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Legendary Women

Legendary Women of Brainerd Public Schools

Since Brainerd’s early days, women have played key roles in public education as teachers, administrators, and school board members. However, it wasn’t until Superintendent Laine Larson’s arrival that a woman held the district’s top leadership position, more than 145 years into its history.

Over nearly 150 years, Brainerd Public Schools (BPS) has graduated approximately 20,000–30,000 students, many of whom have become exceptional women who have made their mark locally and globally, often in education. Despite this, only one known female BPS graduate has been elected to a public school board—and it was here in Brainerd.

Since the launch of the BPS Distinguished Achievement Hall of Fame (DAHoF) in 1999, women have been underrepresented among the small group of inductees. To help change that, in 2019, BPS Archives convened a committee to honor “Legendary Women of Brainerd Public Schools.” Selection is based not on accolades, but on the meaningful, often extraordinary lives these women have led.

 

Legendary Women Nomination Form

Inductees

    • Carla Anderson Benjamin (BHS 1973)
      Current: owner of Anderson Studios, Pillager, MN for 40 years
      Retired from Methodist Hospital, Hospice Pharmaceutical delivery
      • Visual Artist specializing in Encaustic techniques, stained glass, and
        Illustration receiving national attention
      • Artworks held in the National Archives, Washington D.C., and international
        collections and galleries like the Phipps Gallery (WI), Kaddatz Galleries (MN), U of M Coffman Hall, libraries, and churches, among others
      • AA Degree Brainerd Community College
        BS in Studio Arts, Design, and Agricultural Journalism, U of MN, Minneapolis
      • Studied stained glass techniques at Burleighfield Craft School in England
      • Created “Cold Hands Warm Hearts” fundraiser for the Salvation Army and Northland Arboretum 2015, among other volunteer activities
    • Deborah Goble Erickson (BHS 1991) 
      Current: Crow Wing County Administrator (the 4th administrator in county history and the first female administrator)
      • BA in Management, Summa Cum Laude, College of St. Scholastica 
      • Began her career with the Crow Wing County Assessor’s office in 1994
      • Served as president of the MN Association of County Officers
      • For 8 years, she was a MN local government representative to federal elections committees, including the Government Coordinating Council and Elections Assistance Commission Standards Board Executive Committee
      • Awarded Outstanding Member of the Year 2017 as President of both the MN Association of County Officers and MN Association of County Auditors, Treasurers and Finance Officers 
    • Lee Gunsbury Seipp (BHS 1978)
      Current: Marketing and Pricing Associate for Fleet Farm
      • Associate of Arts Degree, Central Lakes College
        Further studies in Liberal Arts, Communication, Journalism, U of M Duluth
      • Certifications: State of Minnesota Department of Commerce Resident Insurance Producer: Accident&Health, Casualty, Life, and Property 
      • Worked 36 years at family business: The Quarterdeck Resort/ Restaurant, Gull Lake, Brainerd, MN
      • Applied her myriad skills in the area of business, including marketing, customer service, employee benefits, insurance, and event planning 
      • Long tenure volunteer in more than 19 community organizations in multiple capacities, including Board President of Nisswa Chamber of Commerce and Co-Founder of Gull Lake Frozen Fore Benefit for Camp Confidence, Pequot Youth Hockey, and Ski Gull
      • Awarded Nisswa Citizen of the Year 2021 and Brainerd Rotary Foundation Volunteer of the Year 1995
    • Dr. Meghan Thurlow (BHS 2001)
      Current: Lead Technical Advisor for M3 Advisors of San Francisco and Advisor to CEO and COO for Optama Inc., Las Vegas, also Lecturer of Business and Public Policy at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
      • MS and PHD in Physical Chemistry (Climate Applications), Harvard, and Executive MBA with Honors, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
      • BA in Chemistry Magna Cum Laude, Carlton College
      • Holds four patents (one entitled Integration and Active Flow Control for Environmental Sensors) and has six patents pending
      • Received Misties Award for Top 20 Individuals in Intelligent and Connected Devices 2024
    • Laurie Potvin Wig (BHS 1983)
      Current: since 2023, Coordinator - Battle of the Books summer literary program, Brainerd, MN, serving over 400 student readers and 30 staff
      • Retired in 2021 after 34 years in various fields of education at Pillager, Brainerd, and Pequot Lakes school districts 
      • 2021/23 returned to serve half-time in Brainerd Public Schools in middle school curriculum support and data analysis
      • BA in Elementary Education K-6, St. Catherine’s University
        MA Curriculum/Instruction and Administrative License K-12 Principal, St. Cloud State University
      • Successful collaborations using her strengths of communication, organization, math, data, and technology to serve in a wide variety of grade levels, curricular areas, and educational focus in area school districts as well as coaching positions. Her success stems from an African proverb she enjoys: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” 

