20 Under 40: Recognizing 20 outstanding community members under age 40
- Updated
- 0
The 20 Under 40 awards are meant to honor those who, through their industry and hard work, are moving the Helena community forward toward the future.
These awards are not just bestowed by the Independent Record. They are bestowed by the citizens of Helena and the Helena Valley, who nominated each of the honorees.
Here are the winners of the 2016 20 Under 40 awards! Congratulations!
- ANGELA BRANDT Independent Record
- Updated
To say Andrew Moore worked his way from the ground up at St. Peter's Hospital is in no way an understatement.
His first position was as a part-time janitor in the emergency room.
Moore, 31, is now director of surgical services. In the last eight years, he has served in a multitude of jobs at the Helena hospital.
He didn't aspire to a medical career. Up until college, Moore dreamed of playing professional football. Then he blew out his shoulder.
"That made my path," he said.
The injury sparked his interest in nursing. He later cut a tendon in his hand while cooking. This furthered his intrigue.
"I really gained an appreciation for nursing," Moore said.
Moore is one of the most influential nursing leaders, according to Katy Peterson, St. Peter's director of public relations and marketing. Peterson nominated Moore for the 20 Under 40 distinction.
"Despite his rapid ascent within St. Peter's, Andrew remains grounded in his role and never forgets his own humble beginnings. He capably bridges teams across the organization, thanks to his own diverse experience and ability to connect with folks at all levels of the organization from the environmental services aide to high-level leadership," Peterson wrote in her nomination letter.
Moore said he truly adores his coworkers. He shares the accolades with them.
"I appreciate the honor of this, but it really is my team," he said. "I really love this hospital."
In his current position, Moore oversees the nursing functions of the surgical unit and the operating room, among other responsibilities.
"Under his leadership, the Surgical Unit has significantly increased patient satisfaction scores, driven by Andrew's emphasis on patient rounding where he and his staff prioritize one-on-one time with patients and their families on their care, treatment, and plans following discharge," Peterson wrote.
- James DeHaven
- Updated
Dr. Summer Monforte first arrived in Helena almost four years ago, having just turned down a job at the prestigious National Jewish Health hospital in Denver.
That hospital, one of the world’s top respiratory research centers, would’ve been a top spot for the 36-year-old allergist to land, but Monforte had other plans.
“I wanted to go someplace where I was needed," she explained. “It was a huge opportunity to bring care here that wasn't otherwise available.
“I also like to be involved in everything. ... We do it all and I love that."
Helena’s St. Peter's Hospital loves it too. A hospital spokeswoman said its asthma, allergy and immunology clinic has doubled in size since Monforte’s arrival and now offers “some of the most advanced asthma, allergy and immunology treatments in Montana.”
Monforte -- a specialist in the treatment of asthma, eczema and a whole host of seasonal, food and medication allergies -- led the staff recruitment behind the clinic’s expansion, growing the practice into one of only two in the state that offers rush immunotherapy for allergy relief.
The Denver native is also one of only three pediatric-trained allergists in the Treasure State, expertise she’s parlayed into a role as a physician with Camp Huff n Puff, an annual summer camp for children afflicted with asthma.
Monforte earned a medical degree at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and a Bachelor of Arts in biology from Cornell University. She trained in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Colorado and in allergy and immunology at National Jewish Health.
She is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and the American Board of Allergy and Immunology. She is also a fellow with the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.
An avid sewer and cookbook author, Monforte is married with two daughters, ages 9 and 5.
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
- Updated
Author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said “You don’t build a business — you build people — and then people build the business.” Jill-Marie Steeley, executive director of PureView Health Center, knows that the key to any successful business is building relationships — with customers and within the community.
Originally from Salt Lake City, Steeley has been enjoying life in the Big Sky State for the past 12 years. Prior to joining PureView, she spent nearly four years as the director of the Health and Human Services Division of the Gallatin City-County Health Department, seven years as the Director of the Madison County Health Department, and was a senior analyst for Goldman Sachs in Salt Lake City for four years.
Steeley assumed the role of executive director at PureView in May of 2015. At the time, PureView was in the middle of rebranding from its former identity as the Cooperative Health Center. That process included the construction of a brand new clinic. Steeley quickly got behind the new brand as she viewed it as a fresh and promising new start for the organization.
“I wanted to see the clinic rebuild its relationships in the community and make sure the needs of the patients were being met and that there was no wrong door for them,” said Steeley.
PureView is a qualified health care center that operates under the mission of “providing quality comprehensive healthcare with comfort,” particularly to those underserved in the community. With roughly 7,000 patients served annually though the new clinic, one at God’s Love and the Parker Medical Center in Lincoln, PureView’s embrace is widespread.
With only a little over a year under her belt with PureView, Steeley has accomplished a great deal. She improved the service delivery in Lincoln, expanded the Helena clinic to serve as the preferred provider for county employees, reinstated Helena’s behavioral health component and expanded their dental offerings.
“She (Steeley) has been a breath of fresh air and leads the organization with the experience of someone twice her age,” said county commissioner Mike Murray.
Still on Steeley’s to-do list is to renew the offering of dental services in Lincoln, expand the mental health services offered at the Helena clinic and contract with a pharmacist in the main clinic.
But at the end of the day, Steeley’s most deep-rooted goal is to continue building relationships with patients and other medical providers and organizations in town. And of course, offering quality care to any and all.
“Everyone deserves good health care and the access to it,” said Steeley.
For her, the best part of what she does is getting to see patients get great health care when they may not have been able to otherwise.
“I’ve always believed in community service and wanted to work with people whose lives aren’t as fortunate as mine,” said Steeley.
- PEGGY O'NEILL For the Independent Record
- Updated
Tyler Emmert holds many titles. As quarterback for Carroll College, he led the Saints to four national championships and picked up three All American and two NAIA Player of the Year honors along the way. But to those titles, he can now add engineer, wide receivers coach at Carroll College, banker, school board trustee and father of four.
Emmert has accomplished a lot in a short amount of time and in a small amount of space.
“Over the last 30 years, I’ve stayed within a 10-block radius,” the 33-year-old said. Before Carroll, Emmert attended Four Georgians Elementary, C.R. Anderson Middle and Capital High schools.
Space is obviously not a limiting factor for Emmert. A few years ago, he made a complete career change from engineering to banking.
Faced with a financial decision within the engineering company he was working for, Emmert thought it would be helpful to attend graduate school in finance. However, a friend of his who was working for American Federal (now known as Opportunity Bank) told him he would learn more about finance by working for the bank for a while.
“He said, ‘I have a hunch that once you try banking, you’ll stick with it,’” Emmert said. “He was right.”
“The short story is they left the door open for me and I snuck in,” Emmert said and laughed.
During his three years at Opportunity Bank, Emmert worked his way from commercial loan officer to his most recent title of Helena Market President.
Emmert said the banking business is more optimistic than engineering.
“Nobody calls you as an engineer when things are going good,” he said. “We’re a community bank; it’s great to work with the people you’ve known forever.”
He also enjoys the banker’s hours. There’s a bracket, he said, “they lock the bank at night, so you go in after 8 and you have to leave before 5.”
The hours allow him to spend time with his four kids -- 5-year-old twins (a girl and a boy), and 8- and 10-year old girls. The hours also allow him to spend time coaching and fulfilling his duties on the school board.
“He constantly seeks ways in which he can give back to his hometown community of Helena, whether it be through his involvement as an assistant coach for the Carroll College Saints football team, or his recent election to the Helena school board,” Larry Williams, also of Opportunity Bank, said in his 20 Under 40 nomination letter for Emmert. “Tyler instinctively understands the important role that local small businesses play in the Helena economy and consistently applies sound banking principles to help those businesses plan, grow and prosper.”
When asked where he thinks he might be in five years, Emmert said: “I don’t seem to go too far; I’m guessing I’ll still be around that 10-block radius.”
Whatever he’s doing, he’ll be sticking to his own advice: “Do things you enjoy doing. Work with people you enjoy working with. You can control those things; there are lots of things you can’t.”
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
- Updated
Educators are among the few people who lose sleep over other people’s children. Having served as a teacher at Bryant Elementary School for more than 10 years, Erin Finstad has undoubtedly lost quite a bit of sleep over the years.
When it came to choosing a career path, Finstad admitted that the decision came down to either becoming a veterinarian or a teacher. And her love for working with children won out.
Finstad was initially hired at Bryant Elementary as an aide for their speech pathologist, but has taught fourth grade for the past eight years. With Bryant being located in the 6th Ward of Helena, which is considered to be a high poverty area, Finstad works with a number of students who come from troubled homes.
In seeking to provide opportunities her students might not otherwise have, Finstad helped fund an overnight trip to Yellowstone National Park this past school year. Finstad, along with Bryant School librarian Joice Franzen, wrote a Helena Education Foundation Great Ideas grant application, which was funded by U.S. Bank. With food donated from Costco and Van’s Thriftway and a scholarship from the Yellowstone Association that enabled them to stay in a Yellowstone Association cabin, it was a memorable trip for all.
Finstad has also helped facilitate a before-school tutoring program known as “Homework Club” to offer students support. She explained that many of her students don’t have the support they need at home to finish their homework. Some are responsible for setting their own alarms to wake up and walk themselves to school each day.
“It’s pretty impressive,” said Finstad. “It’s just another example of our students’ dedication.”
But Finstad is committed to her students outside the classroom as well. Whether it’s attending their athletic games or being a listening ear when students need to talk about their current struggles at home, Finstad is a trusted and watchful presence in her students’ lives.
“We (teachers) really just care about helping shape their lives; it’s not just about academics,” said Finstad. “My hope is that they become respectful, hardworking adults.”
After working all day with a classroom full of students, Finstad goes home to a husband and three children of her own. But for her, they are all family.
“My students are like my own children,” said Finstad. “I have 22 extra kids to take care of, and I would probably take some of them home with me if I could.”
- PEGGY O'NEILL For the Independent Record
- Updated
Chris Davis keeps his very first time card tucked in a corner of Danzer’s Paint Store. The date on the card is July 9, 2003. He only worked one day for the store that week – on a Friday from 1 to 7:15 p.m.
Davis, 32 and now owner of Danzer’s, grins when he recalls that time. “I didn’t really want to work,” he said, “but the guy who got me the job here, Josh Turner, said he needed some help insulating the warehouse.”
The part-time job turned into a full-time job when Davis finished high school. “I drove to graduation with everything I owned and then moved into the apartment upstairs,” Davis said, pointing to the floor above the paint store.
Davis said he intended to go to college but couldn’t come up with the money, and besides, he said, he found his calling in paint.
“The more I learned about the paint business, the more I thought I could do this the rest of my life,” he said.
The owner of the store at the time, Noah Horan, took the young Davis under his wing and shared his knowledge and enthusiasm for the paint industry.
“Because I showed initiative, he helped me out,” Davis said.
