LPGM Board of Directors
Verne Winter| Board Chair and Executive Committee
Verne recently retired and moved to the Minneapolis area to be closer to family. Verne and his wife, Bonnie, lived in Rockford, Illinois, for 42 years. They both grew up on farms in southwestern Minnesota and graduated from South Dakota State University. Their son Brian lives in Northeast Minneapolis and is a Major in the Minnesota National Guard, having served two tours of duty in Iraq. Their daughter Janelle makes her home in Rogers, Minnesota, with her husband and two children.
Verne is a Mechanical Engineer and worked in the industry for 42 years. He was president of the RR Floody Company, a High Tech Industrial Distributor. He served on the Industrial Technology Council at Northern Illinois University. Verne also was on the local CASA board and the Salvation Army board. He also serves on the SDSU Athletic Council representing the wrestlers.
Verne served in various capacities at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Rockford. His most rewarding was the Stephen Ministry program helping people one on one through challenging situations. Verne and Bonnie traveled to India in 2008 with LPGM to see first hand many of the projects supported by Our Savior’s and themselves.
Sandra Anderson | Past Board Chair and Executive Committee
Sandra is co-founder of Wells Fargo Elder Services and a retired Senior Vice President. She has 28 years of experience in the financial services industry. She is past chair of the University of Minnesota School of Nursing Foundation, past president of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, and past Vice Chair of the Minnesota Board on Aging. Sandra is married and has two grown children and three grandchildren. Her hobbies are reading, gardening, cooking and travel.
Amy Swenson | Secretary and Executive Committee
Amy is currently a full-time student at Luther Seminary (St. Paul, MN) in the ELCA’s candidacy process with the hope of becoming an ordained pastor. Originally from west central Minnesota, she has a BA from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN and an MA in Children, Youth and Family Ministry from Luther Seminary. She served for six years at Senior High Youth Director at Olivet Lutheran Church in Fargo, ND, where her connection with LPGM began in 2002. While at Olivet she let two groups of youth on LPGM trips to India in 2004 and 2007. After her time at Olivet, Amy’s passion for global ministry led her to serve for one year as a missionary in Pretoria, South Africa, through the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission program and then worked in a homeless shelter in Moorhead before moving to Minneapolis to attend seminary.
Michael Smith | Treasurer and Executive Committee
Mike is a shareholder with the Larkin Hoffman Daly & Lindgren, Ltd. law firm in Bloomington, specializing in estate planning, employee benefits and tax law. He is originally from North Dakota and moved to Minnesota to attend law school at the University of Minnesota. Mike and his wife, Kristin, have three children and are active members of Peace Lutheran Church in Bloomington.
Melissa Steen | Executive Committee Member at Large
Melissa and her husband, Paul, traveled to India on the first LPGM-sponsored trip in 1999. The experience opened their eyes to the importance of strong mission advocacy for those in need, especially children. After 15 years of lending, mortgage banking and project management experience, Melissa is utilizing her skills as a stay-at-home mom. Melissa enjoys serving on several not for profit boards and spending time at her children’s school. The Steen family is very active in the life and leadership of Bethlehem Lutheran Church.
Mark Warpmaeker, Gordon Olson and Naomi Staruch, by virtue of their staff positions, are Ex Officio members of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors
Marilyn Christensen
Marilyn grew up in northeastern South Dakota and graduated from Augsburg College with a degree in English. She received a Master’s degree from the University of Minnesota and had a career as a social worker and teacher before retiring. Marilyn Christensen and her husband Kent moved to Eden Prairie, MN, in 2001 after living in Wyoming for many years. They are members of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Minneapolis MN.
Marilyn presently divides her time between caring for grandchildren and volunteering. She enjoys cooking, reading and quilting.
Dave Dynneson
Dave is a retired Colonel, U.S. Army, where he spent half of his career as an Infantryman and the other half as a Comptroller. A graduate of Dana College in Blair, Nebraska, Dave later earned an MBA in Finance from Georgia State University. Married to Nancy, his wife of 36 years, they have one son and four grandsons.
Since retiring, Dave has traveled to Africa, India, Russia, and Israel/Palestine on mission trips. While in India with LPGM, he fell in love with the children at the Good Shepherd School for the Deaf in Tuticorin. When he asked the children what they were singing, they said, “a song of praise to Jesus Christ on your behalf.” He knew then he had to do something about their living conditions and returned home committed to raising the funds for their dormitory, which was completed in 2009.
Dave is an active member of Peace Lutheran Church in Bloomington, Minnesota, where he serves as a chair of the Service/Missions Committee and sings in the choir.
Tricia Hall
Tricia Hall is a family physician who practices as a part-time faculty member in the family medicine department at the University of Minnesota, Broadway Family Medicine, in North Minneapolis. She has a passion for addressing local and global poverty, including international health. She has traveled throughout the world with short-term medical missions and also volunteers with Global Health Ministries, currently focusing on Community-based Primary Healthcare in Nigeria. She feels that the mission of LPGM fits extremely well with her passions and is excited about serving on the board. Tricia and her husband, Chris, who is also a physician, have two young boys.