    • Rachel "Perky" Pernina Oliver Burke (1934)
      Rachel "Perky" Oliver Burke was a devoted mother of six.

      Her husband, Edward, served in the Philippines during World War II, was wounded, and captured as a Prisoner of War. During the war and following his return to Brainerd, Perky was the main caregiver for the family and operated a boarding house till 1957.

      Perky spent 25 years as a secretary in the pathology department at St. Cloud Hospital and also taught medical terminology, transcription and office procedures at St. Cloud Technical College. Perky used her self-taught skills to teach medical terminology to the blind, utilizing dictation software that printed in both English and Braille. After retiring from the hospital, she edited a medical textbook for a local law firm and was subsequently offered a job, finally retiring at the age of 80.
           
      Perky was also a talented writer and had several essays published in local and regional publications. She was an active member of the Sinclair Lewis Writing Club. Throughout her lifetime, she remained involved in the Ex-POW Department of the State of MN and in St. Cloud, where she served as Chaplain for 27 years. Perky was a well-known community theater actress and a skilled seamstress who made most of her own and her daughters' clothes. She was also a Girl Scout leader and a member of the PTA and Catholic Daughters of America.

      Perky passed away in 2018 at the remarkable age of 100.

       
    • Elissa Hansen (1997)
      Elissa Hansen is currently the President & CEO of The Northspan Group Inc. of Duluth, MN. As Northspan President & CEO, she leads the organization with more than 20 years of experience in business, community, organizational, and economic development across Minnesota and Wisconsin. She invests her time creatively advancing others' capabilities, engaging with and elevating every client by facilitating tough conversations and moving organizations forward with action-oriented strategic planning models. She works to create a setting for meaningful communications that respects diverse perspectives, creates joint resolve, and inspires individual and group action.

      Elissa earned her undergraduate and Master’s degrees from the University of Arizona. She is a graduate of Leadership Duluth and the Blandin Community Leadership programs. She has been a board member or officer of over 30 organizations, including serving as Duluth City Council President and Duluth City Council Finance Chair. 

      She has been awarded multiple economic development awards, including the 2014 Mid-America Economic Development Council 1st place for APEX’s Data Center Attraction Strategy.

      Elissa has been honored as one of the Duluth News Tribune’s “20 under 40,” a recognition that celebrates professionals making a positive impact and working towards change in the region.
       
    • Heid Holtan (1987)
      Heidi Holtan is currently the director of content and public affairs at KAXE Public Radio in Grand Rapids. She is also a Regional Correspondent for PBS North Duluth. 

      Heidi hosts NPR’s local Morning Edition and All Things Considered, interviews community members and public officials and feels fortunate to find work that challenges her every day.  

      Heidi’s work during the pandemic earned a statewide achievement award for KAXE from the AMPERS public radio network.

      Heidi recently spoke at a national Public Media Journalism Conference in San Antonio, Texas about inclusion and equity as a white leader in media. She also moderated a keynote panel recently for Springboard for the Arts in Fergus Falls that addressed inclusion and equity in rural spaces. 

      Prior to her career at KAXE, Heidi worked for 10 years at the MN State Capitol Legislative Reference Library in areas of research and information. Leaving that position in her late 20s, she worked in her family’s telephone directory company, Fronteer Directory. 

      Heidi is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities with a BA in Women’s Studies. 
       
