Author

Jennifer Carter is an attorney and director of the Health Care Access Program at Nebraska Appleseed, which is dedicated to ensuring access to quality, affordable health care for all Nebraskans. She has worked at Appleseed since 2003.
 

Jim Jenkins is an owner and operator of several Nebraska restaurants including Skeeter Barnes Steakhouse and BBQ. He is also managing partner of his family’s cow/calf and yearling ranch operation near Callaway. Since moving back to the ranch in 1996, Jenkins has implemented progressive grazing practices and multispecies grazing using cattle and goats. Jenkins is a passionate advocate for rural communities and value-added agribusiness development including ethanol and wind energy.

Robert J. Miller is an associate professor at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Ore. He is also the chief justice of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Court of Appeals and a citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.

Becky Gould is an attorney and executive director of Nebraska Appleseed, a nonprofit, nonpartisan legal advocacy organization that advocates on behalf of low-income Nebraskans, children in the foster care system and new immigrants. Appleseed uses public policy, litigation, and outreach and education to advocate for these groups. During her time at Appleseed since 2001, Gould has worked on health care access for low-income families.

Barbara Chapman Banks is the director/curator of the Lentz Center for Asian Culture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Asian Art History in 1989. She wrote her dissertation on “The Magical Powers of the Horse as Revealed in the Archaeological Explorations of Early China.”

Nebraska U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel is serving his second term in the Senate. He sits on four committees: Foreign Relations; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; and Intelligence and Rules. A graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Hagel is the author of “America: Our Next Chapter” and is a Vietnam combat veteran.

Kelly Blice has served as the director of marketing and public relations for Opera Omaha for the past three seasons. Prior to working in the arts, Blice worked in sales and marketing for Hyatt Hotels throughout the country. Receiving her Bachelor of Science in marketing from Creighton University, Blice is glad to be back in Omaha.

John Krejci is an emeritus professor of sociology, anthropology and social work from Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Neb. After retiring from 25 years in the classroom, he remains active in the community, focusing on peace and justice issues, particularly corrections. He currently contributes to several regional newsletters, including the “Nebraska Criminal Justice Review.” His background includes community organization and advocacy work with black American, native American and hispanic minorities in Nebraska.

Topher Hansen is the executive director of CenterPointe, a behavioral health agency specializing in treatment, rehabilitation and housing for persons with co-occurring mental illness and addiction. He is the president of the Nebraska Association of Behavioral Health Organizations and has recently completed service on the Governor’s State Advisory Committee on Substance Abuse Services and the Legislature’s Behavioral Health Oversight Commission. He is an attorney, husband and father of four children.

Rep. Paul Ryan represents the First Congressional District of Wisconsin, which includes Racine, Kenosha, parts of Milwaukee and his hometown of Janesville. Currently serving his fifth term in Congress, Ryan is the ranking member of the House Budget Committee and serves on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Donald Hey is a leading researcher, advocate and practitioner of wetland restoration. He has been the codeveloper of two major wetland restoration projects—the Des Plaines River Wetlands Demonstration Project and the Hennepin and Hopper Lakes Project, both in northern Illinois.

Michael Farrell began making photographs and assembled objects in the late 1960s during his college years in the Fine Arts Department at Indiana University. After earning a master’s degree in Chicago at the Institute of Design, he moved to Lincoln, Neb., in 1972 to work at the Nebraska ETV Network (NET Television), where he currently holds the position of television production manager and adjunct faculty at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Lt. Gen. (Neb., ret.) Roger Lempke is the former adjutant general of Nebraska. During his tenure from 2000 through 2007, the Nebraska National Guard mobilized the largest number of citizen-soldiers since World War II.

Barbara A. Hayes is an environmental scientist and regulatory specialist with Hayes Environmental LLC. She is also on the board of trustees for The Nature Conservancy, vice president of The Green Omaha Coalition Board and past chairman of the Douglas County Planning Commission.

Amanda Mobley, originally from Grass Valley, Calif., is a recent graduate (spring 2008) of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the curatorial assistant at the Great Plains Art Museum. She served as guest curator for “The Canopy Overhead: The Later Years of Dwight Kirsch” exhibition.

Suzanne Smith Arney is a writer and arts educator in Omaha, Neb. A native Nebraskan, she is proud of and energized by the high caliber of artists living in the state. The arts here, like the land itself, often surprise visitors by their variety and strengths.

David Pope of Topeka, Kan., is executive director of the Missouri River Association of States and Tribes and a consultant on water and natural-resources issues. He previously served as Kansas chief engineer for 24 years, where he administered laws related to the regulation and management of water. He also represented the State of Kansas on river compacts and Missouri River issues. Pope holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in agricultural engineering from Oklahoma State University, where he specialized in irrigation and water-resources engineering.

Thomas B. Bragg is a professor of biology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and director of the university’s Allwine Prairie Preserve. His research focuses on fire in Midwestern prairies and oak-savanna ecosystems including long-term studies initiated in 1976. Additional studies were initiated in Western Australia beginning in 2000.

Robert K.

Mark L. Moseman grew up on a farm near Oakland, Neb., and has lived in New York, Arizona and Missouri. He was an architect and city planner before becoming an agrarian artist. His studio is an old Nebraska farmhouse. He is one of the founding board members of Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art in David City, Neb., and serves as the museum’s first curator.