Through the years, Chris saw the paint business boom before the housing bubble burst and then saw things slow down. By 2008, Davis said, he was Horan’s only employee and he worked as manager, janitor and stock boy.
But also during that time, Horan was able to share one-on-one insight into running the business.
On April 1, 2014, Davis bought the business from Horan. “I like to say that on April 1, I bought a full-time job with a part-time headache,” Davis said and laughed. “But, I love it. I love coming here every day.”
Joshua Eagan, 19, has worked with Davis at Danzer’s for more than a year. “He always puts his heart and soul into it,” Eagan said. “He knows so much about paint, it’s incredible. I learn something new every day.”
Recently, Davis, his wife and three children, ages 1 ½ to 10, moved into a house they bought in Clancy. The family had been living in the apartment above the paint store for the last three years.
“We have it half-way painted,” Davis said of the house. “It will probably stay that way the rest of our lives.”
Running Danzer’s takes a lot more time than the 6.25 hours Davis put in that first week of his career. “It’s not something you can do from 8 to 5 every day; it’s 24 hours. But the key is not giving up. You get into a cycle of thinking, ‘Oh, we’re going to fail,’ and the next day things fall into place. You just have to chock it up as a loss and move on.”
- ALANA LISTOE For the Independent Record
- Updated
Unlike many children, whose aspirations seems to change with every birthday, Vanessa Nasset always wanted to be a teacher.
“Ever since I can remember I always wanted to be a teacher,” Nasset said. “I never wanted to be anything else. It is truly my life’s calling. I love children and the way that they are so eager to learn. They are literally little sponges. It fills my heart to see the learning process taking place.”
Nasset, who turns 40 this fall, has spent her career working for public schools until this past fall when she founded Bloom Montessori School, located on the Walking Mall on Last Chance Gulch.
She says it wasn’t until she moved to Helena that she truly learned about the Montessori approach to education. Helena Public Schools offers Montessori learning in three elementary schools, and students are selected by a lottery. The concept is the brainchild of Maria Montessori, an Italian physician and pioneer of early childhood education whose work earned two Nobel Peace Prize nominations prior to her death in 1952. The “follow-the-child” approach allows for children’s natural and effortless ability to absorb knowledge from their surroundings and tireless interest to manipulate materials.
Nasset is a Montana native born and raised on the Ft. Peck Indian Reservation in Wolf Point. Her mother worked with children her entire life, first by owning and operating a daycare and then working as a mental health support specialist for the public schools in Wolf Point.
It was 2002 when she and her husband set out for an Alaskan bush adventure that kept them in the trenches for seven years. She worked as a school teacher and an administrator in a small Yup'ik and Inupiat Eskimo villages.
“Although it was extremely remote, the public school system was highly progressive in its approach to education,” she said. “The model we implemented is called the Reinventing Schools Coalition (RISC) model. There were no grade levels and no letter grades – rather, children were instructed at their level, utilizing learning standards as a guide.”
A year after the couple’s second child was born, they decided to return to their roots to be closer to family and she accepted a job as assistant principal at Helena Middle School.
“I started talking with my new colleagues and friends about my educational experience in Alaska,” she said. “They, in turn, educated me about the Montessori method. I found that it really fit hand in glove with my belief that we have a responsibility, as educators, to do all that we can to meet the needs of each and every one of our students, as individuals.”
She is elated with her new endeavor but admits that operating a business has been a learning curve.
“I want to be teaching full-time, but also have had to carve out time to run things behind the scenes — finding that balance has been tricky,” she added.
During her free time, Nasset loves to be outside hiking and camping. She is currently preparing for a backpacking trip with 14 other mamas who plan to hike 30 miles in the Beartooth Mountains.
Nasset believes in living life to the fullest because you never know what lies ahead.
“I am a very passionate person whose biggest goals in life are to find beauty in the everyday world, to do what I love and love what I do, and surround myself with people who are like-minded,” she said.
It’s a philosophy she likely learned from her late grandmother, Marilee Johnson, who she says has been the most influential person in her life.
“She taught me to dream big – that I could do anything I put my mind to,” Nasset said.
Nasset is living her dream that continues to bloom in the heart of the Queen City.
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
- Updated
From the cyan blue waters of Belize and the grasslands of Liberia all the way back to Montana, Erin Farris-Olsen, executive director for the Montana Watershed Coordination Council (MWCC), has literally traveled the globe promoting environmental conservation.
A graduate in environmental studies and communication from Carroll College and natural resources law from the University of Oregon, Farris-Olsen admits that she’s always had a passion for conservation.
“I first started volunteering for public education programs in high school when I worked as a counselor for our public school program that brought 6th grade students into the outdoors for a week of science curriculum,” she said.
Before MWCC, Farris-Olsen clerked for the Montana Supreme Court and ran a statewide program to improve public access to the court system. While not directly focused on environmental work, that position afforded Farris-Olsen valuable opportunities to get involved with the community.
“I observed first-hand that it was impossible for many people to be concerned about environmental health when you’re not sure how you’re going to care for your family week to week,” said Farris-Olsen. “My experience working directly with Montana communities has inspired my work to raise community awareness on watershed health.”
Farris-Olsen also worked on some environmental awareness campaigns in Liberia and Belize through the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW). Specifically, she traveled to those countries to develop tool kits to assist in public participation in environmental issues. It was that model of supporting locally that led initiatives that motivated her to return to Montana to work in her own community.
“I wanted to employ the same professional strategy I utilized abroad of seeking creative and simple systems for delivering information that empowers communities to become more sustainable,” said Farris-Olsen.
In June of 2015, she officially became MWCC’s executive director. Farris-Olsen explained that it was the enthusiasm and passion of the board members for MWCC that first got her interested in joining. MWCC is a statewide network of more than 60 watershed groups that provide training, information sharing and capacity building. As the sole staff member, Farris-Olsen works with the board on organizational development and program administration.
“Save it to say, I have a full plate currently,” said Farris-Olsen.
But thanks to her past experience on Carroll College’s award-winning speech and debate team, Farris-Olsen already has the skill set to accomplish her goals.
“My experience in speech and debate helped me realize the impact of community dialogue,” she said. “It provided me the opportunity to practice communicating ideas to diverse audiences.”
“In a position like this, there is always so much more to do, but not a week has gone by where I haven’t been truly grateful for my role in what MWCC is accomplishing for Montana watersheds,” said Farris-Olsen.
- Al Knauber
- Updated
Shanell Marshall is soft spoken, yet a voice for those who might have no one else to carry their words.
Marshall, 38, is also among this year’s 20 Under 40 honorees. Her nomination by a co-worker said Marshall’s work on behalf of the Montana Independent Living Project truly improves the lives of people with disabilities.
As a program oversight specialist, she sees her role as that of a liaison between those who need services to maintain independent lives and programs allowing that to happen.
“Shanell approaches her job with a sense of humor, and is an outstanding professional, mentor, and colleague. She leads by example and is dedicated to the personal growth of those with whom she works,” her nomination continued.
Marshall was among those who stood before the Helena City Commission earlier this year when it listened to public testimony before seeking a $750,000 grant to help with the ongoing renovation of an apartment building that’s home to those who rely on subsidized housing.
“I knew that not everyone had the opportunity or the means to go to this public meeting at 7 or 6 p.m.,” she said. “I just wanted to be a voice for what I see.
“That’s what (the Montana Independent Living Project) does too. We advocate. We will fight for systems change,” she added.
“There are so many other cool people who are at (the Montana Independent Living Project) that are fighting for the greater good.”
In the company of others whose caring focuses on those who can be marginalized by society, Marshall does her work because, she explained, “I really want people to feel they’re living at their best.”
It’s a job that at times, she said, will break her heart. Her work will keep her from her family long after the work day has ended. And despite the sacrifices, she hasn’t lost her belief in what her work can do.
“At the end of the week, I’ve made somebody’s life better,” she said of the knowledge that she can take home with her.
Marshall can trace her empathy to her mother, Cheri Burke, who raised three girls -- she was the oldest -- and two boys after a divorce.
“I just think my mom sees the good in everybody,” she said. “It’s not that much effort to be good to people.”
Marshall’s grandparents, who raised foster children, also shaped her outlook. So has her son who at age 3 was diagnosed with autism.
Having a child or a family member with a disability gave her and her husband a new perspective on life.
“It just makes you richer, in a way,” she said. “You do realize everything isn’t just black and white.”
While in Big Sandy, she worked at the town’s medical center where Amber Beaudette, the director of nursing, took an interest in her. Marshall saw the good that came to the community from Beaudette’s selfless giving.
Marshall, her husband and their son came to Helena in 2007. Each day she goes to work here, she does so because of those who rely on her -- people who have no one to speak for them, assist them with their lives and help them solve problems.
“I really just want to go to work and make a difference -- make something better,” she said.
Many people in roles such as those at Helena Housing Authority share this same caring approach, Marshall said, and added “There’s just so many other people trying to make it better.”
“I’m only as good as the other people working with me,” she added.
- Marga Lincoln
- Updated
When he was growing up in Wheatland, Wyoming, Joshua Loveland had his eyes set on a professional career as a trumpet player.
“My parents encouraged me to have more firm job options,” he admitted, and gave him a career book.
One that caught his eye was pharmacy because he liked chemistry.
Today he’s the chief pharmacist at Shodair Children’s Hospital, where he’s worked for nearly six years.
A doctor of pharmacy, Loveland, 37, oversees medicines for 84 young people who are inpatients at the psychiatric hospital for children and consults with the in-house genetics department.
It’s a unique hospital, he said, as is his area of pharmacy. “There’s not a lot of data on research with that population,” he said. “You don’t want to do experimental treatments with children.”
Often, he and coworkers have to rely on small amounts of research data, he said. And he and his colleagues are also publishing original research and case reports in medical journals.
“We’re pretty unusual that we’re an independent hospital,” he said. Most similar facilities in the country are affiliated with universities.
Most of Shodair’s children, ages 3 to 18, are from Montana, he said, but a few are from rural states such as Idaho and Wyoming that don’t have a similar facility.
“I love when a kid comes to Shodair on 10 drugs and we discharge them on the one drug that we have found really works for them -- or none at all,” he wrote in an email.
“Josh is one of those rare examples of high intelligence and winning personality in one great employee," said director of nursing Chris Bate. “Josh is a team player always willing to problem solve, innovate or just plain roll up his sleeves and get the job done no matter what it takes.”
As for music, Loveland’s still pursuing it.
He loves that Helena gives him so many opportunities to play.
You might hear him in Grandstreet Theatre’s pit orchestra and at local churches. And he and musician/songwriter Regan Clancy do gigs at local breweries and Jester’s Bar. In addition to trumpet, he plays pedal steel guitar, bass guitar and piano.
Pastimes include playing, recording and composing music and biking up Forest Service roads into the wild. He’s also known for epic lightsaber battles with his 5- and 7-year-old children.
