Officers and Directors
Governance
An elected Board of Directors oversees all activities of ARCS Foundation Minnesota. At monthly board meetings, the work and progress of the committees is discussed. Officers of the Minnesota Chapter Board are listed below. Committees include Development; Communcations & Marketing; Membership, Events; and University Relations. In addition, there are several At-Large Board Member positions. Our fiscal year is July 1 to June 30, with an annual meeting held each July. The year's largest event is the Scholar Awards Event in October, when the Scholars are presented with their monetary awards.
2022-2023 Board Members
Barb Goergen - Co-President
Barb Goergen is Co-President and one of the co-founders of Medicom Health Interactive.
Barb has over 30 years of experience developing medical and health education programs. During that time, she helped create several hundred interactive health awareness programs for some of the largest pharmaceutical companies and medical associations like the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association and the National Cancer Institute. Medicom Health Interactive develops health education and awareness software applications that are licensed to hospitals across the U.S. and are used for online consumer engagement. Medicom Health Interactive was sold in 2021. Prior to founding Medicom Health Interactive, she directed the post-graduate School of Blood Bank Technology for the American Red Cross in Madison, Wisconsin.
Barb is a founding member of the Minnesota Chapter of ARCS Foundation and received the National ARCS Light Award in 2016. She is a strong supporter of STEM educational initiatives across all age levels. Her interest in supporting graduate students through ARCS began when her son started his journey through higher education as a PhD student at Stanford. He is now an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue. She has a B.S. degree in laboratory medicine from the University of Michigan.
Judith L Benham - Co-President
VP, University Relations
Judith L. Benham, Ph.D., has served as Chair of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Committee on International Activities (IAC) (2010-2012), Chair of the ACS Board of Directors (2007-09), and as a member of the ACS Board of Directors (2004-09). A member of ACS since 1969, Benham has been active in Society business, serving on numerous committees and as chair of the ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry. In recognition of her many contributions, she was named ACS Fellow in 2010. Her current activities focus on globalization and STEM education.
Judith is retired from her position as RFID Business Director in the 3M Industrial Services & Solutions Division. Her nearly 30-year career included chemical research, research management, and business management in multiple divisions, with professional expertise that encompasses R&D and operations management, strategic & technical planning, and change management.
Judith received her BA in chemistry from the University of Rochester, and her Doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Judith served as President of ARCS Foundation Minnesota Chapter 2011-2014. Judith was the recipient of the National ARCS Light AWard in 2014. She was honored for her leadership during a tumultuous time for the fledgling chapter. Judith worked tirelessly to ensure that the Board of Directors remained actively engaged, and led the effort to stabilize the membership and our development process.
Ingrid E. Blair - Vice President, Development & Membership
Ingrid Blair has retired after spending 30 years at 3M in positions of increasing responsibility in technology development, laboratory, sales and marketing management, and global business leadership. Ingrid was most recently Global Business Director in the Drug Delivery Systems Division of 3M, a recognized world leader in business based on science. An engineer by training, she has a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. She earned her certification as a Design for Six Sigma Master Black Belt.
Blair has held board positions in Solumed, a wholly-owned subsidiary of 3M Canada, a manufacturer of medical consumables and Zargis, a developer of diagnostic software for health care applications. She was an advisory board member for the Business School of Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Blair was 3M’s executive sponsor for the Middle East Education to Employment Fellows Program with Hamline University under a US State Department grant to develop leadership, philanthropy, and entrepreneurship for young leaders from the Middle East. She represented 3M on The Conference Board, New Product, and Services Council.
In addition to her volunteer work promoting careers in science, she is a speaker, writer, and advocate, creating awareness, removing the stigma associated with, and finding solutions to the disease of addiction that took the life of her eldest son, Hunter, in December 2016.
Catina Koenig - Treasurer
Catina Koenig began her career in the financial services industry in 1999, and joined Baird in November 2001. In 2017, she established the Koenig Jones Group, upon the retirement of her former mentor and partner, Ken Smith. She earned her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, is a Certified Private Wealth Advisor® (CPWA®), a member of the Investment Management Consulting Association (IMCA), and serves on the Baird Women's Advisor Council and the Baird Women's Associate Resouce Group Advisory Council.
Catina believes education is the key to a successful partnership with her clients. She invests the time to really get to know them, their current financial situation, goals, values, and important relationships in order to help them develop a strategy to achieve their goals and peace of mind.
Catina resides in Eden Prairie with her husband, Troy, and two sons, Tavin and Asher. When she is away from the office, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, global travel, and participating as an member of the Campaign Council for the Twin Cities chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
Leslie Martens - Member at Large
Leslie Martens attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, and graduated with a BS degree in Nursing. She worked as a physical rehabilitation nurse in a Minneapolis hospital and as Director of Nursing at a long term care facility. She made a career transition to becoming a Long Term Care Specialist and joined Newman Long Term Care in 2006. She assists couples, families, business owners, employers and employees in planning for and managing the personal and financial risks of long term care. Leslie is married and has twin sons and a grandson.
Pam Snyder - Member at Large
Pam is an independent consultant, providing strategic Regulatory and Clinical consulting for medical device companies. She has over thirty years of experience in Business, Health Care and Clinical and Regulatory Affairs, having held senior positions in both emerging and larger companies prior to returning to consulting in 2013. Her entrepreneurial business ventures include: founder of the Minnesota Lumbar Spine Clinic, Inc., founder and president of the Human Performance Center, and co-founder and CFO of Midwest Hand Care Institute.
She is a graduate of the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Science Degree in General Science (1979) and Certificate in Physical Therapy (1980). She has lectured to professional and industrial organizations on a variety of health care topics and has authored and co-authored chapters for several medical textbooks.