Luther Faculty President Jenifer Ok. Ward is proud to announce the 2022 recipients of the Distinguished Service Award. The award is offered to alumni or people with sturdy connections to Luther Faculty who’ve exhibited admirable service to society in areas corresponding to training, authorities, the humanities, enterprise, church, labor, trade, agriculture, analysis, medication and neighborhood affairs.
This 12 months’s recipients are Michael Hovland ’72, Richard Theiler ’72, Karen (Brandt) Monsen ’77, Tamara Gholson Bavendam ’77, Rachel Reitan ’87, Andrew Anderson ’87, Joshua White ’97, Amy Parker Fiebelkorn ’97, Roy Brown Sartin ’02 and Eli Williamson ’02.
Michael Hovland ’72
Mike Hovland was the director of enrollment administration knowledge analytics for the College of Iowa from 2014 till his retirement final 12 months. He started his admissions profession at Luther in 1973 and have become an skilled in successfully utilizing knowledge for enrollment administration. Over a long time, Hovland constructed a staff that developed a set of analytic instruments and techniques for learning scholar enrollment behaviors.
Along with creating experience in knowledge science, Hovland is achieved within the areas of literature and music. He acquired his Ph.D. in English from the College of Iowa, and for a few years his main scholarly curiosity was learning musical variations of the works of American writers—how poems and novels change into songs and operas. He printed one e book and 18 articles on this area.
Hovland married a Luther alumna, Dr. Nancy Jones ’69, and has two sons, Sven and Bjorn. He performs tuba and for the previous 41 years has sung within the Zion Lutheran Church Choir in Iowa Metropolis. Hovland additionally led the church’s Sunday college musical opening for 12 years, directed many youngsters’s Christmas packages and led Bible research for his church.
Richard Theiler ’72
Rick Theiler graduated from Luther with a level in chemistry after which earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry on the College of Illinois, the place he acquired Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH) analysis grants and was named an NIH fellow in each graduate college and post-doctoral research. Theiler pursued a profession in shopper merchandise analysis and growth, and he held senior administration positions at Unilever and at Colgate-Palmolive. When he retired, Theiler was senior vice chairman of analysis and growth for Henkel North America. He has greater than 40 scientific publications and patents in his title.
Theiler is a present member of the Luther Faculty Board of Amenities and Sustainability Committee and has served a time period on the Luther Faculty Board of Regents. One in all his contributions was initiating a partnership between Luther’s German division and the Henkel Company in Dusseldorf, Germany, to supply paid internships to college students.
Theiler is lively in his Lutheran church in Arizona. He has chaired its board of trustees, accomplished mission work in South Africa, and labored with Feed My Ravenous Youngsters. He additionally sings within the choir and has initiated a photo voltaic venture for his church. Theiler and his spouse, Jane, helped set up a analysis fellowship for Luther college students in biology. In addition they take pleasure in internet hosting Luther alumni gatherings of their dwelling and spending time with daughters Dana ’07 and Devan.
Karen (Brandt) Monsen ’77
Karen (Brandt) Monsen is a public well being nurse and a world educational chief who formally retired in June 2022. She was a professor of nursing on the College of Minnesota and a member of the college in a number of facilities on campus. Monsen’s experience in public well being nursing and nursing informatics led to her serving as an advisor to suppliers and programs in addition to universities, school and college students all through the U.S. and the world. She serves on quite a few boards and committees, together with the American Correctional Nurses Affiliation and well being organizations within the Netherlands, Taiwan and New Zealand.
Final 12 months Monsen acquired a high award from the American Medical Informatics Affiliation and was named a fellow of the Nationwide Academies of Follow. Her dedication to well being care high quality and fairness led to collaborations with neighborhood leaders in Minneapolis working to raised deal with the wants of underserved teams.
Monsen studied nursing at Luther Faculty, the place she met and married her classmate, Wayne, who urged her to change into one of many first ladies on Luther’s cross-country staff. Early of their marriage, the pair served as Lutheran missionaries in Papua New Guinea.
Tamara Gholson Bavendam ’77
Tamara Gholson Bavendam not too long ago retired from the Nationwide Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Ailments (an institute throughout the Nationwide Institutes of Well being), the place she served eight and a half years as a senior advisor for girls’s urologic well being. Bavendam developed a analysis program on the prevention of decrease urinary tract issues in ladies, a difficulty that has been a ardour and focus of her profession.
