Category: Luther College and Decorah Schools

Luther College President Jenifer K. Ward is proud to announce the 2024 recipients of the Distinguished Service Award. The award is presented to alumni or individuals with strong connections to Luther College who have exhibited admirable service to society in areas such as education, government, the arts, business, church, labor, industry, agriculture, research, medicine and community affairs.

This year’s recipients are Mike Voltmer ’74, Mary (Burbridge) Kreger ’79, Doug Knutson ’84, Ellie (Stack) Shaw ’94 and Sam Yamoah ’04. 

Mike Voltmer

Mike Voltmer’s life is a blend of entrepreneurship and community service. He grew up in the construction industry and launched Voltmer Electric during the spring of his senior year at Luther College. Voltmer graduated from Luther in 1974.

Today, Voltmer Electric is a multi-state electrical contractor known for its work on Iowa’s highways and airports and underground high voltage work. While Voltmer’s son, Gerad, is now the president of Voltmer Electric, Mike still serves as an advisor for special projects. 

Voltmer has been a dedicated volunteer in the Decorah community. He served in leadership roles with organizations such as the Decorah Area Chamber of Commerce, Spectrum Network, Sunflower Childcare Center and the Nordic Fest Board. In 1992, Voltmer joined Vesterheim’s board of trustees and served as the board’s vice president and finance chair. Notably, Voltmer helped with two royal visits and was honored by King Harald of Norway with the Knight of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit in recognition of his service and contributions.

A proud supporter of Luther College, Voltmer has been involved in numerous capital campaigns and is a member of the 50-year reunion committee and the Regents Center fundraising committee. His generosity and service extends to his second home in Cozumel, Mexico, where he supports local athletics and raises awareness about human trafficking.

Mary (Burbridge) Kreger 

Mary Kreger is a public education advocate and leader who served for the past six years as superintendent of Minnesota’s third largest school district, District 196, which includes Rosemount, Apple Valley and Eagan. Kreger led the district through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, helped to win voter approval for $493 million in school facilities improvements and secured additional public funding to support students’ mental health needs. She built strong relationships with legislators and advocated for her district on all levels. Kreger retired in July 2024.

Kreger graduated from Luther with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1979 before earning her master’s degree in special education and a specialist degree in education administration at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

She was first hired in Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District as director of special education in 2005 and served in that role until 2018. Prior to that, she worked for 13 years as a special education teacher, coordinator and supervisor for South Washington County Schools in Cottage Grove, Minn.

Kreger has also served as an adjunct professor, most recently at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., instructing and inspiring the next generation of leaders in education.

Doug Knutson

Doug Knutson’s photography career began when he was a student working at Luther College’s Photo Bureau. While studying philosophy, Knutson photographed campus events for Chips, the student newspaper, and The Pioneer yearbook. 

While on assignment, Knutson observed a veteran photographer documenting civil rights activist and writer James Baldwin’s visit to Luther. This notable moment provided the inspiration for his career. Knutson graduated from Luther in 1984 and opened Knutson Photography in Minneapolis in 1986.

Today, Knutson is best known for his black-and-white portraits of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including the Dalai Lama and Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel. Permanent displays can be found at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs and Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. His work has appeared in Time, Business Week and Sports Illustrated. Additionally, Knutson’s photography was featured in ads for 3M, the Mayo Clinic, the University of Minnesota and other organizations. 

Throughout his career, Knutson has generously volunteered his photography skills for numerous causes, including the Highland Friendship Club, Three Rivers Park District, Art Buddies and Boy Scouts of America.

Ellie (Stack) Shaw 

Ellie Shaw is an accomplished executive in the field of public and government affairs. In 1994, Shaw graduated from Luther with a business management degree and minors in French and music. She then moved to Washington, D.C., where she secured a position at the Nuclear Energy Institute. Next, she served as manager of public affairs for the Exelon Corp. In this role, she managed its employee-funded political action committee and developed their grassroots and political education program.

In 2006, Shaw became director of federal government affairs at American Express Co. She is responsible for the company’s political education and involvement programs. During her time at American Express, Shaw has doubled the annual receipts for the company’s political action committee and created efficiencies while enhancing the company’s federal compliance policy, training and filing requirements. 

Beyond her career, Shaw is active in the public affairs professional community and her church. She serves on the executive committee and board of directors for the Public Affairs Council and is the advisory council co-chair for the Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN). The network’s Ellie Shaw Scholarship is named in her honor. This scholarship aims to promote diverse and inclusive leadership in policy-making. It is open to all students with a preference given to students attending PLEN seminars from Luther College.

