BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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CARMEN LINDA CONKLIN
Carmen Linda worked received her Master's of Education in 1970 and taught music for over 11 years from Kindergarten to H.S. instrumental music. She starting her teaching career in Guttenberg, Iowa and then moved to the Minneapolis, MN area to teach in several suburbs, and full time in Brooklyn Park, MN. She taught adult education classes in Guitar in Minneapolis and Nashua, Iowa. During her high school through college years, Carmen Linda was a paid semi-professional bassoonist in area symphony orchestras: 1962-1970 Rochester Symphony Orchestra & summer Band, Rochester, MN; Lacrosse, WI Coulee Region Symphony Orchestra in summers; Waterloo, Iowa Symphony Orchestra; Luther College Symphony Messiah concerts; and various other summer bands. Moving to Iowa in 1980 to the home farm Carmen did in-home health care providing for her father who had a massive stroke. During that time she wrote for various newspapers as a stringer and from 1991-2010, Carmen and Wanda owned and published the local newspaper, The Nashua Reporter. Retiring from newspaper publishing in 2010, Carmen turned full attention to managing the sanctuary which was founded in 1985. In 2020, after being hospitalized for a month, Carmen turned over her lead of the sanctuary to our new Executive Director, Keisha L. Stough. Keisha has been working at Rustic Hollow for 16 years as of 2022. Carmen and Wanda have retired from the sanctuary business and their new job title is "support personnel". |
Carmen pictured with Domino
Carmen pictured with her beloved Mathew
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WANDA L. ORRIC
Wanda received her Bachelor of Science Degree as a Business Major in 1967 and worked for the Social Security Administration in various positions for 24 years; i.e. case development work, case resolutions (Equal Employment Opportunity) as EEO Investigator; payment of claims representative; and supervisory position for 7 years, as a Grade GS 12. Her work with EEO involved traveling all over Illinois resolving personnel/employment issues in other offices as an Arbitrator. She was also a Claims Analyst in Chicago, IL. and before moving to Nashua with Carmen in 1980, she worked in the Tele-Service Center as Supervisor in Minneapolis, MN.
In 1990 she joined with Carmen as co-owner and co-publisher of The Nashua Reporter, the local newspaper. After retiring in 2010 from the newspaper publishing business, Wanda has spent a lot of time volunteering for C & W.
Wanda received her Bachelor of Science Degree as a Business Major in 1967 and worked for the Social Security Administration in various positions for 24 years; i.e. case development work, case resolutions (Equal Employment Opportunity) as EEO Investigator; payment of claims representative; and supervisory position for 7 years, as a Grade GS 12. Her work with EEO involved traveling all over Illinois resolving personnel/employment issues in other offices as an Arbitrator. She was also a Claims Analyst in Chicago, IL. and before moving to Nashua with Carmen in 1980, she worked in the Tele-Service Center as Supervisor in Minneapolis, MN.
In 1990 she joined with Carmen as co-owner and co-publisher of The Nashua Reporter, the local newspaper. After retiring in 2010 from the newspaper publishing business, Wanda has spent a lot of time volunteering for C & W.
KEISHA L. STOUGH Keisha has many years of experience working with animals. She volunteered and started working for Rustic Hollow when she was 15 years old and always told us she was going to work with animals when she was older. And work with animals she has. She has a passion for her work and feels that when you do something you love and are passionate about it becomes more than just a 'job.' She worked with several veterinarians after High School learning veterinary tech work and worked for a humane society as their veterinary technician before moving back to Nashua where she immediately reconnected with Rustic Hollow and was asked to start work as soon as possible. She has served as Sanctuary Veterinary Tech for over 9 years and received her training as a Certified Euthanasia Tech in 2010, graduating from the National Animal Control Association (NACA) certification course in the top 93% of the class. She has been the Staff Supervisor for several years attending Supervisor seminars in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and Keisha also has experience in newsletter publishing and has excellent organizational skills. She helps develop staff policies and shelter manual updates as needed; volunteered for our monthly StOPP ( STop Overpopulation Prevention Program) low cost spay neuter clinics and volunteers for fund raisers for the sanctuary as well. She has been a Board member for several years and in 2019 she is the President of the Board of Directors. She has had various management positions from her Vet Tech to Supervisor to Manager. She currently (as of 2022) is the Executive Director (ED) of the sanctuary and is fully in charge of all aspects of our work. |
ABOVE: Keisha is pictured with Baby Ollie who was rescued . And the second photo is of Little Ollie all grown up. Our veterinarian removed his bad eye when he was a kitten and he just one of several faithful kitty pals of Keishas.
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Jennifer Biby
Jennifer first learned about Rustic Hollow in March of 2019. She had rescued a cat who was injured. The cat had been attacked so she took him in, altered him and found out he was FIV+ (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus). She did some research and discovered Rustic Hollow. The rest of the story is easy. She visited us, Midnight became a resident and Jennifer was determined to help Rustic Hollow in any way she could. Jennifer and her father Griff became involved in volunteering and doing repair projects on weekends. Which is quite a feat because Jennifer, Griff, and her mother Vickie live in Kansas City, Missouri.... 5 hours and 15 minutes away her mother says. But they make the trip to work hard for the weekend and spend time with the kitties too. Her interest in our work and her enthusiasm for what we do, led us to invite her to be a board member. As of August 2019, Jennifer is a member of our Board and has already taken on updating our website, adding photos, and is willing to help with fund raising and more. We really appreciate the "hands-on" hard work of remodeling that Jennifer and her father Griff have done in our buildings.
Jennifer graduated from Colorado Technical University, with an associates degree in Business Administration with a Concentration in Management. Jennifer works for Maxus Properties as an HR/ Benefits Administrator; prior to this she worked at Wellness Life Systems, in Accounts payable, both are located in the Kansas City Missouri area. She also volunteers for her local animal shelter in Kansas City, Great Plains SPCA and NAWS (Northland Animal Welfare Society), a low cost spay neuter clinic.
BRANDY HUDSON
Brandy Hudson joined our Board of Directors in 2021. She has been a part of Rustic Hollow for over 3 years. She started as a Caregiver and has moved up with several promotions from caregiver to assistant med tech to now Medical technician and is also our Staff Supervisor.
Her love for animals and her dedication to our mission assures us that she will be a part of our sanctuary and mission for a long time. She is a life-er and also lives on the sanctuary grounds where she can check on animals nightly and keep an eye on all of the buildings too. We welcome her to our board.
Transition Year(s): As Wanda and I find ourselves aging we are slowly transitioning our talents and giving them over to our Board of Directors. We have a strong core group of employees now, and our new Executive Director, (as of 2021) Keisha L. Stough, is very committed to our mission: keeping the payroll; and ordering all supplies; and in general fully running all aspects of the sanctuary.
No, Carmen and Wanda are (hopefully) not going anywhere anytime soon but planning for the future is something that has been very important and we have confidence in our Board of Directors.
NOTE: The transition has been completed as of June 2021 and our Management team are fully in charge of all the operations at Rustic Hollow. Wanda and I can now retire from all the sanctuary 'business' and just enjoy hearing of all the new ideas and stories of the cats from our leaders Keisha and Brandy. And we get to sit under cats too. Our new job: "support personnel".