Connie Stevens, M.Ed., LAC
Born: Valley City, ND, 1949
Education: Valley City State University—B.S. Education, NDSU—Masters in Education, guidance and counseling emphasis
Business: Clinical Director – ShareHouse/Sister’s Path/Robinson Recovery Center, Fargo
Community and Professional Volunteering: Valley City nursing home, professional organizations
On leadership, “A good leader leads by example and sets a direction that you want to follow. They have integrity, assertiveness, and diplomacy and can delegate.”
“I believe in people when they don’t believe in themselves.” - Connie Stevens
Believing in someone’s actions and potential can be difficult even in the best of circumstances. Our community is fortunate to have a professional such as Connie Stevens overseeing programming which works with people in the throws of addiction that may well have shattered their lives. At their lowest point, people need to know that someone still has faith in them and their future.
Connie is the clinical director for ShareHouse/Sister’s Path/Robinson Recovery Center. “I feel very privileged to do what I’m doing – it’s been rewarding,” Connie said, “It’s rewarding to watch people re-claim their lives.”
Beginning in 1975, ShareHouse has provided a continuum of chemical dependency treatment, prevention and educational services to those affected by the disease of addiction, their families and communities. Sister’s Path provides housing for homeless and addictive people along with supportive services and the Robinson program provides counseling and recovery services for people addicted to Methamphetamines.
As the clinical director for these programs she oversees all clinical teams and services which provide treatment to people suffering and recovering from addition.
A typical day for Connie starts with checking messages and emails and making sure that the staff is in place handling clients’’ care. She does “flash staffing” by meeting with her staff to hear how the night before went with clients who live on-site. Weekly, Connie holds supervisory meetings and is always working on program planning.
Another part of Connie’s job is to network in the community and speak to area organizations and service groups. She attends workshops, reads professional magazines, newsletters, attends national conferences and takes part in continuing education. Through her educational and networking efforts, Connie said sees first hand what is going on in the country as far as addiction treatment and feels that North Dakota is a head of the rest of the country because of the high caliber treatment it offers.
Connie attended Valley City State University (VCSU) then transferred to NDSU. She returned to VCSU and received her B.S. in Education. After graduation, she taught phy ed and coached at Fargo South High School for three years. Then she moved to Minot where she taught for several years and then started her family.
In 1990, Connie and her family moved to Fargo. After 10 years of being home with her three children and now as a single parent, Connie returned to school and received her Master’s in Guidance and Counseling. She said it was a challenge to be in school, have three children to raise and balance the family finances to get all of this accomplished.
As time went on, she did her college internship with the St. John’s Genesis program in child chemical dependency. She was offered her first job there and remained at Genesis for four years. Later, Connie went to Lutheran Social Services of ND and worked for two years at Luther Hall group home as an addiction and family counselor.
As inpatient facilities began closing and more outpatient programs started she joined Drake Counseling Center in Fargo counseling families whose kids were addressing and recovering from addiction. The area of family and child counseling is a passion of Connie’s and she served in the role for five years. She moved on to the clinical director position at Drake, which she held for four years before moving to ShareHouse.
Summarizing her reasons to move to ShareHouse Connie said that it was time for a professional change and to form a new professional vision for herself. She has now been at ShareHouse for two years and loves what she does. She said that she enjoys working for a larger and non profit organization.
At ShareHouse through treatment, they deal with the whole person including the spiritual side of the individual. Connie said that spiritual awareness can play a large role in a person’s recovery from addictions. And, this former teacher is still teaching as she mentions that education is a part of an individual’s treatment program.
Connie shared that it is a privilege to be a part of people’s journey through and recovery from addiction. As a professional working in this field, she said many times there is not immediate gratification when working with a patient but, that years later, perhaps, a parent will stop her on the street and thank her for how she helped their child – that their child recovered and is now a healthy, contributing adult.
Connie sees Meth use rising and points out that their organization is the first treatment facility to offer Meth recovery programs in the state. In the past, Connie said that treatments for all addictions tended to be more “cookie cutter” but now individualized treatment plans are becoming the norm. ShareHouse also does programming that is gender specific – women working with women and men working with men to address personal issues.
After a person has suffered through years of addiction, received help and has emerged whole by re-claiming their life through counseling and treatment, great comfort can be taken from Connie’s favorite saying,” It’s not the years in your life; it’s the life in your years.”
For more information go to www.sharhouse.org or call 701.282.6561.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Area Women in Business: Women in Business: Carita Shawchuck, PhD., Healthcare
Carita Shawchuck, PhD.
Born: Minot, ND. 1957
Education: Boise State University—B.A. Sociology, Minnesota State University Mankato— Masters of Arts in Clinical Psychology, West Virginia University—Doctorate in Clinical Clinical Psychology, Michigan State University—Internship in Pediatric Psychology, Department of Pediatric and Human Development
Business: Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychologist, 17 years in practice
Community Volunteering: National program called DivorceCare, a support group for divorcing and separating adults. Includes DivorceCare 4 Kids, a support program for kids whose parents are divorcing or separating.
On leadership, “A good leader helps people to see strengths and possibilities in themselves that they have never seen before and believe that they can do things they’ve never done before.”
Persevering through many years of college course work and research, and now in clinical practice, Carita specializes in working with children with anxiety disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and school related problems.
What is involved in providing therapy for these children? Carita said that trends in the clinical psychology profession include an increasing reliance on therapies that are based on research and are in manual form for professionals to follow. These typically include proven strategies and standardized treatments. Carita said that because of this trend there is less reliance on the art of therapy and more on the science of therapy.
Carita also said that another growing change in the field of psychology is prescription privileges for psychologists. While only a few states have passed legislation allowing psychologists to prescribe medications, she expects that the shortage of psychiatrists, especially in rural areas, will result in a growing number of psychologists providing psycho therapy as well as medication.
When Carita first arrived in Fargo 11 years ago she worked for MeritCare Health System. She moved on to private practice with a West Fargo medical group and then opened her own practice about a year and a half ago in south Fargo. Carita fits in to the local trend that she is seeing of licensed psychologists owning their own practice. In October, Carita is moving her practice to a new and larger location and Wayne Samualson, PhD. will be joining her in the practice.
A successful therapist does not generally have a business background, and an obstacle Carita overcame to become successful was the belief that she would not be able to provide mental health services and run a successful business at the same time. She pointed out that she had no formal business training in all her years of college and has learned throughout the years from those she worked with and by surrounding herself with experts in business.
Carita’s professional inspiration along the way has come from two mentors that she met in graduate school who she said, “Believed in, encouraged me and required a lot from me.” She added,” They were people I wanted to emulate.” Years later, Carita still keeps in touch with these special friends.
A typical work day for Carita starts at 8 or 8:30 am checking messages and returning phone calls. The rest of her day is full seeing patients until 5 pm. During lunch time she returns more phone calls and typically ends her day at 5 or 6 pm returning yet, more calls, and writing reports and doing paper work.
What was Carita’s favorite job was outside of what she is doing today? Carita said she loved working at Children’s Hospital in St. Paul with kids who had cancer and their families. She felt she probably got more out of the experience than she gave.
To stay licensed as a psychologist Carita must complete annual continuing education hours. She also reads professional journals and newsletters (increasingly on-line) and attends workshops across the country.
Providing psychological therapy requires great patience and knowledge and the patients’ success and victories may happen slowly. But, changing someone’s life for the better is a great thing. Working with the intricacies of someone’s thoughts and behaviors involve many small steps coming together. Carita summed this up when mentioning her favorite saying, “We can do no great thing, only small things with great love.” ~ Sister Teresa.
Born: Minot, ND. 1957
Education: Boise State University—B.A. Sociology, Minnesota State University Mankato— Masters of Arts in Clinical Psychology, West Virginia University—Doctorate in Clinical Clinical Psychology, Michigan State University—Internship in Pediatric Psychology, Department of Pediatric and Human Development
Business: Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychologist, 17 years in practice
Community Volunteering: National program called DivorceCare, a support group for divorcing and separating adults. Includes DivorceCare 4 Kids, a support program for kids whose parents are divorcing or separating.
On leadership, “A good leader helps people to see strengths and possibilities in themselves that they have never seen before and believe that they can do things they’ve never done before.”
Persevering through many years of college course work and research, and now in clinical practice, Carita specializes in working with children with anxiety disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and school related problems.
What is involved in providing therapy for these children? Carita said that trends in the clinical psychology profession include an increasing reliance on therapies that are based on research and are in manual form for professionals to follow. These typically include proven strategies and standardized treatments. Carita said that because of this trend there is less reliance on the art of therapy and more on the science of therapy.
Carita also said that another growing change in the field of psychology is prescription privileges for psychologists. While only a few states have passed legislation allowing psychologists to prescribe medications, she expects that the shortage of psychiatrists, especially in rural areas, will result in a growing number of psychologists providing psycho therapy as well as medication.
When Carita first arrived in Fargo 11 years ago she worked for MeritCare Health System. She moved on to private practice with a West Fargo medical group and then opened her own practice about a year and a half ago in south Fargo. Carita fits in to the local trend that she is seeing of licensed psychologists owning their own practice. In October, Carita is moving her practice to a new and larger location and Wayne Samualson, PhD. will be joining her in the practice.
A successful therapist does not generally have a business background, and an obstacle Carita overcame to become successful was the belief that she would not be able to provide mental health services and run a successful business at the same time. She pointed out that she had no formal business training in all her years of college and has learned throughout the years from those she worked with and by surrounding herself with experts in business.
Carita’s professional inspiration along the way has come from two mentors that she met in graduate school who she said, “Believed in, encouraged me and required a lot from me.” She added,” They were people I wanted to emulate.” Years later, Carita still keeps in touch with these special friends.
A typical work day for Carita starts at 8 or 8:30 am checking messages and returning phone calls. The rest of her day is full seeing patients until 5 pm. During lunch time she returns more phone calls and typically ends her day at 5 or 6 pm returning yet, more calls, and writing reports and doing paper work.
What was Carita’s favorite job was outside of what she is doing today? Carita said she loved working at Children’s Hospital in St. Paul with kids who had cancer and their families. She felt she probably got more out of the experience than she gave.
To stay licensed as a psychologist Carita must complete annual continuing education hours. She also reads professional journals and newsletters (increasingly on-line) and attends workshops across the country.
Providing psychological therapy requires great patience and knowledge and the patients’ success and victories may happen slowly. But, changing someone’s life for the better is a great thing. Working with the intricacies of someone’s thoughts and behaviors involve many small steps coming together. Carita summed this up when mentioning her favorite saying, “We can do no great thing, only small things with great love.” ~ Sister Teresa.
Area Women in Business: In the game of life, this coach strives for success
Fargo, ND - Looking to improve your life? Carolyn Kramer, owner of LifeSuccess Consultants in Moorhead, claims to be able to help you do just that. LifeSuccess Consultants provides group coaching, seminars, presentations, workshops, corporate training, and individual coaching on how to create success in your life and believe in your potential and power. Kramer offers a number of programs in full day, half-day, and customized formats for a variety of groups and executive and personal retreats, in-house corporate trainings, stadium keynotes, conference halls and more.
Kramer is an Independent Licensed LifeSuccess Consultant and a business partner of Bob Proctor and Paul Martinelli, of LifeSuccess Productions. She researches the motivational industry and studies with master teachers Bob Proctor, Dr. Carolyne “Isis” Fuqua and Loral Langemeier. There are four other independently licensed LifeSuccess Consultants in the Fargo-Moorhead area that Kramer works with as a team.
Kramer opened her LifeSuccess Consultants office in April. She already has 20 corporate clients and 75 individual clients, which are seen one-on-one or in group-sessions. Clients usually have recurring visits while they follow what Kramer describes as a curriculum.
Carolyn mentioned that her Master Mind group is very interesting. It is a free, ten-week study that claims to change the course of your life by teaching you how to apply to your life the foundational principles of Napoleon Hill’s book, “Think and Grow Rich!” The study says the “results will astound you as you watch the lives of your Master Mind group improve from one week to the next!”
Kramer also recruits speakers for her clients. She said that she will be coordinating and bringing Suzanne Whang, the host of the show House Hunters, to Fargo around September 20th. House Hunters is the #1 rated show on HGTV.
Although Kramer has a financial planning background, she says LifeSuccess Consultants is her “dream job.” She explains that she gets to do something she really loves and get paid well for it. She enjoys working through issues and discussing how to get more out of life with her clients. “The best part is watching the growth and increased awareness of my clients,” she said. Kramer said the most difficult aspect of starting the business was finding the time to get everything done.
Her future plans for the business include expansion. Once she begins motivational work with a company, there tends to be multiple sites, so she will be looking for more consultants to help facilitate the sessions.
Kramer has a company website that sells various programs, including The Science of Getting Rich, You Were Born Rich Learning System, The Winners Image, The Goal Achiever, Your Mission in Commission, The Success Puzzle, and The Secret DVD. Order prices range from $29.95 to $1,995.
More information can be found at carolynkramer.lifesuccessconsultants.com or by calling 701.238.1515.
Kramer is an Independent Licensed LifeSuccess Consultant and a business partner of Bob Proctor and Paul Martinelli, of LifeSuccess Productions. She researches the motivational industry and studies with master teachers Bob Proctor, Dr. Carolyne “Isis” Fuqua and Loral Langemeier. There are four other independently licensed LifeSuccess Consultants in the Fargo-Moorhead area that Kramer works with as a team.
Kramer opened her LifeSuccess Consultants office in April. She already has 20 corporate clients and 75 individual clients, which are seen one-on-one or in group-sessions. Clients usually have recurring visits while they follow what Kramer describes as a curriculum.
Carolyn mentioned that her Master Mind group is very interesting. It is a free, ten-week study that claims to change the course of your life by teaching you how to apply to your life the foundational principles of Napoleon Hill’s book, “Think and Grow Rich!” The study says the “results will astound you as you watch the lives of your Master Mind group improve from one week to the next!”
Kramer also recruits speakers for her clients. She said that she will be coordinating and bringing Suzanne Whang, the host of the show House Hunters, to Fargo around September 20th. House Hunters is the #1 rated show on HGTV.
Although Kramer has a financial planning background, she says LifeSuccess Consultants is her “dream job.” She explains that she gets to do something she really loves and get paid well for it. She enjoys working through issues and discussing how to get more out of life with her clients. “The best part is watching the growth and increased awareness of my clients,” she said. Kramer said the most difficult aspect of starting the business was finding the time to get everything done.
Her future plans for the business include expansion. Once she begins motivational work with a company, there tends to be multiple sites, so she will be looking for more consultants to help facilitate the sessions.
Kramer has a company website that sells various programs, including The Science of Getting Rich, You Were Born Rich Learning System, The Winners Image, The Goal Achiever, Your Mission in Commission, The Success Puzzle, and The Secret DVD. Order prices range from $29.95 to $1,995.
More information can be found at carolynkramer.lifesuccessconsultants.com or by calling 701.238.1515.
