Barb is the Zero Suicide Institute Manager for the Education Development Center (EDC). She has served on our board since 2021. She serves on the board because: “I wholeheartedly believe in supporting a person’s total wellbeing, and so the space, programs and connections of Prairiewoods is a great match for me. I look forward to learning even more about Prairiewoods, and sharing it with others to help support and grow the work.”
Charles is a member of Christ Episcopal Church in Cedar Rapids and volunteers as a tutor at the Catherine McAuley Center. He was a part-time adjunct professor at Mount Mercy University where he taught writing and Capstone courses before retiring in 2022. He also retired from Collins Aerospace in 2018 after a career in technical writing for 22 years. He loves Prairiewoods because it acknowledges our role in caring for God’s creation.
David is a seventh-generation Iowan with 29 years’ experience in museum and historic site leadership. He has served as the Executive Director at Brucemore since 2012. David was honored in 2019 with the Nonprofit Leadership Excellence Award by the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation. Under his leadership, Brucemore has amassed regional, state and national recognition for excellence in preservation, organizational culture, collaboration, programming and economic impact.
Mary, an associate professor of music education at the University of Iowa, is honored to serve on the board since 2021. Prairiewoods’ collaborative mission of ecology, spirituality and holistic health align strongly with her vision for building caring communities rooted in Love, interconnectedness and well-being.
Nate is married to Jenny Klein, and they have four children full of life. He currently serves as the VP for Education with Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa. Nate joined the Prairiewoods board to continue his own faith journey while supporting others along theirs in a meaningful way through the Franciscan charism.
Ellen is an artist and educator living in Cedar Rapids. Her artistic practice weaves together community engagement, material investigation and collaboration. She has exhibited her art nationally and internationally and received numerous awards for her artwork and community organizing. Ellen is the Executive Director of the Iowa Ceramics Center and Glass Studio, a non-profit community art center.
Frank is a retired lawyer, having represented individuals and small businesses in Eastern Iowa for more than 40 years. He grew up on an Eastern Iowa farm in the 1950s and early 1960s in the company of his grandfather, from whom he inherited a love of our Mother Earth. Frank finds his spiritual connection most easily in nature and has been an appreciative visitor, volunteer and participant in Prairiewoods programs for many years. Frank believes whole-heartedly in the mission and the vision of Prairiewoods and says: “I consider it a privilege to serve on the board of Prairiewoods.”
Hether is an Assistant Vice President RE-Consumer Support Manager at Cedar Rapids Bank and Trust, where she has been for 16 years, and has 24 years of banking experience. Through her growth through CRBT and moving into a leadership role, Hether was seeking to join a board to that felt a good fit to her core beliefs. Hether has her 200-hour yoga teaching certificate and is always looking for opportunities to connect with the environment and those in the like-minded community. After doing some research and visiting with some outside and some within Prairiewoods, this opportunity felt like a great experience for Hether to continue her own personal growth as well as the future growth of Prairiewoods.
After spending most of her adult life in nursing, Sister Irene is now retired and living on her family farm. This gives her the opportunity for a somewhat contemplative lifestyle that she loves. She says, “It becomes so easy to feel a part of the Earth and kin to the rocks and plants, butterflies and squirrels, and all the wild creatures.” Irene’s nursing career was evenly divided between clinical nursing and nursing education, including building, upgrading and establishing a nursing college at Majuro in the Marshall Islands. Throughout life, she has enjoyed outdoor activities, including biking, softball, tennis, camping, hiking, skiing, walking and snorkeling. Today she enjoys gardening, yard work, and watching sunrises and sunsets. She says, “I came to know the divine presence through these experiences.”
Jen works as a therapist at Green Counseling Services in Coralville and serves as the Wellness Program Director for Backyard Abundance. She has cherished the rejuvenation she feels from her visits to Prairiewoods for over a decade. She has chosen to serve on the board because she deeply resonates with Prairiewoods’ mission and recognizes the inherent need of the human spirit and natural world to be interconnected for the health of self and others.
Marin first found Prairiewoods while serving in Green Iowa AmeriCorps, where she helped remove invasive plant species and cleaned up tree debris after the derecho. She now works as a housing case manager at Willis Dady Homeless Services and is excited to put her passion for the environment to work here at Prairiewoods.
Peter is a father, husband and designer working in residential remodeling in Iowa City. He has lectured for ISU’s architecture department, worked as a carpenter, practiced architecture, started a furniture design/build studio and recently returned to residential remodeling. He is a LEED accredited professional who’s interested in the evolution of sustainable, renewable and regenerative design and built environments. Peter looks forward to serving the evolving mission of Prairiewoods.
Sister Roselyn is the pastoral associate at St. Mary’s Church in Odanah, Wisconsin, Indian Reservation, and a spiritual director. Most important in being there is creating safe space for being an energy of healing presence. She has deep roots in the Care of Earth, as she grew up on a small dairy farm and worked in God’s cathedrals as an interpretive ranger in the national parks for twelve years around the country from the Florida Everglades to Yellowstone to Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco. She also fought forest fires in Glacier National Park. Being involved in her FSPA community’s Eco-Spirituality committee since 2004 and participating in workshops at Prairiewoods has offered her root connections in the cathedral of Prairiewoods. As John Muir so powerfully said back in 1869 in his Papers, “When we try to pick out anything by itself we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe.” Back in the national parks, she could only quote John Muir. But she knows Jesus said it long before: We are all One in the Body of Christ. Roselyn says, “I honor the opportunity to saunter on the land of Prairiewoods to nourish the radiance of the Body of Christ.”
Ryan [he/they] grew up in Denton, Texas, and used to sneak into jazz clubs and punk rock venues with his friends. In his twenties he spent time sleeping under the stars with homeless neighbors in Dallas. Eventually, when he was a little less mischievous, he met Kristina and they married 2020. They are parents to a funny, fluffy dog named Macrina, and they recently welcomed their first human child, Audrey, into the world. Ryan is someone who is called to listen to a world that is longing to be heard and delights in cultivating spaces of curiosity and wonder. This led him to study spirituality and social justice in seminary at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas and to become a trained spiritual director. Since then, Ryan has worked as a community organizer for nonprofits and as a spiritual companion to adults, youth and children in churches. Ryan currently works at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church as their associate pastor of discipleship and neighboring.
Sister Suzanne is a spiritual director and caregiver. She has been on the board since 2020 and was previously the FSPA Leadership Team liaison to the Prairiewoods board (2010–2014). She says, “The Prairiewoods Mission statement itself best articulates my reason for choosing to serve on its Board: ‘Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center is a sacred space where people of all faiths and cultures are invited to explore and nurture their relationship with the Source of all Being, Earth, Self and Others with an increasing awareness of the story of the Universe.’ This sacred space of 70 acres contains the reality and opportunity of conscious awareness of the Divine in all relationships. Hence, every person, rock, tree, breeze, program, retreat, drop of stream water reflects Divine Goodness and Grace. Prairiewoods’ active and on-going history of Environmental education and actual ‘doing’ serves as a necessary model for the future of Earth and all of her inhabitants.”