After graduating from Luther Faculty, Bavendam attended the College of Iowa Medical Faculty. After residency and a fellowship, she grew to become a full-time school member, first on the College of Washington in Seattle and later at Drexel College in Philadelphia. Bavendam then joined Pfizer Inc., engaged on medical trials for sexual dysfunction and overactive bladder, and accomplished different research of decrease urinary tract situations.
Bevendam was named Finest Physician in America by Woodward/White Inc. and Finest Physician in Philadelphia for Ladies awarded by Philadelphia Journal. Final 12 months, she acquired a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Urodynamics, Feminine Pelvic Medication, and Urogenital Reconstruction. In retiremen,t Bevendam is serving her neighborhood in Nashville by volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and Nashville Instruments for Colleges.
Rachel Reitan ’87
Rachel Reitan is an assistant medical professor within the division of obstetrics and gynecology at Louisiana State College’s Faculty of Medication. She is a specialist in minimally invasive surgical procedure and is a licensed da Vinci robotic surgeon. Her experience is within the space of pediatric and adolescent gynecology, for which she serves as a advisor on the Youngsters’s Hospital of New Orleans.
Reitan isn’t solely a talented practitioner but in addition a TV host. For practically a decade, she has been a medical editor for the ABC Information affiliate in New Orleans. Reitan additionally hosts her personal medical section on the printed, wherein she is named “Dr. Rachel – The Instructing Physician,” providing well being suggestions and recommendation. Reitan was honored with an Emmy in each 2013 and 2014 for her On Digital camera Expertise as a medical reporter.
Reitan is on the board of Catholic Charities in New Orleans and on the board of Vesterheim Museum in Decorah. She serves the general public as an skilled medical witness for the Jefferson Parish and Orleans Parish courts, the place instances typically contain rape. Reitan can also be a passionate supporter of the Humane Society and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Reitan grew up in Decorah and is the youngest daughter of emeritus professor Phil Reitan and Ruth Reitan.
Andrew Anderson ’87
Andrew Anderson graduated from Luther and earned a legislation diploma with distinction from the College of Iowa. Anderson has labored as a associate at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath in Des Moines for many of his profession. He’s at present specializing in initiatives within the renewable vitality area, together with photo voltaic, wind, renewable fuels and renewable pure fuel.
Anderson has used his authorized abilities to supply vital professional bono neighborhood service that has benefited the state of Iowa and its residents. He’s a passionate ally for younger individuals and has lobbied on the Iowa Legislature for improved youth psychological well being packages to forestall suicide. Anderson additionally led an effort to arrange housing belief funds all through the state in order that native organizations may entry funds to develop low-income housing.
Because the chairperson for the Imaginative and prescient Iowa Board for a number of years, Anderson helped communities entry public infrastructure financing. He was concerned with the financing and growth of greater than 100 initiatives throughout the state, together with the World Meals Prize Headquarters in Des Moines, the Nationwide Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque and the favored Trout Run Path in Decorah. Anderson instructed the native path committee not have the bike path finish on the fish hatchery, prompting the group to create a full loop that greater than doubled the scale and scope of the venture.
Anderson’s household has an extended historical past with Luther Faculty. His great-grandmother Josephine Stephens labored as a prepare dinner when Luther was an all-male establishment. Moreover, Miller Corridor is called after his grandparents, 1937 graduates Frank and Esther Miller. His mom, Marilyn (Miller) Anderson, attended Luther, as did his daughter Meghan ’20, brother, 5 aunts and uncles, a number of cousins, and greater than a dozen nieces and nephews.
Joshua White ’97
Joshua White is chief medical officer at Gifford Medical Middle in Randolph, Vermont. After graduating from Luther Faculty, he attended the College of Iowa Medical Faculty and one decade later acquired a grasp’s diploma in well being care from the College of St. Thomas.
In 2009, White co-founded the Neighborhood Well being Initiative in Haiti. What started as a weeklong volunteer alternative with a cell medical clinic changed into many medical aid groups serving Haiti for over a decade. Shortly after the devastating earthquake of 2010, White led a staff to look after greater than 1,400 sufferers in the middle of every week within the harshest of situations. The Neighborhood Well being Initiative continues its essential mission as we speak, partnering with a rising variety of sister organizations and remoted rural Haitian communities to supply well being and human providers. The group can also be capable of present steady main well being care by returning to the identical communities with 5 medical and two surgical groups every year.
