The University Retirees Volunteer Center (URVC) has welcomed two new members with valuable skills and experience to the URVC Leadership Council: Lynn Slifer and Jeanne Jacobson.

Lynn Slifer, a native of St. Louis, brings keen leadership and strategic communication skills to the council. Slifer moved to the Twin Cities to attend graduate school, and earned an MFA in vocal performance at the University. She returned to the U in 1991 to work as a development officer in women’s health and then moved to the College of Education and Human Development, where she spent 17 years. She ended her career at the U of M Foundation as an associate vice president for central development programs. Since retiring in 2020, Slifer has joined a poetry writing group, and does card making and watercolor painting while caring for her husband. 
 

After her retirement as director of graduate studies in nursing at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, and years of nursing leadership at the University of Minnesota and the Fairview Health Care System, Jeanne Jacobson felt a need to continue doing something meaningful and fulfilling. She had served on numerous boards during her professional career, only to become aware that they were more about raising funds and less about policy. She found the URVC website and was attracted to volunteer with the Community Teacher program for health professional students at the University. She has been volunteering with a passion ever since.  

In addition to the Community Teacher program, Jacobson’s list of current volunteer activities, all available through the Volunteer Center, includes two tutoring programs working with students, one church-based and one in a Minneapolis public school; the International Institute of Minnesota, where she assists immigrants and refugees seeking U.S. citizenship; and the Minneapolis-based Women’s Prison Book Project.

The other members of the URVC Leadership Council are David Hunter, Andrew Phelan, Terry Smith, and Michelle Trudeau-Spanjers; Chair Jerry Rinehart, Vice Chair and Project Director Deanne Magnusson, Secretary Leslie Koidahl, and (ex officio) UMRA Treasurer Kristy Frost-Griep. Visit [email protected] or call 612-625-8016 to learn more.

—Peggy Mann Rinehart