Board Members (term is through year listed)

President, Sheila M. Riggs, DDS, DMSc, 2009 - 2010
Sheila Riggs is Chair of the Department of Primary Care at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry and leads health policy initiatives for their Academic Health Center.  Prior to her roles at the UMN, she was President and CEO of Delta Dental of MN where she was responsible for all aspects of providing dental benefits to 3.4 million members working for 8,400 Minnesota-based employers. 

President-Elect, Cathy Barr, 2009 - 2010
Cathy Barr is the CEO of Bethesda Hospital and Vice President for Community Services, including Home Care and Clinic Care Management within the HealthEast Care System. Cathy began her career as a nurse in a neuro step-down unit in Philadelphia, PA. Throughout her career she has applied her medical, communications, strategic and operational leadership skills to a variety of settings including acute care, clinic and outpatient settings, and home health care. Cathy has been with HealthEast since 1998, providing program development innovations and management expertise to a wide array of service areas. She has held a variety of positions including Senior Director, Home Health Care; Project Manager, Clinical Needs of Aging Population; and Vice President, Community Based Services (including Medical Transportation, Home Care Case Management, and Interpreter Services). Prior to joining HealthEast, Cathy worked for eight years in the HealthPartners system.

Cathy has been active in legislative issues affecting health care on both the federal and the state levels. She served for two years on the Government Affairs Committee of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, focusing on issues such as reimbursement rates and technology usage. In 2007, Cathy was appointed to the Minnesota Legislative Commission on Health Care Access, a health care reform task force. Her passion for achieving quality patient outcomes and employee satisfaction are integral to how she develops strategies to balance care access and delivery challenges.

Cathy holds an MBA from the University of St. Thomas as well as a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Niagara University in New York. On a personal note, Cathy has been very fortunate in her life to have had great mentors. Given this, she is personally committed to mentoring new, emerging, and existing leaders to help strengthen the future of health care.

Secretary, Carol Kraft, 2009 - 2010
Carol Kraft, joined SelectAccount, a wholly owned subsidiary company of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, in September 2005. SelectAccount is the 8th largest administrator of Health Savings Accounts in the country. Kraft serves as the companies Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Spending Account business and the Life and Disability Insurance Services Unit. For over 30 years, Kraft held various leadership positions at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, most recently she was the Vice President of Technical Operations and was responsible for the companies infrastructure in the Information Technology Division. In 2002, she left the company and took a position as the Chief Operating Officer for the International Publishing Management Association. This not-for-profit organization provided leadership and education to 2,000 member companies across the United States. Kraft has been actively involved in numerous boards and organizations throughout her career, including: Board Member Women’s Leadership Trust, Eastman Kodak Advisory Board, EDSF Advisory Board, Xerox Advisory Board, Bluestone Credit Union, past chair of St. Paul College Advisory Board and Dakota County Technical College Graphic Arts Advisory Board, Member Minnesota Minority Purchasing Council, Mentor with Menttium 100 and member of Mendota Dakota Organization. 

Treasurer, Stacie Usem 2009 - 2010
Stacie Usem is a partner at Lurie Besikof Lapidus & Company, LLP in charge of their Entrepreneurial Services Group. Lurie Besikof Lapidus & Company LLP, one of the top 100 accounting and consulting firms in the nation, has been working with healthcare providers throughout its history.

Stacie works with clients to gain an understanding of their business goals and be their primary business advisor. She assists clients in the following areas: internal control studies, financial compilations and forecasts, income tax planning, compensation formula design and implementation, retirement and employee benefit plans, budgeting, governance, deferred compensation, billing and accounting systems, strategic planning, succession planning and cash
flow modeling.

Stacie is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Minnesota Society of CPAs, the Medical Group Managers Association and the Minnesota Medical Group Managers Association. Stacie is also a member of the Women Presidents’ Organization.

Past President, Dee Thibodeau, 2009 - 2010
Dee Thibodeau is one of the co-founders and a Co-CEO of Charter Solutions. Charter Solutions is a Management Consulting Company that specializes in Health Care. Before forming Charter Solutions, Thibodeau was President of EDI Solutions, an international Electronic Commerce company. Thibodeau also founded and formed Charter Investments, an investment company specializing in real estate and service companies. Prior to the founding of Charter Investments, Thibodeau served as President of Arco Transcription, Inc. a national company specializing in providing medical transcription to the medical field. In 1987, Thibodeau founded and served as Managing Partner of Milestone Investments Inc., a firm which specialized in fund raising and acquisitions of real estate, service companies and hotels. Thibodeau was also President and CEO of the top computer training institution for the upper Midwest area, Microworx. Ms. Thibodeau holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Mankato State University. She has been President of the National Association of Women Business Owners, Chair of the Minnesota High Tech Association and founder and President of the Twin Cities EDI Business Forum and also currently Chairs Marketing for the NACD. She is a founder of the National Women on Boards events, Chair of HCMC Health Services Plan Advisory Committee, founding member of Minnesota Women Corporate Directors and a member of the Women Business Leaders of the US HealthCare Industry Foundation. Dee has been a Board Member of the Trust since 2005.