Sam Yamoah 

With a deep understanding in health insurance, systems and technology, Sam Yamoah brings teams together to solve health care challenges and improve health care disparities in marginalized communities. 

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in management information systems from Luther College in 2004, Yamoah began his career in product development and process improvement functions at the McKesson Corp. in Dubuque, Iowa. While there, Yamoah was a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters, served with the Dubuque Rescue Mission and helped to build a housing program for the homeless. He co-founded a nonprofit which has distributed more than 10,000 books to learning centers in Ghana and was recognized with the Dubuque Young Professional Award.

Yamoah is currently the chief strategy and innovation officer for Cambia Health Solutions, a company dedicated to making health care more affordable for people and their families. In his role, Yamoah is responsible for guiding the organization’s overall strategy, enterprise innovation capabilities and customer value creation. 

Before joining Cambia in 2021, Yamoah was an associate partner at McKinsey and Company in Chicago and Minneapolis. He led efforts to reduce health disparities through McKinsey’s Institute for Black Economic Mobility. Yamoah earned an MBA from the University of Chicago in 2014.

Yamoah serves on the board of directors for the Center for Economic Inclusion and is a member of the Luther College Alumni Council.

World-renowned a capella ensemble The King’s Singers will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 12 in the Center for Faith and Life Main Hall as part of Luther College’s 2024–25 Center Stage Series. 

For more than 50 years, The King’s Singers have set the gold standard in a cappella by performing in concert halls throughout the world. They are renowned for their unrivaled technique, musicianship and versatility. The last time they performed at Luther College took place in 1994. 

Their upcoming performance titled “The New World” explores the musical links between Iberia and South America. The program looks at the glorious European Renaissance music introduced by conquistadors and merchants. It also remembers the musical traditions already in existence in South America and celebrates how these two different musical heritages fused to form the seeds of a whole new world of South American music. 

“Audiences of all ages will delight in the harmonious beauty and precision with which The King’s Singers perform,” said Susan Potvin, director of programming and outreach. “Bring a friend or two and enjoy an unforgettable evening.” 

The King’s Singers were officially formed in 1968 when six choral scholars from King’s College, Cambridge, gave a concert at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. By chance, the group was made up of two countertenors, a tenor, two baritones and a bass. The group has stuck to this singular formation ever since its debut. Currently, the singers are Patrick Dunachie, countertenor; Edward Button, countertenor; Julian Gregory, tenor; Christopher Bruerton, baritone; Nick Ashby, baritone; and Jonathan Howard, bass.

The King’s Singers’ discography includes two Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, and a place in Gramophone magazine’s Hall of Fame. 

Alongside their demanding performing and recording schedule – with more than 100 concerts worldwide every season – the group also leads educational workshops, working with both ensembles and individuals on their approaches to group singing. 

Starting at 7 p.m., Undeclared Acapella, Luther’s student-led tenor-bass contemporary a cappella group, will sing in the CFL lobby.

This performance is sponsored by Minnesota Public Radio. Buy tickets for the show and for the pre-show dinner at tickets.luther.edu or at the ticket office in the Center for Faith and Life. Contact the ticket office at tickets@luther.edu or 563-387-1357.

Tickets for Luther College’s award-winning annual Christmas at Luther performance go on sale to the general public starting at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 29. Limited in-person tickets are available for performances running Dec. 5–8 in the Center for Faith and Life Main Hall, and unlimited livestream tickets are available for the performance on Sunday, Dec. 8. 

Prospective students can receive free tickets to attend the Christmas at Luther performance on Thursday, Dec. 5 through Luther’s Christmas at Luther Music Showcase Day. This program is intended for high school juniors and seniors interested in pursuing music at Luther. The showcase provides a behind-the-scenes look at the performance, as well as opportunities to meet with students and faculty.

After the performances have ended, on-demand tickets for Christmas at Luther will be available for purchase, Dec. 13–Jan. 2, for viewing during the Christmas season. The 2024 performance album and ornament are available for pre-orders at the Luther Book Shop website.  

Each year, Christmas at Luther features a different theme and all new music, performed by hundreds of Luther student musicians, including multiple choirs, the Luther College Symphony Orchestra and a student jazz combo. This year’s theme is “Seeking Refuge for a Weary World.” 

“Each holiday season, one of the most familiar symbols is that of the Nativity scene,” said Andrew Last, artistic director of Christmas at Luther and director of choral activities for Luther College. “This iconic image showcases the figures of the story in a barn or shelter, welcoming the birth of Jesus Christ. During our current time, when so many in the world are looking for a place of shelter, ‘Seeking Refuge for a Weary World’ reflects upon how the diversity of people in this familiar story found themselves in Bethlehem that night.”

