecuris Corporation.
Ira Kuehn of Omaha, Neb., earned a JD from the University of Iowa College of Law and an MS in finance from the University of Iowa College of Business.
Julia Lieb of Galena, Ill., is a K–12 art teacher at River Ridge in Hanover, Ill.
Maddy Lomprey of Madison, Wis., earned an MS in educational leadership and policy analysis from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is an international recruitment officer of the Americas for Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland.
2022
Lauren Berg of Aberdeen, S.D., earned an MBA from Viterbo University and is an assistant director of the Gustavus Fund at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn.
Abbey Falconer of Volga, S.D., is an orchestra director for grades 6–8 in the Brookings School District.
Logan Olson of St. Paul, Minn., is a restoration project manager at Friends of the Mississippi River.
2023
Adrienne Clefisch of Madison, Wis., is a quality manager at Epic Systems in Verona, Wis.
As I moved from church member to serving as the director of children and youth ministries at Good Shepherd, Marcia (a fellow Midwesterner) was the only one who knew how to make the scotcheroos for the reception after I was commissioned. Now, as I’m preparing for my time at Good Shepherd to come to an end, Marcia came to me a few days after I announced that I’d accepted a position at Trinity Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minn., to share with me that she had grown up at Trinity in Stillwater and was so happy that I was going to another wonderful community.
When I was in high school, I knew I wouldn’t do well at a large college/university. I’ve always been the kind to value community, so Luther was a perfect fit for me. When I chose Luther in 2003, I never knew I was also joining a community that would span generations and follow me across the country. It’s one thing to get emails around Christmas, but it’s quite another to have a genuine connection when most needed. I could not be more grateful for this community and how it has upheld me when I felt most alone.
Marcia (Larson) Kalarites ’69 (left) and Dana (Norris) Kruse ’07
Births & Adoptions
Notices as of July 27, 2025
’07
Charlotte, Sept. 2023, child of Troy Peterson and Brooksie Peterson
’08
Elouise, Jan. 2025, child of Amanda (Allen) and Brian Connolly
Sigrid, April 2025, child of Alyssa Cheadle and Paul Pearson
’09
Clay Bergen (photo 1), May 2024, child of Callie Van De Walker-Sellers and Trigg Sellers
Gabriel Paul, Feb. 2025, child of Kristin Swedlund and Andy Twiton
’11
Adelynn “Adele” Mae (photo 2), June 2025, child of Rachel Loeffler-Kemp and Brent Malvick
Maya, Sept. 2023, child of Peter Magnuson and Joelle Taknint
Owen (photo 3), Sept. 2024, child of Abby (Herman) and Kevin Gadek
’12
Agnes Lin, March 2024, child of Emmalee Johnson and Bryan Weatherby
Ingrid (photo 4), March 2025, child of Melissa (Erickson) and Michael Crowe ’13
’13
Alivia Julia, June 2024, child of Sarah (Edwards) and Niko Koshak
Vincent, Feb. 2025, child of Alicia (Findley) and Chris Noroski
’14
Esker, April 2025, child of Jess Landgraf and Katrina Nichols
’15
August “Augie,” March 2025, child of Andrew Withers and Elle (Krogh)
Jay, Aug. 2024, child of Tiffany (Ackerman) and John Sweeney
’16
Annika (photo 5), Oct. 2024, child of Erika (Balk) and Nate Kaney
Zoey, March 2025, child of Ellen (Cooper) and Zach Stekel ’17
’18
Charlotte “Charlie,” May 2025, child of Maria (Kaczmarek) and Brett Baum
Dawson, Feb. 2024, child of Jenny (Woods Benitez) and Collin White
’19
Harrison, July 2025, child of Lauren Eakes Loving and Zachary Loving
Marriages
Notices as of July 27, 2025
’79 Kai (Andreas) Skye and Fia Skye, Aug. 2023
’80 Jim Francis and Barbara Hawkyard, March 2025
’06 Allison Kimball and Barry DePina, Sept. 2024
’09
Rachel Billstein and Jacob Lutz, Jan. 2025
’10
Nick Broten and Anaïs Azoulay, Oct. 2024
’15
Katie Storey and Jack Rosenwinkel ’16, June 2024
In Memoriam
Notices as of July 27, 2025
Faculty emeritus
Phillip “Phil” Reitan of Decorah died July 8, 2025, age 95.
’46 Patricia “Patty” (Todd) Anderson of Oregon, Wis., died March 22, 2025, age 99.
’47
Mona (Goulson) Ayer of Seattle, Wash., died July 8, 2025, age 99.
’50
Harriet (Fritz) Esse of Spring Grove, Minn., died May 10, 2025, age 96.
Richard “Dick” Gandrud of Glenwood, Minn., died May 16, 2025, age 96.
Dale Peterson of Grand Forks, N.D., died June 30, 2025, age 99.
’51 Norlan Lee of Fridley, Minn., died January 15, 2025, age 94.
’53 Robert Mix of Solon Springs, Wis., died May 20, 2025, age 94.
’54 Vern “Truman” “Jordi” Jordahl of Smith Mountain Lake, Va., died April 12, 2024, age 90.
’55 Jane (Fretheim) Pape of Decorah died June 5, 2025, age 92.
’56 Lois (Beaver) Wintersteen of St. Paul, Minn., died June 6, 2025, age 90.
’57
Elsiemae (Peterson) Anderson of Rochester, Minn., died May 28, 2025, age 89.
