Movers and Shakers
Montana | Utah | Nebraska | South Dakota | Kansas | Wyoming | Colorado

Montana
Gail Cunningham has resigned her position as the Assistant Director for Loans at Montana State University after 16 years of service. She has moved back to her hometown and will be assisting her father with his local business.

Brandi Payne of Montana State University has been promoted to Assistant Director for Loans. Brandi had been a Financial Aid Specialist in the MSU office for the past 7 years, assisting in the Work Study area.

Jenny Augustine and Heather Lander are new technicians in the Montana State University Loan Department. Jenny was previously employed as the receptionist. Heather had been a work-study student in the office and was recently promoted from the Work Study Dept. Jesse Krum has just recently come on board as a technician in the Work Study Dept.

Edna Stone is the newest member of the Montana State University Financial Aid Office. She has accepted a position as Financial Aid Specialist, assisting in the Work Study area, taking care of their dataloads and return of funds, in additional to counseling students. Edna was born and raised in Denver, CO and received a BA in Psychology from Harding University (Searcy, AR). If you want to get on her "good side", she LOVES chocolate! Edna has had student services experience at Owensboro Community College and most recently, as a Student Financial Services Counselor for Colorado State University. Thank you, Colorado!

Student Assistance Foundation of Montana has a lot of new faces in the past few months.
Welcome:
Tim Donahue, Operations Director who comes to us from the business office at The University of Montana to take the #2 position at SAF.

Valerie Steiner, Programs Director, comes to SAF from Australia via the City of Angels to direct the foundation's programs area.

Keith Carparelli, (not such a new face), takes the helm of the newly created Lender/School Relations Division as it's director.

D.J. Christianson joins Bernie Warwood and Keith Carparelli in the Lender/School Relations Division, as the western Montana Education Resource Advisor and manager of the U of M outreach office slated for implementation fall AY 01-02.

Customer service is going thru a huge transition of staffing too numerous to mention until it has all been completed. Maybe an update for next quarter.

Carroll College will be losing Meg Foutch, Assistant Director, after six years of service. Meg and her family will be relocating To Boston, Massachusetts, where Meg's husband will be attending graduate school. Meg will be in the office until June 28, 2001.

Janet Riis, no stranger to financial aid, will replace Meg as the Assistant Director at Carroll College. Janet is currently the Institutional Researcher at Carroll College. Previous to that Janet was a financial aid counselor for Carroll. Welcome back, Janet.

Sally Schuman left the University of Great Falls and moved to Laramie, Wyoming where she is now the Assistant Director of Financial Aid at the University of Wyoming. Sally said she will still be a member of RMASFAA and will look forward to seeing everyone from Montana at the RMASFAA meetings.

Sandi Kiehnau has been named the acting director of financial aid at the University of Great Falls. Sandi has been busy trying to learn the new position and get financial aid packages out to students!

Utah
Utah College of Massage Therapy
Anita Knuth, prior director, has moved to Washington, D.C. and Cindy Watkins has taken her place as Director of Financial Aid, which has moved Dave Owens to the UCMT Family of Schools SL Coordinator. Anita is now able to stay at home with her darling son Mason who will turn 1 near the end of April. She loves every minute of it and misses the world of Financial Aid.

She Person from Snow College is the grandmother to two beautiful grandchildren in the past two months - their names are Shelby Perschon and Berkley Perschon. They are not twins, but the daughters of two of her sons and their wives.

Snow College welcomes a new employee, Christie Allred, who is their new financial aid specialist. She comes to them from the college advising office where she was a part-time advisor. Welcome to Christie!

Teri Dorchuck is a 2000-year graduate of the first Bachelor Degree programs at Dixie State College - formerly Dixie College in St. George, UT. She will graduate with a degree in Business Administration. She has worked very hard and we are extremely proud of her!

Mary Beth Weston of BYU has been awarded the 2001 President's Appreciation Award at that school. The commendation received from the administration reads: "[Mary Beth] Weston exceeds all expectations of service to students and to the university. She is truly the student's advocate. As a trained and certified financial counselor, she has conducted workshops and training sessions for students, parents, and young married couples. She has been sought as a presenter at state and regional conferences for financial aid administrators, and her performance is the benchmark for others in her office."

Nebraska
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Nicolas Cristian Lozano, born to Marlon and Lisa Lozano on March 23, 2000 at 2:29 p.m. Weight 7 pounds 13 ounces, length 19 inches. Nico is baby number one in the Lozano household, unless you count the two cats.

