Successful UND Women Graduates to Speak at 21^st Annual Hultberg Lectureship Feb. 5

“Channeling Life’s Energy: Work, Home, Relationships” is the theme of the 21^st Annual Hultberg Lectureship Series presented by the College of Business and Public Administration at the University of North Dakota. The lecture will be held Tuesday, Feb. 5, 7:30 – 9 p.m. in the Fred Orth Lecture Bowl on the second floor of the Memorial Union.

This year’s lecture features four successful female graduates from the University of North Dakota:

• Laurie Furuseth, CPA, Rustad and Furuseth, Williston, ND

• Sherri McDaniel, Vice President, Worldwide Temperature, Emerson Process Management, Rosemount Division, Minneapolis, MN

• Susan J. Crockett, Vice President, Senior Technology Officer of Health and Nutrition, General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition, Minneapolis, MN

• Jennifer Lukach, Human Resource Representative, Ecolab, Grand Forks, ND

Each year prominent female alumni from UND bring their leadership and experiences to the University community through this event. “The Hultberg Lectureship has been one of the most successful programs that we offer,” said Dr. Dennis Elbert, Dean of the College of Business and Public Administration. “It provides the opportunity to showcase our graduates, who have proven to be outstanding role models for our current students.”

Here’s a look at the 2008 featured speakers:

Laurie Furuseth is a partner in the Williston, ND accounting firm of Rustad and Furuseth, CPAs. The practice is largely income tax based with much of her time spent assisting business clients and their owners with a variety of accounting and tax issues. Working in a small firm in a rural community provides the opportunity for developing quality, long-term relationships with her clients.

Originally from Mayville, ND, Furuseth attended the University of North Dakota graduating with a Bachelor of Accountancy in December, 1981. She received her CPA certificate in 1982. In 1983, after receiving her Master of Accountancy from UND, she taught in the UND Department of Accounting and Business Law for one semester. She then began practicing with an accounting firm in Williston.

Community involvement is a priority for Furuseth. She currently serves on the board of directors for Mercy Medical Center, American State Bank & Trust Co., Williston Area Development Foundation and the Fort Union Association. She has served as chairman of the Mercy Medical Foundation and the Williston Star Fund (the local economic development board) and has served on the boards of the Chamber of Commerce in Williston and Tioga.

Furuseth lives in Williston with her husband, Peter. They have two daughters.

Sherri Bonacci McDaniel graduated with a Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering from UND in May 1989 after spending most of her childhood in Jamestown, ND. While attending UND, she was a co-op student with 3M Company in St. Paul, MN and Camarillo, CA. Upon graduation, McDaniel accepted a position with Rosemount Inc in their Eden Prairie, MN factory. Eighteen years later, Sherri is still with the Rosemount Division of Emerson Process Management, a wholly owned business unit of the St. Louis, Missouri-based Emerson.

Sherri started her engineering career in a non-traditional role as an applications engineer where she worked directly with process industry customers on pre and post sale support of flow measurement products. Sherri quickly found her passion in utilizing her technical skill set to work with customers to meet their business needs. This observation prompted her to return to the classroom in the evenings, this time at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management where she received her MBA with emphasis in Finance and Marketing in June 1994.

Armed with her engineering and business skill sets, Sherri made a number of position changes within Rosemount. She spent several years in various product management roles before working on two acquisitions that broadened Rosemount’s product portfolio. Upon completion of the acquisitions, she was asked to move into an internal role where she was responsible for integrating the operations of the three organizations.

With the acquisition integration complete, Sherri added the operations for the entire Americas organization to her responsibility where she managed $1M/day in sales and shipments while also launching an average of 10 major new products through the global supply chain each year. In February 2006, Sherri moved into her current role as Vice President and General Manager of the $150M Temperature product group. With factories in Singapore, Russia, Germany, and Minnesota and sales organizations in nearly every country, she has tremendous opportunities to experience the sights and sounds of the world while operating a global business unit encompassing design engineering, operations, product marketing and sales.