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
- Updated
Sitting outside on the stairs are six potted plants etched with a curious pattern of brightly colored cobblestone shapes. Inside you are met by an open work space and a towering ceiling with a wooden Gothic arch. Leaning over a new ceramic bowl on a table in the back is Emily Free Wilson, ceramic artist and owner of Free Ceramics and Studio Art Center in Helena.
When Free Wilson began attending college at the University of Wisconsin, she never expected to become an artist. But during her junior year, she discovered a love for clay and went on to earn a degree in ceramics and sculpture.
After school, Free Wilson moved to Helena and began an internship with the Archie Bray Foundation. She went on to become the Bray’s gallery director and served in that role for 10 years.
In 2010, Free Wilson began a family-run pottery business called Free Ceramics along with her husband, Matt, and brother, Bobby. The business combines Bobby’s ceramic experience, Matt’s background in engineering, and Emily’s whimsical signature design style she calls “Dot Pots.” Free Ceramics’ work has been featured in galleries across the United States, and custom pieces are enjoyed at home by many.
Wanting to continue pushing herself outside of her comfort zone, Free Wilson embarked on another entrepreneurial adventure in 2014. Free Wilson and her husband, Matt, purchased an old funeral home off Logan Street and have since remodeled the space into what has become known as the Studio Art Center. Not only is the Studio Art Center the home of Free Wilson’s Free Ceramics business, but it also features private studios and community space for rent, a showroom for studio artists, and a place where live music, classes and other events take place.
“I wanted to create a place for anyone in an art field to be able to access and feel comfortable to work in,” said Free Wilson.
Every type of art -- from contra dance and painting to ceramics and music -- is welcome. Free Wilson explained that they even have an Irish fiddler scheduled to perform at the studio on Aug. 15.
“I love that you can come in here on any given day and see musicians doing a sound check while kids are learning to throw,” said Free Wilson.
What began as a simple love for clay, Free Ceramics has transformed into a thriving business that brings artists together, inspires creativity and positively impacts the community.
“We’re helping bridge the areas between the different arts so art becomes more normal and essential,” said Free Wilson.
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
- Updated
There’s nothing about life you can’t learn by rolling up your sleeves, getting your hands dirty and working under the hood of a car. He didn’t know it at the time, but that’s precisely how Thomas Jodoin began his training for his future role as Helena's city attorney. Working on engines alongside his grandfather as a boy, Jodoin was taught how to problem solve and hone his patience -- skills that would prove useful later on.
Jodoin attended the University of Montana Law School and graduated in 2006 with a certificate in environmental natural resources law. Later that same year, he moved to Helena to work as deputy city attorney and was named city attorney in 2014.
The role of city attorney is to provide legal counsel for the city of Helena as well as serve as the legal adviser to the mayor, city commission, city staff, and numerous boards and commissions. Jodoin routinely prepares or reviews ordinances and resolutions and provides legal opinions to the commission on matters ranging from land use to contracts. His office also handles, in municipal court, the prosecution of misdemeanors and code violations that are committed within city limits.
While the idea of having so many individuals and departments turn to you for advice sounds intimidating, Jododin admits enjoying that aspect.
“I like that I get to work with the public and help solve issues within the rules and regulations we have,” he said. “I try to be patient and listen to people.”
Even when Jodoin’s job requires him to tell people things that they don’t want to hear and don’t agree with, he does so with respectful consideration.
“My role is to enforce what I believe the law says,” said Jodoin. “I even have to put my personal beliefs aside.”
“The influence Thomas has on city policy and decision-making is significant, given that many decisions made by the City Commission are based on the opinions and advice he provides,” said Dan Ellison, city commissioner. “He provides knowledge and legal expertise that far surpasses his years in practice.”
While Jodoin does admit that he is younger than most city attorneys and department heads, he attributes his success to being surrounded by strong mentors growing up, such as his mother and grandmother, as well as his coaches in basketball and running.
Jodoin dreamed of being a wide receiver in football early on, but his plans were dashed due to his narrower build. He went on to take up basketball and eventually running instead. He was even named NAIA All American in 2002 for middle distance running. His experience and struggles in sports taught him the meaning of hard work and how to handle disappointment -- which no doubt prepared him well for the role in which he would someday serve.
“You start off slow but slowly gain momentum,” said Jodoin. “That is the nature of running -- and of life.”
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
- Updated
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” This famous quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson eloquently conveys the struggle of many in the LGBTQ community today.
But thanks to the work of Kim Leighton, regional development organizer for Pride Foundation, progress is being made to expand opportunities and achieve full equality for the LGBTQ community.
Throughout her career in Montana, Leighton has sought work in the areas she feels most passionate about, particularly domestic violence/sexual abuse, reproductive freedom and the LGBTQ community. Before joining the Pride Foundation, she worked with the YWCA of Missoula Domestic Violence shelter as an advocate and also with the ACLU of Montana. She also served as the program director at NARAL Pro-Choice Montana.
After enthusiastic encouragement from her predecessor, Leighton applied for and later accepted her current position as regional development organizer for Pride Foundation.
Pride Foundation is a regional community foundation that “inspires giving to expand opportunities and advance full equality for LGBTQ people” across the Northwest. The organization spans across Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington and works to provide scholarships and grants to enact change in local communities.
Within her role, one of Leighton’s largest tasks is to work on cultivating relationships across Montana with different organizations, coalitions, and individual donors who support Pride Foundation’s work. One project that has been especially meaningful for Leighton is her work on a Homeless LGBTQ Youth Initiative. Leighton explained that statistics show approximately 40 percent of homeless youth in Montana identify as LGBTQ. Family rejection is often what leads to their homeless state. While only in the research phase, Leighton is very hopeful about where the initiative will go.
“There’s a special place in my heart for young queer and transgender individuals,” said Leighton. “They fall into an invisible category where they are made to feel that their ideas and thoughts don’t matter, and I think their strength and courage should be applauded.”
While Leighton admits that working professionally in areas that hold personal significance is incredibly rewarding, it does not come without its challenges.
“You have to focus on and prioritize self-care in this type of work,” said Leighton.
After the nightclub shooting in Orlando, Leighton found solace by going for a hike as well as checking in online with the other Pride Foundation leaders.
Leighton laughed in sharing that it’s a running joke with people who know her that she seems to find the most difficult work to be involved with. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I need to do work that feels rewarding and that is making a positive difference,” said Leighton.
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
- Updated
Be open to whatever comes next. That is the life attitude Sarah LaRue, attorney at Keller Law Firm, adopted from an early age.
While attending high school in Michigan, LaRue was first exposed to different aspects of the law through various field trips to the local courthouse. She was immediately intrigued but still wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she grew up. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in political science from Arizona State University she still felt drawn to the world of legal affairs. Deciding to trust her gut, LaRue continued her education by attending Michigan State University College of Law.
During law school, LaRue worked for a legal services organization in Michigan and was introduced to elements of family law. She enjoyed the work so much she decided to make it her focus in school. LaRue later graduated with a certificate in child and family advocacy.
In 2009, LaRue joined the Keller Law Firm in Helena. She continues to focus her practice in the areas of family law, including dissolutions, parenting and support issues, paternity, abuse and neglect and adoptions.
The hardest part of her work, admitted LaRue, is constantly dealing with people in the throes of emotional turmoil. She explained that her job is to guide her clients though both the legal and emotional aspects of their case. To do so, however, requires LaRue to hold onto and manage her client’s emotions without internalizing them.
“That’s not something they teach you in law school,” said LaRue.
While LaRue frequently works on challenging and emotionally taxing cases, she always pushes through in hopes of a positive resolution. The reward at the end of the day is when she is able to amicably resolve a case and settle on the best possible situation for everyone involved.
Throughout her legal education and practice, LaRue has always been actively involved in organizations that are committed to her passions of family advocacy and ending domestic abuse. While still in Michigan, LaRue volunteered at Michigan State University Safe House domestic violence shelter. She also served as a board member for a time for what was then called the Network Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse in Bozeman. In 2010, LaRue joined the board of directors for YWCA Helena. Since joining the board, she has continued her service as secretary and vice president and has served as its president for the past three years.
Her advocacy and devotion have not gone unnoticed by her peers.
“She is unconditionally recognized by her peers and the judges before whom she practices as a highly skilled and uncompromisingly ethical practitioner,” said Jaqueline Lenmark, a fellow attorney at Keller Law.
LaRue attributes her strong ethic practices to her belief that the “legal system is only as good as the people who work in it.”
- Tom Kuglin
- Updated
“Everyone wants to be Superman,” opined JD “Pepper” Petersen, CEO of Big Sky UAV, as he held a palm-sized drone. “The earliest dream of humans has been flight, and we’ve achieved that technology to put you in the cockpit of this drone.”
Petersen, 38, has been fascinated with drones since the '90s. What was once the stuff of science fiction grew in popularity from military applications to the commercial and recreational drones of today.
“When I got glasses in the 6th grade I remember I could finally see leaves on trees,” he said. “That’s the same reaction you get from people that fly a drone for the first time. It blows them away to see that new perspective from above places you regularly visit.
“I’ve been flying drones since 2011 and we were very interested as hobbyists, but we saw the commercial opportunity from the very beginning.”
Big Sky UAV started with the wave of public enthusiasm and early commercial interest. The company provides multiple services to commercial drone users including flying the drones, consulting and instruction.
“Anything that can fly can be atomized, but don’t limit yourself to thinking about drones as only aerial,” Petersen said. “There’s a revolution with how robotics are interacting with humans.”
Big Sky UAV has worked with infrastructure inspection, aerial surveys of wildlife, air quality monitoring and insurance. Its work was recently featured on Dateline NBC, and Petersen highlighted an upcoming university project to study climate change in Montana’s forests.
“Drones can do anything a commercial aircraft can do besides lifting supplies and people,” he said. “As PCs developed people wondered why they’d need this stupid machine. Now you can’t live without the thing, and we think that’ll be the ubiquity with drones too.”
Drones are often in the news for negative reasons, whether it's for military airstrikes or amateur operators flying irresponsibly. Petersen says his company proceeded cautiously to ensure they flew by the book by securing needed clearances and meeting FAA requirements.
Helena falls almost entirely within a 5-mile restricted area due to the location of the airport, which means any commercial flight requires clearance from air traffic controllers, he said.
“There are a lot more restrictions on commercial operators than on hobbyists, and what can give us a bad name are the rogue hobbyists,” Petersen said. “If you’re flying in an airspace at all, there’s people’s lives at stake.”
The potential for delivery services via drone is a natural technological progression, and journalists can use them as well to report news. Big Sky UAV will be there to push the industry and find innovative ways to use them, Petersen said.
“The air is the ultimate highway where you don’t have the limitations you do on the ground,” he said.
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
- Updated
It stretches out its rays each morning to embrace and awaken us. Sunflowers scattered along the roadside sway their heads towards its warmth. It entices new buds of grass to poke their heads above ground for the first time. The sun is at the center of all life. Without it, we would be nothing.