Luther Dining Services is offering a holiday buffet featuring traditional Nordic cuisine in the Peace Dining Room, located on the second floor of the Dahl Centennial Union, prior to the Christmas at Luther performances. Tickets for the buffet may be purchased online or by calling the ticket office at 563-387-1357.

Luther College is celebrating Indigenous Peoples Heritage Month in November with a series of events. Guest speakers will highlight Indigenous perspectives on educational leadership, regional history, and current events. Film screenings and an extraordinary planetarium experience will reveal more about Native American cultures. 

This heritage month’s activities build on a fall semester of guest speakers from Native American communities. In September, Oscar Hokeah discussed the Paideia Summer Read, his novel “Calling for a Blanket Dance.” Hokeah is a regionalist Native American writer of literary fiction, a citizen of Cherokee Nation and the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, with Mexican heritage from Chihuahua as well. In addition, Rebecca Nagle spoke about “Justice on Native Land” for Luther College’s annual Farwell Distinguished Lecture. Nagle is a writer, podcaster, advocate and citizen of the Cherokee Nation. 

All these events are free and open to the public.

Wednesday, Nov. 6: “Indigeneity, Relationality, and Reciprocity: Transforming Models of Leadership in Higher Education,” Center for Faith and Life Recital Hall, 7 p.m. 

Micki Abercrombie-Donahue will explore how Indigenous perspectives on leadership, grounded in principles of relationality and reciprocity, offer transformative models for higher education. Abercrombie-Donahue is vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion and associate professor of education at Whitworth University in Washington. This discussion will highlight the importance of community, interconnectedness and mutual care in reshaping leadership practices within academic institutions. This event is made possible by the Lucille Price Endowed Lecture and the Luther College Department of Identity Studies. 

“The identity studies department is thrilled to continue our focus on Indigenous studies this year with Dr. Abercrombie-Donahue’s visit to campus,” said Char Kunkel, professor of sociology and identity studies department head at Luther College. “She brings not only strength in leadership but also research-based suggestions for transforming higher education in both leadership modeling and multilingual education, which leads to greater student retention for all. Her lecture and interactions are not only timely for Luther College but for the country.”

Thursday, Nov. 7: “The Business of Baskets: Weaving Economic Ties Between the Bethany Indian Mission, Ho-Chunk Families, and Lutheran Ladies’ Aides in the Mid-20th Century Midwest,” Pulpit Rock Brewery Event Room, 7 p.m. 

Anna Peterson, associate professor of history at Luther College, will explore the ways Ho-Chunk women and their families negotiated the effects the Bethany Indian Mission in Wittenberg, Wisconsin, had on their lives and took advantage of the opportunities it presented through the making and selling of black ash basketry. While Bethany missionaries often saw this work as unnecessarily burdensome and outside of the scope of their call, the basket weavers and their families put pressure on the Mission to act as a conduit between the basket makers and basket buyers. In this way, they used the Mission and its contacts to ensure ancestral basket weaving survived in the face of great adversity. Luther College played a significant role in the history of the Mission. This event is sponsored by the Luther College Department of History. 

Friday, Nov. 8: Anishinaabe Star-Knowledge Film+Planetarium Experience in Valders 206 and 205 (Planetarium), 7 p.m.  

This multimedia evening will leave you looking up. The program will start in Valders 206 with a 25-minute film, “Living in Balance: Anishinaabe Star Knowledge.” The film highlights Anishinaabe stories of constellations and moons in relation to contemporary insights about environmental changes. Immediately following the film, attendees will move next door to the Luther College planetarium for a presentation, given by physics professor Jeff Wilkerson, featuring key elements in “Living in Balance.” The planetarium has a maximum capacity of 30, so this part of the program will be on a first-come, first-served basis. This event is sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Public Engagement.

Tuesday, Nov. 12: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives, Valders 206, 5 p.m.  

Jessica Engelking, representation director with the Great Plains Action Society, will address the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR). The Great Plains Action Society addresses the trauma that Indigenous peoples and the Earth face and builds power in Indigenous communities. Engelking’s talk will focus on the crisis of Native American communities when relatives go missing. Come learn about this issue and how we can reduce and end violence against Indigenous communities. This talk is sponsored by the Center for Intercultural Engagement and Support. 

Thursday, Nov. 21: “Songs My Brothers Taught Me,” Valders 206, 6 p.m.  

