Director Biographies

Suzan Shierholz, Board President
Suzan and her husband, John, live in rural Ames.
They have three grown daughters and are very much enjoying four grandchildren.

Suzan has been a community volunteer and philanthropist ever since moving to Ames in 1976. Her first years
were spent volunteering in the schools in many capacities from PTA president to helping found the Ames High
Athletic Booster Club. She has chaired the board of directors of many of our human service agencies,
including the Lincolnway Chapter of the American Red Cross, ACCESS, the Octagon, YSS, United Way of
Story County, Center for Childcare Resources, Mary Greeley Medical Center Auxiliary and the ASSET Board,
to name a few. She is also a graduate of Leadership Ames. Suzy has delivered Meals on Wheels every
month since moving to Ames. She has also been the State of Iowa Special Olympics Tennis Commissioner
for fifteen years and recently served as the Tennis Commissioner for the National Special Olympics held in
Ames. She is also on the Ames Noon Kiwanis board of directors.

Frankee Oleson, Vice President
Frankee and her husband, Jim, have lived in Ames for over 30 years.

Frankee is the executive director of United Way of Story County. Previously she was at Iowa State University
in public relations, marketing, event planning and fundraising.

Frankee has served on the boards of directors of the Ames-Story County Cyclone Club and the Ames
Chamber of Commerce. She has also served on the Leadership Ames steering committee, the Ames
Commission on the Arts and the Ames Humane League and has volunteered for Hospice. She is currently a
member of the Ames Noon Rotary, the Story County Alliance for Philanthropy and the Ames CHARACTER
COUNTS! Steering Committee

Don Erickson, Board Treasurer
Don lives in Ames with his wife, Becky. They have two grown daughters, Amber and Casee.

Don is a Chartered Financial consultant, president of Resource Planning Group, which is a fee based financial
planning firm.

Don is the president of the Ames Foundation, president of the Town and Country Kiwanis Foundation and
member of the Ames Town and Country Kiwanis.

Peg Uthe, Board Secretary
Peg and her husband, Dan, live in Gilbert. They have a married daughter and a married son.

Peg has been a secondary teacher in the Gilbert schools, a Conference Coordinator for Gateway Center
Hotel, a Conference Coordinator for Iowa State University Continuing Education Department and is currently
the Program Coordinator for the ISU Department of Animal Science.

Peg has been a hospice volunteer, a Gilbert City Council member, and a Heartland Senior Services
Foundation board member. She currently serves on various school and church committees as well as Gilbert
community fundraising projects.

Phyllis Lepke, Executive Committee
Phyllis has lived in rural Story County for nearly 30 years with husband Larry, a Roland business owner. They
have a grown son, Matthew.

Phyllis, who is now retired, was an ISU faculty member, alumni administrator and foundation fundraiser and
executive.

Her volunteer leadership service includes United Way of Story County, American Red Cross Lincolnway
Chapter, Ames Community Arts Council, Dance Co’Motion, Nonprofit Management Academy, Story County
Alliance for Philanthropy, and many Iowa State committees including childcare, performing arts and
governance. She participated on the Vision for Ames committee and served as citizen member of The Tribune
editorial board. Phyllis is a graduate of Leadership Ames.

John Carver
John and his wife, Shirley, have lived in the Collins, Maxwell area for over 70 years. They have two grown
sons, Mark and Matt who also live here. They both enjoy their four grandchildren and two great grandsons.

John has farmed his entire life and is retired from John Deere Des Moines Works. He still enjoys helping his
friends farm when needed.

He is an Elder in his church and is currently the Church board chairman. He is a member of the Collins Lions
Club, has served on the Collins City Council and was the Mayor of Collins for two terms. John is currently the
president of the Collins Active Senior Housing, Ltd.

Elizabeth Hailey
Elizabeth, her fiancé, Kyle and her son, Ethan live in Nevada.

Elizabeth is the City Administrator for the City of Nevada. Previously, she was the City Administrator for the
City of Jefferson, IA. She was one of the initial executive board members for the Greene County Community
Foundation (GCCF). In her tenure with the GCCF, Elizabeth served as the chair of the marketing committee,
as a member on the grantmaking committee, and as Vice-President. She currently is a member of the
Nevada Rotary Club, ex officio member of the Nevada Chamber of Commerce, and executive board member of
the Nevada Economic Development Council.

Dale Henricks
Dale and his wife, Lynn, live in Story City. They have two grown daughters.

Dale is a long time educator and administrator in our schools. He was Roland-Story High School's principal
and then superintendent of schools. Dale served as co-coordinator of the America Reads/America Counts
Program and currently supervises Field Experiences for the College of Education at ISU.

Dale has served on many committees and the Board of Directors of the United Way of Story County, Chaired
the ASSET Board, served on the Roland Story School Foundation Board of Directors, serves on the board of
the Greater Chamber Connection/Main Street Connection in Story City and volunteers with Special Olympics.