Jack Isbell, owner of Solar Montana, has quite literally grown a business by harvesting energy from one of our most critical resources: the sun.
After graduating from the University of Montana with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and information systems, Isbell was presented with a unique opportunity to travel to China on a potential business venture.
While in China, Isbell observed how efficient the Chinese were with their resources. From hanging their clothes outside to dry to utilizing small refrigerators and tankless water heaters in their homes, power was conserved as much as possible. Isbell’s trip helped spark an interest in starting his own company that centered on energy efficiency and conservation.
“I wanted to do something out of the realm of normalcy,” said Isbell.
Observing that such a business would fill Helena’s void in such a specialized niche, Isbell returned to his hometown to begin making his dream a reality.
In the spring of 2005, Solar Montana was born. Since then, the company has installed and serviced more than 300 alternative energy systems in Helena and the surrounding area. Their services include, but are not limited to, design consultation, off-grid systems, grid-tied systems, solar water pumping, and wind generators.
Of his many projects, Isbell admitted that he is perhaps most proud of a large system of solar panels he installed at River Rock Residence, a low-income senior housing complex in Helena. With a total of 338 panels spanning 10 buildings, River Rock was one of the biggest solar projects in the state. But for Isbell, the real satisfaction from that project came from knowing he provided the residents with power at little to no cost.
Isbell and Solar Montana are also responsible for installing solar panels at Great Harvest Bread Company as well as at both Capital and Helena high schools.
For Isbell, the most rewarding part of his work comes from witnessing the happiness instilled in his clients. “The best part for me is when I get a phone call from someone we’ve done a project for and they tell me they haven’t paid an electric bill in six months or a year,” said Isbell.
With increased concern about rising utility costs and a desire to protect the environment, alternative energy systems are only gaining in popularity.
“It’s not for everyone; it’s a long-term investment — but so is your home,” said Isbell.
- PEGGY O'NEILL For the Independent Record
- Updated
Candyce Kepler is a busy woman. In addition to working as a nurse at Shodair Children’s Hospital and a school-based registered nurse at Rossiter and Jim Darcy elementary schools, she is the mother to 6 ½-year-old twins John and Andrew and 3-year-old Jace.
“It’s a crazy time in our family right now,” Kepler, 37, said. She and her husband, Mike, an art teacher at Helena Middle School, were traveling with their sons the day following this interview to Seattle, where John and Andrew would have a regular follow-up appointment with doctors who treated them as toddlers for craniosynostosis, a birth defect that causes one or more sutures in an infant’s head to close earlier than normal.
“They are doing fine,” Kepler said.
But Kepler doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon. When the time is right, she said she would like to pursue a master’s degree and become a nurse practitioner in mental health.
“There's too much out there for me to learn,” she said.
Kepler said she always knew she wanted to be in the medical field. She started out taking pre-med classes at Carroll College, but then became impatient with the time it would take.
“I wanted to finish in four years,” she said, so she switched her major to psychology. From there, she applied to physician assistant school, but was told she didn’t have enough experience. Eager to gain experience, she applied and graduated from an accelerated nursing program at Creighton University in Nebraska.
“That was the best decision of my life,” Kepler said. “Being a nurse opened so many doors professionally. Being a nurse – you can do a lot of different things.”
Being a school nurse, however, has helped Kepler focus and find her passion: mental health. Running down a list of the health issues she sees as a school nurse -- asthma, allergies -- Kepler mentions mental health.
“Mental health is big in the schools,” she said. “There’s a need for it, and I think I’m good at it.”
Barbara Ridgway, staff and students services administrator with Helena Public Schools, would agree that Kepler’s confidence and kindness would help her achieve whatever goal she sets for herself. In her 20 Under 40 nomination letter for Kepler, Ridgway wrote: “Candyce is a young professional who is taking on new leadership roles in the very community where she and her husband have chosen to live, work and raise their family. Her empathy, positive outlook and general joy for life make her someone students and families rely on for support with health needs.”
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
- Updated
In a technological age where you rarely need to set foot inside a bank, Melanie Hall, Commissioner of the Montana Division of Banking and Financial Institutions, is committed to maintaining relationships with our financial institutions and keeping things local.
Hall, a 2003 graduate of Tulane Law School in New Orleans, received her bachelor’s degree in economics in 2000 from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. Prior to serving as commissioner, she was an attorney in private practice dealing with civil litigation in a wide variety of areas.
In 2011, then-Gov. Brian Schweitzer appointed Hall to the position of commissioner and current Gov. Steve Bullock reappointed her in 2013. Hall explained that because of national economic problems, it was an interesting time to be involved in banking and economic policy.
“When I started working here, it was a time when banks were under severe pressure due to the larger economy,” said Hall. “Over the last five and a half years, I have worked with banks to help them comply with the law and have enjoyed watching them succeed -- even in the face of tremendous regulatory and economic pressure.”
In her current role, Hall provides the overall leadership to the Banking Division, which is responsible for the supervision of all state-chartered banks, trust companies and credit unions. In addition, the Division licenses and examines more than 500 financial entities including mortgage lenders, servicers, brokers and originators, consumer loan companies, sales finance companies, deferred deposit lenders and escrow businesses.
“The challenge of what I do is seeing how the financial services industry has changed in a way that sometimes makes it cost-prohibitive for our financial institutions to continue to serve our smallest communities,” said Hall. “It’s sad when you receive a branch closure notice and you know that it’s the only branch for maybe 60 miles.”
Hall explained that she encourages banks to explore all their options, from limiting services and hours, before reaching that point. But she admitted that sometimes it just doesn’t work. “It’s been eye opening to see just how important local branches are to those communities,” she said.
Since adopting the small-town lifestyle of Montana, Hall enjoys spending time at her family’s cabin on the Blackfoot River but has had her eyes opened to the struggles of rural banks and credit unions.
“I really like being an advocate for community banks and credit unions and the value they play in small business lending and keeping Montana main street communities prosperous and thriving,” said Hall.
- Al Knauber
- Updated
A sense of community runs through Jenifer Gursky’s life.
It guided her back to Montana after she left for overseas mission work. Her appreciation for community helped illuminate her path that took her to the University of Montana, the state Legislature and now to nonprofit organizations.
Today she’s a program officer for local community foundations at the Montana Community Foundation, an organization whose website said its work with donors, charitable organizations, cities and towns plays a critical role in both philanthropic and community development.
“We are part of our community, and I am responsible to that place, the people, where I am,” said Gursky.
“None of those accomplishments that can be externally recognized have been solely because of me. … It happened because a community said ‘Hey, will you take this position and I will help you in these four ways,’ so none of that is independently achieved.”
She doesn’t view herself as unique and said she sees commonalities with her peers in the nonprofit sector, those whom she served with in the state Legislature and others who are part of the Montana Community Foundation.
They’re “all rolling up their sleeves and truly making a place where Montanans want to be, where Montanans want to stay, where they’re ready for tomorrow,” Gursky said.
And she was quick to say she believes her colleagues are more deserving of praise than she is.
Some of what has prepared her for life’s challenges came from her parents, who were middle-school teachers in Ronan and taught her “You do the best you can because that will set you up for the world.”
“You have finite resources to work with in the world and you better make the best of it,” she added of their guidance.
“Find opportunities in what you’ve been handed and just make the best of it,” she said.
This outlook has sustained her during mission work, as a non-traditional college student, who returned to the classroom later in life, and then in the nonprofit sector.
“Often, I’m working in a scarcity of resources, and you always make the best of it. You make the biggest impact,” she said.
Despite the non-linear path that she followed in life, she never harbored doubts about returning to Montana and its sense of community. Her application to attend the University of Montana came while on a mission to Cambodia.
Her entrance into the state Legislature came after running for the student Senate at the University of Montana and then becoming president of the Associated Students of the University of Montana.
“I got a taste of what behind the scenes navigation looked like and how you could effect change,” she said.
Conversations with others, who had much greater political capital and influence, helped her to decide on a run for the house district she would win.
Gursky was part of the 2013 Legislature and represented Missoula House District 98. The experience helped reaffirm her appreciation for Montana and its people.
She left the Legislature when she moved from Missoula to Helena, where she became Helena Food Share’s development director.
Since then, she has become part of the Montana Community Foundation where she assists communities in determining their long-term visions and identifying partners to help them realize those goals. Hers is a job that takes her across Montana, where she helps people better serve their communities.
“We have a million people and are the fourth largest state in the union. And I think the sense of community we feel even though we live hours away from each other is matched by no other state or place that I’ve ever visited,” Gursky said.
“So I think that there’s a sense of belonging and ownership here,” she added.
It’s this sense of place Montanans have that has guided her career path where she helps communities despite their perceived scarcity of resources -- a challenge with which she’s familiar.
Gursky describes herself as “a fierce independent who wants to live in community.”
“I am fiercely independent but only thrive when living in community, like we need each other,” she said. “I guess that makes me a typical Montanan.”
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
- Updated
Sometimes the best adventures come from life’s unplanned moments. That has certainly been the case for Erin Lanigan, directress and teacher at Mountainside Montessori School.
Lanigan was first introduced to the Montessori education approach while studying literature at Carroll College. One of Lanigan’s friends and classmates was working as a nanny for some children who attended what was then called Children’s World Montessori School. She showed Lanigan a videoed performance at the school, and Lanigan was amazed at what the students were capable of.
Lanigan later enrolled her oldest son at the school and even accepted an offer to work there. During her first week there she realized that something “truly magical” was happening in the school. That’s when she began studying to become a Montessori teacher. Lanigan has since received her Early Childhood Teaching Certificate through the Age of Montessori and her International Montessori Teaching Diploma for infants, toddlers and twos through the North American Montessori Center.
When the opportunity presented itself, in March of 2013, Lanigan purchased the school and renamed it Mountainside Montessori. Since then, she has grown the school to include six teachers who serve around 30-35 students ranging in age from 3 to 6 years old. This fall, Lanigan will expand Mountainside’s education programs to also serve children from infancy to age 3 as well as first and second graders. She expects the expansion to grow Mountainside to over 50 students with 12 teachers.
What differentiates a Montessori program like Mountainside, explained Lanigan, is its carefully prepared classroom that encourages independent learning in a peaceful environment. There is lots of one-on-one time and an emphasis on helping students learn practical skills. Quoting Montessori education founder Maria Montessori, Lanigan explained that Mountainside is all about “freedom within limits.”
As a Helena native, Lanigan understands the importance of community. She strives to connect her students to the community through outings downtown and to other local business. “We want the kids to know that it’s their community too and establish our presence in that community,” said Lanigan. In her personal life, Lanigan’s community involvement includes participation in Family Promise and a past history playing the viola for the Helena Symphony.
Thinking back on where she started and where she’s ended up, Lanigan smiled, acknowledging that while all very “fortuitous,” the journey has been an incredible one.