    •  Dr. Jennifer Person (1993)
      Jennifer is a Partner and Doctor of Chiropractic and Acupuncture at Family Chiropractic in Baxter, MN. Previously, she was a business owner and Chiropractic Physician in Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada, where she diagnosed and managed musculoskeletal conditions of the spine and extremities. 

      Jennifer completed her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biology from Hamline University in 1999, followed by a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology, Doctorate in Chiropractic Sciences, and Board Certification in Acupuncture from Northwestern Health Sciences University in 2002 and 2009, respectively.

      She was recognized as one of Minnesota's top Chiropractors from 2019 to 2023 and received the "Outstanding 75 Alumni" Award of Central Lakes College in 2014. Jennifer also received the 2023 Paul Harris "Service Above Self" award from the Brainerd Rotary for her exceptional work. 

      Apart from her professional career, Jennifer has a passion for music. She traveled extensively for a year with the international music group "Up With People", teaching a 2 ½ hour contemporary musical show to the cast, who were all from different countries. She is a piano accompanist for choirs, churches, and community events in the Brainerd Lakes area and Canada, and also serves as a musical theater vocal director. Jennifer currently serves as Vice President on the board of the Legacy Chorale of Greater Minnesota.

      Jennifer is also involved in the development and coordination of Camp Journey, a program designed to help kids who have experienced a loss in their lives, which is close to her heart.
       
    • Amy Wallin Price (1989)
      Amy has been a Realtor with RG Realty Group since 2014. She was recently named the 2023 Realtor of the Year by the Greater Lakes Association of Realtors, which is a testament to her exceptional work in the real estate industry.

      Prior to her real estate career, Amy worked in accounting at Kummet, Larson & Bluth, Lakeland Mold, and was the Accounting Manager at Mid Minnesota Federal Credit Union. 

      Amy has received several awards for her work in real estate, including the Executive Club Award at Weichert Realtors in 2017 and 2018, the Weichert President's Club Award in 2019, and the Realty Group Chairman's Group award for 2020, 2021, and 2022 (for completing more than 40 transactions in a year). Since joining Realty Group in 2020, Amy has consistently ranked among the top 20 agents each year, out of more than 700 real estate agents, and even achieved #3 in 2022.

      Apart from her professional career, Amy is also an active volunteer. She has received several awards for her community involvement, such as the Mark Sjoblom Weichert Pride Award in 2015 and 2017, the Jim Alderman Community Spirit Award in 2016, and the Brainerd Rotary Service Above Self Award in 2023. Amy has also been recognized with the Realty Group RG Citizen Award in 2020, 2021, and 2022 for her exceptional service and commitment to the community.

      Amy notes that her realty work sometimes makes it difficult to commit to a structured volunteering commitment, so she helps out whenever she's asked and where she can. She enjoys spending time with her senior clients, many of whom don't have family in town and no longer drive. Amy helps them with appointments, goes out to dinner with them, and just listens to them.

    • Laura Brutsman Busch (1979) 
      Laura Butsman Busch has been a performance artist for 50 years. She went on to attend and graduate from The Juilliard School in New York City, becoming a member of The Acting Company, founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley, and performing all over the country. Her performance repertoire includes an off-Broadway production of “Without Apologies” and an extra part in the movie “Big.” Busch credits her Brainerd Public Schools education for her success at Juilliard and beyond.
       
    • Mildred O’Brien Chalberg (1919)
      Honored posthumously on Thursday was 1919 graduate Mildren O’Brien Chalberg, who attended the College of Saint Teresa and Columbia University.

      She taught at Brainerd High School for several years before marrying Jack Chalberg and starting her family. She returned to teaching for one year as a Latin teacher at Franklin Junior High.
       
    • Sheila McKinney DeChantal (1985)
      Despite unspeakable personal losses, Sheila McKinney DeChantal has continued to live life fully and give all that she can to the Brainerd lakes community.

      Her professional history includes customer service, grant work with businesses and nonprofits, children’s ministry, and currently, serving as marketing director and promotions for 3 Cheers Hospitality.
       