Area Women in Business: The Art of Delivery
Fargo, ND - If you’re looking for a way to let your creativity flow without leaving the comfort of your home, the Artmobile may be the way to go. The Artmobile comes to your home or business with art projects and all the supplies you need to bring them to life. Leslie Kava, the owner of the Artmobile, supplies pre-packaged crafts to homes, businesses, daycares, schools, retirement homes, birthday parties, holiday parties and other special events. Kava said she wanted to bring something new to Fargo-Moorhead and “bring fun and creativity to people in the community.” The business has been open since late June.
Kava supplies her customers with art supplies like paint, stickers, glue and special projects. People can choose the crafts beforehand or Kava can bring a variety of supplies for them to choose from. She then helps everyone get set up and ready to get creative. Some of the projects that are offered include building and decorating your own kite, bird houses, ornaments, paper fans, flower pots and teddy bears.
Leslie said right now she is mainly working with kids, but would eventually like to expand to senior homes. Leslie said birthday parties have been a popular destination for the Artmobile. She travels to the home or party site, brings her art supplies and helps the children get set up. Most art sessions last about an hour.
Kava said the best part of her job is playing with art and working with the kids. “It’s the most fun job I’ve ever had,” she said. The biggest challenge for her has been getting the business name out and gaining interest. Kava also said it’s sometimes hard for people to understand exactly what she does.
The Artmobile has flexible hours of operation, as it works with its customers to set up specific times. “I want everyone to have a chance to enjoy this,” Kava said.
For more information call 701.526.3545 or email theartmobile@hotmail.com to schedule sessions with the Artmobile. Additional information and photos can be found at
www.myspace.com/theartmobile.
Kava supplies her customers with art supplies like paint, stickers, glue and special projects. People can choose the crafts beforehand or Kava can bring a variety of supplies for them to choose from. She then helps everyone get set up and ready to get creative. Some of the projects that are offered include building and decorating your own kite, bird houses, ornaments, paper fans, flower pots and teddy bears.
Leslie said right now she is mainly working with kids, but would eventually like to expand to senior homes. Leslie said birthday parties have been a popular destination for the Artmobile. She travels to the home or party site, brings her art supplies and helps the children get set up. Most art sessions last about an hour.
Kava said the best part of her job is playing with art and working with the kids. “It’s the most fun job I’ve ever had,” she said. The biggest challenge for her has been getting the business name out and gaining interest. Kava also said it’s sometimes hard for people to understand exactly what she does.
The Artmobile has flexible hours of operation, as it works with its customers to set up specific times. “I want everyone to have a chance to enjoy this,” Kava said.
For more information call 701.526.3545 or email theartmobile@hotmail.com to schedule sessions with the Artmobile. Additional information and photos can be found at
www.myspace.com/theartmobile.
Area Women in Business: Lisa Schwinden, Sports Business
Lisa Schwinden
Born: Fargo, 1980
Education: University of Portland, 2002—Journalism and French minor
Business: Head PGA Golf Professional, Osgood Public Golf Course, NDSU Women’s Head Golf Coach, 2007-08.
Community Volunteering & Donations: Hosting 4th annual Rally for Cure to benefit the Susan G. Coleman Cancer Foundation, Sisters of Mary of the Presentation—secretary, golf lesson donations, Women’s Fund board member.
On leadership, “Someone who demonstrates by example and is not afraid to make the hard decisions.”
Fargo’s own Lisa Schwinden was the first female PGA Head Professional in the state of North Dakota and is only one of 115 PGA Professionals nationwide certified to instruct by the PGA’s Certified Professionals Program. She started the PGA’s Professional Golf Management Program in 2003 and finished in January of 2005. Lisa is one of only four female Head Professionals in the tri-state area.
Having lived in Fargo for all but four years of her life, Lisa left the area for college when she attended the University of Portland. Lisa was a four-year starter at the University of Portland and was named to the West Coast Conference all-academic team all four seasons. She returned to Fargo after graduation in 2002. She continued fulltime as the Edgewood Golf Course assistant pro that she had started as a summer job a few years before. Lisa pointed out that her biggest business inspiration is Greg McCulla, the head pro at Edgewood when Lisa worked at the course.
In 2005, Lisa became the head pro at Osgood Public Golf Course. She is responsible for the operations of the course, golf leagues, golf instruction and she also owns the golf shop.
A recent addition to Lisa’s work life is that she has been named the fall and spring NDSU women’s golf coach. She said she is very excited to be a part of the program and says that the budgets and schedules she will be working with all add up to a solid program.
With all the she has accomplished in a short time, it is hard to believe that Lisa graduated from college not knowing exactly what she wanted to do for a career. What Lisa did know was that she wanted to help women. This desire took the form of working in the golf profession to help get more women involved in the sport. Besides paving the way for women golf players in general, Lisa is also paving the way as one of a small number of female golf pros in the Midwest.
Lisa said that her main career obstacles have arisen because she is a woman in business and in the golf profession. She feels golf stereotypes still remain that feed into the old thinking that the sport of golf only belongs to wealthy Caucasian males. Lisa said that another obstacle she has had to overcome, as a woman building a business, is forming working relationships with banks in order to finance and grow her golf shop business.
Each day is packed with a lot to do. Reviewing her Tuesday schedule, Lisa describes a typical work day in her profession. The day starts with an 8 AM golf pro meeting with others from the area’s golf courses, 9 to 9:30 AM are leagues to teach, and then private lesson teaching starts. At 4:00 PM, Lisa starts to prepare for the ladies league which will meet later in the day. At 6 PM 100 women golfers arrive for lessons and to play golf. Ladies Night then runs from 9 to 10:30 PM when Lisa spends time socializing and building relationships with her students and other golfers.
National golf trends show that the number of golfers is declining and golf courses are closing due to the cost of the sport and the time it takes to play. Locally, the sport is healthy and Lisa points out that the numbers of golfers are up. She attributes it to actively attracting women players to the game, the fact that more seniors are playing, and more playing by offering junior golf programs. Playing opportunities such as playing three holes at a time and golf sessions for the entire family are also very popular and bring golfers out to the course.
A golfer since eight years of age, how does Lisa keep learning about her sport and profession? The PGA offers a variety of educational opportunities and Lisa said that the Master Professional is the next step for her in her professional education.
Besides taking part in the PGA’s educational programs, Lisa also learns from the PGA Magazine which covers hot trends in golf. Lisa also looks to industry reps for trends in golf clothing to keep up on the latest clothing items she carries in her golf shop.
People may not know that this accomplished athlete is also an aspiring violinist. She started lessons in college and now tries to play regularly during the golf off-season. Lisa played piano and percussion as a child.
Lisa said her future plans include working very hard teaching, coaching and building her business at Osgood. She is striving to get the golf shop to a stable point and then she plans on playing more golf herself in the future. In the meantime, Lisa said that this community and Osgood Golf Course are a great fit for her.
North Dakota State University will begin its final year of the five-year reclassification from Division II to Division I next season. The Bison will join The Summit League next season and will be eligible for NCAA championships beginning in 2008-09. Schwinden is the head professional at Osgood Golf Course in Fargo and has held that position since the course opened in 2005.
Born: Fargo, 1980
Education: University of Portland, 2002—Journalism and French minor
Business: Head PGA Golf Professional, Osgood Public Golf Course, NDSU Women’s Head Golf Coach, 2007-08.
Community Volunteering & Donations: Hosting 4th annual Rally for Cure to benefit the Susan G. Coleman Cancer Foundation, Sisters of Mary of the Presentation—secretary, golf lesson donations, Women’s Fund board member.
On leadership, “Someone who demonstrates by example and is not afraid to make the hard decisions.”
Fargo’s own Lisa Schwinden was the first female PGA Head Professional in the state of North Dakota and is only one of 115 PGA Professionals nationwide certified to instruct by the PGA’s Certified Professionals Program. She started the PGA’s Professional Golf Management Program in 2003 and finished in January of 2005. Lisa is one of only four female Head Professionals in the tri-state area.
Having lived in Fargo for all but four years of her life, Lisa left the area for college when she attended the University of Portland. Lisa was a four-year starter at the University of Portland and was named to the West Coast Conference all-academic team all four seasons. She returned to Fargo after graduation in 2002. She continued fulltime as the Edgewood Golf Course assistant pro that she had started as a summer job a few years before. Lisa pointed out that her biggest business inspiration is Greg McCulla, the head pro at Edgewood when Lisa worked at the course.
In 2005, Lisa became the head pro at Osgood Public Golf Course. She is responsible for the operations of the course, golf leagues, golf instruction and she also owns the golf shop.
A recent addition to Lisa’s work life is that she has been named the fall and spring NDSU women’s golf coach. She said she is very excited to be a part of the program and says that the budgets and schedules she will be working with all add up to a solid program.
With all the she has accomplished in a short time, it is hard to believe that Lisa graduated from college not knowing exactly what she wanted to do for a career. What Lisa did know was that she wanted to help women. This desire took the form of working in the golf profession to help get more women involved in the sport. Besides paving the way for women golf players in general, Lisa is also paving the way as one of a small number of female golf pros in the Midwest.
Lisa said that her main career obstacles have arisen because she is a woman in business and in the golf profession. She feels golf stereotypes still remain that feed into the old thinking that the sport of golf only belongs to wealthy Caucasian males. Lisa said that another obstacle she has had to overcome, as a woman building a business, is forming working relationships with banks in order to finance and grow her golf shop business.
Each day is packed with a lot to do. Reviewing her Tuesday schedule, Lisa describes a typical work day in her profession. The day starts with an 8 AM golf pro meeting with others from the area’s golf courses, 9 to 9:30 AM are leagues to teach, and then private lesson teaching starts. At 4:00 PM, Lisa starts to prepare for the ladies league which will meet later in the day. At 6 PM 100 women golfers arrive for lessons and to play golf. Ladies Night then runs from 9 to 10:30 PM when Lisa spends time socializing and building relationships with her students and other golfers.
National golf trends show that the number of golfers is declining and golf courses are closing due to the cost of the sport and the time it takes to play. Locally, the sport is healthy and Lisa points out that the numbers of golfers are up. She attributes it to actively attracting women players to the game, the fact that more seniors are playing, and more playing by offering junior golf programs. Playing opportunities such as playing three holes at a time and golf sessions for the entire family are also very popular and bring golfers out to the course.
A golfer since eight years of age, how does Lisa keep learning about her sport and profession? The PGA offers a variety of educational opportunities and Lisa said that the Master Professional is the next step for her in her professional education.
Besides taking part in the PGA’s educational programs, Lisa also learns from the PGA Magazine which covers hot trends in golf. Lisa also looks to industry reps for trends in golf clothing to keep up on the latest clothing items she carries in her golf shop.
People may not know that this accomplished athlete is also an aspiring violinist. She started lessons in college and now tries to play regularly during the golf off-season. Lisa played piano and percussion as a child.
Lisa said her future plans include working very hard teaching, coaching and building her business at Osgood. She is striving to get the golf shop to a stable point and then she plans on playing more golf herself in the future. In the meantime, Lisa said that this community and Osgood Golf Course are a great fit for her.
North Dakota State University will begin its final year of the five-year reclassification from Division II to Division I next season. The Bison will join The Summit League next season and will be eligible for NCAA championships beginning in 2008-09. Schwinden is the head professional at Osgood Golf Course in Fargo and has held that position since the course opened in 2005.
Area Women in Business: Amy Ruley, Sports Business
Amy Ruley
Born: Lowell, Indiana, 1955
Education: Purdue University, 1978—B.S. Physical Education
Western Illinois University, 1979—Master’s degree in Psychology and Sociology of Sports
Business: Head coach, NDSU women’s basketball
Community Volunteering: Breast cancer awareness, speaking engagements, United Blood Services leadership council, Bison Booster events, Bison clinics, participation in benefit golf outings
On leadership, “[A leader] has to have vision, compassion, conviction strength, and understanding.”
We all know of Amy Ruley - the living icon in women’s basketball. But, what were her early years of coaching like, what is her leadership philosophy and what is a typical work day like for her?
At the time that Amy started her coaching career at NDSU, things were just opening up for women in the coaching profession. The year was 1979; Amy had just graduated with a Master’s degree and immediately started at NDSU, half-time as a phy ed teacher and half-time as the women’s basketball coach. She said that the timing was right at that point in time to pursue a job as a female coach—she started coaching just as sports were accepting the idea of and looking for women coaches.
At that time, Amy remembers that even though the doors were opening for female coaches, somewhat of a bias existed against women coaches. She said that it was a message of ‘how could you possibly know about coaching?’ and it was an obstacle that Amy worked to overcome as she gained credibility to teach and coach the game.
Once she proved herself in this area, the next challenge for Amy was to manage her time well as demands grew while she built her career and the NDSU team. At the beginning of her career at NDSU, Amy did it all as a teacher and a coach. She was a one-person team—coaching, recruiting players, serving as the program’s public information officer and more. In short, she was doing everything that she could to build NDSU’s women’s basketball into a solid and nationally known program.
The rest is history as Amy is now well known and recognized for being an outstanding basketball coach who leads winning teams year after year.
Outside of coaching women’s basketball her next love is teaching. Before Amy became a coach her favorite job was teaching swimming as a Water Safety Instructor and life guarding at county lake beaches in Wisconsin. It is easy to see Amy’s teaching passion still at work, as great coaching requires instruction, guidance, understanding and encouragement.
Besides her love of teaching, Amy really enjoys water sports – anything to do with water such as boating, fishing, wake boarding and water skiing. As a kid, Amy spent the summers at her grandparents’ cabin on a Wisconsin lake. Now, a lake cabin owner herself, her property fondly reminds her of childhood summers since her wooded acreage sits right next to the water.
A typical day for Amy changes according to the time of year. The summer months bring days filled with work on the Internet, making notes and writing memos, recruiting activities that include a lot of travel and communications with potential players, organizing and evaluation of her program, overseeing basketball camps, staying in contact with her team and preparing for the fall season.
Once school starts, she spends the mornings in her office with paperwork and visiting with her staff and athletes along with focusing on training for her players. Her door is always open and potential basketball athletes also stop in with their parents while they are visiting the NDSU campus.
October 15 is the official start date of this year’s basketball practice season when Coach Ruley, staff and team can spend 20 hours a week on the court and in strength training. As the playing season unfolds, along with coaching games, Amy monitors the athletes’ grades and everyday lives to make sure they are living up to their best abilities on and off the court.
The season includes playing two games per weekend, and Amy reviews lots of video tape to study game performance of the team and individual players, as well as their opponents. The end of the season brings the national convention, the Final Four and the start of high school recruitment efforts. Amy usually finds a little down time during the month of May to travel for enjoyment or to take vacation time.
While discussing the sport of basketball, Amy said that she is more aware of issues or changes happening rather than trends actually taking place within the sport. A change that will take effect next month is that text messaging from schools to potential recruits will no longer be allowed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It had become an issue within college recruiting efforts that texting potential team members was too intrusive into the lives of young athletes. However, emailing and writing potential athletes for recruitment possibilities will still be allowed at the high school junior year level and up.