“It all comes back to the children,” said Lanigan. “Seeing them love to learn and watching their awe at the world around them is really inspiring. Being able to look through a child’s eyes every day is pretty special.”
More like this...
- ANGELA BRANDT Independent Record
To say Andrew Moore worked his way from the ground up at St. Peter's Hospital is in no way an understatement.
His first position was as a part-time janitor in the emergency room.
Moore, 31, is now director of surgical services. In the last eight years, he has served in a multitude of jobs at the Helena hospital.
He didn't aspire to a medical career. Up until college, Moore dreamed of playing professional football. Then he blew out his shoulder.
"That made my path," he said.
The injury sparked his interest in nursing. He later cut a tendon in his hand while cooking. This furthered his intrigue.
"I really gained an appreciation for nursing," Moore said.
Moore is one of the most influential nursing leaders, according to Katy Peterson, St. Peter's director of public relations and marketing. Peterson nominated Moore for the 20 Under 40 distinction.
"Despite his rapid ascent within St. Peter's, Andrew remains grounded in his role and never forgets his own humble beginnings. He capably bridges teams across the organization, thanks to his own diverse experience and ability to connect with folks at all levels of the organization from the environmental services aide to high-level leadership," Peterson wrote in her nomination letter.
Moore said he truly adores his coworkers. He shares the accolades with them.
"I appreciate the honor of this, but it really is my team," he said. "I really love this hospital."
In his current position, Moore oversees the nursing functions of the surgical unit and the operating room, among other responsibilities.
"Under his leadership, the Surgical Unit has significantly increased patient satisfaction scores, driven by Andrew's emphasis on patient rounding where he and his staff prioritize one-on-one time with patients and their families on their care, treatment, and plans following discharge," Peterson wrote.
- James DeHaven
Dr. Summer Monforte first arrived in Helena almost four years ago, having just turned down a job at the prestigious National Jewish Health hospital in Denver.
That hospital, one of the world’s top respiratory research centers, would’ve been a top spot for the 36-year-old allergist to land, but Monforte had other plans.
“I wanted to go someplace where I was needed," she explained. “It was a huge opportunity to bring care here that wasn't otherwise available.
“I also like to be involved in everything. ... We do it all and I love that."
Helena’s St. Peter's Hospital loves it too. A hospital spokeswoman said its asthma, allergy and immunology clinic has doubled in size since Monforte’s arrival and now offers “some of the most advanced asthma, allergy and immunology treatments in Montana.”
Monforte -- a specialist in the treatment of asthma, eczema and a whole host of seasonal, food and medication allergies -- led the staff recruitment behind the clinic’s expansion, growing the practice into one of only two in the state that offers rush immunotherapy for allergy relief.
The Denver native is also one of only three pediatric-trained allergists in the Treasure State, expertise she’s parlayed into a role as a physician with Camp Huff n Puff, an annual summer camp for children afflicted with asthma.
Monforte earned a medical degree at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and a Bachelor of Arts in biology from Cornell University. She trained in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Colorado and in allergy and immunology at National Jewish Health.
She is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and the American Board of Allergy and Immunology. She is also a fellow with the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.
An avid sewer and cookbook author, Monforte is married with two daughters, ages 9 and 5.
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
Author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said “You don’t build a business — you build people — and then people build the business.” Jill-Marie Steeley, executive director of PureView Health Center, knows that the key to any successful business is building relationships — with customers and within the community.
Originally from Salt Lake City, Steeley has been enjoying life in the Big Sky State for the past 12 years. Prior to joining PureView, she spent nearly four years as the director of the Health and Human Services Division of the Gallatin City-County Health Department, seven years as the Director of the Madison County Health Department, and was a senior analyst for Goldman Sachs in Salt Lake City for four years.
Steeley assumed the role of executive director at PureView in May of 2015. At the time, PureView was in the middle of rebranding from its former identity as the Cooperative Health Center. That process included the construction of a brand new clinic. Steeley quickly got behind the new brand as she viewed it as a fresh and promising new start for the organization.
“I wanted to see the clinic rebuild its relationships in the community and make sure the needs of the patients were being met and that there was no wrong door for them,” said Steeley.
PureView is a qualified health care center that operates under the mission of “providing quality comprehensive healthcare with comfort,” particularly to those underserved in the community. With roughly 7,000 patients served annually though the new clinic, one at God’s Love and the Parker Medical Center in Lincoln, PureView’s embrace is widespread.
With only a little over a year under her belt with PureView, Steeley has accomplished a great deal. She improved the service delivery in Lincoln, expanded the Helena clinic to serve as the preferred provider for county employees, reinstated Helena’s behavioral health component and expanded their dental offerings.
“She (Steeley) has been a breath of fresh air and leads the organization with the experience of someone twice her age,” said county commissioner Mike Murray.
Still on Steeley’s to-do list is to renew the offering of dental services in Lincoln, expand the mental health services offered at the Helena clinic and contract with a pharmacist in the main clinic.
But at the end of the day, Steeley’s most deep-rooted goal is to continue building relationships with patients and other medical providers and organizations in town. And of course, offering quality care to any and all.
“Everyone deserves good health care and the access to it,” said Steeley.
For her, the best part of what she does is getting to see patients get great health care when they may not have been able to otherwise.
“I’ve always believed in community service and wanted to work with people whose lives aren’t as fortunate as mine,” said Steeley.
- PEGGY O'NEILL For the Independent Record
Tyler Emmert holds many titles. As quarterback for Carroll College, he led the Saints to four national championships and picked up three All American and two NAIA Player of the Year honors along the way. But to those titles, he can now add engineer, wide receivers coach at Carroll College, banker, school board trustee and father of four.
Emmert has accomplished a lot in a short amount of time and in a small amount of space.
“Over the last 30 years, I’ve stayed within a 10-block radius,” the 33-year-old said. Before Carroll, Emmert attended Four Georgians Elementary, C.R. Anderson Middle and Capital High schools.
Space is obviously not a limiting factor for Emmert. A few years ago, he made a complete career change from engineering to banking.
Faced with a financial decision within the engineering company he was working for, Emmert thought it would be helpful to attend graduate school in finance. However, a friend of his who was working for American Federal (now known as Opportunity Bank) told him he would learn more about finance by working for the bank for a while.
“He said, ‘I have a hunch that once you try banking, you’ll stick with it,’” Emmert said. “He was right.”
“The short story is they left the door open for me and I snuck in,” Emmert said and laughed.
During his three years at Opportunity Bank, Emmert worked his way from commercial loan officer to his most recent title of Helena Market President.
Emmert said the banking business is more optimistic than engineering.
“Nobody calls you as an engineer when things are going good,” he said. “We’re a community bank; it’s great to work with the people you’ve known forever.”
He also enjoys the banker’s hours. There’s a bracket, he said, “they lock the bank at night, so you go in after 8 and you have to leave before 5.”
The hours allow him to spend time with his four kids -- 5-year-old twins (a girl and a boy), and 8- and 10-year old girls. The hours also allow him to spend time coaching and fulfilling his duties on the school board.
“He constantly seeks ways in which he can give back to his hometown community of Helena, whether it be through his involvement as an assistant coach for the Carroll College Saints football team, or his recent election to the Helena school board,” Larry Williams, also of Opportunity Bank, said in his 20 Under 40 nomination letter for Emmert. “Tyler instinctively understands the important role that local small businesses play in the Helena economy and consistently applies sound banking principles to help those businesses plan, grow and prosper.”
When asked where he thinks he might be in five years, Emmert said: “I don’t seem to go too far; I’m guessing I’ll still be around that 10-block radius.”
Whatever he’s doing, he’ll be sticking to his own advice: “Do things you enjoy doing. Work with people you enjoy working with. You can control those things; there are lots of things you can’t.”
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
Educators are among the few people who lose sleep over other people’s children. Having served as a teacher at Bryant Elementary School for more than 10 years, Erin Finstad has undoubtedly lost quite a bit of sleep over the years.
When it came to choosing a career path, Finstad admitted that the decision came down to either becoming a veterinarian or a teacher. And her love for working with children won out.
Finstad was initially hired at Bryant Elementary as an aide for their speech pathologist, but has taught fourth grade for the past eight years. With Bryant being located in the 6th Ward of Helena, which is considered to be a high poverty area, Finstad works with a number of students who come from troubled homes.
In seeking to provide opportunities her students might not otherwise have, Finstad helped fund an overnight trip to Yellowstone National Park this past school year. Finstad, along with Bryant School librarian Joice Franzen, wrote a Helena Education Foundation Great Ideas grant application, which was funded by U.S. Bank. With food donated from Costco and Van’s Thriftway and a scholarship from the Yellowstone Association that enabled them to stay in a Yellowstone Association cabin, it was a memorable trip for all.
Finstad has also helped facilitate a before-school tutoring program known as “Homework Club” to offer students support. She explained that many of her students don’t have the support they need at home to finish their homework. Some are responsible for setting their own alarms to wake up and walk themselves to school each day.
“It’s pretty impressive,” said Finstad. “It’s just another example of our students’ dedication.”
But Finstad is committed to her students outside the classroom as well. Whether it’s attending their athletic games or being a listening ear when students need to talk about their current struggles at home, Finstad is a trusted and watchful presence in her students’ lives.
“We (teachers) really just care about helping shape their lives; it’s not just about academics,” said Finstad. “My hope is that they become respectful, hardworking adults.”
After working all day with a classroom full of students, Finstad goes home to a husband and three children of her own. But for her, they are all family.
“My students are like my own children,” said Finstad. “I have 22 extra kids to take care of, and I would probably take some of them home with me if I could.”
- PEGGY O'NEILL For the Independent Record
Chris Davis keeps his very first time card tucked in a corner of Danzer’s Paint Store. The date on the card is July 9, 2003. He only worked one day for the store that week – on a Friday from 1 to 7:15 p.m.
Davis, 32 and now owner of Danzer’s, grins when he recalls that time. “I didn’t really want to work,” he said, “but the guy who got me the job here, Josh Turner, said he needed some help insulating the warehouse.”
The part-time job turned into a full-time job when Davis finished high school. “I drove to graduation with everything I owned and then moved into the apartment upstairs,” Davis said, pointing to the floor above the paint store.
Davis said he intended to go to college but couldn’t come up with the money, and besides, he said, he found his calling in paint.
“The more I learned about the paint business, the more I thought I could do this the rest of my life,” he said.
The owner of the store at the time, Noah Horan, took the young Davis under his wing and shared his knowledge and enthusiasm for the paint industry.
“Because I showed initiative, he helped me out,” Davis said.
Through the years, Chris saw the paint business boom before the housing bubble burst and then saw things slow down. By 2008, Davis said, he was Horan’s only employee and he worked as manager, janitor and stock boy.
But also during that time, Horan was able to share one-on-one insight into running the business.
On April 1, 2014, Davis bought the business from Horan. “I like to say that on April 1, I bought a full-time job with a part-time headache,” Davis said and laughed. “But, I love it. I love coming here every day.”
