Mar 13, 2012

New board members

The Central Lakes College Foundation has welcomed four new members to its Board of Directors. Tracie McFarlin (shown) and J. Bradley Person of Brainerd, Ryan Luft of Staples, and Ronda Hopkins of Crosslake and will serve terms on the non-profit organization responsible for providing scholarships and other student financial support at the community and technical college in Brainerd and Staples. McFarlin is a University of North Dakota graduate who earned an accounting degree. Employed as the finance director of the Brainerd Family YMCA, McFarlin has 11 years of public accounting experience. Most recently a specialty was non-profit organizations while employed by Kummet, Larson, and Bluth. She is a member of the Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Person is an attorney who was admitted to the bar in 1996 in Iowa and 1999 in Minnesota. He earned his law degree from the University of Minnesota (1996) and graduated cum laude from the University of Chicago (1993).
            Person’s practice areas are real estate, business law, probate, municipal law, banking law, elder law, and non-profit law. He has taught an ethics course for CLC and is past president of the Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation.
Luft has been the principal of Staples-Motley High School since July of 2010. He had served as middle and high school principal in the Southland School District in southeast Minnesota since 2007. He taught in the Marshall and Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg school districts.
            Luft has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s in educational leadership from Southwest Minnesota State University, and his sixth-year degree in administration licensure and superintendancy are from St. Mary’s University, Twin Cities campus.
Hopkins is a community volunteer, serving on several civic organizations here and in her previous community of Sioux City, Iowa. One is a three-state Boys and Girls Home and Family Services Board.
            After raising five children, Hopkins served on the Sioux City Art Center Board, the Sioux City Symphony Board, and helped raise $13 million for the restoration of the Orpheum Theater in Sioux City.
            At Crosslake, she has been active with the Park, Rec, and Library Commission and the PAL (Park and Library) Foundation.
“We welcome our four newest members to our board,” said Pam Thomsen, director of resource development and the CLC Foundation. “Each has a background that shows great depth of experience. Without their support, the Foundation couldn’t provide financial assistance to students at our Brainerd and Staples campuses.”
For information call (218) 855-8129 or visit the Web site at clcmn.edu/foundation