Amy added that another important development in athletic recruiting is the use of software that captures a lot of feedback from potential athletes and provides more personalized information. Current technology also allows for sending video streams of women’s basketball games out to people so they can view games.
Another added benefit of technology in the sports world is that it is now much easier to stay in touch with athletes—current and past. Amy said that in the early days of playing and coaching it was easy to lose track of athletes over time due to the limits within communications.
Amy’s plans for the future include moving through the Summit League transition, winning in that league, getting into the conference tournament and winning outright, getting into the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, continuing to make improvements in her program and winning the NCAA tournament.
Amy’s favorite saying has followed her since she was a child as an athlete with a small build. It says, “It isn’t the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
It is easy to see the fight in Amy’s actions as she has paved the way for female coaches, proved herself as a coach, overcame breast cancer, persevered to build and maintain the best women’s college basketball program possible, and as she sets new professional goals that will take her and her team to the next level in women’s collegiate basketball.
Born: Lowell, Indiana, 1955
Education: Purdue University, 1978—B.S. Physical Education
Western Illinois University, 1979—Master’s degree in Psychology and Sociology of Sports
Business: Head coach, NDSU women’s basketball
Community Volunteering: Breast cancer awareness, speaking engagements, United Blood Services leadership council, Bison Booster events, Bison clinics, participation in benefit golf outings
On leadership, “[A leader] has to have vision, compassion, conviction strength, and understanding.”
We all know of Amy Ruley - the living icon in women’s basketball. But, what were her early years of coaching like, what is her leadership philosophy and what is a typical work day like for her?
At the time that Amy started her coaching career at NDSU, things were just opening up for women in the coaching profession. The year was 1979; Amy had just graduated with a Master’s degree and immediately started at NDSU, half-time as a phy ed teacher and half-time as the women’s basketball coach. She said that the timing was right at that point in time to pursue a job as a female coach—she started coaching just as sports were accepting the idea of and looking for women coaches.
At that time, Amy remembers that even though the doors were opening for female coaches, somewhat of a bias existed against women coaches. She said that it was a message of ‘how could you possibly know about coaching?’ and it was an obstacle that Amy worked to overcome as she gained credibility to teach and coach the game.
Once she proved herself in this area, the next challenge for Amy was to manage her time well as demands grew while she built her career and the NDSU team. At the beginning of her career at NDSU, Amy did it all as a teacher and a coach. She was a one-person team—coaching, recruiting players, serving as the program’s public information officer and more. In short, she was doing everything that she could to build NDSU’s women’s basketball into a solid and nationally known program.
The rest is history as Amy is now well known and recognized for being an outstanding basketball coach who leads winning teams year after year.
Outside of coaching women’s basketball her next love is teaching. Before Amy became a coach her favorite job was teaching swimming as a Water Safety Instructor and life guarding at county lake beaches in Wisconsin. It is easy to see Amy’s teaching passion still at work, as great coaching requires instruction, guidance, understanding and encouragement.
Besides her love of teaching, Amy really enjoys water sports – anything to do with water such as boating, fishing, wake boarding and water skiing. As a kid, Amy spent the summers at her grandparents’ cabin on a Wisconsin lake. Now, a lake cabin owner herself, her property fondly reminds her of childhood summers since her wooded acreage sits right next to the water.
A typical day for Amy changes according to the time of year. The summer months bring days filled with work on the Internet, making notes and writing memos, recruiting activities that include a lot of travel and communications with potential players, organizing and evaluation of her program, overseeing basketball camps, staying in contact with her team and preparing for the fall season.
Once school starts, she spends the mornings in her office with paperwork and visiting with her staff and athletes along with focusing on training for her players. Her door is always open and potential basketball athletes also stop in with their parents while they are visiting the NDSU campus.
October 15 is the official start date of this year’s basketball practice season when Coach Ruley, staff and team can spend 20 hours a week on the court and in strength training. As the playing season unfolds, along with coaching games, Amy monitors the athletes’ grades and everyday lives to make sure they are living up to their best abilities on and off the court.
The season includes playing two games per weekend, and Amy reviews lots of video tape to study game performance of the team and individual players, as well as their opponents. The end of the season brings the national convention, the Final Four and the start of high school recruitment efforts. Amy usually finds a little down time during the month of May to travel for enjoyment or to take vacation time.
While discussing the sport of basketball, Amy said that she is more aware of issues or changes happening rather than trends actually taking place within the sport. A change that will take effect next month is that text messaging from schools to potential recruits will no longer be allowed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It had become an issue within college recruiting efforts that texting potential team members was too intrusive into the lives of young athletes. However, emailing and writing potential athletes for recruitment possibilities will still be allowed at the high school junior year level and up.
Amy added that another important development in athletic recruiting is the use of software that captures a lot of feedback from potential athletes and provides more personalized information. Current technology also allows for sending video streams of women’s basketball games out to people so they can view games.
Another added benefit of technology in the sports world is that it is now much easier to stay in touch with athletes—current and past. Amy said that in the early days of playing and coaching it was easy to lose track of athletes over time due to the limits within communications.
Amy’s plans for the future include moving through the Summit League transition, winning in that league, getting into the conference tournament and winning outright, getting into the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, continuing to make improvements in her program and winning the NCAA tournament.
Amy’s favorite saying has followed her since she was a child as an athlete with a small build. It says, “It isn’t the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
It is easy to see the fight in Amy’s actions as she has paved the way for female coaches, proved herself as a coach, overcame breast cancer, persevered to build and maintain the best women’s college basketball program possible, and as she sets new professional goals that will take her and her team to the next level in women’s collegiate basketball.
Area Women in Business: Victoria Chambers, Technology
Victoria Chambers - Technology
Born: Bismarck, ND, 1974
Education: B.S., Communications, NDSU 1998
Business: Aldevron LLC, Director of Business Development
Community Volunteering: Christ the King Lutheran Church council member, Wellspring for the World (safe water projects in West Africa)
Victoria is an integral part of Aldevron—which specializes in production and purification of plasmid DNA that is used in vaccines. Although Victoria is not a scientist, she has a strong working knowledge of DNA production and develops business, handles communications, and manages the website, media relations and human resources for Aldevron, LLC which is owned by her husband Mike.
Victoria explained that the DNA vaccines Aldevron creates are much more targeted to eradicate disease than traditional vaccines. Aldevron’s plasmid DNA has been a part of the fight against the West Nile Virus in California and they have done research for the Department of Defense which now is looking for defenses against bio terrorism.
Victoria and husband Mike met at a high school science fair —always interested in the communications field, Victoria enjoyed the presentations while Mike’s interests were scientific. Then on to college where Victoria graduated with a degree in communications and Mike earned degrees in chemistry, microbiology, and biotechnology in 1997.
In 1998, at age 26, Mike started Aldevron with partner John Ballantyne. Victoria said that they were just “kids” walking into such corporations as Pfizer to prove their core technology of a proprietary method to produce and purify plasmid DNA. Not only were Mike and John very young as they started their business—they also self-financed their company start up.
After working for a non profit organization for a year, Victoria joined the small staff at Aldevron to start their client relations program, help with communications, business development, and human resources. Today, Victoria works mostly in the same areas focusing on the company website, media relations and human resources. The business has grown and currently employs 26 people in Fargo, 15 employees based in Germany and one employee in Iowa.
Victoria is inspired by local business people and specifically mentions Doug Burgum and Dr. Jim Carlson. She is also motivated by Aldevron’s competitors and is encouraged and admires people who bring faith to the work place.
As Aldevron has grown in to a major company, the Chambers’ have proudly remained debt-free while doing business. Victoria said that she has overcome financial and growth worries by taking direction and comfort from her favorite bible verses: “With God all things are possible.”(Matthew 19:26) and “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).
Victoria and her husband have two children ages two and four and Victoria spends two hours a weekend planning the upcoming week to make business and family work in tandem. She works on babysitting schedules, menus for the week and figures out her work schedule around parental responsibilities. Many days Victoria ends her day late at night when she is on the computer at 10:30 PM or so with company business. She said the late night hours actually work well in order for her to do business with international clients.
Victoria said that future business plans include increasing the company’s physical space. Currently, Aldevron has three locations and they would like to build one large building to house all operations together. She said that plans include adding on complementary services and projects as well as staying with their core technology. She stresses that the business needs to be ready to change quickly at all times to meet ever changing global health needs.
Victoria continues to learn by reading a lot of professional and trade magazines, doing on-line research, and paying attention to what clients are saying about this very specialized market. She also attends some conferences.
Victoria said she loves being in business with her husband and points to the comfort level of knowing each other so well. She added that they each have a strong respect for each other’s duties. She also said that her husband has the “big picture” in mind for Aldevron and she tends to the details.
What happens when a communications person and a scientist come together in business? ….you have a successful business like Aldevron that is changing global health.
Born: Bismarck, ND, 1974
Education: B.S., Communications, NDSU 1998
Business: Aldevron LLC, Director of Business Development
Community Volunteering: Christ the King Lutheran Church council member, Wellspring for the World (safe water projects in West Africa)
Victoria is an integral part of Aldevron—which specializes in production and purification of plasmid DNA that is used in vaccines. Although Victoria is not a scientist, she has a strong working knowledge of DNA production and develops business, handles communications, and manages the website, media relations and human resources for Aldevron, LLC which is owned by her husband Mike.
Victoria explained that the DNA vaccines Aldevron creates are much more targeted to eradicate disease than traditional vaccines. Aldevron’s plasmid DNA has been a part of the fight against the West Nile Virus in California and they have done research for the Department of Defense which now is looking for defenses against bio terrorism.
Victoria and husband Mike met at a high school science fair —always interested in the communications field, Victoria enjoyed the presentations while Mike’s interests were scientific. Then on to college where Victoria graduated with a degree in communications and Mike earned degrees in chemistry, microbiology, and biotechnology in 1997.
In 1998, at age 26, Mike started Aldevron with partner John Ballantyne. Victoria said that they were just “kids” walking into such corporations as Pfizer to prove their core technology of a proprietary method to produce and purify plasmid DNA. Not only were Mike and John very young as they started their business—they also self-financed their company start up.
After working for a non profit organization for a year, Victoria joined the small staff at Aldevron to start their client relations program, help with communications, business development, and human resources. Today, Victoria works mostly in the same areas focusing on the company website, media relations and human resources. The business has grown and currently employs 26 people in Fargo, 15 employees based in Germany and one employee in Iowa.
Victoria is inspired by local business people and specifically mentions Doug Burgum and Dr. Jim Carlson. She is also motivated by Aldevron’s competitors and is encouraged and admires people who bring faith to the work place.
As Aldevron has grown in to a major company, the Chambers’ have proudly remained debt-free while doing business. Victoria said that she has overcome financial and growth worries by taking direction and comfort from her favorite bible verses: “With God all things are possible.”(Matthew 19:26) and “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).
Victoria and her husband have two children ages two and four and Victoria spends two hours a weekend planning the upcoming week to make business and family work in tandem. She works on babysitting schedules, menus for the week and figures out her work schedule around parental responsibilities. Many days Victoria ends her day late at night when she is on the computer at 10:30 PM or so with company business. She said the late night hours actually work well in order for her to do business with international clients.
Victoria said that future business plans include increasing the company’s physical space. Currently, Aldevron has three locations and they would like to build one large building to house all operations together. She said that plans include adding on complementary services and projects as well as staying with their core technology. She stresses that the business needs to be ready to change quickly at all times to meet ever changing global health needs.
Victoria continues to learn by reading a lot of professional and trade magazines, doing on-line research, and paying attention to what clients are saying about this very specialized market. She also attends some conferences.
Victoria said she loves being in business with her husband and points to the comfort level of knowing each other so well. She added that they each have a strong respect for each other’s duties. She also said that her husband has the “big picture” in mind for Aldevron and she tends to the details.
What happens when a communications person and a scientist come together in business? ….you have a successful business like Aldevron that is changing global health.
Area Women in Business: Christine Hoper Hovde,Technology
Christine Hoper Hovde - Technology
Born: Minneapolis, MN, 1969
Education: B.S. Public Relations, UND, 1993
Business: Interactive Services Manager, Spider and Company
is Manager
Community Volunteering: Habitat for Humanity, YWCA
On leadership, “... the ability to listen, a willingness to take chances in both safe and unfamiliar environments, the strength to stand firm in your convictions, the insight to recognize differences as simply differences, and the discipline to continually seek to understand ourselves well enough to be aware of the filters we put up when we seek to understand others.”
Guidance, advice and encouragement from others are valuable and precious to all of us. It helps us to overcome obstacles and come out successfully on the other side of challenges. Christine said that her mother is her best mentor and inspires her in business and otherwise. Christine said, “She has an amazing talent of making you feel like you’re the most important person in the world.”
Christine explains that her mother is good at the little things like remembering people’s favorite things or sending little notes for no reason other than she is thinking of someone. Remembering back on moments in her life as she was growing up, Christine said,” Now I understand it was my mother adding her special touch to an everyday situation.”
During her childhood, Christine lived in many places across the upper Midwest since her father is a pastor and has served many congregations over the span of his career. Christine is from a large family—one of five children, four of whom were adopted in to the family.
Early on, Christine worked as a junior high track coach and served as a camp counselor and a church youth group leader. In fact, outside of her current position at Spider and Company her favorite job was working as a track coach. All of Christine’s work experiences have combined to provide her with the keen listening and problem solving skills that it takes to successfully work with clients and surpass their business needs and expectations.
Years later as a very accomplished professional, Christine’s wide array of career experiences has culminated in to her position at Spider and Company. As the Interactive Services Manager, Christine is involved on the project management side of the company’s web and interactive services and works with a variety of businesses and oversees the creation of effective and successful interactive web services.
Previously working in tech support for Great Plains Software and Microsoft, Christine realized that her effectiveness had much to do with communications and asking herself and the person she was assisting,” Are we arriving at a solution?” Asking that same question today is key to Christine’s success.
Christine’s bio at www.spiderandcompany.com reads, “With an educational background in communications, public relations, English and psychology, the connection that brings it all together for Christine is her talent for listening and analyzing the ever changing needs and environments of team members, partners and customers...then streamlining existing systems and processes to create efficient solutions that work and grow with their business.”
After coaching track and before joining Spider and Company Christine’s business background has included work in non-profit organizations (Trollwood Performing Arts School, Northwest MN Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and small to mid-market business organizations. She recently spent seven years with Great Plains Software and Microsoft, where her focus spanned technical support, classroom training and online curriculum development, partner and customer event content management, online web production, and a global project with sites across 26 countries.
A typical day for Christine still includes many meetings and has her very scheduled throughout the work day. She said that every day is different and that she works with an amazing group of people. She said that co workers are fun, experts at what they do and create a lot of energy when working on projects.
Christine says that current trends in her area include interactive services that sell research and market the client’s services. Because technology leads the way, Christine said that it is important to keep personal contact with clients and she is always searching for ways to make a person feel sincerely appreciated.
Christine said that she really enjoys being at Spider and Company and that the company provides constant opportunities to expand her professional knowledge, learn more about business and how businesses use technology. Christine said that everyday brings new challenges with it and those add something more to herself. She feels that the more experiences you have the better equipped a person is throughout life.