Noah Andrew Unger, born to Deana and Greg Unger on June 10, 2000 at 12:05 pm, weight 8 pounds 10.5 ounces, length 21 inches. Noah has an older brother Nicholas age 6 and a sister Natalia age 3.

Marty and Chris Habrock are the proud parents of twin girls, born today, October 30, 2000 at 9:15 am both weighing 6 lbs and 14 oz. Their names are Haley Ann and Grace Elizabeth. They are joined by two big brothers - Zachary age 6 and Noah age 2. The family is doing fine.

Anna Plank just started as a Specialist in the Client Services area of the UNL Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid. Anna's primary responsibilities are the Short Term Loan Program and assisting with student appointments and outreach activities. Anna came to UNL by way of SCC-Lincoln. Sorry, SCC-Lincoln, but we really do enjoy having Anna in our office.

University of Nebraska - Kearney
We do have a new financial aid counselor, Carol Rapstine. Carol came to us from Southwest Iowa Community College in Creston, IA. She is originally from Kansas and worked for a short time at the community college in Hutchinson.

College of St. Mary
College of St. Mary has a new receptionist, Shannon Flynn. She began working on July 31st. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Marketing from UNL.

Bellevue University
Bellevue University has hired a new counselor, Kandi Lehmann. She is a previous Bellevue University employee who worked in Student Services. Also, Misten Thompson has been promoted from Financial Aid Coordinator to Financial Aid Specialist in our office.

Grace University
Grace University has hired a part time office manager - Tiffany Smith. She comes to us with three years experience from Grace Theological Seminary. We are thrilled to add her expertise to our team. She is expecting her third child in February.

Dale Brown's daughter, Maria, was married July 29. The highlight of the festivities was the rehearsal in full clown regalia. Most participants were in full makeup and the rest at least wore a red nose. Dale and his wife Sarah are card-carrying clowns.

Metropolitan Community College
Metropolitan Community College has finally hired a new Financial Aid Specialist for their South Omaha Campus. Her name is Debra Foster. Her First day was November 1 and she joined on just in time for the start up of their Winter Quarter classes, which began November 27.

NSA
Tasha Arrigo is the new NSA Supervisor. Curt Hunter has been promoted to the NSA Coordinator.

UNIPAC
Mary Neuenswander is the new UNIPAC School Relations Representative.

Alan Silverberg, UNIPAC's Loan Origination Supervisor, and his wife Lori, who is the Supervisor of the Loan Consolidations Unit at UNIPAC, are the proud parents of baby girl, Paige Lauren who was born on 11/01/2000.

Chadron State College
Chadron State College regretfully reports that Annette Kaus, former Financial Aid Counselor at Chadron State College, has taken a new position at New Mexico Tech as the Director of Financial Aid as of August 15th, which means they have a new person in the office. Laurie Harris is our new Assistant Director of Financial Aid at Chadron State. Laurie has approximately 16 years of financial aid experience from the Chadron State College Financial Aid Office.

NSLP
Leesa Sorensen, NSLP's senior policy analyst, completed a successful two-year term on the Common Manual policy committee on November 1. Leesa, who devoted almost all of the last two years to maintaining and improving Common Manual policies, is now refocusing her efforts to serve NSLP clients through regulatory research, information dissemination, and training.

South Dakota
Pam Lane, Assistant Director of Financial Aid at Northern State University won the "Student Service Award" NSU's annual recognition night. The award is given to someone who consistently extends himself/herself beyond the bounds of his/her normal job routine to deliver high quality, accurate assistance to students. Way to go, Pam!!

South Dakota held it's spring conference in conjunction with Decentralized Training on April 2 - 4, 2001 in Rapid City. The theme for the conference was 2001: A Financial Aid Odyssey. There were a total of 57 members in attendance.

We were treated to a presentation by Jane Klug, Director of Student Services at Black Hills State who reminded us that we all have the same purpose in our life, which is to serve and that we need to be healthy within to better serve our students. We also heard from Jacque Straub and Dan Whiting from the Department of Education. Monica Gannon, and Jolene Myers presented decentralized Training.

A surprise came in the form of "Who Moved My Cheese", which was the RMASFAA Road Rally presentation given by Katie Nettle, Bob Parisian, and Mary Anne Whitman. You had to be there to appreciate the three of them with CHEESE on their heads!

