The election of UMRA officers and new board members for 2024–25 will be conducted via an online poll from May 13 to 19, with the results to be announced at our annual meeting on May 21. The slate of candidates appears below. Online voting makes it convenient for more members to participate. Look for the ballot in your email inbox on May 13. 

UMRA members may nominate individuals not put forth by the Nominating Committee, provided the nominating person has the consent of the nominee. If you have such a nomination, please submit it to Nominating Committee Chair Ron Matross by May 10. You will also need to state which proposed officer or board member nomination you want to contest. If there are no additional nominations, the question on the ballot will be the approval of the entire slate of candidates. Terms for those elected begin on July 1.

The Nominating Committee presents the following slate of candidates for approval:

President-elect
Diane Young joined UMRA in 2019 after a 25-year career in fundraising at the University. She served as development officer in the then College of Natural Resources, as regional development officer at the U of M Foundation, and as development director in Global Programs and Strategy Alliance. Currently, Diane serves on the UMRA Board and on the Planning Committee for the Big Ten Retirees Association (BTRA) Conference to be hosted by UMRA in 2026. She also serves as lead for the UMRA Host Team, of which she is a founding member.

“I really enjoy my work on the board and the BTRA conference planning committee. I especially enjoy working with the UMRA Host Team, a wonderful group of highly engaged and dedicated UMRA members. We get to connect with UMRA members at the luncheon forums, making sure their reservations are complete, their name tags are accurate, their dietary needs are addressed, candy is on the tables, and that someone says a warm ‘Hello.’  Serving in leadership roles has given me the opportunity to give back to the U, and to meet many terrific and engaging people. Some of them I knew only by name and now I know them personally, and even call many of them friends who have fun together working on common goals to move UMRA’s mission forward.”

Before moving to Minnesota in 1989, Diane earned degrees in Spanish at Penn State and at Southern Connecticut State University. She taught Spanish in high schools in Connecticut and upstate New York and at the State University of New York at Cortland. She moved to Minnesota from Ithaca, New York, when her husband, Professor Nevin Young, joined the U of M faculty. Diane and Nevin live in the University Grove neighborhood in Falcon Heights and have one daughter, Patricia.

Secretary 
Laurie Koch (nominated for a second one-year term as secretary) joined the University faculty in 1987. She is a Distinguished University Teaching Professor of mathematics. During her tenure, she was associate vice provost and associate dean for undergraduate education, with responsibility for freshman seminars, orientation, first-year programs, the SMART Learning Commons, the Center for Academic Planning & Exploration, the President’s Emerging Scholars Program, and campus-wide student services initiatives. On two occasions, she served as interim director of Academic Counseling and Student Services for Intercollegiate Athletics. She was the director of international initiatives for the College of Education and Human Development, and one of her many joys was leading study abroad students to Italy. She served as chair of the Senate Committee on Educational Policy and chair of the Faculty Academic Oversight Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics. Laurie joined UMRA in 2020 and was first elected to the UMRA Board in 2021.

Treasurer 
Kristy Frost-Griep (nominated for a second one-year term) began her career as a certified public accountant at Deloitte & Touche. She then spent six years as accounting manager at Bloomington Schools and five years at the Wilder Foundation. She joined the University as finance manager in the Office of the Vice President for Health Sciences, later transitioning to finance director for the office of Academic Clinical Affairs. She retired in 2021, but still works part time assisting that office. Responsibilities have included non-sponsored and sponsored budgeting, reporting, analysis, pre- and post-award grant support, and financial policy interpretation at the project, department, collegiate, and executive levels.

Wendy Pradt Lougee (nominated for a three-year term; she was first elected in 2023 to serve the remaining year in Laurie Koch’s 2021–24 term) served as University librarian, dean of libraries, and McKnight Presidential Professor, retiring in 2020. Under her leadership, University Libraries was awarded the National Medal for Museums and Libraries in 2017. Prior to joining the University in 2002, she held positions at the University of Michigan over a 20-year period. 

New Board member

Peggy Mann Rinehart spent most of her career working with children and youth with disabilities. She retired as associate director of Disability Services in the Office for Equity and Diversity at the University of Minnesota, where she oversaw the Computer Accommodations, Document Conversion, and Access Assistants programs, in addition to coordinating outreach and communication for Disability Services. Prior to that, she served in various roles in the Medical School Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health, where she led research projects on the risk and protective factors of race, and ethnicity and resilience in children with chronic illness; coordinated and taught in the development disabilities rotation in the pediatric residency program; and served as dissemination director on two multisite longitudinal projects on children and youth with disabilities and resilience. She has been involved as an advisor and board member with many nonprofit organizations. She is a founder of North Star Academy, a charter school for deaf high school students, which merged with Metro Deaf School in St. Paul some time ago, and co-founder of Bridge for Youth with Disabilities, now Bridge for Community Life. She has been on the Skyscape Condominium Homeowners Association for 12 years and served as its president for the past 10. She joined UMRA in 2014.

Peggy will fill the board seat of KaiMay Yuen Terry, whose two terms are up in 2024. The committee decided not to fill the board seat to be vacated by Diane Young.

Continuing Board members

Julie Sweitzer automatically moves to president from president-elect. Julie joined UMRA in 2020 after serving the University for 32 years and retiring as executive director of the College Readiness Consortium and co-director of the Educational Equity Resource Center in the College of Education and Human Development. Previously, she was director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action and served as its associate general counsel. She holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a JD from the University Law School. 

Eric Hockert automatically continues as immediate past president. He retired in 2016 from the Office for Technology Commercialization.

Jerry Rinehart automatically continues as chair of the University Retirees Volunteer Center Leadership Council. He joined UMRA in 2014 after retiring as vice provost and dean of students, U of M Twin Cities campus, and served as UMRA president in 2018–19. 

Other continuing members are Frank Cerra, Bradley Clary, Will Craig, Diane Gihl, Michael Hancher, Kate Maple, and Jan Morlock.

—Ron Matross, past president and Nominating Committee chair, [email protected]