    • Becky McDonough Epidendio (2005)
      After taking automotive and welding classes at Brainerd High School, Becky McDonough Epidendio went on to study high-performance engines and chassis fabrication. Most of her professional education, however, has been earned on the job, working with monster trucks. 
       
    • Susan M. Koering (1969)
      After graduating from Brainerd, Susan Koering went on to earn a degree in health information management from the College of St. Scholastica and a master’s degree in education from the University of Minnesota. In addition to her long professional career in specialized forms of medical information management in large Minnesota hospitals, Koering has a long history of volunteering in her community.

     

    • Erin Rosinger Christopher (2003)
      Erin Rosinger Christopher is a first officer at Delta Airlines, flying an Airbus 220. She is a retired U.S. Navy officer, where she completed aircraft landings in fighter jets, won the “Best Bomb Drop” award in training as a naval aviator candidate and earned a one-time shot flying with the Blue Angels demonstration team.

      She attended Virginia Tech and was a member of the Reserves Officers Training Corps.
       
    • Kari Frisch (1988)
      Kari Frisch is an instructor and administrator at Central Lakes College with a master of arts degree from the University of North Dakota. Her accolades include the 2015 National eLearning Educator of the Year, the 2017 CLC Outstanding Educator of the Year and the 2017 Outstanding State Educator.

      In 2011, Frisch participated in a White House Community Leadership Series on World Hunger, which closed with a seminar at the White House.
       
    • Marie Adolphson Landsburg (1960)
      After being named Miss Brainerd in 1961, Marie Adolphson Landsburg went on to earn a degree in elementary education and teach in Brainerd until 1981.

      In 1979, she and her husband opened Landsburg Landscape Nursery, which still operates today and offers education to aid the horticultural success of customers and supports community projects and organizations.
       
    • Rebecca Yeh Mathison (2011)

      Rebecca Yeh Mathison is a licensed pharmacist with a degree from the University of Minnesota but is perhaps most well known for her role as Miss Minnesota 2013 and her fourth-place finish in the 2014 Miss America pageant.

      As a violinist, Mathison performed with the BHS Chamber Orchestra at the age of 4. She has since won several competitions and performed for world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell on Minnesota Public Radio.
       
    • Pamela Sellnow O’Rourke (1977)
      Pamela Sellnow O’Rourke earned a law degree from Baylor University and pursued legal work in the corporate world. Through leadership and donations, she has been involved with various Brainerd area organizations, including Bridges Career Academies & Workplace Connection, Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Brainerd Lakes Area Economic Development Corp., Central Lakes College Board of Trustees, Brainerd Public Schools Foundation, PORT Group Homes and Trinity Lutheran Church.

      In 2013, she earned the Women Making Waves Award from the Brainerd Lakes Area Women’s Fund.
       
    • Diane Nagel Runberg (1966)
      After graduating from BHS, Diane Nagel Runberg became senior vice president of Bremer Bank in Brainerd, where she wrote many articles in banking periodicals and helped raise the profiles of women in the banking industry.

      After retirement, she partnered with her husband in a real estate appraisal and property management business.

      Runberg was an award-winning cartoonist for the school newspaper in high school and continues art to this day, exhibiting her work at various shows, including the Minnesota State Fair.

    • Amy Ward Aho ('93)
      Amy Ward Aho has degrees in communication sciences and disorders and works as a speech language pathologist at Brainerd Public Schools.

      She has been a fellow in the University of Minnesota Hubert Humphrey School of Public Policy. She has worked as a clinician in speech language pathology in hospitals, nursing homes, private clinics and educational settings.

      Aho has served in several leadership positions with Education Minnesota and within the Minnesota Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
       
    • Katherine Nolan Bensen ('92)
      Katherine Nolan Bensen was a top-level software development executive before being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2014. Over the next six years, she became a nationally known advocate for lung cancer research and early screenings, resulting in millions of new research dollars from the government and private sector.
      She died in 2020 and donated her body to Mayo Clinic to assist in cancer research.
       
