Following Jesus - Northwestern College

Class notes
Class notes
RED RAIDER
Golf
Classic
Friday, June 8
Landsmeer Golf Club
Orange City
Support the athletic department by playing in
this annual four-person scramble. Morning and
afternoon tee times will be available. Contact some
friends and join us for a great Red Raider gathering!
REGISTER
www.nwcraiders.com/redraiderclassic
Or contact Kyle Achterhoff, 712-707-7282
or achterhk@nwciowa.edu
Teri Thomsen is office
’89manager at Holy Trinity
Church in Lincoln, Neb., and also serves
as an accounting associate at Southeast
Community College.
Paula Wanken, San Antonio, recently
collaborated with 39 other poets to publish
an international collection of poetry entitled
Prompted. Profits from book sales are being
donated to LitWorld, an international
literacy organization.
Cheri Waggoner, Des
’91Moines, works in customer
service at Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Lt. Col. Lisa (Burris)
’92Ciccarelli, Torrance, Calif.,
has been reassigned to the Los Angeles Air
Force Base as program manager for the U.S.
Nuclear Detonation Detection System.
Lori De Jongh-Slight
’93was recently hired to coach
volleyball at Buena Vista University in
Storm Lake, Iowa. She previously coached
volleyball at Creston High School.
Jonathan Musselman is the senior
academic librarian at the University of
Wisconsin-Platteville.
Steven Bogaard, Orange
’95City, is the natural science lab
coordinator at Dordt College.
Keith Starkenburg has
’96completed his doctorate in
theology at the University of Virginia. He is
an assistant professor of theology at Trinity
Christian College in Palos Heights, Ill. His
wife, Rebekah (Dykstra), is director of
Trinity’s First Year Experience.
Deb Schleusener is the
’97associate director of graduate
programs and budget manager for Seattle
Pacific University’s School of Business and
Economics.
Sara Veldhuizen Stealy is
’98a foreign service officer serving
at the U.S. Embassy in Riga, Latvia.
Michael Waugh is deployed for a year
with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit,
serving aboard the USS Bataan.
Josh Bolluyt, head football
’99coach at Spirit Lake (Iowa) High
School, was named the Sioux City Journal’s
2011 Siouxland Football Coach of the Year
after leading his team to a second-place
finish in the state Class 2A playoffs.
Josh Pyle, Fort Dodge, Iowa, is a correction
officer at the Webster County Jail.
Jill (Bonnema) Rector is the marketing
programs manager at 3M Healthcare in St.
Paul, Minn.
Tim Wood is pursuing a Master of Divinity
degree at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Krista Meckling has moved
’00to Columbus, Ohio, where she is
an account manager for Cardinal Health.
Jamie Stubbe, Kansas City, Mo., is a
news producer for KSHB-TV.
Josh Russell is manager of
’01consolidations, reporting and
treasury accounting for John Deere Financial
in Des Moines.
Kelli (Vermeer)
’04Cummins, Fort Collins, Colo.,
is a legal secretary for the 8th Judicial
District Attorney’s Office.
Ryan Dittman is an IT support specialist
for Rosenboom Machine and Tool in
Sheldon, Iowa.
Jason Holtgrewe is the associate pastor
of Connection Church in Bettendorf, Iowa.
Abby (Michael) Milbrodt, Springdale,
Ark., is a contract blogger for passionforsavings.com,
a website dedicated to helping
people save money.
Andrew Gunter, Spring
’06Park, Minn., graduated from
the University of St. Thomas School of Law.
He is a corporate compliance consultant for
Target Canada.
Dr. Shelby (Schmidt) Tessendorf is a
dentist with the Air Force in Tampa, Fla.
Kaitlyn Bowie is pursuing
’07a Master of Divinity degree at
Duke University in Durham, N.C.
Andrea (Collier) Helmus, Longmont,
Colo., is the assistant program coordinator
in Front Range Community College’s Center
for Adult Learning.
Kristin (Erickson) Hu has been living
in Hong Kong for more than two years. She
teaches high school history at the American
International School.
Amanda Allen, Antelope,
’08 Calif., graduated with distinction
in May from the University of the
Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law with a
concentration in public law and policy.
Katie Hohnstein-Van Etten is pursuing
a master’s degree in teaching from The
Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash.