Along with his years of service in Haiti, White mentored medical college students within the group Physicians for Well being and Human Rights. He additionally volunteers for quite a few ultramarathons, crewing, pacing, and offering dietary counseling. White himself is an ultra-runner, having accomplished a 100-mile race a couple of years in the past.
A local of Decorah, White lives in Bethel, Vermont, together with his spouse and two youngsters.
Amy Parker Fiebelkorn ’97
Amy Parker Fiebelkorn is a senior epidemiologist on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC), the place she serves as staff lead within the Partnership and Well being Fairness Department within the Immunization Providers Division. She oversees 24 grownup vaccination initiatives supporting nationwide, state and community-based companions in constructing vaccine confidence, uptake, entry and fairness.
In the course of the pandemic, Fiebelkorn led 4 response groups together with the Lengthy-Time period Care Group, the Disproportionately Affected Grownup Populations Group and the Influenza Response Group within the CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccine Process Pressure. She managed greater than 100 workers members throughout the 4 groups, overseeing the implementation of flu and COVID-19 vaccinations in extremely affected populations. On this work, Fiebelkorn coordinated with the White Home, a number of federal and personal companions, and throughout the CDC for the profitable booster dose rollout in long-term care settings. She additionally supervised contact tracing of CDC workers uncovered to COVID-19 throughout deployments.
At Luther, Fiebelkorn double majored in psychology and anthropology, and stayed on one other 12 months to get a nursing diploma. Shortly thereafter, she went abroad, volunteering as a nurse in rural villages in Ghana and Nepal after which working with ladies’s teams within the city slums of Bangladesh. These experiences affirmed her rising curiosity in public well being, so Fiebelkorn enrolled at Emory College, the place she acquired twin grasp’s levels in nursing and public well being. Whereas in graduate college, she labored with the CDC on implementing a secure water system for a rural Kenyan clinic. Fiebelkorn additionally printed a secure water system useful resource information and a standardized curriculum for Kenyan well being care employees, each of which have been tailored to be used in over 100 clinics in 10 nations.
Fiebelkorn lives in Lawrenceville, Georgia, together with her husband and two youngsters.
Roy Brown Sartin ’02 and Eli Williamson ’02
Roy Brown Sartin and Eli Williamson are receiving a joint Distinguished Service Award for his or her work in establishing Depart No Veteran Behind (LNVB), a 501(c)(3) charitable group that invests in veterans by employment coaching, transitional employment packages, and academic debt aid.
Sartin and Williamson have been referred to as to lively responsibility within the military throughout their senior 12 months at Luther for the 9/11 mission. Williamson accomplished his diploma after attending the Particular Warfare Coaching Middle at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. He was deployed to Iraq after which to Afghanistan as a psychological operations specialist and Arabic linguist. Sartin, nevertheless, was pressured to place a halt to his training and deploy together with his reserve unit to Iraq. Upon return, he resumed his research at Luther and accomplished his diploma.
Sartin and Williamson initially joined the military to assist with their school prices, however after their service, they nonetheless struggled to repay their school loans as a result of numerous restraints for veterans. It was this expertise that led them to co-found LNVB. The group goals to put money into People who’ve served this nation honorably and who search to proceed their service as property of their dwelling communities. The work of LNVB has been hailed by the media and supported by a formidable variety of companies and foundations. The group has a number of Luther alumni and professors on their board of administrators.
At present, Sartin serves as vice chairman of Depart No Veteran Behind and independently consults internationally. Williamson is the president of Depart No Veteran Behind and owns and manages a consulting apply by which he advises high-net-worth people and establishments who wish to make investments their sources for optimistic social change. Williamson can also be engaged on his grasp’s diploma in nonprofit administration at DePaul College.
About Luther Faculty
Luther Faculty is dwelling to about 1,800 undergraduates who discover massive questions and take motion to learn individuals, communities and society. Our educational packages, experiential strategy to studying and welcoming neighborhood encourage college students to be taught actively, reside purposefully and lead courageously for a lifetime of affect. Be taught extra at luther.edu.