    • Jill Carlson Casper ('93)
      Jill Carlson Casper is vice president of Mid-Minnesota Federal Credit Union and has a masters degree from Concordia University, St. Paul. Community outreach is one of her responsibilities, and she is soon to be chair of the Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce. She has presided over the Brainerd Noon Rotary Club, Brainerd Public Schools Foundation, Brainerd Women’s Fund and The Crossing Arts Alliance.
       
    • Linda Olsen Engel ('66)
      Linda Olsen Engel has a master’s in communications, disorders and psychology and worked as a K-12 speech clinician in the metro area and as a coordinator and English as a Second Language teacher in Brainerd. She is a professional speaker and won a Minnesota Arts Education Leadership Award for Community Arts Advocate.
      Engel is active in Alzheimer’s support groups, as an election judge and as a public advocate for awareness of Lewy Body Dementia.
       
    • Kristi Martinson Ferguson (''67)
      Kristi Martinson Ferguson has a master’s degree in social work and a doctorate in medical school education, which she taught at the University of Iowa.

      She has written numerous professional journal articles and had a piece about golf in a leading women’s golf magazine.

      Ferguson now volunteers in seminary education and serves as chair of the board directors at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.
       
    • Ruth Henderson Gmeinder ('71)
      Ruth Henderson Gmeinder served on the Brainerd School Board for 20 years and was the 2004 Minnesota Outstanding School Board Member.

      She has a degree in dietetics and did dietician work in educational settings before becoming a Crow Wing County WIC leader and public health administrator. She co-owns Gull Lake Resort and has served on various community boards.

      Gmeinder has made intricate costumes for charitable causes for years and raised $300,000 for charity from selling them.
       
    • Bernice “Bunny” Leckband Humprhey Ostlund ('47)
      Known affectionately as Bunny Humphrey, Bernice Leckband Humphrey Ostlund married, raised a family and worked outside of the home in a time when it wasn’t the norm.
      She was a renowned painter, with an oil landscape painting featured in the annual Northwest Paper Co. calendar. She did art shows and galleries and taught painting classes. Her numerous paintings are in collections across the globe.

      She was named Brainerd Woman of the Year in 1975 and died in 2004.
       
    • Pamela Siegel Thomsen ('78)
      Pamela Siegel Thomsen is a certified public accountant, an economic development finance professional and a resource development specialist. She has led the CLC Foundation, taught at CLC and served on boards of the Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation, Brainerd Public Schools Foundation, Kinship Partners, Zion Lutheran Church and The Crossing Arts Alliance.

      She is a charter member of trainings for at-risk women in the community and in her spare time likes to race stock cars.
       
    • Donna Winkelman Bjorklund Whalen ('70)
      Donna Winkelman Bjorklund Whalen taught all over Minnesota before settling back in the lakes area, where she taught at her childhood elementary and high schools. She also served as dean of student and assistant principal at Brainerd High School and principal at Forestview Middle School.

      In retirement, Whalen focused on family and became primary caregiver for her husband as he battled ALS. She and her husband died a month apart in 2020.

    • Dr. Julie Beasley (1991)
      Beasley graduated from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston and received a certificate in endodontics. She built her endodontic practice in 2005. She received awards for her stem cell research and for seven years organized and led volunteer dental students and professionals to Haiti to provide free dental services.
       
    • Jean Echternacht (1969)
      Jean Echternacht devoted her life to collaborating with people with disabilities and the disadvantaged. She worked in partnership with American Indian communities to create culturally appropriate strategies for successful transition from high school to college and adulthood.
       
    • Kyung Endres (1988)
      Kyung Endres has worked in 20 countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. She started her own firm, True Panacea, assisting in places around the world that are resource barren. The first 10 years of her work helped support over $90 billion of programming directly assisting 105 million people.

      Endres’ current work is on a global food security project seeking to prevent famine by predicting food shortages. The project shares data with governments and international organizations, such as the United Nations.
       
    • Elsa Hasch Garrison (1990)
      Elsa Hasch Garrison became the first woman hired as a staff photographer by a boutique global sport photo agency based in London, later acquired by Getty Images. She was the first woman hired by Getty as a staff photographer and was the only woman on staff for the first decade.