Richard “Dick” Bechtel of Costa Mesa, Calif., died April 18, 2025, age 93.
David Nasby of Mukilteo, Wash., died March 23, 2025, age 90.
Karen Strom of Leavenworth, Wash., died March 27, 2025, age 89.
’58
Sigurd Anderson of Rochester, Minn., died February 8, 2025, age 91.
Elson Heggen of Omaha, Neb., died May 12, 2025, age 87.
Darlene (Niemeyer) Larson of Alexandria, Minn., died January 6, 2024, age 87.
Arlen Solie of Hutchinson, Minn., died June 30, 2025, age 88.
’59
Doris (Paulson) Clark of McCall, Idaho, died February 6, 2025, age 88.
’60
Warren Boe of Iowa City, Iowa, died June 14, 2025, age 86.
Sharon (Hoople) Harklau of Stillwater, Minn., died May 1, 2025, age 87.
Bonita Charlotte “Char” (Fossum) Myhers of Strum, Wis., died February 20, 2025, age 86.
’17
Betsy Fawcett and Jose Garcia, May 2025
’18
Jacob Bunge and Stephanie Kaare ’20, April 2025
’19 Kyra Morris and Nicholas Gaskell, Oct. 2024
’61
Sharon (Baker) Dreyer of Inver Grove Heights, Minn., died May 17, 2025, age 85.
Dale Mundt of Burnsville, Minn., died March 19, 2025, age 85.
LaMay (Sexe) Nybroten of Stoughton, Wis., died April 30, 2024, age 84.
Glen Orr of Mount Morris, Ill., died March 24, 2025, age 85.
’62
Andrea (Driver) Dauksa of Lombard, Ill., died late December, 2024.
Ronald “Ron” Nybroten of Stoughton, Wis., died June 25, 2025, age 87.
’63
Mary Anne (Ericksen) Skundberg of Kenyon, Minn., died September 29, 2024, age 83.
’64
Richard “Rich” Amundson of Decorah died June 5, 2025, age 82.
’65
John Hefte of Madison, Wis., died May 6, 2025, age 82.
Daniel Hutton of Harmony, Minn., died April 21, 2025, age 82.
’67
Dan Olson of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., died June 19, 2025, age 79.
’69
Thomas “Tom” Phillips of Crossville, Tenn., died June 23, 2025, age 78.
’70
Lynne (Struebing) Cooper of Round Rock, Texas, died June 3, 2025, age 76.
’20
Ozzie Suarez and Caroline Alba, Jan. 2024
’22
Barrett Poetker and Ryan Dec, June 2024
Brent Zastrow and Sienna Haubein, June 2025
’23
Ben Kiewel and Emma Lichte, June 2025
James “Jim” Whittington of Wheeling, Ill., died May 25, 2025, age 76.
’71
Dennis Lorenzen of Elgin, Minn., died July 4, 2025, age 76.
’72
Phyllis (Jackson) Ethern of Lee’s Summit, Mo., died May 31, 2025, age 76.
’76
Larri (Wilson) Jacquart of Milwaukee, Wis., died March 18, 2025, age 71.
’80
Timothy Schmidt of Forest City, Iowa, died June 29, 2025, age 67.
’81
Timothy “Tim” Kuennen of Decorah died July 2, 2025, age 67.
Curt Tryggestad of Isle, Minn., died April 23, 2025, age 67.
’85
Burton Davis of Delaware, Iowa, died April 9, 2025, age 61.
’88
Vongsay Phorasavong of Stevens, Pa., died April 6, 2025, age 61.
’93
Michele Davis of Howell, N.J., died May 13, 2025, age 56.
’02
Beverly “Bev” (Cvenca) Bakkum of Decorah died March 20, 2025, age 62.
’05
Erik Johnson of Ankeny, Iowa, died April 3, 2025, age 42.
HOMECOMING CHAPEL AND CONVOCATION:
The Inauguration of the 12th President of Luther College— Bradley M. Chamberlain Friday, October 3, 2025
For more information and to see all Luther events, visit luther.edu/events
HOMECOMING
Friday, October 3–
Sunday, October 5, 2025
Luther College
ONE TEAM DAY
Thursday, November 20, 2025
Luther College
CHRISTMAS AT LUTHER
Thursday, December 4–Sunday, December 7, 2025
Luther College
GIVING DAY
Thursday, March 5, 2026
Luther College
LEAVE A LEGACY. SHAPE THE FUTURE.
A planned gift to Luther College is a powerful way to support future generations of students while also aligning with your financial and philanthropic goals.
Make a difference today and join the Heritage Club. By including Luther College in your estate plans—through a bequest, beneficiary designation, charitable trust, or another type of planned gift—you automatically become a member of the Heritage Club: a community of donors who are committed to sustaining Luther’s mission for years to come.
The impact of your generosity: your planned gift provides scholarships, strengthens academic programs, and supports the people and values that make Luther special.
For more information about how you can leave your impact at Luther College, visit legacygiving.luther.edu, scan the QR code, or contact Kelly Sorenson at kelly.sorenson@luther.edu or 563-387-1861.
Thursday, November 20, 2025
On One Team Day, we rally behind our student-athletes— and this year, we're aiming higher than ever. With your help, we can RUN TWICE AS FAR as we support both today’s teams and the future Gerdin Fieldhouse. Every gift supports the grit, spirit, and excellence of Norse athletics— in competition, as they train, and for generations to come. Visit luther.edu/one-team-day to learn more and to make an early gift!
