MINNESOTA VALLEY REFUGE FRIENDS BOARD OF DIRECTORS & STAFF

Minnesota Valley Refuge Friends board members are a dedicated group of individuals who are personally and professionally committed to the long-term success of the mission of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge and Wetland Management District. Members are purely volunteer in bringing their individual and collective knowledge, experience, skill, integrity, passion, and motivation to this agenda.
Robert (Randy) Petzel - President
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​Randy is a retired physician. He served as Chief of Staff at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, was Director of the VA Midwest Healthcare Network, and from 2010-2014 was the VA Undersecretary for Health. During his tenure at the VA, he was an Associate Professor of Medicine, Assistant Dean, and Director of the first two years’ clinical curriculum at the University of Minnesota Medical School. 

He has been a volunteer at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge since 2014. Randy is particularly involved in Urban Ventures and elementary school education programs at the Refuge. He was introduced to the outdoors when, at the age of four, his family began camping at Minnesota State Parks. 

He received a BA degree from St. Olaf College and an M.D. degree from Northwestern University Medical School.
He has lived in Minneapolis most of his life, and now resides in South Minneapolis with his wife, Sue. 
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Dave Guzzi - Vice President 

Dave has been passionate about the outdoors since before he could remember and was introduced to it by his parents with camping and fishing in remote locations across North America. Dave continues this passion, having gone on several extended hunts and backpack trips throughout the Rocky Mountains in Canada and the United States. While he has hiked, fished and skied much of North America, his passion lies with his home state of Minnesota. “There is nothing better than a Minnesota waterway or lake site,” says Dave. His current passion includes training service and hunting dogs as well as introducing youth to outdoor experiences. After Dave’s spinal cord injury in 1996, he has devoted much of his life to ensuring that wild places are accessible in ways that are practical. Dave began volunteering with the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge in 1997, dedicating much of his time in creating accessible hunting opportunities for wild turkey, deer and duck.
Pat Graham​ - Secretary
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Pat was introduced to the outdoors by her dad who took her hiking, hunting and fishing.  She graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in Natural Resources Management.  She went on to serve in the U. S. Marine Corps and worked in aircraft maintenance management for her career, however she continued to spend time in the outdoors on vacation and weekends.  On retirement in 2016, she began volunteering at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge which has become an important part of her life.
Barbara Corriveau - Treasurer

A native of Michigan, Barb spent most of her career in Wisconsin as a director at a national accounting, tax, financial advisory, and consulting organization. When not serving on the board as treasurer, Barb is often found volunteering at the Refuge’s Blufftop Bookstore. Barb has volunteered more than 500 hours at the Refuge and is the “go-to” trainer at the Refuge’s Bloomington visitor center front desk and Blufftop Nature Store. She was named the Volunteer of the Year in 2020 by the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Barb lives in Apple Valley and enjoys traveling.
Andy Grewell - Director
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Andy joined the board of directors to help strengthen partnerships among community-based organizations working on environmental impact and civic engagement issues. Andy believes that youth and underserved populations need to assume leadership roles in conservation, environmental education, and sustainability for meaningful change to occur.

​Andy has a background in service-learning, public policy, grant making, planning, youth leadership, and nonprofit governance. He has served in AmeriCorps, worked in local nonprofits, and in local governments on low-income assistance and community development programs. Andy currently works in Minnesota’s Department of Human Services. Andy lives in Minneapolis with his family and likes to spend as much time outside as possible.
Jessica Tormoen - Director
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A native of Bloomington, Jessica Tormoen grew up with the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge in her backyard. An environmental science, biology, and clean water advocate, Tormoen most recently served as an assistant to the watershed manager at Los Angeles Waterkeeper. She was a student researcher for the Catalina Island Conservancy, and an intern for East Yard for Environmental Justice. Tormoen received her B.S. in Environmental Science from California State University at Long Beach. She is glad to be back in Minnesota, as this is where her love for nature originated. 
Loreen Lee - Director