Throughout the business day while using her listening skills, helping others find solutions and conveying her appreciation for people….I have a distinct feeling that Christine is a lot like her mother….
Born: Minneapolis, MN, 1969
Education: B.S. Public Relations, UND, 1993
Business: Interactive Services Manager, Spider and Company
is Manager
Community Volunteering: Habitat for Humanity, YWCA
On leadership, “... the ability to listen, a willingness to take chances in both safe and unfamiliar environments, the strength to stand firm in your convictions, the insight to recognize differences as simply differences, and the discipline to continually seek to understand ourselves well enough to be aware of the filters we put up when we seek to understand others.”
Guidance, advice and encouragement from others are valuable and precious to all of us. It helps us to overcome obstacles and come out successfully on the other side of challenges. Christine said that her mother is her best mentor and inspires her in business and otherwise. Christine said, “She has an amazing talent of making you feel like you’re the most important person in the world.”
Christine explains that her mother is good at the little things like remembering people’s favorite things or sending little notes for no reason other than she is thinking of someone. Remembering back on moments in her life as she was growing up, Christine said,” Now I understand it was my mother adding her special touch to an everyday situation.”
During her childhood, Christine lived in many places across the upper Midwest since her father is a pastor and has served many congregations over the span of his career. Christine is from a large family—one of five children, four of whom were adopted in to the family.
Early on, Christine worked as a junior high track coach and served as a camp counselor and a church youth group leader. In fact, outside of her current position at Spider and Company her favorite job was working as a track coach. All of Christine’s work experiences have combined to provide her with the keen listening and problem solving skills that it takes to successfully work with clients and surpass their business needs and expectations.
Years later as a very accomplished professional, Christine’s wide array of career experiences has culminated in to her position at Spider and Company. As the Interactive Services Manager, Christine is involved on the project management side of the company’s web and interactive services and works with a variety of businesses and oversees the creation of effective and successful interactive web services.
Previously working in tech support for Great Plains Software and Microsoft, Christine realized that her effectiveness had much to do with communications and asking herself and the person she was assisting,” Are we arriving at a solution?” Asking that same question today is key to Christine’s success.
Christine’s bio at www.spiderandcompany.com reads, “With an educational background in communications, public relations, English and psychology, the connection that brings it all together for Christine is her talent for listening and analyzing the ever changing needs and environments of team members, partners and customers...then streamlining existing systems and processes to create efficient solutions that work and grow with their business.”
After coaching track and before joining Spider and Company Christine’s business background has included work in non-profit organizations (Trollwood Performing Arts School, Northwest MN Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and small to mid-market business organizations. She recently spent seven years with Great Plains Software and Microsoft, where her focus spanned technical support, classroom training and online curriculum development, partner and customer event content management, online web production, and a global project with sites across 26 countries.
A typical day for Christine still includes many meetings and has her very scheduled throughout the work day. She said that every day is different and that she works with an amazing group of people. She said that co workers are fun, experts at what they do and create a lot of energy when working on projects.
Christine says that current trends in her area include interactive services that sell research and market the client’s services. Because technology leads the way, Christine said that it is important to keep personal contact with clients and she is always searching for ways to make a person feel sincerely appreciated.
Christine said that she really enjoys being at Spider and Company and that the company provides constant opportunities to expand her professional knowledge, learn more about business and how businesses use technology. Christine said that everyday brings new challenges with it and those add something more to herself. She feels that the more experiences you have the better equipped a person is throughout life.
Throughout the business day while using her listening skills, helping others find solutions and conveying her appreciation for people….I have a distinct feeling that Christine is a lot like her mother….
Area Women in Business: Lisa Meyers, Restauranteur
Lisa Meyers
Born: Staple, MN, 1976
Education: Attended MSUM one year
Business: Bertrosa's Chicago Cafe, co-owner
Community Volunteering & Donations: March of Dimes, Bowls for Babies
On leadership, "Someone who does the right thing though it may not be the popular choice."
In business since 1999, Lisa has worked hard to grow Bertrosa's Chicago Cafe. The restaurant was first located in a former gas station on South University Dr. in Fargo. Since August of 2002, the restaurant has been located in the bottom level of the Black Building at 118 Broadway.
Lisa has never strayed far from the food industry as she has been employed in it one way or another since her teens. She has worked at Pizza Hut, MSUM's cafeteria, and then waitressed at weddings and worked in catering at the Doublewood Inn in Fargo.
Ready to launch her own restaurant idea, Lisa opened Bertrosa's in Fargo which is modeled after the authentic eateries that her husband Bert grew up with in Chicago. In fact, Lisa's mother-in-law owns the same kind of eatery in Chicago and Bert grew up in the business learning from his mother. Lisa's husband Bert has helped to develop the Bertrosa's concept to offer an authentic Chicago eatery food experience that he remembers as a child.
Keeping a particular business concept in mind as her goal Lisa mentions that obstacles remained as she built the business. She has worked to overcome the fact that Bertrosa's is not a "known" chain restaurant and has worked hard to get the word out that they serve unique food from Chicago.
A typical day for Sarah includes coming in to work at 10:30 am, working though the lunch rush, and then cleaning and doing food preparation for the next day. She generally leaves for the day around 3 pm. With Lisa's brother now managing the restaurant Lisa now has a little more free time during the day after intense years of working long hours to build the business.
Lisa watches a lot of shows on the food network and does a lot of food experimenting at work. However, she does not cook at home much. Lisa says that the future for Bertrosa's includes letting it grow and unfold and taking things as they come along.
Outside of the restaurant most people do not know that Lisa's passion lies in singing and acting. She has acted in some local productions including the Fargo Moorhead Community Theater and she does some guest singing with local bands.
Lisa sums up her hard work and unusual days when she says, "Life should be crazy. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of Thursdays strung together."
For more information go to www.bertrosas.com or call 701.364.0123
Born: Staple, MN, 1976
Education: Attended MSUM one year
Business: Bertrosa's Chicago Cafe, co-owner
Community Volunteering & Donations: March of Dimes, Bowls for Babies
On leadership, "Someone who does the right thing though it may not be the popular choice."
In business since 1999, Lisa has worked hard to grow Bertrosa's Chicago Cafe. The restaurant was first located in a former gas station on South University Dr. in Fargo. Since August of 2002, the restaurant has been located in the bottom level of the Black Building at 118 Broadway.
Lisa has never strayed far from the food industry as she has been employed in it one way or another since her teens. She has worked at Pizza Hut, MSUM's cafeteria, and then waitressed at weddings and worked in catering at the Doublewood Inn in Fargo.
Ready to launch her own restaurant idea, Lisa opened Bertrosa's in Fargo which is modeled after the authentic eateries that her husband Bert grew up with in Chicago. In fact, Lisa's mother-in-law owns the same kind of eatery in Chicago and Bert grew up in the business learning from his mother. Lisa's husband Bert has helped to develop the Bertrosa's concept to offer an authentic Chicago eatery food experience that he remembers as a child.
Keeping a particular business concept in mind as her goal Lisa mentions that obstacles remained as she built the business. She has worked to overcome the fact that Bertrosa's is not a "known" chain restaurant and has worked hard to get the word out that they serve unique food from Chicago.
A typical day for Sarah includes coming in to work at 10:30 am, working though the lunch rush, and then cleaning and doing food preparation for the next day. She generally leaves for the day around 3 pm. With Lisa's brother now managing the restaurant Lisa now has a little more free time during the day after intense years of working long hours to build the business.
Lisa watches a lot of shows on the food network and does a lot of food experimenting at work. However, she does not cook at home much. Lisa says that the future for Bertrosa's includes letting it grow and unfold and taking things as they come along.
Outside of the restaurant most people do not know that Lisa's passion lies in singing and acting. She has acted in some local productions including the Fargo Moorhead Community Theater and she does some guest singing with local bands.
Lisa sums up her hard work and unusual days when she says, "Life should be crazy. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of Thursdays strung together."
For more information go to www.bertrosas.com or call 701.364.0123
Area Women in Business: Sarah Nasello, Restauranteur
Sarah Nasello
Born: Fargo, ND, 1969
Education: Attended University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska
Business: Sarellos, co-owner
Community Volunteering & Donations: Vice-president, Fargo-Moorhead Opera Company Board of Directors, Trollwood Performing Arts School donor
An unflinching commitment to integrity and excellence in food and service and personal attention to detail has made this restaurant into an unusual and declicious dining experience in the Fargo-Moorhead area.
Sarah Nasello and her husband Tony own and operate Sarellos and just as their business concept was unusual to pursue for this area Sarah's road to business ownership was unusual as well.
Long before opening Sarellos, Sarah found that college was not for her and at her mother's suggestion she left school and joined the crew of a small adventure cruise ship out of San Francisco. She worked as a steward 12 to 14 hours a day cleaning eight staterooms a day and serving breakfast, lunch and dinner to customers of the ship. She learned the hospitality profession from the ground floor up while keeping up the hardworking pace on-board.
Sarah moved to another ship to work and then met her husband Tony. They married and continued their work on the ship - he worked in the restaurant and she did office work.
Sarah and her husband eventually moved to the Holland America Ship Line which was one of the few cruise companies that would employ married couples. They spent a total of 10 years on-board ships working in the industry. They became officers, saw all seven continents within three years time, and along the way were able to save much of their earnings to eventually finance the opening of Sarellos. By the time they left the cruise ship industry, Sarah was a cruise director and Tony worked in hospitality management.
They knew for sometime that they wanted to own and operate their own restaurant - one that would feature simple foods and a place where the chef could start with the best product available and enhance it with herbs. Sarah says, "Food is the star of the restaurant." And, adds that they purposely keep the dining area comfortably understated in order for the focus to be on the food that is served.
When Sarah and Tony were ready for some grounding to start a family they decided to make Fargo their permanent home and where their much planned restaurant would be located. They already owned a small house in Fargo in order to have a home to go to when they had time away from the ship. They returned to their home for good and in December of 2000 they opened Sarellos.
It took persistent research and shopping to find a space that they wanted to locate their restaurant in. Also tapping their patience were some naysayers who said that their fine food idea would not be well received in this area. Sarah made the buying offer on the current location space (formerly Peggy's Pantry, Moorhead) when Tony was at sea for three weeks filling in for someone taking a leave. Sarah says, "I became a business person when the offer was accepted."
Sarah and Tony were ready with savings to invest in the business; the City of Moorhead was supportive by providing a grant to remodel the space and a great banker willing to work with them to finance the operation.
The first couple of years the business was open, Tony and Sarah worked fulltime together in the restaurant. At the start they knew the hospitality and the food roles within their dream but not the business end. Sarah has since learned business from experience and great mentoring by their CPA and other financial professionals that they work with. Tony is a trained chef and with his experience in hospitality became the "face" of the restaurant.
Sarah says that now seven years later they are able to step back a bit from the intensity of operating the business and can enjoy it and their 2-1/2-year-old son even more. They have begun to take occasional breaks away since they have a trustworthy staff and are constantly in touch with wonderful professional people and customers who care about their business as much as Sarah and Tony do.
Even so, when in town Sarah or her husband is always at the restaurant. Tony as a trained chef runs the restaurant (the executive chef is from a cruise ship) and Sarah runs the business learning along the way to handle the financial portion of operations.
Sarah pays attention to trends in their industry and what people are looking for locally in a restaurant. She has found that currently people want to know more about wines and cooking and are looking for hands-on experiences in preparing food and learning about wines. To fulfill those desires Sarrellos offers wine training and Tony is teaching several well attended food preparation courses through Moorhead's adult education program.
To keep learning, Sarah reads a lot of restaurateur magazines, subscribes to good web informational sources and continues to learn from their business's CPA. Sarah and Tony are constantly learning as they experience and try different foods. You can find the couple almost continually surrounded by fine food and Sarah mentions that eating out is their passion.
This Shanley high school graduate loved the cruise profession and says that she misses seeing beautiful places around the world. But it makes for a very special addition to our community that Sarah and her partner husband have decided to make Fargo their home and bring far away places to us through the experience of world class dining at Sarellos.
For more information call 218.287.0238 or go to www.sarellos@yahoo.com. Reservations are encouraged.
Born: Fargo, ND, 1969
Education: Attended University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska
Business: Sarellos, co-owner
Community Volunteering & Donations: Vice-president, Fargo-Moorhead Opera Company Board of Directors, Trollwood Performing Arts School donor
An unflinching commitment to integrity and excellence in food and service and personal attention to detail has made this restaurant into an unusual and declicious dining experience in the Fargo-Moorhead area.
Sarah Nasello and her husband Tony own and operate Sarellos and just as their business concept was unusual to pursue for this area Sarah's road to business ownership was unusual as well.
Long before opening Sarellos, Sarah found that college was not for her and at her mother's suggestion she left school and joined the crew of a small adventure cruise ship out of San Francisco. She worked as a steward 12 to 14 hours a day cleaning eight staterooms a day and serving breakfast, lunch and dinner to customers of the ship. She learned the hospitality profession from the ground floor up while keeping up the hardworking pace on-board.
Sarah moved to another ship to work and then met her husband Tony. They married and continued their work on the ship - he worked in the restaurant and she did office work.
Sarah and her husband eventually moved to the Holland America Ship Line which was one of the few cruise companies that would employ married couples. They spent a total of 10 years on-board ships working in the industry. They became officers, saw all seven continents within three years time, and along the way were able to save much of their earnings to eventually finance the opening of Sarellos. By the time they left the cruise ship industry, Sarah was a cruise director and Tony worked in hospitality management.
They knew for sometime that they wanted to own and operate their own restaurant - one that would feature simple foods and a place where the chef could start with the best product available and enhance it with herbs. Sarah says, "Food is the star of the restaurant." And, adds that they purposely keep the dining area comfortably understated in order for the focus to be on the food that is served.
When Sarah and Tony were ready for some grounding to start a family they decided to make Fargo their permanent home and where their much planned restaurant would be located. They already owned a small house in Fargo in order to have a home to go to when they had time away from the ship. They returned to their home for good and in December of 2000 they opened Sarellos.
It took persistent research and shopping to find a space that they wanted to locate their restaurant in. Also tapping their patience were some naysayers who said that their fine food idea would not be well received in this area. Sarah made the buying offer on the current location space (formerly Peggy's Pantry, Moorhead) when Tony was at sea for three weeks filling in for someone taking a leave. Sarah says, "I became a business person when the offer was accepted."
Sarah and Tony were ready with savings to invest in the business; the City of Moorhead was supportive by providing a grant to remodel the space and a great banker willing to work with them to finance the operation.
The first couple of years the business was open, Tony and Sarah worked fulltime together in the restaurant. At the start they knew the hospitality and the food roles within their dream but not the business end. Sarah has since learned business from experience and great mentoring by their CPA and other financial professionals that they work with. Tony is a trained chef and with his experience in hospitality became the "face" of the restaurant.
Sarah says that now seven years later they are able to step back a bit from the intensity of operating the business and can enjoy it and their 2-1/2-year-old son even more. They have begun to take occasional breaks away since they have a trustworthy staff and are constantly in touch with wonderful professional people and customers who care about their business as much as Sarah and Tony do.