Join the Center for Intercultural Engagement and Support for a screening of Chloe Zhao’s independent film, “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” (2015). The film follows two siblings, living on Pine Ridge Reservation, who face challenges after their father’s death. The brother considers leaving for Los Angeles, but it would mean separating from his beloved sister. Zhao is the director of “Nomadland” (2020) and “Eternals” (2021).

Amy Nam, Luther College adjunct faculty in music for harp and composition, was awarded second prize in the World Harp Competition, held during the 2024 Dutch Harp Festival in Utrecht, Holland, in April 2024.  

“I was very excited,” said Nam about the experience. “I was the last to play in the semi-final round. It was a whirlwind. I was so happy to get to go, because all of the contestants’ programs were unique and interesting.”

Unlike many musical competitions that set the repertoire for participants, the World Harp Competition allows each contestant to create their own 45-minute program. “It’s whatever you want to play, anything involving you playing the harp,” said Nam. “There are all kinds of harps, even electric harps, folk harps and classical harps. It encourages creativity and pushing the harp outside the box.”  

Nam’s program is entitled “Cosmic Fragments: Words and Music About Life, the Universe and Everything.” According to harpcolumn.com, “Nam’s program featured works written within the last century, alternating poems and prose with short works for solo harp, and reflecting on themes of the human experience in the context of the cosmos.” 

It included compositions by multiple composers, including Nam’s own work, played on the acoustic concert grand harp, a small electric harp and a large floor pedal harp that was electroacoustic. Between playing, Nam recited selected written works by authors ranging from Italo Calvino to Mary Oliver over a background of electronic interludes composed by Sean William Calhoun. 

Nam described her program as “a sweeping and quirky musical-poetic survey of human experience and the universe we inhabit. … It grapples with the most profound aspects of our existence: impermanence, imagination, suffering, wonder and potential.” Nam premiered the program in April, before the World Harp Competition, at Luther College’s Weston H. Noble Recital Hall.  

“I’m left with three things,” Nam said about the competition and its results. “One was increased weight and credibility with my name. There’s also the program that I’ve developed that’s unique and that I can take places, such as other festivals. It’s something personal to me that has been worked to a high level. Finally, going to that competition and seeing other contestants in a whole festival with other harpists from around the world was very inspiring and energizing, and I will run off that energy for a long time.” 

Luther College’s Dr. David J. Roslien Distinguished Lecture in Science and Leadership presents author Shawn Otto at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, in the Center for Faith and Life Main Hall. Otto’s talk, titled “The War on Science” (after his 2016 book of the same title), will be followed by a time for questions and answers, moderated by Luther Regent Dr. Michael Osterholm, Luther College class of 1975, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. 

Shawn Otto speaks to audiences worldwide about the scientific foundations of democracy and the causes and dangers of anti-science authoritarianism. His award-winning non-fiction book “The War on Science: Who’s Waging It, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do About It” predicted the rise of anti-science authoritarians and the threat they pose to democracy. 

“Shawn Otto’s lecture at Luther is wonderfully timed, as folks are certainly engaging in discussions and decisions at the heart of U.S. democracy,” said Andy Hageman, associate professor of English and director of the college’s Center for Ethics and Public Engagement. “He brings tremendous research and insight to the ways science and policy have been mixed by governments and leaders.” 

“Folks who attend will get a deep perspective on what is at stake regarding science and science-informed policy going forward, and that can inform and shape how we engage in elections and civic interaction with government officials,” Hageman added. 

After the lecture, there will be a book signing with opportunities to buy Otto’s books. 

About Shawn Otto

Shawn Otto’s book “The War on Science” has been called “a game changer.” “If you care about attacks on climate science and the rise of authoritarianism, if you care about biased media coverage or shake-your-head political tomfoolery, this book is for you,” said The Guardian in a 2016 review.

Otto was awarded the National Distinguished Public Service Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world’s largest professional association for the advancement of technology, for his work elevating science in American public dialogue. He was cofounder and producer of the 2016 U.S. presidential science debates. Otto has advised candidate science debate efforts in many countries. 

He is also an award-winning screenwriter and novelist, including writing and co-producing the Academy Award-nominated movie “House of Sand and Fog.” He also wrote the literary crime novel “Sins of Our Fathers,” a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. 

He lives in Minnesota with his wife, Rebecca Otto, the former Minnesota state auditor and candidate for governor, in a solar- and wind-powered green home he designed and the couple built with their own hands. Learn more about him on his website, www.shawnotto.com. 

About the Roslien Distinguished Lecture

The Dr. David J. Roslien Distinguished Lecture in Science and Leadership brings internationally recognized individuals who have made impacts on society through the use of cutting-edge science or global leadership in policy and programs to Luther College to engage with faculty and students.