Sherri lives in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN with her husband, John, and their three children, Madison (12), Kendall (9) and Caden (4).

Susan J. Crockett, Ph.D., R.D., FADA is Vice President and Senior Technology Officer, Health and Nutrition at General Mills where she directs the Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition. Since 1999, she has been responsible for health and nutrition strategy and programs for General Mills’ businesses, health and nutrition regulatory affairs and issues management, nutrition science and research including dietary intake research, health professional communication, and health pipeline development.

With support of a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship, she completed a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Minnesota in 1987. She has B.S. (from the University of North Dakota) and M.S. degrees in Nutrition and Dietetics, is a registered dietitian, and a Fellow of the American Dietetic Association. Crockett was Dean of the College for Human Development at Syracuse University from 1990 to 1999 and prior to that was a Department Chair and faculty member in nutrition.

She has published research about nutrition education in schools, effectiveness of nutrition interventions in rural medical clinics and communities. She writes about the influence of environments on the eating behavior of children. In 1987, Crockett received an award from the Secretary of Health and Human Services for Innovation in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention for her proposal, “Parent Health Education: Maximizing Impact”. Her research has been funded by the Retirement Research Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (NHLBI and NCI) and she has consulted for the Centers for Disease Control, Division of Nutrition and Division of Adolescent and School Health.

Crockett is Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the International Food Information Council, a member of the Food Forum that advises the Food and Drug Administration and active in the International Life Science Institute. She received a Sioux Award from UND in 2002 and an Alumni Achievement Award from NDSU in 1999. Crockett is on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Opera and a trustee of United Theological Seminary.

Jennifer (Carpentier) Lukach graduated from UND in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and in 1999 with a Master of Business Administration. While attending UND, she had internships in the Affirmative Action Office on campus and in the Human Resource department at Valleyfair. Her primary focus for her electives was on Human Resource Management.

After graduation Jen responded to a job advertisement for a position as a Human Resource Assistant with locally owned Acme Electric in Grand Forks. She was hired, and at the time of the job offer it was revealed to her that she’d be working for a company called Amazon.com that had recently acquired Acme Electric. Great surprise! In the midst of this acquisition and growth period for the company, Jen’s role was primarily interviewing and on-boarding new associates. The staff grew from approximately 150 to 500 in the first year and a half. Promoted to an HR Generalist in 2000, Jen’s responsibilities expanded to included, manager training, employee relations, payroll and benefits administration, rewards and recognition, and performance management. Amazon.com is where she got her first exposure to Six Sigma and became Greenbelt certified.

Jen accepted her current position as a Human Resource Generalist for the Ecolab Pest Elimination division in Grand Forks in June 2006. With $5 billion in global sales, Ecolab is the world's leading provider of cleaning, food safety and health protection products and services for the hospitality, foodservice, healthcare and industrial markets. The Pest Elimination Division provides service and technology for the detection, identification, elimination and prevention of pests in commercial facilities, as well as food safety auditing and training services.

As an HR Generalist, Jen’s role is managing employee relations for six of Ecolab’s fourteen regions in the United States, which includes the area from Maine to Florida and west to Wisconsin. She is also the HR Generalist for the 165 associates at the National Support Center located in Grand Forks. Her responsibilities include manager training, performance management, disability claim case management, and employee relations. Working with associates located remotely across the United States has allowed Jen to travel extensively. Jen has also participated in Ecolab’s Lean Six Sigma program.

Lukach is PHR certified and is the Certification Director for the local SHRM chapter. Jen lives in Grand Forks with her husband, Matt, and their one-year-old daughter, Sophia.

Hans and Susanna Hultberg immigrated to the United States in the late 1800s, and all four of their children attended UND. The lectureship was established by their daughter, Clara E. Anderson, who graduated from the College of Business and Public Administration in 1928.

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