Directors (term is through year listed)

Nancy Rehkamp, 2010
Nancy Rehkamp, principal at LarsonAllen, specializes in market strategy, and program and operational planning for acute and post acute health care organizations. Her knowledge and experience within these disciplines and provider organizations provides clients with an integrative perspective to health care planning issues and opportunities.

Rehkamp has 25 years of health care experience, including long-term care operations, acute care hospital administration, rehabilitation services, and home care and hospice management. Rehkamp's expertise is in the areas of acute care and post acute care strategic planning, program development, operations and analysis. Her post acute care focus has been on planning, developing and operating rehabilitation, geriatric, ambulatory care; long-term care, subacute care and home care services and programs.

From 1979 - 1997, Rehkamp held several senior management positions in Allina Health System, a large, integrated health care delivery system located in Minnesota. The positions and major accountabilities she held included: 1993 – 1997, President, HealthSpan Home Care and Hospice. During this time, she merged two home care providers into HealthSpan Home Care and Hospice and grew the operation to more than $45 million in patient revenues. 1985 – 1993, Senior Administrator for Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Executive Director of Sister Kenny Institute. She had administrative responsibility for the orthopedics, geriatrics, and rehabilitation programs in a 600-bed tertiary hospital. 1979 – 1985, Chief Operating Officer, River Falls Area Hospital and Home. Rehkamp was the administrator of a rural, 48-bed hospital and 68-bed nursing home facility located in Western Wisconsin owned by HealthOne Corporation and later, Allina Health System. Prior to joining the River Falls Area Hospital and Home, Rehkamp worked as an administrator at the Greenville Hospital Systems in South Carolina and as a financial and program auditor for the US General Accounting Office (GAO) in Kansas City.

Rehkamp earned a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Kansas (1977) and a BS in Accounting and Business from the University of Kansas (1974). In addition, she completed the Masters Forum on Information Technology from the University of Minnesota (1996). She is a frequent speaker to state hospital and senior living associations.

Paula Hart, 2010
Paula Hart is President and CEO of Dakota Communities, a non-profit that partners with people with disabilities to realize their potential. Started as Dakota's Children in 1972, the organization is known for its wellness and community inclusion initiatives. Dakota Communities serves people in 32 homes in 18 communities, has 500 employees, and an annual budget over $18 million. Before entering the health care field as Chief Operating Officer of Courage Center in 2000, Paula was a retail merchandising and marketing executive with Dayton's. She serves on the boards of the West St. Paul/Mendota Heights Rotary and ARRM, a statewide association of community-based providers that support people with disabilities. Paula graduated magna cum laude from Carleton College where she was incducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She recently completed Stanford's Executive Education for Nonprofit Leaders program and is currently pursuing her Master's in Organizational Leadership at St. Catherine University.

Kaye Foley, 2010
Kaye Foley has held a number of leadership roles in healthcare over her career. She is currently the Vice President for Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer for North Memorial Health Care, a position she has held for over 20 years. Foley has also served as President of the Minnesota Organization of Leaders in Nursing and is currently the chair of their Professional Development Committee. Foley is also a member of the American Organization of Nurse Executives, Sigma Theta Tau, and serves of the board of the Katharine J. Densford International Center for Nursing Leadership. She received her BSN in Nursing and her Master’s degree in Nursing Administration and Education from Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. She has been a member of the Trust since 1999.

Mary Larweck, 2010
Mary Larweck is the principal of Emerald Quality Services (EQS), a healthcare quality and epidemiology consulting company. EQS provides data analysis, project and position support, mentoring and training to healthcare organizations in the upper Midwest. Mary has a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and a Master of Science degree in management. Prior to forming EQS, Mary Larweck held several leadership positions in Minnesota healthcare organizations.

Ms. Larweck has served on the University of Minnesota Nursing Alumni Board for 2 terms and she has been the vice president of the Luther Seminary Friends Foundation Board. Mary has served as president, vice president and director of the Minnesota chapter of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc.
She is an active member of the Minnesota Association of Healthcare Quality Professionals (MHQP), the Minnesota Council for Quality and the Minnesota chapter of the American Society for Quality (ASQ). She is a past Minnesota quality award examiner. Mary Larweck has been a WHLT member since 2004.