Even so, when in town Sarah or her husband is always at the restaurant. Tony as a trained chef runs the restaurant (the executive chef is from a cruise ship) and Sarah runs the business learning along the way to handle the financial portion of operations.
Sarah pays attention to trends in their industry and what people are looking for locally in a restaurant. She has found that currently people want to know more about wines and cooking and are looking for hands-on experiences in preparing food and learning about wines. To fulfill those desires Sarrellos offers wine training and Tony is teaching several well attended food preparation courses through Moorhead's adult education program.
To keep learning, Sarah reads a lot of restaurateur magazines, subscribes to good web informational sources and continues to learn from their business's CPA. Sarah and Tony are constantly learning as they experience and try different foods. You can find the couple almost continually surrounded by fine food and Sarah mentions that eating out is their passion.
This Shanley high school graduate loved the cruise profession and says that she misses seeing beautiful places around the world. But it makes for a very special addition to our community that Sarah and her partner husband have decided to make Fargo their home and bring far away places to us through the experience of world class dining at Sarellos.
For more information call 218.287.0238 or go to www.sarellos@yahoo.com. Reservations are encouraged.
Women in Business: Andrea Larson Media
Andrea Larson
Born: Cooperstown, ND
Education: UND, Grand Forks- Bachelors in Advertising & Marketing, Communications Minor
Business: Co-anchor TV 11 Valley Today
On leadership: “A leader to me is someone who provides direction, vision and motivation within an organization. Also a leader must be able to connect with people.”
After graduating from the University of North Dakota, Andrea moved to the Twin Cities and worked for Media Relations, a company that schedules guests on local and national TV talk shows. During this time Andrea became very interested in working in front of the camera instead of behind the scenes and while working she took the first step towards working on-air and attended Brown Institute and earned a broadcast certificate.
Andrea left Media Relations to pursue a broadcast journalism career which took her to several TV stations in North Dakota. She worked at KFYR-TV in Bismarck, KMOT –TV in Minot and then came to Fargo in 1999 to work for KVLY-TV 11. When Andrea started at KVLY she reported five days a week, then co-anchored the weekend news and moved to the early morning Valley Today news show which she has been co-anchoring with Mick Kjar for three years.
Working very early each weekday means that a typical day for Andrea begins with a wake up call between 2 and 3 am. Once at the station, Andrea works with the producer to write stories for the morning show and plans around advertisements and the network news cut-ins that come every 25 minutes throughout the morning. Andrea then goes on the air to co-anchor the Valley Today with Mick Kjar from 5:30 to 7 am. After the Valley Today broadcast she tapes the Consumer Report that will air at 5 pm the same day and attends the station news meeting which starts at about 8:45 am.
Having to be at work very early means that lunch time comes early for Andrea and she typically takes a break at 9:45 am to eat lunch. Afterwards, she helps to produce the KXJB noon show and then anchors the show. Andrea is done with her work day by early afternoon but occasionally works at home in the afternoons preparing for the next morning.
Andrea said that there are several trends currently taking place in TV broadcast journalism. One, television stations are switching from analog to digital air wave capabilities and she notes that February 2008 is the FCC deadline for all TV stations to be transitioned over to digital broadcasting.
Two, currently KVLY and KXJB put out a high definition signal and the next step is to upgrade the control equipment so syndicated programs such as Oprah and Regis and Kelly can be broadcast in high definition. The stations’ local newscasts will not be in high definition for several more years. The cost to have the network signal in high definition will cost KVLY about $2.2 million.
Three, very few local TV stations are owned by local companies as they were in the past and KVLY is owned by North Dakota Television, LLC which also owns stations in Bismarck, Minot, Williston, Dickinson and Sioux Falls, SD. KXJB TV is owned by Catamount and contracts with North Dakota Television to manage the station.
Four, within the media ownership issue, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has taken up the issue of broadcast ownership rules. The FCC looks at companies who want to own more than one medium in a single market. The companies who owned several media outlets before the issue came up have been “grandfathered in” and are able to retain ownership of multiple stations or newspapers in the same market.
The fifth trend within the broadcast industry that Andrea points out, is that television broadcasting has also gone online and local stations are putting their news content on their web pages. And, Andrea says that because of this phenomenon, local TV stations end up somewhat competing with the networks when a rerun is put online. When a network airs a rerun, the local TV station misses out on the advertising dollars that could be generated by a local broadcast.
Outside of work, Andrea loves to read and a favorite way to spend her time would be in a book store from morning until night reading and enjoying the atmosphere. Also, people may be surprised to know that Andrea is a night owl and loves to stay up late reading and working on projects even though her work starts very early each weekday morning.
Barbara Walters, Catie Couric and Diane Sawyer inspire Andrea in her work at TV 11. Andrea admires their versatility, experience and the skills they have to effectively cover light stories to serious interviews of world leaders. She also admires their strong writing abilities.
To keep honing her profession’s work, Andrea reads and attends seminars that are focused on news writing and photography skills. Andrea’s plans for the future include staying in the Fargo-Moorhead area. She loves what she does and will stay with KVLY. She also has family here which adds to her life outside of the work day.
Her favorite saying was originally said by Teddy Roosevelt and is,” Do what you can with what you have, where you are.” Andrea says,” In other words, make the best of your situation, stay positive and create a path in a different direction.
As Andrea is inspired by Barbara Walters, Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer, you can be sure that someday a young TV broadcaster will be looking to Andrea for inspiration.
Born: Cooperstown, ND
Education: UND, Grand Forks- Bachelors in Advertising & Marketing, Communications Minor
Business: Co-anchor TV 11 Valley Today
On leadership: “A leader to me is someone who provides direction, vision and motivation within an organization. Also a leader must be able to connect with people.”
After graduating from the University of North Dakota, Andrea moved to the Twin Cities and worked for Media Relations, a company that schedules guests on local and national TV talk shows. During this time Andrea became very interested in working in front of the camera instead of behind the scenes and while working she took the first step towards working on-air and attended Brown Institute and earned a broadcast certificate.
Andrea left Media Relations to pursue a broadcast journalism career which took her to several TV stations in North Dakota. She worked at KFYR-TV in Bismarck, KMOT –TV in Minot and then came to Fargo in 1999 to work for KVLY-TV 11. When Andrea started at KVLY she reported five days a week, then co-anchored the weekend news and moved to the early morning Valley Today news show which she has been co-anchoring with Mick Kjar for three years.
Working very early each weekday means that a typical day for Andrea begins with a wake up call between 2 and 3 am. Once at the station, Andrea works with the producer to write stories for the morning show and plans around advertisements and the network news cut-ins that come every 25 minutes throughout the morning. Andrea then goes on the air to co-anchor the Valley Today with Mick Kjar from 5:30 to 7 am. After the Valley Today broadcast she tapes the Consumer Report that will air at 5 pm the same day and attends the station news meeting which starts at about 8:45 am.
Having to be at work very early means that lunch time comes early for Andrea and she typically takes a break at 9:45 am to eat lunch. Afterwards, she helps to produce the KXJB noon show and then anchors the show. Andrea is done with her work day by early afternoon but occasionally works at home in the afternoons preparing for the next morning.
Andrea said that there are several trends currently taking place in TV broadcast journalism. One, television stations are switching from analog to digital air wave capabilities and she notes that February 2008 is the FCC deadline for all TV stations to be transitioned over to digital broadcasting.
Two, currently KVLY and KXJB put out a high definition signal and the next step is to upgrade the control equipment so syndicated programs such as Oprah and Regis and Kelly can be broadcast in high definition. The stations’ local newscasts will not be in high definition for several more years. The cost to have the network signal in high definition will cost KVLY about $2.2 million.
Three, very few local TV stations are owned by local companies as they were in the past and KVLY is owned by North Dakota Television, LLC which also owns stations in Bismarck, Minot, Williston, Dickinson and Sioux Falls, SD. KXJB TV is owned by Catamount and contracts with North Dakota Television to manage the station.
Four, within the media ownership issue, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has taken up the issue of broadcast ownership rules. The FCC looks at companies who want to own more than one medium in a single market. The companies who owned several media outlets before the issue came up have been “grandfathered in” and are able to retain ownership of multiple stations or newspapers in the same market.
The fifth trend within the broadcast industry that Andrea points out, is that television broadcasting has also gone online and local stations are putting their news content on their web pages. And, Andrea says that because of this phenomenon, local TV stations end up somewhat competing with the networks when a rerun is put online. When a network airs a rerun, the local TV station misses out on the advertising dollars that could be generated by a local broadcast.
Outside of work, Andrea loves to read and a favorite way to spend her time would be in a book store from morning until night reading and enjoying the atmosphere. Also, people may be surprised to know that Andrea is a night owl and loves to stay up late reading and working on projects even though her work starts very early each weekday morning.
Barbara Walters, Catie Couric and Diane Sawyer inspire Andrea in her work at TV 11. Andrea admires their versatility, experience and the skills they have to effectively cover light stories to serious interviews of world leaders. She also admires their strong writing abilities.
To keep honing her profession’s work, Andrea reads and attends seminars that are focused on news writing and photography skills. Andrea’s plans for the future include staying in the Fargo-Moorhead area. She loves what she does and will stay with KVLY. She also has family here which adds to her life outside of the work day.
Her favorite saying was originally said by Teddy Roosevelt and is,” Do what you can with what you have, where you are.” Andrea says,” In other words, make the best of your situation, stay positive and create a path in a different direction.
As Andrea is inspired by Barbara Walters, Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer, you can be sure that someday a young TV broadcaster will be looking to Andrea for inspiration.
Area Women in Business: Young Female Workforce Shrinking
The women of Generation X are educated and confident, yet are beginning to decline in the workplace. After more than two decades of increases, the labor force participation rate of women began to fall precisely when the first Gen-X women turned 34. In 2004, that number stood at just 53%. With baby boomers nearing retirement, and far fewer Gen-Xers than there are boomers, companies are racing to figure out what the reason is.
Changing attitudes are partly to blame, according to Charlotte Shelton, author and professor of business. Her new book, The NeXt Revolution, says that women born between 1964 and 1977 have high expectations about work-a product, she theorizes, of boomer parenting. As evidence, Shelton cites her survey of 1,200 Gen-Xers, which found that respondents valued “interesting work” and “opportunities for learning” over salaries. The Gen-X men showed the same traits as women, however drop out much less.
Work-life balance is another source of stress. According to Shelton, if boomer mothers worked, they typically accepted long, set hours, just because [they] were so grateful to have an opportunity to play the game.
In contrast, Gen-X women see family-friendly work policies as a birthright, however, those policies are still rare. Only 19% of companies surveyed recently by the Society of Human Resources Management offered job sharing. Twenty seven percent allowed parents to bring kids to work in an emergency.
To retain Gen-X women, according to Shelton, companies should look at job sharing, flex time, and even on-site childcare. Some suggest companies should look at using a “ramp” system for young mothers returning to the work force.
If employers don’t change, they can expect to lose more Gen-X women. Shelton also found that more women are tired of smaller salaries and token titles and are quitting corporate jobs in favor of raising their family or starting thier own business.
While Gen-X women may be too demanding or sensible for employers, they may be more suited for a future in entrepreneurship.
Changing attitudes are partly to blame, according to Charlotte Shelton, author and professor of business. Her new book, The NeXt Revolution, says that women born between 1964 and 1977 have high expectations about work-a product, she theorizes, of boomer parenting. As evidence, Shelton cites her survey of 1,200 Gen-Xers, which found that respondents valued “interesting work” and “opportunities for learning” over salaries. The Gen-X men showed the same traits as women, however drop out much less.
Work-life balance is another source of stress. According to Shelton, if boomer mothers worked, they typically accepted long, set hours, just because [they] were so grateful to have an opportunity to play the game.
In contrast, Gen-X women see family-friendly work policies as a birthright, however, those policies are still rare. Only 19% of companies surveyed recently by the Society of Human Resources Management offered job sharing. Twenty seven percent allowed parents to bring kids to work in an emergency.
To retain Gen-X women, according to Shelton, companies should look at job sharing, flex time, and even on-site childcare. Some suggest companies should look at using a “ramp” system for young mothers returning to the work force.
If employers don’t change, they can expect to lose more Gen-X women. Shelton also found that more women are tired of smaller salaries and token titles and are quitting corporate jobs in favor of raising their family or starting thier own business.
While Gen-X women may be too demanding or sensible for employers, they may be more suited for a future in entrepreneurship.
Area Women in Business: Connie Nelson, Education
Connie Nelson
Born: Breckenridge, 1952
Education: UND - BS in Business administration, NDSU – M.S. in Communications, MSUM – completed class work for masters in Vocational Education.
Business: Going on 4 years as Fargo Public Schools District Writer/Manager
Community volunteering: South East Republican Women, authored YWCA Cass Clay 100 Year History, Chair – Fargo Moorhead Chamber of Commerce Public Affairs committee, Chamber Regional Partnership Committee, Fargo-Moorhead Area Foundation’s Women’s Fund, Women’s Business Exchange
About Connie Nelson
Once the No Child Left Behind legislation was in place across the country, Connie was hired by the Fargo Public Schools District to fill a new grant writing position almost 4 years ago. Connie’s expertise was needed by the district to fund projects and initiatives to help keep kids in school and to provide teachers with money in which to institute educational ideas. Connie has raised the bar from one year to the next by bringing in large amounts of money for district operations and to augment teacher and students efforts.
Connie is responsible for writing million of dollars worth of foundation, state and federal grants. She spends most of her time researching and writing grant applications. Every grant project means she is working with different people representing all grade levels and topics to gather information and write grant applications on the district’s behalf to fulfill project needs. Her job also requires reporting back to funding organizations on the use of the funding received.
Connie also represents Fargo Schools in a coalition of 17 school districts from southeast North Dakota to help further project and funding efforts. Her varied employment background and communities she has lived in North Dakota enable Connie to offer a valuable urban and rural perspective to the coalition.
Positions Connie has held since the 1970’s are radio advertising sales, advertising manager for 7 Straus stores, marketing for long term care and healthcare for 11 years, marketing director for Heartland Health Systems, and a hotel management company. She has always taught on the side including at vocational facilities and under-graduate and graduate levels at the University of Mary, Fargo.
Over the years, Connie has drawn inspiration from several administrative level mentors and three female mentors, each whom lived beyond 100 years of age. Their counsel and example helped Connie get through starting over due to company mergers and downsizing, being a single working mother, and overcoming attitudes and issues concerning women in business. Connie in turn has effectively mentored many young people over the years through her contact with college interns and with her college students.
She said she uses every experience from every job in the next opportunity that comes her way. And, notes that her strong marketing background is helpful when selling ideas to granting sources on behalf of the Fargo Schools.
Born: Breckenridge, 1952
Education: UND - BS in Business administration, NDSU – M.S. in Communications, MSUM – completed class work for masters in Vocational Education.