Joshua Eagan, 19, has worked with Davis at Danzer’s for more than a year. “He always puts his heart and soul into it,” Eagan said. “He knows so much about paint, it’s incredible. I learn something new every day.”
Recently, Davis, his wife and three children, ages 1 ½ to 10, moved into a house they bought in Clancy. The family had been living in the apartment above the paint store for the last three years.
“We have it half-way painted,” Davis said of the house. “It will probably stay that way the rest of our lives.”
Running Danzer’s takes a lot more time than the 6.25 hours Davis put in that first week of his career. “It’s not something you can do from 8 to 5 every day; it’s 24 hours. But the key is not giving up. You get into a cycle of thinking, ‘Oh, we’re going to fail,’ and the next day things fall into place. You just have to chock it up as a loss and move on.”
- ALANA LISTOE For the Independent Record
Unlike many children, whose aspirations seems to change with every birthday, Vanessa Nasset always wanted to be a teacher.
“Ever since I can remember I always wanted to be a teacher,” Nasset said. “I never wanted to be anything else. It is truly my life’s calling. I love children and the way that they are so eager to learn. They are literally little sponges. It fills my heart to see the learning process taking place.”
Nasset, who turns 40 this fall, has spent her career working for public schools until this past fall when she founded Bloom Montessori School, located on the Walking Mall on Last Chance Gulch.
She says it wasn’t until she moved to Helena that she truly learned about the Montessori approach to education. Helena Public Schools offers Montessori learning in three elementary schools, and students are selected by a lottery. The concept is the brainchild of Maria Montessori, an Italian physician and pioneer of early childhood education whose work earned two Nobel Peace Prize nominations prior to her death in 1952. The “follow-the-child” approach allows for children’s natural and effortless ability to absorb knowledge from their surroundings and tireless interest to manipulate materials.
Nasset is a Montana native born and raised on the Ft. Peck Indian Reservation in Wolf Point. Her mother worked with children her entire life, first by owning and operating a daycare and then working as a mental health support specialist for the public schools in Wolf Point.
It was 2002 when she and her husband set out for an Alaskan bush adventure that kept them in the trenches for seven years. She worked as a school teacher and an administrator in a small Yup'ik and Inupiat Eskimo villages.
“Although it was extremely remote, the public school system was highly progressive in its approach to education,” she said. “The model we implemented is called the Reinventing Schools Coalition (RISC) model. There were no grade levels and no letter grades – rather, children were instructed at their level, utilizing learning standards as a guide.”
A year after the couple’s second child was born, they decided to return to their roots to be closer to family and she accepted a job as assistant principal at Helena Middle School.
“I started talking with my new colleagues and friends about my educational experience in Alaska,” she said. “They, in turn, educated me about the Montessori method. I found that it really fit hand in glove with my belief that we have a responsibility, as educators, to do all that we can to meet the needs of each and every one of our students, as individuals.”
She is elated with her new endeavor but admits that operating a business has been a learning curve.
“I want to be teaching full-time, but also have had to carve out time to run things behind the scenes — finding that balance has been tricky,” she added.
During her free time, Nasset loves to be outside hiking and camping. She is currently preparing for a backpacking trip with 14 other mamas who plan to hike 30 miles in the Beartooth Mountains.
Nasset believes in living life to the fullest because you never know what lies ahead.
“I am a very passionate person whose biggest goals in life are to find beauty in the everyday world, to do what I love and love what I do, and surround myself with people who are like-minded,” she said.
It’s a philosophy she likely learned from her late grandmother, Marilee Johnson, who she says has been the most influential person in her life.
“She taught me to dream big – that I could do anything I put my mind to,” Nasset said.
Nasset is living her dream that continues to bloom in the heart of the Queen City.
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
From the cyan blue waters of Belize and the grasslands of Liberia all the way back to Montana, Erin Farris-Olsen, executive director for the Montana Watershed Coordination Council (MWCC), has literally traveled the globe promoting environmental conservation.
A graduate in environmental studies and communication from Carroll College and natural resources law from the University of Oregon, Farris-Olsen admits that she’s always had a passion for conservation.
“I first started volunteering for public education programs in high school when I worked as a counselor for our public school program that brought 6th grade students into the outdoors for a week of science curriculum,” she said.
Before MWCC, Farris-Olsen clerked for the Montana Supreme Court and ran a statewide program to improve public access to the court system. While not directly focused on environmental work, that position afforded Farris-Olsen valuable opportunities to get involved with the community.
“I observed first-hand that it was impossible for many people to be concerned about environmental health when you’re not sure how you’re going to care for your family week to week,” said Farris-Olsen. “My experience working directly with Montana communities has inspired my work to raise community awareness on watershed health.”
Farris-Olsen also worked on some environmental awareness campaigns in Liberia and Belize through the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW). Specifically, she traveled to those countries to develop tool kits to assist in public participation in environmental issues. It was that model of supporting locally that led initiatives that motivated her to return to Montana to work in her own community.
“I wanted to employ the same professional strategy I utilized abroad of seeking creative and simple systems for delivering information that empowers communities to become more sustainable,” said Farris-Olsen.
In June of 2015, she officially became MWCC’s executive director. Farris-Olsen explained that it was the enthusiasm and passion of the board members for MWCC that first got her interested in joining. MWCC is a statewide network of more than 60 watershed groups that provide training, information sharing and capacity building. As the sole staff member, Farris-Olsen works with the board on organizational development and program administration.
“Save it to say, I have a full plate currently,” said Farris-Olsen.
But thanks to her past experience on Carroll College’s award-winning speech and debate team, Farris-Olsen already has the skill set to accomplish her goals.
“My experience in speech and debate helped me realize the impact of community dialogue,” she said. “It provided me the opportunity to practice communicating ideas to diverse audiences.”
“In a position like this, there is always so much more to do, but not a week has gone by where I haven’t been truly grateful for my role in what MWCC is accomplishing for Montana watersheds,” said Farris-Olsen.
- Al Knauber
Shanell Marshall is soft spoken, yet a voice for those who might have no one else to carry their words.
Marshall, 38, is also among this year’s 20 Under 40 honorees. Her nomination by a co-worker said Marshall’s work on behalf of the Montana Independent Living Project truly improves the lives of people with disabilities.
As a program oversight specialist, she sees her role as that of a liaison between those who need services to maintain independent lives and programs allowing that to happen.
“Shanell approaches her job with a sense of humor, and is an outstanding professional, mentor, and colleague. She leads by example and is dedicated to the personal growth of those with whom she works,” her nomination continued.
Marshall was among those who stood before the Helena City Commission earlier this year when it listened to public testimony before seeking a $750,000 grant to help with the ongoing renovation of an apartment building that’s home to those who rely on subsidized housing.
“I knew that not everyone had the opportunity or the means to go to this public meeting at 7 or 6 p.m.,” she said. “I just wanted to be a voice for what I see.
“That’s what (the Montana Independent Living Project) does too. We advocate. We will fight for systems change,” she added.
“There are so many other cool people who are at (the Montana Independent Living Project) that are fighting for the greater good.”
In the company of others whose caring focuses on those who can be marginalized by society, Marshall does her work because, she explained, “I really want people to feel they’re living at their best.”
It’s a job that at times, she said, will break her heart. Her work will keep her from her family long after the work day has ended. And despite the sacrifices, she hasn’t lost her belief in what her work can do.
“At the end of the week, I’ve made somebody’s life better,” she said of the knowledge that she can take home with her.
Marshall can trace her empathy to her mother, Cheri Burke, who raised three girls -- she was the oldest -- and two boys after a divorce.
“I just think my mom sees the good in everybody,” she said. “It’s not that much effort to be good to people.”
Marshall’s grandparents, who raised foster children, also shaped her outlook. So has her son who at age 3 was diagnosed with autism.
Having a child or a family member with a disability gave her and her husband a new perspective on life.
“It just makes you richer, in a way,” she said. “You do realize everything isn’t just black and white.”
While in Big Sandy, she worked at the town’s medical center where Amber Beaudette, the director of nursing, took an interest in her. Marshall saw the good that came to the community from Beaudette’s selfless giving.
Marshall, her husband and their son came to Helena in 2007. Each day she goes to work here, she does so because of those who rely on her -- people who have no one to speak for them, assist them with their lives and help them solve problems.
“I really just want to go to work and make a difference -- make something better,” she said.
Many people in roles such as those at Helena Housing Authority share this same caring approach, Marshall said, and added “There’s just so many other people trying to make it better.”
“I’m only as good as the other people working with me,” she added.
- Marga Lincoln
When he was growing up in Wheatland, Wyoming, Joshua Loveland had his eyes set on a professional career as a trumpet player.
“My parents encouraged me to have more firm job options,” he admitted, and gave him a career book.
One that caught his eye was pharmacy because he liked chemistry.
Today he’s the chief pharmacist at Shodair Children’s Hospital, where he’s worked for nearly six years.
A doctor of pharmacy, Loveland, 37, oversees medicines for 84 young people who are inpatients at the psychiatric hospital for children and consults with the in-house genetics department.
It’s a unique hospital, he said, as is his area of pharmacy. “There’s not a lot of data on research with that population,” he said. “You don’t want to do experimental treatments with children.”
Often, he and coworkers have to rely on small amounts of research data, he said. And he and his colleagues are also publishing original research and case reports in medical journals.
“We’re pretty unusual that we’re an independent hospital,” he said. Most similar facilities in the country are affiliated with universities.
Most of Shodair’s children, ages 3 to 18, are from Montana, he said, but a few are from rural states such as Idaho and Wyoming that don’t have a similar facility.
“I love when a kid comes to Shodair on 10 drugs and we discharge them on the one drug that we have found really works for them -- or none at all,” he wrote in an email.
“Josh is one of those rare examples of high intelligence and winning personality in one great employee," said director of nursing Chris Bate. “Josh is a team player always willing to problem solve, innovate or just plain roll up his sleeves and get the job done no matter what it takes.”
As for music, Loveland’s still pursuing it.
He loves that Helena gives him so many opportunities to play.
You might hear him in Grandstreet Theatre’s pit orchestra and at local churches. And he and musician/songwriter Regan Clancy do gigs at local breweries and Jester’s Bar. In addition to trumpet, he plays pedal steel guitar, bass guitar and piano.
Pastimes include playing, recording and composing music and biking up Forest Service roads into the wild. He’s also known for epic lightsaber battles with his 5- and 7-year-old children.
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
Sitting outside on the stairs are six potted plants etched with a curious pattern of brightly colored cobblestone shapes. Inside you are met by an open work space and a towering ceiling with a wooden Gothic arch. Leaning over a new ceramic bowl on a table in the back is Emily Free Wilson, ceramic artist and owner of Free Ceramics and Studio Art Center in Helena.
When Free Wilson began attending college at the University of Wisconsin, she never expected to become an artist. But during her junior year, she discovered a love for clay and went on to earn a degree in ceramics and sculpture.