Kathy Orner, 2010
Kathy Orner joined Carlson in 2006 as the Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer. She is responsible for supporting the information security strategies and programs that enable Carlson’s business lines. She’s also in charge of creating and maintaining the policies and environment that safeguards the assets, confidential information and intellectual property of Carlson. Orner chairs the Information Security Council. Before joining Carlson, Orner held numerous positions at United Health Group. Most recently, she was Vice President of Recovery Services and Business Risk Management. Prior to that, she was Chief Information Security Officer and Director of Information Security. Orner also spent many years with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, and Deluxe Corporation. She has extensive IT leadership experience in IT Operations and quality areas; change management, service management, configuration management, help desk management, desktop services, voice and data networks, security operations, disaster recovery, and software quality assurance. Orner has served on Board of Directors for Dakota Communities Inc. since January 2006 and is currently on the Executive Committee of the Board. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Mankato State University, is a Certified Information Systems Auditor, a Certified Information Security Manager and is certified in IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundations.

Kathy Welte, 2010
Kathy Welte is the Director, Center for Cord Blood at the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). She has served in several different positions at the NMDP for over 12 years. The NMDP holds a contract with the Federal government to operate the national Cord Blood Coordinating Center that provides unrelated cord blood unit searches, matching functions and unit distribution, patient advocacy and other services for patients with leukemias and other life-threatening blood diseases who need transplants. Welte serves as the Chair of the Cord Blood Working Group for the World Marrow Donor Association and on the Standards for Cellular Therapy Product Services Committee of the American Association of Blood Banks. She received her BSN degree from the College of St. Teresa and her MBA degree from the University of St. Thomas. She was elected to the TRUST Board in 2004.

Laurie Dean, 2011
Laurie Dean, Senior Vice President, Operations, provides leadership to UCare's Claims, Customer Services, Delegated Business Services, Provider Enrollment & Configuration, and Provider Network Management departments. As a member of the Senior Management Team, she helps guide the strategic direction of UCare to achieve organizational goals.

Dean brings over 20 years of managed health care experience to UCare. Previously she was Senior Vice President at M-Care, a health plan operated by the University of Michigan Health System where she was responsible for all internal health plan operations. Prior to joining M-Care in 1998, Dean was Director of Provider Relations at SelectCare, a managed care plan based in Troy, Mich.

Dean has a bachelor's degree in Biology and Health Education from Luther College in Decorah, IA.

Chris Gibson, 2011
Chris Gibson is the Chief Marketing Officer for UnitedHealthcare, the commercial division of UnitedHealth Group, a Fortune 50 company serving over 70M Americans with diversified health and well-being services via a network of approximately 550,000 physicians and 4,800 hospitals. Gibson joined UnitedHealth Group in 2004.  Her responsibilities have spanned a comprehensive range of growth functions including market strategy, brand and advertising, consumer and business marketing, interactive ecommerce, product management, sales performance, and public relations. Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group, Ms. Gibson was the Senior Vice President of Marketing for Kinko’s, Vice President of Marketing and Strategy for Gateway Computer, and started her business career at Qwest Communications (formerly U S WEST) and has held a successive series of sales, service, marketing and management positions over 20 years.

Janet Stacey, 2011
With more than 25 years in the medical device and health care industries, Janet brings extensive experience in branding, public relations, strategic planning, communications and direct-to-consumer and physician marketing to Padilla Speer Beardsley. Clients value her in-depth knowledge and insights on the complexities and challenges in the dynamic medical field, and she enjoys cultivating relationships and offering strategic and creative solutions to help clients succeed. Besides her marketing track record, she has hands-on experience with product launches and recalls, clinical trials, reimbursement, tradeshows and patient and medical education. Before joining Padilla, Janet was president of her own health care marketing and public relations firm, workikng with a variety of medical clients. She also worked in the corporate sector, including at Zimmer Inc., formerly Centerpulse Orthopedics, Inc. As director of stratetic marketing and public relations there, she was responsible for leading strategic planning, market research, communications and public relations. Prior to that, she was vice president of business development for HealthAnswers.com, a start-up health care technology group. On the provider side, she served as marketing manager and financial analyst for TriHealth, Inc., a diversified health care system with multiple hospitals, hospice services, senior facilities, corporate health services, and a home health business. Janet holds a master's degree in marketing and finance from Xavier University and a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Tennessee. She is actively involved in volunteering and serving on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including Children's Cancer Research Fund, Women of Influence Giving Circle, University of Minnesota Nursing School Foundation, and Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys.

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