Business: Going on 4 years as Fargo Public Schools District Writer/Manager
Community volunteering: South East Republican Women, authored YWCA Cass Clay 100 Year History, Chair – Fargo Moorhead Chamber of Commerce Public Affairs committee, Chamber Regional Partnership Committee, Fargo-Moorhead Area Foundation’s Women’s Fund, Women’s Business Exchange
About Connie Nelson
Once the No Child Left Behind legislation was in place across the country, Connie was hired by the Fargo Public Schools District to fill a new grant writing position almost 4 years ago. Connie’s expertise was needed by the district to fund projects and initiatives to help keep kids in school and to provide teachers with money in which to institute educational ideas. Connie has raised the bar from one year to the next by bringing in large amounts of money for district operations and to augment teacher and students efforts.
Connie is responsible for writing million of dollars worth of foundation, state and federal grants. She spends most of her time researching and writing grant applications. Every grant project means she is working with different people representing all grade levels and topics to gather information and write grant applications on the district’s behalf to fulfill project needs. Her job also requires reporting back to funding organizations on the use of the funding received.
Connie also represents Fargo Schools in a coalition of 17 school districts from southeast North Dakota to help further project and funding efforts. Her varied employment background and communities she has lived in North Dakota enable Connie to offer a valuable urban and rural perspective to the coalition.
Positions Connie has held since the 1970’s are radio advertising sales, advertising manager for 7 Straus stores, marketing for long term care and healthcare for 11 years, marketing director for Heartland Health Systems, and a hotel management company. She has always taught on the side including at vocational facilities and under-graduate and graduate levels at the University of Mary, Fargo.
Over the years, Connie has drawn inspiration from several administrative level mentors and three female mentors, each whom lived beyond 100 years of age. Their counsel and example helped Connie get through starting over due to company mergers and downsizing, being a single working mother, and overcoming attitudes and issues concerning women in business. Connie in turn has effectively mentored many young people over the years through her contact with college interns and with her college students.
She said she uses every experience from every job in the next opportunity that comes her way. And, notes that her strong marketing background is helpful when selling ideas to granting sources on behalf of the Fargo Schools.
Area Women in Business: Kris Sheridan, Real Estate
Born: Bismarck, ND
Business: President, Park Co. Realtors
Education: UND – social science and education degree
Community volunteering: North Dakota Real Estate Commission, North Dakota Chamber of Commerce, Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Board, Fargo Renaissance Zone Committee, MeritCare Foundation Board of Directors
On leadership: “Someone who creates an environment where others can succeed and flourish. Helping others to achieve their personal and business goals.”
Answering a 1974 newspaper employment ad for a realtor opening at Park Company propelled Kris onto a path of success, leadership and service to others in a community that was new to her. Two years earlier, Kris, her husband and the first two of their four daughters moved to Fargo from Colorado, where she had taught at the junior high level for several years.
By 1974, Kris had been a stay at home mom for several years and she felt that she would be a better parent if she worked outside the home but a job would have to fulfill her criteria of flexibility, financial reward and most importantly serving others. When Kris answered the Park Company employment ad, Barb Buchanan was the Residential Resale Manager and soon Kris joined her team as a new residential salesperson.
Ownership of the company evolved and in 1981, Kris bought stock in Park Company and she and Barb became business partners. Besides business partners, Barb has been Kris’s greatest mentor and friend along the way. Kris says that she has also learned a lot about the real estate business from Barb over the years.
More changes took place when Kris and Steve Stoner became co-owners of Park Company after Barb’s retirement in 2000. Interest rates rose to 18% just after Kris and Steve took the helm of the business and Kris now says that nothing about business scares her after overcoming that financial test. Outside of meeting challenges together, Steve is responsible for looking into the future of their industry and leading the company down the path towards new initiatives and projects. Kris adds that Steve is also her best friend.
Kris is in charge of running Park Company day-to-day and that includes personally handling all employment recruiting efforts, helping agents to be successful and running sales meetings for their employees. At the start of each day, Kris never knows what the work day will bring and what her employees will need to do the best job possible serving their clients through buying and selling homes.
Even though Kris is deeply involved in the business day by day, and many times minute by minute, she is always thinking about business plans and goal setting for a solid and successful future. She wants Park Company to continue to be the leader in real estate in this area, to continually increase the company’s market share, and is constantly looking for new opportunities for the business. Kris mentions the formation of Park Company’s new mortgage company as an example of pursuing new business ideas. In every business venture, it is important to differentiate yourself from the crowd and Park Company remains the leader in meeting customer needs.
It is very obvious that Park Company is committed to being a consumer-driven business with a strong emphasis on customer service. Their mission statement reads, “To provide premier real estate services” and the company vision is, “To be the region’s industry leader in service, company integrity and community involvement.”
To further the company vision, Kris says that they strongly encourage and support employee volunteer activities in the community. They also survey clients after each real estate transaction for suggestions and comments in order to improve and react to what clients want and need in a realtor.
In order to best serve client needs, Kris reads publications constantly, attends conferences and is in close contact with other realtors across the country. She especially learns a wealth of information and hears of potential trends from real estate companies located on the east and west coasts. Kris says that their agents are always attending conventions and that this active learning contributes to high achieving results within the company.
A current trend in real estate business, is the fast growth and use of technology. Kris says that customers are doing their home purchasing homework online first and then come to a realtor with a lot of information. The accessibility of this type of information has raised the bar as to what people expect from a realtor. Customers also want immediate information from their realtor such as emails and phone calls answered quickly which contributes to making the profession an extremely fast-paced business.
Kris’s favorite saying is also Park Company’s 2007 motto and it is: Do Not Live to be a Success, Live to be a Blessing. She says,” It reconfirms to all of Park Co. that we are a consumer-driven company with a strong emphasis on customer service.”
This former teacher, mother of four daughters and grandmother of 10 leads a very public and fast-paced life during business hours. But personally lives a very private, quiet life. As part of her public life, Kris mentions that she has needed to overcome her conservatism in business, learn to take risks and move out of her comfort zone and ultimately believe in herself.
From spunky and awkward junior high students to family to business… Kris serves by investing an incredible amount of energy to create an environment where others can succeed and flourish and where she can help others to achieve their personal and business goals.
Business: President, Park Co. Realtors
Education: UND – social science and education degree
Community volunteering: North Dakota Real Estate Commission, North Dakota Chamber of Commerce, Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Board, Fargo Renaissance Zone Committee, MeritCare Foundation Board of Directors
On leadership: “Someone who creates an environment where others can succeed and flourish. Helping others to achieve their personal and business goals.”
Answering a 1974 newspaper employment ad for a realtor opening at Park Company propelled Kris onto a path of success, leadership and service to others in a community that was new to her. Two years earlier, Kris, her husband and the first two of their four daughters moved to Fargo from Colorado, where she had taught at the junior high level for several years.
By 1974, Kris had been a stay at home mom for several years and she felt that she would be a better parent if she worked outside the home but a job would have to fulfill her criteria of flexibility, financial reward and most importantly serving others. When Kris answered the Park Company employment ad, Barb Buchanan was the Residential Resale Manager and soon Kris joined her team as a new residential salesperson.
Ownership of the company evolved and in 1981, Kris bought stock in Park Company and she and Barb became business partners. Besides business partners, Barb has been Kris’s greatest mentor and friend along the way. Kris says that she has also learned a lot about the real estate business from Barb over the years.
More changes took place when Kris and Steve Stoner became co-owners of Park Company after Barb’s retirement in 2000. Interest rates rose to 18% just after Kris and Steve took the helm of the business and Kris now says that nothing about business scares her after overcoming that financial test. Outside of meeting challenges together, Steve is responsible for looking into the future of their industry and leading the company down the path towards new initiatives and projects. Kris adds that Steve is also her best friend.
Kris is in charge of running Park Company day-to-day and that includes personally handling all employment recruiting efforts, helping agents to be successful and running sales meetings for their employees. At the start of each day, Kris never knows what the work day will bring and what her employees will need to do the best job possible serving their clients through buying and selling homes.
Even though Kris is deeply involved in the business day by day, and many times minute by minute, she is always thinking about business plans and goal setting for a solid and successful future. She wants Park Company to continue to be the leader in real estate in this area, to continually increase the company’s market share, and is constantly looking for new opportunities for the business. Kris mentions the formation of Park Company’s new mortgage company as an example of pursuing new business ideas. In every business venture, it is important to differentiate yourself from the crowd and Park Company remains the leader in meeting customer needs.
It is very obvious that Park Company is committed to being a consumer-driven business with a strong emphasis on customer service. Their mission statement reads, “To provide premier real estate services” and the company vision is, “To be the region’s industry leader in service, company integrity and community involvement.”
To further the company vision, Kris says that they strongly encourage and support employee volunteer activities in the community. They also survey clients after each real estate transaction for suggestions and comments in order to improve and react to what clients want and need in a realtor.
In order to best serve client needs, Kris reads publications constantly, attends conferences and is in close contact with other realtors across the country. She especially learns a wealth of information and hears of potential trends from real estate companies located on the east and west coasts. Kris says that their agents are always attending conventions and that this active learning contributes to high achieving results within the company.
A current trend in real estate business, is the fast growth and use of technology. Kris says that customers are doing their home purchasing homework online first and then come to a realtor with a lot of information. The accessibility of this type of information has raised the bar as to what people expect from a realtor. Customers also want immediate information from their realtor such as emails and phone calls answered quickly which contributes to making the profession an extremely fast-paced business.
Kris’s favorite saying is also Park Company’s 2007 motto and it is: Do Not Live to be a Success, Live to be a Blessing. She says,” It reconfirms to all of Park Co. that we are a consumer-driven company with a strong emphasis on customer service.”
This former teacher, mother of four daughters and grandmother of 10 leads a very public and fast-paced life during business hours. But personally lives a very private, quiet life. As part of her public life, Kris mentions that she has needed to overcome her conservatism in business, learn to take risks and move out of her comfort zone and ultimately believe in herself.
From spunky and awkward junior high students to family to business… Kris serves by investing an incredible amount of energy to create an environment where others can succeed and flourish and where she can help others to achieve their personal and business goals.
Area Women in Business: Pat Karley, Real Estate
Pat Karley
Born: Chamberlain, SD
Business: GRI, Associate Broker – Coldwell Banker First Realty-Encore
Education: MSUM graduate 1985, graphic arts and photography
Community volunteering: Son’s high school basketball team activities
On leadership, “I believe a good leader is someone who sets an example and holds themselves to the same standard that they expect from others. I have seen people who lead with an iron hand. But my favorite is the benevolent leader. They are people who may have strong personalities and may be demanding. But, the benevolent leader doesn’t explode under pressure and doesn’t attack or abuse someone who does not meet the goal. The benevolent leader works through the problem and teaches others to do the same.”
“I really like what I do…” Pat mentions several times as she describes the gratification of assisting people with the real estate process and watching people grow and bloom as they move through the home buying process. Pat conveys a sense of privilege as she talks about her job of making the home buying or selling process as easy and as enjoyable as possible while she works with clients.
Pat points out that people’s emotions and life situations are a large part of the home purchasing or selling process and that she deals with passionate circumstances everyday in the real estate business. Pat becomes aware of highly emotional issues involved with home ownership such as divorce, death of a loved one or kids leaving home as she becomes acquainted with clients who are looking to her to help meet their housing needs.
Pat stresses that her client’s feelings need to be respected and sometimes her job is to purely listen and let people vent their problems and frustrations. After learning information, needs and wants, she then helps clients navigate the home buying or selling process.
On the surface, it does not appear that a previous career in broadcast journalism is the training ground to become a successful and effective realtor. But, the skills Pat attained and practiced during a twenty year career in broadcast journalism are evident in her competence with clients. She interviews people to find what is wanted and needed in a new home and what motivates the buyer/seller. She also learned how to dig in and research all possibilities on behalf of the client. Finally, she puts forth the tenacity that is required to do a top notch and thorough job.
Before pursuing the real-estate business, Pat worked at local television stations for over 20 years. She anchored the news, reported stories, shot photography and carried out various jobs in production. Those years of steely interviewing and in-depth story research melded together to prepare Pat for her real estate career which depended on accurate information.
Pat’s last 13 years in television was spent at KVLY - Channel 11. Eventually, the station was sold in 1995 and Pat and four others lost their jobs due to downsizing. She recalls getting the life changing news on a Friday and by Monday morning Kris Sheridan of Park Company Realty was calling to ask Pat about considering a career in real estate.
Pat points out that other than the real estate profession, her years working in TV were the most enjoyable for her. She found herself in amazing situations while covering stories such as interviewing the King of Norway and riding in a hot air balloon.
But, interesting and odd things can happen in the course of buying or selling a home. Pat has dealt with ridding a house of bats (which cannot be exterminated) and a water well agreement that was slow to get signed before a home sale could be finalized. These types of challenges do not discourage Pat and she say that a lot can go wrong in a real estate deal. Constant problem solving and providing solutions on her part is a must.
She has also learned that each buying or selling situation needs to be good for everyone involved and that all parties need to be satisfied or get what they need out of a deal for it to be successful. She said that trust between people is an important factor in a successful housing transaction.
In the real estate business for 12 years, Pat says that the learning curve during her first three years were extremely challenging because of the professional need to learn a tremendous amount of knowledge as quickly as possible. There is always new information to learn and use in the industry.
Pat’s profession is highly regulated and governed and she is required to take continuing education classes, which she finds very inspiring due to knowledgeable teaching. She also reads industry publications which include Dwell and Fine Home Building magazines.
A typical day for Pat includes a lot of phone work and the coordination of people she depends on for important parts of the services she offers. Pat spends a good portion of her time analyzing the market and reviewing housing statistics. Trends in her business include meeting what the boomer generation wants and marketing very large houses with many bedrooms.
Pat says that owning vacation homes remains important to people and says that people are now considering smaller and “smarter” houses when building. She says that people are also very aware of the need to build an environmentally “green” sound home and that the trend in building modular homes is growing.
It is obvious that Pat loves what she does and is very good at it. Pat has consistently been recognized by Coldwell Banker as a top producer year after year.
As for her favorite saying, Pat says that she has two favorite quotes. One is a Chinese proverb and says “The glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time you fall.” The second is a quote from Teddy Roosevelt, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Pat explains that the first one says never give up and that the second one speaks to keeping your mind open and seeing opportunities when it appears there are none. It is clear that Pat has taken the above advice to heart along the way as she built a new and successful career through providing a service to people to ensure that they realize their dreams.
Born: Chamberlain, SD
Business: GRI, Associate Broker – Coldwell Banker First Realty-Encore
Education: MSUM graduate 1985, graphic arts and photography
Community volunteering: Son’s high school basketball team activities
On leadership, “I believe a good leader is someone who sets an example and holds themselves to the same standard that they expect from others. I have seen people who lead with an iron hand. But my favorite is the benevolent leader. They are people who may have strong personalities and may be demanding. But, the benevolent leader doesn’t explode under pressure and doesn’t attack or abuse someone who does not meet the goal. The benevolent leader works through the problem and teaches others to do the same.”