After school, Free Wilson moved to Helena and began an internship with the Archie Bray Foundation. She went on to become the Bray’s gallery director and served in that role for 10 years.
In 2010, Free Wilson began a family-run pottery business called Free Ceramics along with her husband, Matt, and brother, Bobby. The business combines Bobby’s ceramic experience, Matt’s background in engineering, and Emily’s whimsical signature design style she calls “Dot Pots.” Free Ceramics’ work has been featured in galleries across the United States, and custom pieces are enjoyed at home by many.
Wanting to continue pushing herself outside of her comfort zone, Free Wilson embarked on another entrepreneurial adventure in 2014. Free Wilson and her husband, Matt, purchased an old funeral home off Logan Street and have since remodeled the space into what has become known as the Studio Art Center. Not only is the Studio Art Center the home of Free Wilson’s Free Ceramics business, but it also features private studios and community space for rent, a showroom for studio artists, and a place where live music, classes and other events take place.
“I wanted to create a place for anyone in an art field to be able to access and feel comfortable to work in,” said Free Wilson.
Every type of art -- from contra dance and painting to ceramics and music -- is welcome. Free Wilson explained that they even have an Irish fiddler scheduled to perform at the studio on Aug. 15.
“I love that you can come in here on any given day and see musicians doing a sound check while kids are learning to throw,” said Free Wilson.
What began as a simple love for clay, Free Ceramics has transformed into a thriving business that brings artists together, inspires creativity and positively impacts the community.
“We’re helping bridge the areas between the different arts so art becomes more normal and essential,” said Free Wilson.
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
There’s nothing about life you can’t learn by rolling up your sleeves, getting your hands dirty and working under the hood of a car. He didn’t know it at the time, but that’s precisely how Thomas Jodoin began his training for his future role as Helena's city attorney. Working on engines alongside his grandfather as a boy, Jodoin was taught how to problem solve and hone his patience -- skills that would prove useful later on.
Jodoin attended the University of Montana Law School and graduated in 2006 with a certificate in environmental natural resources law. Later that same year, he moved to Helena to work as deputy city attorney and was named city attorney in 2014.
The role of city attorney is to provide legal counsel for the city of Helena as well as serve as the legal adviser to the mayor, city commission, city staff, and numerous boards and commissions. Jodoin routinely prepares or reviews ordinances and resolutions and provides legal opinions to the commission on matters ranging from land use to contracts. His office also handles, in municipal court, the prosecution of misdemeanors and code violations that are committed within city limits.
While the idea of having so many individuals and departments turn to you for advice sounds intimidating, Jododin admits enjoying that aspect.
“I like that I get to work with the public and help solve issues within the rules and regulations we have,” he said. “I try to be patient and listen to people.”
Even when Jodoin’s job requires him to tell people things that they don’t want to hear and don’t agree with, he does so with respectful consideration.
“My role is to enforce what I believe the law says,” said Jodoin. “I even have to put my personal beliefs aside.”
“The influence Thomas has on city policy and decision-making is significant, given that many decisions made by the City Commission are based on the opinions and advice he provides,” said Dan Ellison, city commissioner. “He provides knowledge and legal expertise that far surpasses his years in practice.”
While Jodoin does admit that he is younger than most city attorneys and department heads, he attributes his success to being surrounded by strong mentors growing up, such as his mother and grandmother, as well as his coaches in basketball and running.
Jodoin dreamed of being a wide receiver in football early on, but his plans were dashed due to his narrower build. He went on to take up basketball and eventually running instead. He was even named NAIA All American in 2002 for middle distance running. His experience and struggles in sports taught him the meaning of hard work and how to handle disappointment -- which no doubt prepared him well for the role in which he would someday serve.
“You start off slow but slowly gain momentum,” said Jodoin. “That is the nature of running -- and of life.”
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” This famous quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson eloquently conveys the struggle of many in the LGBTQ community today.
But thanks to the work of Kim Leighton, regional development organizer for Pride Foundation, progress is being made to expand opportunities and achieve full equality for the LGBTQ community.
Throughout her career in Montana, Leighton has sought work in the areas she feels most passionate about, particularly domestic violence/sexual abuse, reproductive freedom and the LGBTQ community. Before joining the Pride Foundation, she worked with the YWCA of Missoula Domestic Violence shelter as an advocate and also with the ACLU of Montana. She also served as the program director at NARAL Pro-Choice Montana.
After enthusiastic encouragement from her predecessor, Leighton applied for and later accepted her current position as regional development organizer for Pride Foundation.
Pride Foundation is a regional community foundation that “inspires giving to expand opportunities and advance full equality for LGBTQ people” across the Northwest. The organization spans across Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington and works to provide scholarships and grants to enact change in local communities.
Within her role, one of Leighton’s largest tasks is to work on cultivating relationships across Montana with different organizations, coalitions, and individual donors who support Pride Foundation’s work. One project that has been especially meaningful for Leighton is her work on a Homeless LGBTQ Youth Initiative. Leighton explained that statistics show approximately 40 percent of homeless youth in Montana identify as LGBTQ. Family rejection is often what leads to their homeless state. While only in the research phase, Leighton is very hopeful about where the initiative will go.
“There’s a special place in my heart for young queer and transgender individuals,” said Leighton. “They fall into an invisible category where they are made to feel that their ideas and thoughts don’t matter, and I think their strength and courage should be applauded.”
While Leighton admits that working professionally in areas that hold personal significance is incredibly rewarding, it does not come without its challenges.
“You have to focus on and prioritize self-care in this type of work,” said Leighton.
After the nightclub shooting in Orlando, Leighton found solace by going for a hike as well as checking in online with the other Pride Foundation leaders.
Leighton laughed in sharing that it’s a running joke with people who know her that she seems to find the most difficult work to be involved with. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I need to do work that feels rewarding and that is making a positive difference,” said Leighton.
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
Be open to whatever comes next. That is the life attitude Sarah LaRue, attorney at Keller Law Firm, adopted from an early age.
While attending high school in Michigan, LaRue was first exposed to different aspects of the law through various field trips to the local courthouse. She was immediately intrigued but still wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she grew up. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in political science from Arizona State University she still felt drawn to the world of legal affairs. Deciding to trust her gut, LaRue continued her education by attending Michigan State University College of Law.
During law school, LaRue worked for a legal services organization in Michigan and was introduced to elements of family law. She enjoyed the work so much she decided to make it her focus in school. LaRue later graduated with a certificate in child and family advocacy.
In 2009, LaRue joined the Keller Law Firm in Helena. She continues to focus her practice in the areas of family law, including dissolutions, parenting and support issues, paternity, abuse and neglect and adoptions.
The hardest part of her work, admitted LaRue, is constantly dealing with people in the throes of emotional turmoil. She explained that her job is to guide her clients though both the legal and emotional aspects of their case. To do so, however, requires LaRue to hold onto and manage her client’s emotions without internalizing them.
“That’s not something they teach you in law school,” said LaRue.
While LaRue frequently works on challenging and emotionally taxing cases, she always pushes through in hopes of a positive resolution. The reward at the end of the day is when she is able to amicably resolve a case and settle on the best possible situation for everyone involved.
Throughout her legal education and practice, LaRue has always been actively involved in organizations that are committed to her passions of family advocacy and ending domestic abuse. While still in Michigan, LaRue volunteered at Michigan State University Safe House domestic violence shelter. She also served as a board member for a time for what was then called the Network Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse in Bozeman. In 2010, LaRue joined the board of directors for YWCA Helena. Since joining the board, she has continued her service as secretary and vice president and has served as its president for the past three years.
Her advocacy and devotion have not gone unnoticed by her peers.
“She is unconditionally recognized by her peers and the judges before whom she practices as a highly skilled and uncompromisingly ethical practitioner,” said Jaqueline Lenmark, a fellow attorney at Keller Law.
LaRue attributes her strong ethic practices to her belief that the “legal system is only as good as the people who work in it.”
- Tom Kuglin
“Everyone wants to be Superman,” opined JD “Pepper” Petersen, CEO of Big Sky UAV, as he held a palm-sized drone. “The earliest dream of humans has been flight, and we’ve achieved that technology to put you in the cockpit of this drone.”
Petersen, 38, has been fascinated with drones since the '90s. What was once the stuff of science fiction grew in popularity from military applications to the commercial and recreational drones of today.
“When I got glasses in the 6th grade I remember I could finally see leaves on trees,” he said. “That’s the same reaction you get from people that fly a drone for the first time. It blows them away to see that new perspective from above places you regularly visit.
“I’ve been flying drones since 2011 and we were very interested as hobbyists, but we saw the commercial opportunity from the very beginning.”
Big Sky UAV started with the wave of public enthusiasm and early commercial interest. The company provides multiple services to commercial drone users including flying the drones, consulting and instruction.
“Anything that can fly can be atomized, but don’t limit yourself to thinking about drones as only aerial,” Petersen said. “There’s a revolution with how robotics are interacting with humans.”
Big Sky UAV has worked with infrastructure inspection, aerial surveys of wildlife, air quality monitoring and insurance. Its work was recently featured on Dateline NBC, and Petersen highlighted an upcoming university project to study climate change in Montana’s forests.
“Drones can do anything a commercial aircraft can do besides lifting supplies and people,” he said. “As PCs developed people wondered why they’d need this stupid machine. Now you can’t live without the thing, and we think that’ll be the ubiquity with drones too.”
Drones are often in the news for negative reasons, whether it's for military airstrikes or amateur operators flying irresponsibly. Petersen says his company proceeded cautiously to ensure they flew by the book by securing needed clearances and meeting FAA requirements.
Helena falls almost entirely within a 5-mile restricted area due to the location of the airport, which means any commercial flight requires clearance from air traffic controllers, he said.
“There are a lot more restrictions on commercial operators than on hobbyists, and what can give us a bad name are the rogue hobbyists,” Petersen said. “If you’re flying in an airspace at all, there’s people’s lives at stake.”
The potential for delivery services via drone is a natural technological progression, and journalists can use them as well to report news. Big Sky UAV will be there to push the industry and find innovative ways to use them, Petersen said.
“The air is the ultimate highway where you don’t have the limitations you do on the ground,” he said.
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
It stretches out its rays each morning to embrace and awaken us. Sunflowers scattered along the roadside sway their heads towards its warmth. It entices new buds of grass to poke their heads above ground for the first time. The sun is at the center of all life. Without it, we would be nothing.
Jack Isbell, owner of Solar Montana, has quite literally grown a business by harvesting energy from one of our most critical resources: the sun.
After graduating from the University of Montana with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and information systems, Isbell was presented with a unique opportunity to travel to China on a potential business venture.
While in China, Isbell observed how efficient the Chinese were with their resources. From hanging their clothes outside to dry to utilizing small refrigerators and tankless water heaters in their homes, power was conserved as much as possible. Isbell’s trip helped spark an interest in starting his own company that centered on energy efficiency and conservation.