The Conference concluded with our annual Awards Banquet. Entertainment was provided by a local group, "Top Hats and Roses" who had the entire membership tapping their toes and singing along. David Vikander, Past-President of SDASFAA was the master of ceremonies for the evening.

The RMASFAA 2000 Conference Committee received a well-deserved Committee of the Year Award. Congratulations Ken Kocer, Sharon Kienow, Deb Henriksen, Rosie Jamison, Todd Otterberg, Lisa Artz-Gross, and Peggy Kuck!

There were also several Service Awards given in recognition for number of years of service in the financial aid profession. These include Rosie Jamison for 20 years, and Ken Kocer, Pam Lane and Renee Leach for 10 years of service each.

The top honors of the evening went to Todd Otterberg, who received the 2000 Outstanding Service Award, and Renee Leach, who received the 2000 Douglas Steckler Professional Development Award.

Part of the evening was also spent reminiscing about the RMASFAA 2000 Conference. Everyone enjoyed telling stories of events behind the scenes that had certain SDASFAA members scrambling, but were oblivious to the rest of the attendees. Those of you who have hosted a RMASFAA Conference can surely relate!

Kansas
New Hires/Promotions/Changes:
Johnson County Community College hired several new people in the last few months. Lesa Weatherred, Kelly Cole and Monica Montgomery joined the Processing team. Karleen Novak, Brenda Jackman and Traci Essner (a former advisor) are in the advising area.

Brown Mackie College - Olathe promoted Allison Hensley from Administrative Assistant to Financial Aid Officer in February.

Dan Hennigh joined Benedictine College in November as the new Associate Director.

Sandy Bolles left First Federal Bank to become a stay-at-home mom. Delida Beale, who has been at First Federal for 17 years, will be taking her place.

Dr. Wayne Hatcher is the new Dean of Student Services and Financial Aid at Labette Community College.

Last fall, The College Board hired Mr. Bruce Lindvall, previous Director of Admissions at the University of Kansas, to be their new Director of Higher Education Services. Bruce is located in their midwest offices in Evanston, IL.

Michelle Wiesing, University of Kansas, has accepted the Financial Aid Program Assistant position after serving as Financial Aid Secretary for almost two years.

Brenda Maigaard has been named Interim Director of Student Financial Aid at the University of Kansas following the resignation of Diane Del Buono. Diane has contributed to the field of Financial Aid since 1988 and will be greatly missed by her colleagues.

Rhonda McCubbin was promoted from Assistant Director to Director of Financial Aid at Sterling College. She replaces Kay Barnes who retired. Sue Sillin was hired as the new Assistant Director.

Carol Williams has been appointed Director of Financial Aid at McPherson College. She has been employed at McPherson for several years, working as a Financial Aid Assistant, Residence Hall Director, and Assistant Admissions and Financial Aid Director.

Wyoming
Sally Schuman, formerly Director of Financial Aid at the University of Great Falls (MT) has accepted the job of keeping John Nutter in line, as Associate Director of Student Financial Aid at the University of Wyoming.

Pat Rankin, financial aid director at Western Wyoming Community College, has been elected to serve WyASFAA as its President-Elect. Joining him on the WyASFAA Executive Committee are Jacque Burns (Central Wyoming College) as President, Laurie Johnson (University of Wyoming) as Secretary, Robyn DeVries (University of Wyoming) continuing as Treasurer, and Mary Candelaria (University of Wyoming) as Past President.

Mindy Zwieg and Martha Reisch (both formerly with Wyoming Technical Institute), Jeff Mangus, and Sandy Roller have joined the financial aid staff at the University of Wyoming.

Christy Nordmann, a Scholarship Specialist in the University of Wyoming financial aid office, has completed her bachelor's degree while working full-time.

Colorado
Jannifer Conley from Mesa State College and her husband Robert are the proud parents of a baby girl. Zion Corrina Conley was born April 7, 2001 weighing 9 lbs. Jannifer and family are doing well.

Congratulations to Jeff Recker. Jeff is the new Marketing Manager for Education One Group, Bank One. Jeff is new to the financial aid industry and is eager to become involved in both CAFAA and RMASFAA.

Huge congratulations to Mark Putman and Mike McKendrick for being selected as U.S. Bank's Best For 2000. Both Mark and Mike were U.S. Bank's "Top Tier" Marketing Representatives for the Student Banking Division.

Russ Kruse has been named Group Manager, Mandi Strelow Burch and Tom Joenhk Sales Managers for the new U.S. Bank Student Banking Division. Congratulations!