A California Native, Loreen Lee is an educator and artist based in St. Paul. She discovered the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge through her passion for the outdoors and birdwatching. With mentoring partner Urban Bird Collective, she hopes to explore and document wildlife in all eight units of the refuge. Lee teaches fifth grade at St. Paul Academy and Summit School. She earned her B.A. in liberal studies from Sarah Lawrence College and holds an M.A. in curriculum and instruction from the University of the Pacific. 
Mark Jenson - Director

Dr. Mark Jensen was born and raised in St Louis Park. He practiced general dentistry in Chicago for several years before completing his residency in Endodontics at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Following private specialty practice in Illinois, Dr. Jensen returned to Minneapolis in 1992 to open Endodontic Professionals. Dr. Jensen is excited to be joining the MN Valley Refuge Friends board and to begin volunteering. Dr. Jensen enjoys Gopher football, the Twins, and spending time with his family. Dr. Jensen joined the board in 2021 and is looking forward to volunteering and getting to know the refuge.
Michael Kurtz - Director

Michael Kurtz, a longtime volunteer of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, joined the board of directors in 2021. Kurtz is a self-taught photographer, wildlife tracker and serves as a cultural interpreter at Hoċokata Ti (ho-cho-kah-tah-tee), the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community's cultural center and gathering space for the Community's tribe members. Kurtz is an enrolled member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.
Shannon Breimhurst - Director ​

Shannon is a marketing/communications consultant and writer with a background in healthcare, nonprofit organizations, and journalism. She is a creative manager and senior copywriter at Patterson Dental. She holds a master's degree in Strategic Communications from the University of Minnesota. She has served on the Friends' board since 2019, lending her expertise in writing, fundraising, and donor relations and communications. When not working, she enjoys time spent outdoors hiking, camping, and playing with her husband, son, and daughter.   ​
Steven Sutter - Founder, Ex Officio Director
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Steve has been volunteering at Minnesota Valley NWR since retiring after careers in retail sales and then firefighting. Since age 9, he grew up spending many hours in the woods of Burnsville before getting a business administration degree and starting a family. The quiet call of the outdoors continued to beckon. The night before he retired in 2000, Steve attended a Refuge Volunteer orientation meeting and has been hooked on the Refuge ever since.  He has experienced many opportunities because of Refuge or Friends' projects such as: Info Desk, Volunteer Black Dog Ranger, Youth Fish Day, Nature Store Manager, Blue Goose and No Kids Left Indoors fundraisers, etc. He helped establish Minnesota Valley Refuge Friends in 2006.
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Steve and his wife now live on a lake in Wisconsin, but continue to remain active to protect, preserve and promote the refuge for our grandchildren's grandchildren.

Staff
Sara N. Blood - Executive Director

Sara first learned how to use a manual SLR camera and a pair of binoculars while birdwatching in northeastern Illinois, skills which took her to the farthest corner of Minnesota where she served as a photographer and reporter for the International Falls Daily Journal. A public relations veteran for nearly 20 years, Sara has worked for some of the most well-known agencies in the Twin Cities and as an independent nonprofit consultant for brands that included outdoor, hunting and fishing. In 2015, she was first connected with the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge when she was tapped to lead a multi-prong marketing campaign for the Refuge's 40th anniversary. After leading PR efforts for the Refuge's launch of its Discover Nature apps, she was asked to return again as interim executive director of Minnesota Valley Refuge Friends, assuming the role of executive director in October 2020. 
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Doris Ikier - Volunteer Blufftop Nature Store Manager

Doris was named the refuge's nature store manager in spring of 2021, taking after longtime volunteer and manager Richard Sanford. She has also volunteered at the refuge with Nature's Notebook, environmental education classes, and began as a trail ranger. When not working at the nature store, Ikier's favorite thing to do at the refuge is being Puddles, the National Wildlife Refuge's blue goose mascot. A Minnesota Master Naturalist, she also volunteers at Dakota County Parks (cross-country ski patrol and Wetland Health Evaluation Program) and Wild River State Park (campground host, native prairie seed collection, and bull snake research). Now retired, Ikier was a clinical laboratory scientist where spent the last 20 years of her career in the Allina Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory at Abbott Hospital. In 1978, she spent five months working in a missionary hospital laboratory in Kalimantan Barat, Indonesia (Borneo).