“I really like what I do…” Pat mentions several times as she describes the gratification of assisting people with the real estate process and watching people grow and bloom as they move through the home buying process. Pat conveys a sense of privilege as she talks about her job of making the home buying or selling process as easy and as enjoyable as possible while she works with clients.
Pat points out that people’s emotions and life situations are a large part of the home purchasing or selling process and that she deals with passionate circumstances everyday in the real estate business. Pat becomes aware of highly emotional issues involved with home ownership such as divorce, death of a loved one or kids leaving home as she becomes acquainted with clients who are looking to her to help meet their housing needs.
Pat stresses that her client’s feelings need to be respected and sometimes her job is to purely listen and let people vent their problems and frustrations. After learning information, needs and wants, she then helps clients navigate the home buying or selling process.
On the surface, it does not appear that a previous career in broadcast journalism is the training ground to become a successful and effective realtor. But, the skills Pat attained and practiced during a twenty year career in broadcast journalism are evident in her competence with clients. She interviews people to find what is wanted and needed in a new home and what motivates the buyer/seller. She also learned how to dig in and research all possibilities on behalf of the client. Finally, she puts forth the tenacity that is required to do a top notch and thorough job.
Before pursuing the real-estate business, Pat worked at local television stations for over 20 years. She anchored the news, reported stories, shot photography and carried out various jobs in production. Those years of steely interviewing and in-depth story research melded together to prepare Pat for her real estate career which depended on accurate information.
Pat’s last 13 years in television was spent at KVLY - Channel 11. Eventually, the station was sold in 1995 and Pat and four others lost their jobs due to downsizing. She recalls getting the life changing news on a Friday and by Monday morning Kris Sheridan of Park Company Realty was calling to ask Pat about considering a career in real estate.
Pat points out that other than the real estate profession, her years working in TV were the most enjoyable for her. She found herself in amazing situations while covering stories such as interviewing the King of Norway and riding in a hot air balloon.
But, interesting and odd things can happen in the course of buying or selling a home. Pat has dealt with ridding a house of bats (which cannot be exterminated) and a water well agreement that was slow to get signed before a home sale could be finalized. These types of challenges do not discourage Pat and she say that a lot can go wrong in a real estate deal. Constant problem solving and providing solutions on her part is a must.
She has also learned that each buying or selling situation needs to be good for everyone involved and that all parties need to be satisfied or get what they need out of a deal for it to be successful. She said that trust between people is an important factor in a successful housing transaction.
In the real estate business for 12 years, Pat says that the learning curve during her first three years were extremely challenging because of the professional need to learn a tremendous amount of knowledge as quickly as possible. There is always new information to learn and use in the industry.
Pat’s profession is highly regulated and governed and she is required to take continuing education classes, which she finds very inspiring due to knowledgeable teaching. She also reads industry publications which include Dwell and Fine Home Building magazines.
A typical day for Pat includes a lot of phone work and the coordination of people she depends on for important parts of the services she offers. Pat spends a good portion of her time analyzing the market and reviewing housing statistics. Trends in her business include meeting what the boomer generation wants and marketing very large houses with many bedrooms.
Pat says that owning vacation homes remains important to people and says that people are now considering smaller and “smarter” houses when building. She says that people are also very aware of the need to build an environmentally “green” sound home and that the trend in building modular homes is growing.
It is obvious that Pat loves what she does and is very good at it. Pat has consistently been recognized by Coldwell Banker as a top producer year after year.
As for her favorite saying, Pat says that she has two favorite quotes. One is a Chinese proverb and says “The glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time you fall.” The second is a quote from Teddy Roosevelt, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Pat explains that the first one says never give up and that the second one speaks to keeping your mind open and seeing opportunities when it appears there are none. It is clear that Pat has taken the above advice to heart along the way as she built a new and successful career through providing a service to people to ensure that they realize their dreams.
Area Women in Business: Gail Benson, Non-profit
Gail Benson
Born: Gladewater, Texas, 1951
Education: B.S from Lamar University, Texas, Masters in Education – Stephen F. Austin College, Nacogdoches, Texas
Business: Executive Director - Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Red River Valley
Community volunteering: Member, First Presbyterian Church Session (council), Member, Theatre B Board of Directors
From working with children as a special education teacher, teaching education at the college level to co-founding Penny & Pals (educational presentations with music and theatrics) and currently as the Executive Director of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Red River Valley, Gail continues to work at making the world a better place for kids. Gail has been leading the local Ronald McDonald House Charities for 10 years.
Gail came to Fargo in 1990 after being asked to do Penny & Pals presentations (musical and theatrical educationsal presnetatins) in the schools. Eventually she started to do development work on a part time basis for the Ronald McDonald House in Fargo and the job turned in to a fulltime executive director position. She says the position is a fun blend of working with adults and kids to make the world a better place for kids.
Ronald McDonald House Charities exists to provide families (sometimes traveling great distances for medical help) with housing when their child is ill in the hospital or receiving medical care. When a child is critically ill, the last thing parents want to think about is where they will eat and sleep at the end of a day after being at the hospital. The two area Ronald McDonald House locations offer a quiet and comfortable place for families to relax, sleep and share with others going though the same worries.
To lead the organizations efforts to meet the needs of families, a typical day for Gail usually includes reading and sending emails and making phone calls first thing in the morning, and then working on the most urgent project which many times is an upcoming special event to raise awareness or funding for the nonprofit. As the day continues, she checks in with her staff and then follows up with more phone messages.
Gail is also in charge of the organizational details of the nonprofit organization from interviewing prospective employees to writing grants. With constant demands on her time and attention during the work day, Gail finds that be able to set priorities every day and being flexible enough to reassess and reset priorities is important for her to do to be affective in her position. Throughout the days and weeks, Gail draws on the inspiration that her father conveys – steady going, encouraging, keeping things in perspective….
Besides overseeing the operations of the Ronald McDonald house Gail is in contact with the families staying at the House who are going through very difficult situations with their children’s medical needs and offers a calming, compassionate and caring kindness to those families. Everyday, Gail lives her favorite saying, ”Kindness grows.”
To continue to provide a solid foundation for the caring organization the current trends that Gail sees in the nonprofit world are that the small to medium size organizations are being operated more like a business with an emphasis on more involved strategic planning, and continuous expanding goals and new horizons being pursued for the charity.
Across the world (245 Ronald McDonald Houses in 26 countries), Ronald McDonald Houses are increasingly operating in a very sophisticated fashion with the latest technology and a high degree of accountability to the families they serve and the donors that help support the mission. Locally, Gail works diligently to identify needs of the organization and works to meet them. Some of Gail’s future goals include furthering the depth of the organization’s strategic plan to launch a broader vision that will enable the organization to make things better for kids beyond the current services.
Continuous learning takes place through the local workshops that Gail attends. She actively networks with other Ronald McDonald House executive directors and enjoys the noncompetitive sharing of information between locations. She attends regional and international House conferences for specific charity information as well as presentations on nonprofit operations. All of Gail’s efforts adds up to helping to make the world a better place for kids.
Interview & profiles by Lauren Falkner
Born: Gladewater, Texas, 1951
Education: B.S from Lamar University, Texas, Masters in Education – Stephen F. Austin College, Nacogdoches, Texas
Business: Executive Director - Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Red River Valley
Community volunteering: Member, First Presbyterian Church Session (council), Member, Theatre B Board of Directors
From working with children as a special education teacher, teaching education at the college level to co-founding Penny & Pals (educational presentations with music and theatrics) and currently as the Executive Director of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Red River Valley, Gail continues to work at making the world a better place for kids. Gail has been leading the local Ronald McDonald House Charities for 10 years.
Gail came to Fargo in 1990 after being asked to do Penny & Pals presentations (musical and theatrical educationsal presnetatins) in the schools. Eventually she started to do development work on a part time basis for the Ronald McDonald House in Fargo and the job turned in to a fulltime executive director position. She says the position is a fun blend of working with adults and kids to make the world a better place for kids.
Ronald McDonald House Charities exists to provide families (sometimes traveling great distances for medical help) with housing when their child is ill in the hospital or receiving medical care. When a child is critically ill, the last thing parents want to think about is where they will eat and sleep at the end of a day after being at the hospital. The two area Ronald McDonald House locations offer a quiet and comfortable place for families to relax, sleep and share with others going though the same worries.
To lead the organizations efforts to meet the needs of families, a typical day for Gail usually includes reading and sending emails and making phone calls first thing in the morning, and then working on the most urgent project which many times is an upcoming special event to raise awareness or funding for the nonprofit. As the day continues, she checks in with her staff and then follows up with more phone messages.
Gail is also in charge of the organizational details of the nonprofit organization from interviewing prospective employees to writing grants. With constant demands on her time and attention during the work day, Gail finds that be able to set priorities every day and being flexible enough to reassess and reset priorities is important for her to do to be affective in her position. Throughout the days and weeks, Gail draws on the inspiration that her father conveys – steady going, encouraging, keeping things in perspective….
Besides overseeing the operations of the Ronald McDonald house Gail is in contact with the families staying at the House who are going through very difficult situations with their children’s medical needs and offers a calming, compassionate and caring kindness to those families. Everyday, Gail lives her favorite saying, ”Kindness grows.”
To continue to provide a solid foundation for the caring organization the current trends that Gail sees in the nonprofit world are that the small to medium size organizations are being operated more like a business with an emphasis on more involved strategic planning, and continuous expanding goals and new horizons being pursued for the charity.
Across the world (245 Ronald McDonald Houses in 26 countries), Ronald McDonald Houses are increasingly operating in a very sophisticated fashion with the latest technology and a high degree of accountability to the families they serve and the donors that help support the mission. Locally, Gail works diligently to identify needs of the organization and works to meet them. Some of Gail’s future goals include furthering the depth of the organization’s strategic plan to launch a broader vision that will enable the organization to make things better for kids beyond the current services.
Continuous learning takes place through the local workshops that Gail attends. She actively networks with other Ronald McDonald House executive directors and enjoys the noncompetitive sharing of information between locations. She attends regional and international House conferences for specific charity information as well as presentations on nonprofit operations. All of Gail’s efforts adds up to helping to make the world a better place for kids.
Interview & profiles by Lauren Falkner
Area Women in Business:Jennifer Gilderhus, Education
Jennifer Gilderhus
Born: Valdosta, Georgia, 1977
Education: NDSU - BS in Speech communications, NDSU – M.S. in Speech Communications
Business: Speech Instructor, General Education, Minnesota State Community and
Technical College (MSCTC) - Moorhead
Community volunteering: Assisting with high school level public speaking and debate – coaching and competition.
A class such as Introduction to Public Speaking can strike fear in the heart of even the bravest student. Through this type of course future Minnesota State Community and Technical College (MSCTC) graduates and our up and coming workforce learns about the process of communications and its importance in small groups, interpersonally and in business.
Jennifer Gilderhus guides and teaches her students in the fine art of effective communications as a part of the general course work required for a two year degree (Associate Degree) at MSCTC and says that most people do not know that even with her speech communications expertise she is actually shy!
Jennifer Gilderhus has taught communications for 10 years and her enthusiasm in working with students is evident as she describes her pride and satisfaction as she witnesses students’ growth in confidence and oral presentations over four months each semester in Introduction to Public Speaking classes.
Leading up to teaching, Jennifer was a bank teller during high school, worked at a bridal store and at the Children’s Museum at Yunker Farm in Fargo. Jennifer says that she has not experienced major obstacles as she has pursued various jobs, college and now teaching.
Jennifer caught the teaching bug during graduate school and through teaching at NDSU, MSUM and now MSCTC she finds herself continually learning as a teacher in the classroom and finds teaching an incredibly rewarding job as she impacts future professional and business people. Jennifer says that teaching is a joy and she does not think of it as work.
This year 5,231 students are enrolled in courses with MSCTC at campuses in Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls, Moorhead, Wadena, and online and between 1,300 and 1,400 will graduate this year. Ninety percent of the graduates in career programs will be placed in to jobs within their field of study and 80 percent of the Associate in Arts graduates go on to attend four year colleges to pursue bachelor’s degrees.
With 2,300 students attending the Moorhead campus, Jennifer’s days are busy. She currently she teaches four classes and a typical day includes preparing for class at 7 am, making phone calls, and having students and colleagues stopping by her office. Once in the classroom, she strives to always be interacting with students and making sure that they are actively engaged in the class. Jennifer also needs to know the material at least twice as well as her top student and likes to encourage students to work with each other to problem solves and find answers together as she combines lecturing with hands-on activities.
Several trends in the teaching profession are on-line classes being offered (Jennifer said it’s a myth that on-line is less work for the student) and to have students involved in service learning activities to encourage volunteer activity in the community and to then speak about current issues.
Jennifer’s professional goal is to keep teaching and to develop more communications courses for MSCTC. She continues to learn about the teaching profession through networking with others, professional publications, attending state and national conventions and hands on communications work with high school public speaking groups.
Whether your knees are knocking together just thinking about taking a public speaking course or you have taken such a class in the past, we should all be so fortunate to have a talented communications instructor like Jennifer.
Interview & profiles by Lauren Falkner
Born: Valdosta, Georgia, 1977
Education: NDSU - BS in Speech communications, NDSU – M.S. in Speech Communications
Business: Speech Instructor, General Education, Minnesota State Community and
Technical College (MSCTC) - Moorhead
Community volunteering: Assisting with high school level public speaking and debate – coaching and competition.
A class such as Introduction to Public Speaking can strike fear in the heart of even the bravest student. Through this type of course future Minnesota State Community and Technical College (MSCTC) graduates and our up and coming workforce learns about the process of communications and its importance in small groups, interpersonally and in business.
Jennifer Gilderhus guides and teaches her students in the fine art of effective communications as a part of the general course work required for a two year degree (Associate Degree) at MSCTC and says that most people do not know that even with her speech communications expertise she is actually shy!
Jennifer Gilderhus has taught communications for 10 years and her enthusiasm in working with students is evident as she describes her pride and satisfaction as she witnesses students’ growth in confidence and oral presentations over four months each semester in Introduction to Public Speaking classes.
Leading up to teaching, Jennifer was a bank teller during high school, worked at a bridal store and at the Children’s Museum at Yunker Farm in Fargo. Jennifer says that she has not experienced major obstacles as she has pursued various jobs, college and now teaching.
Jennifer caught the teaching bug during graduate school and through teaching at NDSU, MSUM and now MSCTC she finds herself continually learning as a teacher in the classroom and finds teaching an incredibly rewarding job as she impacts future professional and business people. Jennifer says that teaching is a joy and she does not think of it as work.
This year 5,231 students are enrolled in courses with MSCTC at campuses in Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls, Moorhead, Wadena, and online and between 1,300 and 1,400 will graduate this year. Ninety percent of the graduates in career programs will be placed in to jobs within their field of study and 80 percent of the Associate in Arts graduates go on to attend four year colleges to pursue bachelor’s degrees.
With 2,300 students attending the Moorhead campus, Jennifer’s days are busy. She currently she teaches four classes and a typical day includes preparing for class at 7 am, making phone calls, and having students and colleagues stopping by her office. Once in the classroom, she strives to always be interacting with students and making sure that they are actively engaged in the class. Jennifer also needs to know the material at least twice as well as her top student and likes to encourage students to work with each other to problem solves and find answers together as she combines lecturing with hands-on activities.