Laura Jacobson, Houston, is the staff
attorney at the St. Francis Cabrini Center for
Immigrant Legal Assistance, a program of
Catholic Charities of Galveston-Houston.
Ryan Jacobson is the deputy city clerk in
West Des Moines, Iowa.
The Rev. Sarah Palsma, Columbus,
Ohio, is the associate pastor of New Hope
Church in Powell.
Meggan (De Jong) Vasileiadou
and her husband, Pavlos, work at Greek
Bible College in Nea Ionia, Greece. She is a
librarian, chapel music leader and student
counselor, and he is the computer services
administrator. They are missionaries with
Commission to Every Nation.
Aubrey Weger is an intake counselor for
Catholic Charities of Minneapolis.
Katie Bell earned a master’s
’09degree in college counseling
and student development from Azusa
Pacific University in May. She is a residential
community director and community
engagement/leadership coordinator at
Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Nakeata (Hendershott) Divis is an
ESL teacher for the Sioux City Community
Schools.
Danielle Gaudian, Primghar, Iowa, is an
ultrasonographer at the Orange City Area
Health System. She received an associate’s
degree in diagnostic medical sonography
from Mercy College of Health Sciences in
Des Moines.
Be a Raider
Road Warrior
Iowa residents, show your
NWC pride with a specialty
license plate. Numbered
plates $25; personalized
plates $50; plus $5 annual
validation fee.
Order yours at
www.iowadot.gov/
mvd/ovs/plates/
private.htm or
contact your county
treasurer’s office.
Marly Melsh is a principal office and
administrative specialist at the University of
Minnesota.
Trista (Knoke) Pitt teaches kindergarten
at Roosevelt Elementary in Council
Bluffs, Iowa.
Carrie (Manifold) Blaha,
’10 McBain, Mich., is a pediatric and
medical/surgery nurse at Mercy Hospital
Cadillac. Her husband, Jason ’09, is the
director of youth at Rehoboth Reformed
Church.
Jonathan Gesink is a fund accountant
for Aviva Investors in Des Moines.
Renee Ausborn is a teacher
’11at Cono Christian School in
Walker, Iowa.
Kassie (Scorza) Carpio, Orange City,
is a bilingual family advocate for Mid-Sioux
Opportunity’s Early Headstart Program.
Jacqueline Clark is an athletic trainer
at the Institute of Athletic Medicine in Minneapolis.
Morgan De Jong is pursuing a master’s
degree in physician assistant studies at Midwestern
University in Downers Grove, Ill.
Laura Denekas is pursuing a master’s
degree in social work at the University of
Nebraska at Omaha.
Courtney Drenth, Brookings, S.D., is
an assistant coordinator in the commercial
business unit at Daktronics.
Katie Erickson teaches K-12 art at
Woodstock School in Mussoorie, India.
Kimberly Ford serves as the Christian
education and youth director at Bettendorf
(Iowa) Presbyterian Church.
Westley Garcia is an admissions counselor
at Northwestern.
Jacob Gaster is a part-time biology
lecturer at Northwestern.
COURTESY OF CENTRACARE HEALTH SYSTEM
David Tilstra juggles two jobs: medical geneticist and medical director of the
CentraCare Clinic.
Double-Duty Doc
As the health care reform debate continues to rage, Dr. David
Tilstra ’83 remains focused on two things: improving care and
lowering costs.
A two-job doc, three days a week he’s the medical director at
CentraCare Clinic in St. Cloud, Minn., responsible for the Health
Care Homes program, which seeks to improve treatment for patients
with chronic health conditions like diabetes.
The other two days, Tilstra is a medical geneticist, running a
practice that helps the families of patients with genetic issues such as
birth defects, mental retardation and autism determine the underlying
causes and plan for long-term care.
Both jobs give him the satisfaction of tangible results. At
CentraCare, Tilstra has overseen better management of chronic
illnesses, leading to results like one patient whose hospital admissions
were reduced from 29 over two years to just three admissions last year.
As a medical geneticist, Tilstra plays detective as he searches for
a diagnosis (if not already known) and formulates a treatment plan.
“I tell parents what the game plan needs to be for the next few years,
how to engage the school system to maximize the child’s learning,
what to watch for, like seizures or new conditions that might develop.
To take clues and try to translate them into solutions—that’s always
fascinated me.”
by Sh e r rie Ba r be r Willson ’98
30 SPRING 2012
Northwestern Classic
31