James M. Noss
Jim was three when his family left their Minnesota farm. Their destination was Cameroon! His early education was at his mother’s knee as well as the mission school in Cameroon. As a young adult he studied in the U.S., too. In 1968, as a young married couple with a six-month-old son, Jim and Karen began their own missionary service that lasted for four decades, at least officially. His main call has always been logistics and financial management for the ALC/ELCA missionaries in both Cameroon and the Central African Republic, as well as helping out many other missions and church related organizations.
He began following the work of Gordy and Betty Olson, and eventually LPGM, when work was first started on the church in Bangui. He is delighted that he can continue the Lord’s work as a board member, not only continuing work that was started so many years ago in Cameroon and the Central African Republic, but also being a part of the Lord’s even bigger picture–that His kingdom may come, around the world, to whomever, in Christ’s name.
Joel Quie
Joel is the lead pastor of Prairie Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, a mission minded congregation using Acts 1:8 as a guide. Its witness to ‘the ends of the earth’ lines up wonderfully in partnership with LPGM. For the past decade members of the congregation have sponsored countless students in India. In January 2005 Joel participated in an LPGM sponsored trip to India to visit the many partner sites. A highlight of Joel’s ministry was the corner stone dedication of Prairie Dorm at the Saron Boys Home, in Tiruvannamali. Prairie Lutheran gave $90,000 for the construction of this facility, a first fruits offering from its then current capital campaign.
Joel is married to Sarah Linner Quie and together they have three wonderful sons and a daughter-in-law. Sarah is a dancer and owns the Prairie School of Dance. Besides his day job as a minister Joel loves to paint, play soccer, XC Ski, cook, and read. Before coming to Prairie Lutheran he served congregations in South Bend, IN and Pittsburgh, PA. He is a graduate of Luther Seminary and St Olaf College.
Sheela Solomon
Sheela is a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner. She started her medical education and career in India nearly 35 years ago. She worked in Christian mission hospitals located in Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra and Karnataka until 1979 when she immigrated to the United States. She completed a Bachelor degree in Nursing at Bethel University. She worked as a labor and delivery nurse at Methodist hospital from 1991 – 2000. Sheela earned a Masters degree in Nursing from the University of Minnesota in 2001. She has been working at the Park Nicollet Minneapolis clinic since then.
Outside her work Sheela enjoys gardening, reading, dabbles a little in painting and journal writing. Sheela has two daughters an optometrist and an accountant. She lives in Plymouth, Minnesota.
Betsy Starz
Betsy Starz is a Senior Financial Advisor with the Crossroads Group of Thrivent Financial in Minnetonka, Minnesota. She was honored with the 2010 Voices in Philanthropy Award from the Lutheran Community Foundation for service in helping clients realize their charitable intentions.
Betsy grew up in West Central Minnesota, attended Gustavus Adolphus College and worked as a camp counselor and summer program director at Green Lake Bible Camp in Spicer, Minnesota. Betsy served for five years on the Gustavus Alumni Association’s Board of Directors and has participated in various volunteer positions through church. Her first international missions experience was building homes in Juarez, Mexico, with a young adults group from church. She is currently attending the Upper Room (Church) in St Louis Park, Minnesota.
In her free time Betsy enjoys playing volleyball, singing, running, golf, biking, water sports, sewing, fishing and spending time with family, especially her nephews.
Peter Thomas
Peter recently retired after 10 years with IBM, where he consulted as part of a global senior executive team working with companies to improve operations and processes for product design and development. Earlier experiences in his 41-year career were as a Research Engineer and later Director of Engineering and Marketing for several aerospace and high technology companies. Peter is a graduate of Kansas State University in Nuclear Engineering and has an MBA from Northern Illinois University.
Peter and his wife, Mary Kay, are lifelong residents of Rockford, Illinois, and have three daughters–Julie Holen, Kristin Turek, Susan Allen–seven granddaughters and one grandson, all in Rockford. He has been active in many roles at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Rockford, serving several terms on the church council and as Congregational President. He is a Stephen Minister and mentor to homeless men rebuilding lives. He is a founding member of a community group, Rockford Partners for Excellence (RP4E), working to revitalize a local middle school devastated by turmoil and lack of program resources. He serves on the board of Rockford Area Lutheran Ministries (RALM), a union of local churches for common missions.
Peter traveled to India in 2008 to see firsthand many of the projects supported by Our Savior’s and LPGM. He was delighted to meet five current or graduated sponsored daughters at LPGM schools.
Lanny Westphal, ELCA Liaison
Lanny is a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, currently serving with the ELCA Global Mission unit as Program Director for Relationships. In this role he directs the Companion Synod Program through relationships with synods, congregations, independent mission organizations, and other constituents. Lanny studied at the University of Minnesota, Luther-Northwestern Theological Seminary and the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. Before joining Global Mission he served parishes in Wisconsin and Minnesota was also Assistant to Bishop April Ulring Larson of the LaCrosse Area Synod. Lanny and his wife Mary have two sons, Carl and Mark, a dog Gypsy and Kit Kat. His pastimes include reading, traveling and gardening.