Vern Hawkins--leave of absense until May, 2007
Vern and his wife, DeLores, live in Ames. They have one grown son, Curtis, who also resides in Ames.
DeLores is director of Financial Aid for Des Moines Area Community College.

Vern is the assistant director of Admissions at Iowa State University. He has also served as an admissions
counselor and as a special assistant to the vice president for Student Affairs.

Vern has served on the Ames Human Relations Committee, the Ames Ecumenical Housing Board, ISU
Affirmative Action Committee, ISU American Indian Symposium Committee, ISU All-University Judiciary
Committee, Ames/ISU YMCA Board of Directors, ISU Student Affairs Diversity and Equity Committee, ISU
Boxing Club advisor and the United Way of Story County division leader for ISU Enrollment Services.

Barbara McBreen
Barbara has lived in Story County for 18 years and in Cambridge for the past seven years.

She has worked in the communications firld for 27 years. Her yournalism experience includes
radio, television and newspapers. She worked for the Ames Tribune for three years covering Story
County. This gives her a good perspective on countyh issues. She worked as a farm news
correspondent for five years and as a communications specialist for the past nine years.

Barb is currently a Rotary member in the Ames Club and has been a Girl Scout leader, Special
Olympics volunteer and served on the University Committee on Women.

John Middents
John has a wife, Jane, and two grown children.

John has a business and economics background. He has taught in both the public schools and Christian
Education Programs before becoming the executive director of Senior Resources in Muscatine followed by
becoming executive director of Heartland Senior Services of Story County.

John is very involved in his church and Kiwanis Club of Ames. He is a member of Story County Human
Services Council and is a liaison for the Council to ASSET.

Matthew Petersen
Matt and this wife, Holly, live in Huxley. Their two children attend school in the Ballard School District.

Matt is employed by Mary Greeley Medical Center as the supervisor of outpatient services for the Mary
Greeley Rehabilitaion and Wellness department. He received his undergranduate degree from Wartburg
College in Biology, a master's degree in Physical Therapy from Des Moines University, and a Master's in
Public Administration for Drave University.

Matt is a softball coach for the Huxley Little League program. He became interested in the Story County
Community Foundation when he began learning about some of the excellent projects that were taking place
because of grants received from the foundation.

Gretta Reischauer
Gretta and her husband, Mark, live in Zearing with their three children.

Gretta has been a naturalist with the Iowa 4-H Education Center, Pilgrim Heights Camp, Riverview Nature
Island and is currently starting a new non-profit outdoor facility located in Zearing.

Gretta learned about volunteerism at an early age as a 4-Her. She has volunteered at care centers, as an aid
for summer enrichment programs, has been a classroom helper at her local school, a mentor and has helped
to start up three after-school programs. Gretta is on committees at her church, is on the Zearing Celebration
committee, and the Zearing Economic Development committe.

Charlie Ricketts
Charilie has a grown son and daughter and is enjoying his six grandchildren.

Charlie retired after 38 years with Sundstrand but remained on retainer with Sauer-Danfoss until 2005.

He has actively been involved in many areas of our community. He is past president and a member of the
board of the Ames Foundation, president of the Industrial Advisory Board for the Agricultural and Biosystems
Engineering Department, member of the ISU Engineering Department Advisory Council, has served as a
mentor for the Ames Schools, is a past president and member of Bethesda Lutheran Church, past president
of Ames Noon Rotary, past president and past interim executive director of the Center for Creative Justice and
served as a volunteer Probation Officer, a director of the Ames/ Story County Cyclone Club, member of the
"Ames 2000" planning committee, served nine years on the Ames School Board, and is a member of the
Reiman Gardens CoHort Board.

Laura West
Laura lives in Nevada with her husband, Brian, and their three children Ally, Jack and Mike.

Laura is a financial advisor providing both personal and business objective financial advice with the West
Financial Advisors. She is a certified public accountant and investment advisor.

Laura is a member of the Iowa Society of Certified Public Accountants, Financial Executives International,
and Nevada Rotary. She is a board member for the Nevada Community Resource Center, One Heart
Equestrian , Innovative Learning Professional, Nevada Youth Soccer Club, Nevada Park & Recreation Little
League Softball and Laura Brannen West Scholarship.

Lynn Scarlett is an ex-officio member of the board, and provides clerical support to the Foundation.
Lynn and her husband, Dave, have lived in Nevada over nine years with their daughters Christine and
Katherine and their son, James.

Lynn is the Marketing Director at the United Way of Story County

Lynn is involved with St. Patrick's Church in Nevada, is a board member of Eastern Story CountyYouth &
Shelter Services, is a member of Nevada School-To-Work Advisory Board which is a branch of the Nevada
Chamber of Commerce, and is a member of the Nevada Reads Committee.