“I wanted to do something out of the realm of normalcy,” said Isbell.
Observing that such a business would fill Helena’s void in such a specialized niche, Isbell returned to his hometown to begin making his dream a reality.
In the spring of 2005, Solar Montana was born. Since then, the company has installed and serviced more than 300 alternative energy systems in Helena and the surrounding area. Their services include, but are not limited to, design consultation, off-grid systems, grid-tied systems, solar water pumping, and wind generators.
Of his many projects, Isbell admitted that he is perhaps most proud of a large system of solar panels he installed at River Rock Residence, a low-income senior housing complex in Helena. With a total of 338 panels spanning 10 buildings, River Rock was one of the biggest solar projects in the state. But for Isbell, the real satisfaction from that project came from knowing he provided the residents with power at little to no cost.
Isbell and Solar Montana are also responsible for installing solar panels at Great Harvest Bread Company as well as at both Capital and Helena high schools.
For Isbell, the most rewarding part of his work comes from witnessing the happiness instilled in his clients. “The best part for me is when I get a phone call from someone we’ve done a project for and they tell me they haven’t paid an electric bill in six months or a year,” said Isbell.
With increased concern about rising utility costs and a desire to protect the environment, alternative energy systems are only gaining in popularity.
“It’s not for everyone; it’s a long-term investment — but so is your home,” said Isbell.
- PEGGY O'NEILL For the Independent Record
Candyce Kepler is a busy woman. In addition to working as a nurse at Shodair Children’s Hospital and a school-based registered nurse at Rossiter and Jim Darcy elementary schools, she is the mother to 6 ½-year-old twins John and Andrew and 3-year-old Jace.
“It’s a crazy time in our family right now,” Kepler, 37, said. She and her husband, Mike, an art teacher at Helena Middle School, were traveling with their sons the day following this interview to Seattle, where John and Andrew would have a regular follow-up appointment with doctors who treated them as toddlers for craniosynostosis, a birth defect that causes one or more sutures in an infant’s head to close earlier than normal.
“They are doing fine,” Kepler said.
But Kepler doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon. When the time is right, she said she would like to pursue a master’s degree and become a nurse practitioner in mental health.
“There's too much out there for me to learn,” she said.
Kepler said she always knew she wanted to be in the medical field. She started out taking pre-med classes at Carroll College, but then became impatient with the time it would take.
“I wanted to finish in four years,” she said, so she switched her major to psychology. From there, she applied to physician assistant school, but was told she didn’t have enough experience. Eager to gain experience, she applied and graduated from an accelerated nursing program at Creighton University in Nebraska.
“That was the best decision of my life,” Kepler said. “Being a nurse opened so many doors professionally. Being a nurse – you can do a lot of different things.”
Being a school nurse, however, has helped Kepler focus and find her passion: mental health. Running down a list of the health issues she sees as a school nurse -- asthma, allergies -- Kepler mentions mental health.
“Mental health is big in the schools,” she said. “There’s a need for it, and I think I’m good at it.”
Barbara Ridgway, staff and students services administrator with Helena Public Schools, would agree that Kepler’s confidence and kindness would help her achieve whatever goal she sets for herself. In her 20 Under 40 nomination letter for Kepler, Ridgway wrote: “Candyce is a young professional who is taking on new leadership roles in the very community where she and her husband have chosen to live, work and raise their family. Her empathy, positive outlook and general joy for life make her someone students and families rely on for support with health needs.”
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
In a technological age where you rarely need to set foot inside a bank, Melanie Hall, Commissioner of the Montana Division of Banking and Financial Institutions, is committed to maintaining relationships with our financial institutions and keeping things local.
Hall, a 2003 graduate of Tulane Law School in New Orleans, received her bachelor’s degree in economics in 2000 from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. Prior to serving as commissioner, she was an attorney in private practice dealing with civil litigation in a wide variety of areas.
In 2011, then-Gov. Brian Schweitzer appointed Hall to the position of commissioner and current Gov. Steve Bullock reappointed her in 2013. Hall explained that because of national economic problems, it was an interesting time to be involved in banking and economic policy.
“When I started working here, it was a time when banks were under severe pressure due to the larger economy,” said Hall. “Over the last five and a half years, I have worked with banks to help them comply with the law and have enjoyed watching them succeed -- even in the face of tremendous regulatory and economic pressure.”
In her current role, Hall provides the overall leadership to the Banking Division, which is responsible for the supervision of all state-chartered banks, trust companies and credit unions. In addition, the Division licenses and examines more than 500 financial entities including mortgage lenders, servicers, brokers and originators, consumer loan companies, sales finance companies, deferred deposit lenders and escrow businesses.
“The challenge of what I do is seeing how the financial services industry has changed in a way that sometimes makes it cost-prohibitive for our financial institutions to continue to serve our smallest communities,” said Hall. “It’s sad when you receive a branch closure notice and you know that it’s the only branch for maybe 60 miles.”
Hall explained that she encourages banks to explore all their options, from limiting services and hours, before reaching that point. But she admitted that sometimes it just doesn’t work. “It’s been eye opening to see just how important local branches are to those communities,” she said.
Since adopting the small-town lifestyle of Montana, Hall enjoys spending time at her family’s cabin on the Blackfoot River but has had her eyes opened to the struggles of rural banks and credit unions.
“I really like being an advocate for community banks and credit unions and the value they play in small business lending and keeping Montana main street communities prosperous and thriving,” said Hall.
- Al Knauber
A sense of community runs through Jenifer Gursky’s life.
It guided her back to Montana after she left for overseas mission work. Her appreciation for community helped illuminate her path that took her to the University of Montana, the state Legislature and now to nonprofit organizations.
Today she’s a program officer for local community foundations at the Montana Community Foundation, an organization whose website said its work with donors, charitable organizations, cities and towns plays a critical role in both philanthropic and community development.
“We are part of our community, and I am responsible to that place, the people, where I am,” said Gursky.
“None of those accomplishments that can be externally recognized have been solely because of me. … It happened because a community said ‘Hey, will you take this position and I will help you in these four ways,’ so none of that is independently achieved.”
She doesn’t view herself as unique and said she sees commonalities with her peers in the nonprofit sector, those whom she served with in the state Legislature and others who are part of the Montana Community Foundation.
They’re “all rolling up their sleeves and truly making a place where Montanans want to be, where Montanans want to stay, where they’re ready for tomorrow,” Gursky said.
And she was quick to say she believes her colleagues are more deserving of praise than she is.
Some of what has prepared her for life’s challenges came from her parents, who were middle-school teachers in Ronan and taught her “You do the best you can because that will set you up for the world.”
“You have finite resources to work with in the world and you better make the best of it,” she added of their guidance.
“Find opportunities in what you’ve been handed and just make the best of it,” she said.
This outlook has sustained her during mission work, as a non-traditional college student, who returned to the classroom later in life, and then in the nonprofit sector.
“Often, I’m working in a scarcity of resources, and you always make the best of it. You make the biggest impact,” she said.
Despite the non-linear path that she followed in life, she never harbored doubts about returning to Montana and its sense of community. Her application to attend the University of Montana came while on a mission to Cambodia.
Her entrance into the state Legislature came after running for the student Senate at the University of Montana and then becoming president of the Associated Students of the University of Montana.
“I got a taste of what behind the scenes navigation looked like and how you could effect change,” she said.
Conversations with others, who had much greater political capital and influence, helped her to decide on a run for the house district she would win.
Gursky was part of the 2013 Legislature and represented Missoula House District 98. The experience helped reaffirm her appreciation for Montana and its people.
She left the Legislature when she moved from Missoula to Helena, where she became Helena Food Share’s development director.
Since then, she has become part of the Montana Community Foundation where she assists communities in determining their long-term visions and identifying partners to help them realize those goals. Hers is a job that takes her across Montana, where she helps people better serve their communities.
“We have a million people and are the fourth largest state in the union. And I think the sense of community we feel even though we live hours away from each other is matched by no other state or place that I’ve ever visited,” Gursky said.
“So I think that there’s a sense of belonging and ownership here,” she added.
It’s this sense of place Montanans have that has guided her career path where she helps communities despite their perceived scarcity of resources -- a challenge with which she’s familiar.
Gursky describes herself as “a fierce independent who wants to live in community.”
“I am fiercely independent but only thrive when living in community, like we need each other,” she said. “I guess that makes me a typical Montanan.”
- LACEY MIDDLESTEAD For the Independent Record
Sometimes the best adventures come from life’s unplanned moments. That has certainly been the case for Erin Lanigan, directress and teacher at Mountainside Montessori School.
Lanigan was first introduced to the Montessori education approach while studying literature at Carroll College. One of Lanigan’s friends and classmates was working as a nanny for some children who attended what was then called Children’s World Montessori School. She showed Lanigan a videoed performance at the school, and Lanigan was amazed at what the students were capable of.
Lanigan later enrolled her oldest son at the school and even accepted an offer to work there. During her first week there she realized that something “truly magical” was happening in the school. That’s when she began studying to become a Montessori teacher. Lanigan has since received her Early Childhood Teaching Certificate through the Age of Montessori and her International Montessori Teaching Diploma for infants, toddlers and twos through the North American Montessori Center.
When the opportunity presented itself, in March of 2013, Lanigan purchased the school and renamed it Mountainside Montessori. Since then, she has grown the school to include six teachers who serve around 30-35 students ranging in age from 3 to 6 years old. This fall, Lanigan will expand Mountainside’s education programs to also serve children from infancy to age 3 as well as first and second graders. She expects the expansion to grow Mountainside to over 50 students with 12 teachers.
What differentiates a Montessori program like Mountainside, explained Lanigan, is its carefully prepared classroom that encourages independent learning in a peaceful environment. There is lots of one-on-one time and an emphasis on helping students learn practical skills. Quoting Montessori education founder Maria Montessori, Lanigan explained that Mountainside is all about “freedom within limits.”
As a Helena native, Lanigan understands the importance of community. She strives to connect her students to the community through outings downtown and to other local business. “We want the kids to know that it’s their community too and establish our presence in that community,” said Lanigan. In her personal life, Lanigan’s community involvement includes participation in Family Promise and a past history playing the viola for the Helena Symphony.
Thinking back on where she started and where she’s ended up, Lanigan smiled, acknowledging that while all very “fortuitous,” the journey has been an incredible one.
“It all comes back to the children,” said Lanigan. “Seeing them love to learn and watching their awe at the world around them is really inspiring. Being able to look through a child’s eyes every day is pretty special.”
More like this...
Most Popular
-
Forest Service seeks help in finding who started fire Saturday west of Helena
-
East Helena woman dies after head-on collision
-
Updated: C.R. Anderson student found with loaded handgun in locker, Helena school officials say
-
Updated: Two teens charged in 'senseless' vandalism of East Helena schools
-
UPDATED: Candidate for head of Montana OPI charged with obstructing a peace officer
