Board Bios

Board Members, 2012–13

	President: Kathy Burek kpburek [at] comcast [dot] net During her 30-year membership at Michael Servetus Unitarian Society (Fridley, MN), Kathy Burek has served on its Board of Trustees, as its President, and in a variety of lay leadership roles. She served as Vice President of the PSD Board. In that capacity, she has worked on PSD Governance and strategic planning, and also chaired the Program Council. Kathy has assisted District Staff in developing a strategic plan for growth for the district. In addition to her PSD work, Kathy serves on the Board of Trustees for the UUA Health Plan, and was its chair from March 2007-December 2008. Professionally, Kathy is an independent consultant and facilitator, focusing on strategic planning and organizational design. She is married and has three adult children.
	Vice President: David Martin dndmartin1 [at] mchsi [dot] com Dave Martin has been a member of the UU Society of Iowa City for over 30 years. During that time he has served in a variety of leadership roles, including Board Trustee, Treasurer, and Board President. He has taught OWL (Our Whole Lives - sexuality education) classes and been chair of the Stewardship Campaign. He served on the PSD Program Council and has been on the staff of the Midwest Leadership School. He is head of the Business Library at the University of Iowa.
	Treasurer: Bill Elwood wkelwood [at] aol [dot] com Bill Elwood has been a member of First Universalist Church, Minneapolis for twenty-six years, and UU churches in Oklahoma and Texas for six years. He has served on the Policy Governance, Personnel, Ministerial Transition, and Finance Committees, and as Board of Trustees Treasurer, Vice President, and President at First Universalist. He also has served on the UUA President’s Roundtable Planning Committee, and the Prairie Star District Audit Committee for three years. Bill, now retired, has an MBA and over thirty years experience in management of corporate information systems. He is married with three children and five grandchildren, and his interests include biking, hiking and travel.
	Secretary: Vicki Pratt vlpratt [at] cox [dot] net Vicki Pratt has been a member of Second Unitarian Church of Omaha, Nebraska for 17 years. In addition to a term on the Board of Trustees she has chaired the Finance, Library, and Social Justice committees. For Prairie Star she served two terms as Social Justice Program Coordinator and worked with the PSD Chalice Lighters recruitment team. Vicki enjoys traveling with Elderhostel after retirement from an international data processing company. She is the Secretary for Omaha Together One Community, the local congregation-based community organization, and volunteers with the Nebraska AARP Legislative Advocacy Committee. Her other interests include reading, international folk dance, Scottish country dance, tap dance, contra dance, and playing alto and tenor with the Heartland Recorder Consort.
	Director: Rev. Bruce Johnson uurevbruce [at] aol [dot] com A native of northern Minnesota and a life-long Unitarian Universalist, Rev. Bruce Johnson graduated from Bowdoin College in 1975, and received an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School in 1982. He has served congregations in Rutland, Vermont; Bloomington, Indiana; Detroit, Michigan; Urbana, Illinois; and Indianapolis, Indiana, before coming to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Duluth, Minnesota, in 2011. Bruce brings experience in UUA district leadership and in Policy Governance.
	Director: Charlotte Preston getsitdone [at] aol [dot] com Charlotte Preston joined the White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church (Mahtomedi, Minnesota) in 1993. She has served on its Board of Directors and was its President when it became a mid-sized congregation. As a lay leader, she has focused on outreach – serving as a point of contact for the press and launching WBUUC’s Facebook page, for which she is a site administrator. Charlotte has facilitated Conversation Circles, led the a capella ensemble Esperanza, and with her partner founded a WBUUC Youth Jazz Band. She has served as campaign manager for three candidates for the Minnesota House of Representatives and on the Steering Committee of the Local School District’s Special Levy. Professionally, Charlotte owns a small business which operates in the context of the global jewelry industry, via trade shows, group management, and private clients. She is a member of the board of the Women’s Jewelry Association – Twin Cities. Charlotte holds an M.A. – English from Kansas State University. Charlotte and Mary, partnered since 1984, have a young adult son who lives and works in Minneapolis.
	Director: Kristi Schuck kristi [at] twofishstudios [dot] com Kristi Schuck is the Director of Lifespan Faith Development at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Mankato, Minnesota. She has been in her current position since 2007. She serves on many of the committees within the fellowship – fund raising, social action, Sunday Services, as well as in her community at large. She was recently elected to serve the Mankato Area School Board, is Chair of the Planning Commission for the City of Mankato, and sits on a number of other non-profit boards.

Ex Officio Board Members

UUA Trustee: Graham Kreicker
kreicker [at] sunflower [dot] com (gkreicker [at] gmail [dot] com )
Graham Kreicker (pronounced cry ker) had the good fortune to be born into a UU family. As a young adult he held many leadership positions, including President, of the UU Congregation of Fort Wayne, Indiana. He currently lives in Lawrence, Kansas and is a member of the Unitarian Fellowship of Lawrence. He has chaired many committees at his present congregation, served as Chair of the Fellowship, Capital Campaign Co-Chair and as an Owners’ Representative for their new sanctuary addition. Graham is a co-founder of SCORE, the very successful Southern Cluster OutReach and Extension that is expanding and energizing our congregations in Kansas and western Missouri. He has served on the PSD Nominating Committee.

Graham holds a B.A. from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is retired from a successful career in advertising, marketing, sales and public relations; and is a retired Marine Corps Reserve Colonel. In 2010 Graham spent eleven months in Asuncion, Paraguay, as a volunteer English conversation teacher at the national teacher’s college.

District Executive: Nancy Heege
nheege [at] psduua [dot] org
Nancy Heege has been Prairie Star District Executive since 1995. Prior to that, she served as Director of Religious Education at Unity Church – Unitarian in Saint Paul for fifteen years, during which she was an active District volunteer. She also served as President of the national Liberal Religious Educators Association for two years.

Nancy served on the UUA’s Large Church Staff Team [a cross-departmental team] for several years and also on the UUA Moderator’s Congregations Come First task force to look at service delivery and regionalization.

Nancy has a B.A. from Augsburg College in Minneapolis. She has been qualified to administer the Myers Briggs Type Inventory and has been trained by Rev. Dr. Peter Steinke in Healthy Congregations work.

Nancy is married, has two sons and five grandchildren, and in her spare time, she knits and reads.

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Board Bios