Several trends in the teaching profession are on-line classes being offered (Jennifer said it’s a myth that on-line is less work for the student) and to have students involved in service learning activities to encourage volunteer activity in the community and to then speak about current issues.
Jennifer’s professional goal is to keep teaching and to develop more communications courses for MSCTC. She continues to learn about the teaching profession through networking with others, professional publications, attending state and national conventions and hands on communications work with high school public speaking groups.
Whether your knees are knocking together just thinking about taking a public speaking course or you have taken such a class in the past, we should all be so fortunate to have a talented communications instructor like Jennifer.
Interview & profiles by Lauren Falkner
Women Must Focus on Retirement Income
This message is for all the women out there: Whether or not you are the breadwinner in your household, preparing for retirement should be extremely important to you! One item of planning that must be considered is the financial situation of a surviving spouse and what can be done to prepare for a potential shortfall.
Women survive their spouses more often then men. The Administration on Aging estimates that seven of ten women will outlive their husbands, highlighting the need for retirement planning even more.
Unfortunately, women are often at a disadvantage when it comes to resources available for retirement. The average woman spends nearly 15 years away from the workforce, while the average man will be away for 1.6 years. This translates into lower benefits from company pensions, 401(k) plans and Social Security.
Various estimates indicate expenses after the death of a husband will be 80 percent of what they had been when he was alive. Unfortunately, a widow’s income may likely be much less than what will be needed to cover expenses. Of all elderly persons with income below the poverty level, over 70 percent are women. More than half were much better off financially before their husbands died.
Less time in the workforce may also mean that fewer women qualify for health benefits. This can put an even greater burden on their retirement income. It is imperative for women to start saving now for their retirement, which can be accomplished through several savings vehicles. It is equally important to protect your nest egg through adequate life insurance coverage and insurance options should your health care needs change. Adequate planning for retirement and surviving a spouse can be a deciding factor in living comfortably.
Taking the time to examine the household finances and planning carefully will help to ensure there are adequate means of support for either spouse during the golden years. Talk to a qualified individual about your retirement needs to prepare for and enjoy a comfortable retirement.
Sara Flatness is a licensed agent with State Farm Insurance in Fargo. She is a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter, as well as an Associate in Claims. You can reach her by calling 701.893.3000 or sending an email to sara.flatness.quj9@statefarm.com
Women survive their spouses more often then men. The Administration on Aging estimates that seven of ten women will outlive their husbands, highlighting the need for retirement planning even more.
Unfortunately, women are often at a disadvantage when it comes to resources available for retirement. The average woman spends nearly 15 years away from the workforce, while the average man will be away for 1.6 years. This translates into lower benefits from company pensions, 401(k) plans and Social Security.
Various estimates indicate expenses after the death of a husband will be 80 percent of what they had been when he was alive. Unfortunately, a widow’s income may likely be much less than what will be needed to cover expenses. Of all elderly persons with income below the poverty level, over 70 percent are women. More than half were much better off financially before their husbands died.
Less time in the workforce may also mean that fewer women qualify for health benefits. This can put an even greater burden on their retirement income. It is imperative for women to start saving now for their retirement, which can be accomplished through several savings vehicles. It is equally important to protect your nest egg through adequate life insurance coverage and insurance options should your health care needs change. Adequate planning for retirement and surviving a spouse can be a deciding factor in living comfortably.
Taking the time to examine the household finances and planning carefully will help to ensure there are adequate means of support for either spouse during the golden years. Talk to a qualified individual about your retirement needs to prepare for and enjoy a comfortable retirement.
Sara Flatness is a licensed agent with State Farm Insurance in Fargo. She is a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter, as well as an Associate in Claims. You can reach her by calling 701.893.3000 or sending an email to sara.flatness.quj9@statefarm.com
McCulley Optix Gallery Has an Eye for the Unique
Fargo, ND—From the modern interior to the exclusive eyewear and personalized service, McCulley Optix Gallery is the new generation of eye care. Dr. Melissa McCulley opened doors for business at the beginning of March. McCulley states that one of the purposes of McCulley Optix Gallery is to provide the highest quality available in exclusive and unique eyewear.
According to McCulley, Optix Gallery is the exclusive place in Fargo and North Dakota that sells “high-end designer” eyeglasses, sunglasses and children’s glasses. For anyone who wants to stand out, these designer glasses are a must-have. Whether it’s the Hollywood celebrity favorite Oliver Peoples, the bling-bling of Juicy Couture Sunwear, the sleek, sporty Tag Heuer or the fun etchings of Etnia Barcelona, these designers are sure to please. Frames are available in every price range, to fit every budget.
So what happens if, when you want to try on one of these great pairs of eyeglasses, you can’t see how they look on you, due to your limited vision? McCulley Optix Gallery has you covered.
“While you try on different styles, we will take pictures of you with a digital camera,” says McCulley. “Then you can study all the images and choose the best look for you.”
The optical equipment at McCulley Optix Gallery is high tech, computerized and digital, which helps to keep things organized and also brings about another unique feature to the business. For busy people who can’t wait around for office hours, you can make appointments online. Just go to the website at HYPERLINK http://www.optixgallery.com www.optixgallery.com and click on “Make an Appointment.”
McCulley is originally from Fargo and attended Fargo South High School. She graduated from Boston College with a degree in Spanish and a concentration in pre-medical course work. She received her doctorate from Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee where she graduated with honors.
McCulley Optix Gallery participates in a national program called InfantSee. As part of this program, McCulley offers free vision screening for babies from birth to 12 months. She believes that it is important to take care of people’s eyesight from a young age.
McCulley practiced optometry at the University of Minnesota and was the primary doctor in the Contact Lens Clinic,. She worked with corneal specialists in fitting soft contact lenses, rigid lenses and post-surgical contact lenses. Much of the work she did for the University of Minnesota prepared her for performing infant eye exams.
“I feel that my University experience of fitting contacts for babies with eye diseases has fully prepared me to work with infants to ensure proper vision development,” explains McCulley.
Other services offered by McCulley Optix Gallery include: comprehensive eye exams, pediatric eye exams, treatment of eye diseases, refractive surgery consultation and co-management, treatment of eye emergencies and contact lens fitting. The 1,500 square-foot store offers two exam rooms and a full optical clinic. The entire store design and interior decorating was done by McCulley, herself.
McCulley has taken international volunteer trips to provide eye care and eyewear to the underprivileged who can’t afford it. She has been to such places as Chimbote, Peru and Santa Ana, Costa Rica. These trips are held dear by McCulley, who was accompanied by her mom and the priest that married her parents and baptized her.
Speaking of family, it turns out there is a long line of dentists in McCulley’s family, including her recently retired father, Dr. James McCulley, orthodontist. The elder McCulley had been practicing in Fargo since 1971 and recently transferred the care of his patients to Dr. Ryan West at 1220 Main Avenue in Fargo. According to McCulley’s wife, Margo, the good doctor will be working hard over the summer to improve his golf game.
Dr. Melissa McCulley is honest when she explains why she chose optometry over the “family business” of dentistry. It’s because she wanted to do something different from everyone else in the family.
“I started wearing eyeglasses in high school,” McCulley recalls. “That is when I became aware of how important our vision really is. That is what ultimately drove me to become an optometrist.”
McCulley Optix Gallery is now open at 25th Street and 32nd Avenue, 2553 Kirsten Lane, in south Fargo. Dr. McCulley can be reached by calling 701.373.2020 or logging on to www.optixgallery.com.
According to McCulley, Optix Gallery is the exclusive place in Fargo and North Dakota that sells “high-end designer” eyeglasses, sunglasses and children’s glasses. For anyone who wants to stand out, these designer glasses are a must-have. Whether it’s the Hollywood celebrity favorite Oliver Peoples, the bling-bling of Juicy Couture Sunwear, the sleek, sporty Tag Heuer or the fun etchings of Etnia Barcelona, these designers are sure to please. Frames are available in every price range, to fit every budget.
So what happens if, when you want to try on one of these great pairs of eyeglasses, you can’t see how they look on you, due to your limited vision? McCulley Optix Gallery has you covered.
“While you try on different styles, we will take pictures of you with a digital camera,” says McCulley. “Then you can study all the images and choose the best look for you.”
The optical equipment at McCulley Optix Gallery is high tech, computerized and digital, which helps to keep things organized and also brings about another unique feature to the business. For busy people who can’t wait around for office hours, you can make appointments online. Just go to the website at HYPERLINK http://www.optixgallery.com www.optixgallery.com and click on “Make an Appointment.”
McCulley is originally from Fargo and attended Fargo South High School. She graduated from Boston College with a degree in Spanish and a concentration in pre-medical course work. She received her doctorate from Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee where she graduated with honors.
McCulley Optix Gallery participates in a national program called InfantSee. As part of this program, McCulley offers free vision screening for babies from birth to 12 months. She believes that it is important to take care of people’s eyesight from a young age.
McCulley practiced optometry at the University of Minnesota and was the primary doctor in the Contact Lens Clinic,. She worked with corneal specialists in fitting soft contact lenses, rigid lenses and post-surgical contact lenses. Much of the work she did for the University of Minnesota prepared her for performing infant eye exams.
“I feel that my University experience of fitting contacts for babies with eye diseases has fully prepared me to work with infants to ensure proper vision development,” explains McCulley.
Other services offered by McCulley Optix Gallery include: comprehensive eye exams, pediatric eye exams, treatment of eye diseases, refractive surgery consultation and co-management, treatment of eye emergencies and contact lens fitting. The 1,500 square-foot store offers two exam rooms and a full optical clinic. The entire store design and interior decorating was done by McCulley, herself.
McCulley has taken international volunteer trips to provide eye care and eyewear to the underprivileged who can’t afford it. She has been to such places as Chimbote, Peru and Santa Ana, Costa Rica. These trips are held dear by McCulley, who was accompanied by her mom and the priest that married her parents and baptized her.
Speaking of family, it turns out there is a long line of dentists in McCulley’s family, including her recently retired father, Dr. James McCulley, orthodontist. The elder McCulley had been practicing in Fargo since 1971 and recently transferred the care of his patients to Dr. Ryan West at 1220 Main Avenue in Fargo. According to McCulley’s wife, Margo, the good doctor will be working hard over the summer to improve his golf game.
Dr. Melissa McCulley is honest when she explains why she chose optometry over the “family business” of dentistry. It’s because she wanted to do something different from everyone else in the family.
“I started wearing eyeglasses in high school,” McCulley recalls. “That is when I became aware of how important our vision really is. That is what ultimately drove me to become an optometrist.”
McCulley Optix Gallery is now open at 25th Street and 32nd Avenue, 2553 Kirsten Lane, in south Fargo. Dr. McCulley can be reached by calling 701.373.2020 or logging on to www.optixgallery.com.
Women in Business: Jill St. John, Media
Jill St. John
Born: Sioux Falls, SD, 1966
Education: High school graduate
Business: Professional Voice Services
Community volunteering: Started Cares for Kids radio-a-thon in 1999 to benefit MeritCare Foundation, children’s school, Nativity Catholic Church
On leadership, “A leader is someone who adapts creatively to all individuals they are leading toward success rather than making people conform to their ‘one and only way,’”
Jill’s first job was in radio as a 16 year old and just a few years later she took an on-air position at Lite Rock in Fargo after graduating from high school. She lived and worked in Fargo from 1984 to 1991 and then returned in 1999. In between, she moved as needed when her husband attended graduate school and then for other opportunities. Jill and her family lived in Milwaukee, WI, Minneapolis and St. Cloud, MN, before returning to Fargo. In Milwaukee, Jill was on an oldies morning radio show, on mornings at KDWB in Minneapolis/St.Paul and also was a copywriter for the station. Jill and her husband decided to return to this area to raise their children; Hannah who is ten and Adam who is eight.
By 2001, and in commercial radio for 21 years, Jill felt changes coming with the advent of corporate radio ownership and decided to go on her own with a new business. That year she started Professional Voice Services and, by 2002, was very busy with clients who needed voice work. She is currently the voice of Northern Home Furniture, Park Company Realty, Hector International Airport and Sunmart commercials, is the voice on Lexli Skin Care products infomercials (which air around the world), Microsoft software tutorials, and documentary narrations such as “House of Babies” which is airing on the Discovery Health channel across the world.
Talents that serve Jill well in her profession include the knack for sight reading that she says comes from her years of reading news right off the news wire live on-air. This skill enables Jill to cut voice-overs (the voice in commercials) the first time though for a 30 or 60 second commercial without making a mistake. She can also read long copy (such as a script) for hours without taking a break, not making a mistake and yet can speak more than 190 words per minute.
Most people do not know that Jill is from a radio family – her brother is WDAY’s Scott Hennen and she has a sister who is also in radio. People may also not know that Jill almost pursued a different career when her high school art teacher encouraged her to apply for a scholarship to attend the Boston Institute of Art. Instead she applied and was hired at “Lite 105” (which became Lite Rock 105) right after high school graduation. With Jill’s interest in the arts, it is not surprising to learn that Jill dabbles in photography and enjoys painting when she has the time.
A typical day for Jill includes being on call to clients who need short advertising copy scripts quickly read and taped, working for contract clients, and then reading for 15 minutes up to five hours straight in a studio for a project. It is unusual, but at times Jill has read for eight hours continually on a project. She drives from studio to studio in Fargo-Moorhead during the day depending on which client she is working for while making sure she has time to devote to her children and their activities.
Exciting trends are currently taking place in the voice profession and Jill said that they are closely related to changes in technology. She said that audio books are becoming popular again with people listening to material on MP3 players and I Pods and creates a market for books to be read out loud and recorded. Tutorials for software are also creating a large need for professional voices to narrate instructions. Jill adds that the industry is at a very exciting point because of broadband capabilities to move voice through the internet.
All change is opportunity to her and Jill has chosen to look at professional obstacles in this way. While adapting to industry changes, Jill strives to keep learning by reading many professional magazines, including Business Week, continuing to network with friends in the industry and working to keep up with what technology can offer to the delivery of voice.
Jill’s inspiration comes from several women; Maryann Philips of Video Arts Studio in Fargo and her ability to be successful even as the production industry drastically changed, her late Grandmother Bertha who raised fifteen children (without modern conveniences) and Jill’s mother Jeanette who became an independent career sales woman at a time when it was very difficult for a woman to get established in a career. Jill stresses that her mother continually inspires her because her mother gets more successful in business every year.
Jill’s favorite quote is one that describes to her the responsibility of being on-air in radio: A broadcast channel news director said to a producer, it must be nice to be the smartest person in the room … to always know what’s best for people,” To which the producer replied, “No – it’s awful.” Jill underscores the meaning of this exchange by saying that being on-air in radio is sometimes a burden and sometimes good.
So, the next time you are listening to your radio, watching TV or following a Microsoft software tutorial, it is very likely that you are listening to the distinctive and successful voice of Jill St. John.
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