      She has photographed many major sporting events including Super Bowls, World Series, FIFA Women’s World Cups in Canada and France, FIFA Men’s World Cup in Brazil and Russia, Summer Olympic Games in London and Rio de Janeiro. Her next major assignment is the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.
       
    • Lea Hanson (1997)
      Leah Hanson has a master’s in student affairs in higher education and a doctorate in education and human resource studies from Colorado State University.

      Hanson’s work has included administrative positions at the Universities of Montana and Colorado State and as adjunct instructor, instructor, assistant professor at Northern Colorado and Colorado State. She now maintains dual appointments in the business and education colleges at Colorado State. She has worked in private sector marketing/communication and is the owner/consultant in her own business.
       
    • Christy Hohman (1962)
      Christ Hohman, a 1962 taught anthropology, Ojibwe culture, Native American-U.S. law and archaeology in Canada and at Normandale Community College, Hamline and the University of Minnesota.

      She served as the Minnesota state archaeologist, working with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council and the individual tribal nations. She worked on the preservation and rescue of unmarked graves, mainly of Native Americans; the repatriation of human remains and grave goods; and the repatriation of artifacts previously stored at museums and other institutions.
       
    • Sister Mara Lester (2002)
      Sister Mara Lester graduated with honors from Michigan State with a degree in human biology. After her first year in college it became clear to her the Lord was calling her to a religious life. She vowed to live a life of “poverty, chastity, obedience and service to the poor, the sick and the ignorant until death.”

      She earned her medical degree from George Washington University School of Medicine and completed a psychiatry residency at Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis.
       
    • Lauren Nickisch
      Lauren Nickisch has led a classic “life immersed in art” as an arts educator and advocate and as a multitalented performing artist.  She was a music educator in choral and classroom music in the Brainerd School District.

      Nickisch wrote and performed “Hephzibeth, Woman of Iron,” which chronicled the life of her great-grandmother, and wrote “The Worthless Wall” about cultural similarities and difference after a tour of China. She was a co-writer of “Reunion Revenge” and “Variety of Victims,” murder mystery dinner theater plays performed across Minnesota for 18 years.
       
    • Jennifer Nyberg (1991)
      Jennifer Nyberg has been employed at the United Nations since 1999 and is the head of the Spanish office of the United Nations World Food Program. Her U.N. work has included external relations, partnership and resource mobilization, fundraising, governance, advocacy, senior advisory roles to executive staff, operations, needs assessment, program development, technical cooperation, media relations, economic and commodity market analysis and trade policy.

      Nyberg earned a degree from Hamline University in economics, Spanish, Latin American Studies and a master’s in agriculture and applied economics from the University of Minnesota.
       
    • Dr. Connie Savor Price
      Dr. Connie Savor Price is board certified in internal medicine, infectious disease and clinical microbiology. She joined the faculty of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 2002 as a professor of medicine and joined the staff at Denver Health Medical Center. Price served as chief of infectious diseases, as a medical director of infection control and prevention and presently is the chief medical officer.

      Her research focuses on the treatment and prevention of infections acquired in the healthcare setting. She has investigated infectious diseases outbreaks in many countries. She has delivered more than 175 lectures on the prevention of healthcare associated infectious diseases and related topics at conferences around the world.

    • Michelle Kraklau Andres (1995)
    • Shelly Breen (1992)
    • Kaylo Brooks (1993)
    • Lissa Waller Carlino (1998)
    • Yen Chu (1989)
    • Jama McDermott Davidson (1982)
    • Peggy Kriha Dye (1987)
    • Kate Engelbrecht (1994)
    • Jennifer Erickson (1997)
    • Alena Grabowski (1991)
    • Gail Dailey Helmer (1978)
    • Hailey Hinrichs (2015)
    • Megan Whalen Knutson (2002)
    • Sharon Schockley Kramer (1961)
    • Jeanne McDowell Larson (1966)
    • Quinn Nystrom (2004)
    • Jessica Kramer Ryan (1990)
    • Tiffany Klang Templeton (2002)
    • Erin Twamley (2005)
    • Stephanie White (2004)