Sundance Family Foundation - Board of Trustees

ABOUT US

Background

Founders

Sundance Team

Pay It Forward

Board of Trustees

H. Yvonne Cheek, management consultant and master trainer, helps people in organizations reduce gaps from where they are to where they want to be. Her organization development practice, Millennium Consulting Group, involves building high performance cultures, creating inclusive environments, team building, board governance, strategic planning and managing polarities. Her public speaking, bicycling, going to the theater and spending time with family and friends add jolts to her joy.

Yvonne Barrett, a 2006 Bush Leadership Fellow, is focusing her studies on becoming conversational in the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) language. She is also participating in a Grotto Foundation apprentice program. Currently on leave of absence as the Executive Director of Ain Dah Yung (Our Home) Center, she spent eighteen years with this organization serving American Indian youth and families. She is experienced as a youth worker/counselor, family advocate, manager and administrator. Yvonne completed her MSW at Augsburg College, with an emphasis on program development, policy and administration. She is a licensed graduate level social worker. Yvonne enjoys participating in community events, cultural activities, quilting, photography and scrap booking and attending her daughter’s athletic events with her husband, Greg.

Chip Daniels began his career as a grain trader and senior executive at a large Swiss-based international trading company and was involved with buying and selling grains and oilseeds around the globe. Twelve years ago he dropped out of that world, moved to Minnesota and started a specialty crops company that focuses on organic food crops initially in the upper Midwest.

As consumer demand for organic food has grown tremendously, he now spends much of his time promoting and importing organic crops from underdeveloped countries in South America and Asia. “It is a rewarding experience to help small family farmers receive better prices for their organic and sustainable crops,” Chip said.

Nancy Jacobs is a cofounder and board member of Sundance Family Foundation. Nancy holds an M.Ed. in Family Education from the University of Minnesota and focused her career path in family and parent education. Outside of directing the foundation work of Sundance, Nancy divides her time among her other passions which include; her children, creative writing and adventurous travels.

Mark Sandercott is a cofounder and board member of Sundance Family Foundation. Mark is also the founder and CEO of Superior Land Preservation, L.L.C. His development company specializes in environmentally conscious, open-space conservation. In his spare time, Mark enjoys family, tennis and travel.

John Savereide is a social worker specializing in supportive housing at Human Services, Inc. in Washington County Minnesota. He has a master’s degree in social work with an emphasis on housing from the University of Minnesota and has done graduate study at Yale University. He is certified as a Housing Development Finance Professional through the National Development Council. John has developed several successful supportive housing projects for individuals experiencing mental illness.

Rob Scarlett grew up “on the road” as part of a 3M-International family. After college, full of 1960s-engendered enthusiasm for “changing the system”, he began his career as a supervisor for ACCION en Venezuela, an NGO that specialized in self-help, economic empowerment programs in that country’s poorest urban “barrios”. After staying on to establish similar NGOs in Brazil and Peru, he returned to Minnesota, raised a family, and channeled his energies into several internationally focused start-up businesses and other projects involving new technologies.

Starting in the 1980s, Rob served as Chairman, CEO and or director, of a series of small international manufacturing and technology companies – each time with the goal of helping them penetrate overseas markets. Throughout all this time, he has remained actively involved as a volunteer and advisor in the micro-finance movement and, through his business travels to Europe and Latin America, has retained his fluency in German, Spanish and Portuguese.

Segundo M. Velasquez - Born in Bolivia, Segundo spent his childhood a small rural community and then attended high school in Cochabamba. He worked with his father, making colonial roof tiles by hand and selling them locally. As a young adult, he met Joan Swanson, a Peace Corps volunteer who was working in Cochabamba, and immigrated to the United States where they were married. Segundo began his career in Minnesota in aviation with a small aircraft repair shop until he gained the experience required for employment with a major airline. He worked then for Northwest Airlines until he retired in 2005; managing up to 200 employees; developing and overseeing technical work processes; evaluating equipment for purchase; managing the department’s budget; and training employees.

Segundo and his wife Joan co-founded Mano a Mano Medical Resources, a Minnesota-based non-profit organization whose mission is to create partnerships with poor Bolivian communities to improve health and increase economic well-being. Segundo has served for the past fourteen years as President, and directed the organization on a volunteer basis until 2006.

Management Consultant

Mary Karen Lynn-Klimenko provides consultant services to the Sundance Family Foundation. She manages foundation business and helps the board develop, communicate and implement its vision.

For more than 23 years, Mary Karen has worked in the nonprofit field. She has provided consultant services to philanthropic organizations locally, nationally and internationally for the past 12 years. She has helped to create a philanthropic investment program and assisted many families in developing and managing their granting programs. Mary Karen is excited to bring new resources to philanthropy. As a volunteer, she co-directs a small international volunteer program.