SEIU Healthcare Minnesota unites more than 35,000 healthcare and long-term care workers in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and home care throughout the state of Minnesota.
Our union seeks to secure the American Dream for all working people, including:
- A paycheck that supports a family
- Quality, affordable healthcare
- A secure retirement
- The freedom to form a union for a voice on the job
SEIU is the largest healthcare union in North America, uniting over 1.2 million healthcare workers to win better wages, affordable health care, a secure retirement, and safer workplaces. We are dedicated to ensuring the highest quality of care for every patient, attaining quality, affordable healthcare for every American, and improving the lives of healthcare workers, our families, and our communities.
Our Executive Board
Our union is a democratic organization led by an elected executive board.
| SEIU Healthcare Minnesota Executive Board | ||
|
Jamie Gulley |
Jamie Gulley joined SEIU as an organizer in 2002 and was elected President in 2012. Jamie has led some of the most important victories at SEIU Healthcare MN including organizing campaigns that brought in more than 30,000 new hospital, nursing home, and homecare workers–tripling the size of the union–and leading negotiations for a $15 minimum wage in all Twin Cities hospitals and clinics. In addition to serving as President of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, Jamie represents our members on the SEIU International Executive Board, SEIU Minnesota State Council, Minnesota AFL-CIO Executive Committee, the Minnesota Community Measurement Board for Healthcare Disparities, and the Greater Twin Cities United Way. Jamie also chairs the Twin Cities Hospital Pension Fund that supports 12,000 current and retired members. Jamie graduated from the National Labor College and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Labor Studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst. He lives in St Paul with his three daughters. | |
 Jigme UgenExecutive Vice President |
Jigme Ugen is the first Tibetan refugee to be elected as a labor union leader. He had worked in several non-profit organizations across the world before immigrating to the US in 2001, to work for the Late Senator Paul Wellstone. After the Senator’s tragic death, Jigme joined SEIU HCMN as an organizer. In 2007, he was elected Executive Vice President, and currently is the EVP of Finance. As an internal organizer he serves the members at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Phillips Eye Institute. Jigme represents the union as a Trustee on the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation; SEIU State Council and the Twin City Hospital Workers’ Pension Fund. He is the Vice President of the Asian Pacific Islanders Caucus of SEIU. Also a board-member on the Minnesota AFL-CIO; the Working Partnerships and the Blue Green Alliance. He leads the union’s Racial and Social Justice Programs and is involved in the climate & environmental justice. Jigme was born in Kalimpong, India and graduated from Delhi University with diplomas in Political Science, English and Economics. Jigme is deeply engaged with the Tibetan community and Tibet’s independence movement. He has a daughter named Zenden. |
|
 Lisa WeedExecutive Vice President |
Lisa Weed joined the labor movement in 2003 by organizing a union where she worked as a Licensed Practical Nurse at Infinia Owatonna Nursing Home. Lisa was actively involved with SEIU HCMN as a member organizer and in October 2004 moved into a position as an external organizer. In 2007, she was an Internal Organizer, and in 2012, became the Long Term Care Director. Lisa has been an Executive Vice President since January 2013. She was appointed by the Executive Board in 2013 and elected by the membership the following year. In 2014, Lisa became the Southeast Sector Director. She currently serves on the Department of Labor’s Rehabilitation and Review Panel, as a Labor Member, and sits on the Health Professionals Services Program Advisory Committee. | |
 Liz AsmusExecutive Vice President |
Liz Asmus became committed to the labor movement and progressive politics in 2007 when hired on as an Organizer in Training in the SEIU Healthcare Division through the International Union. She spent the next year traveling across the country helping healthcare workers form their union. Throughout the year she had the opportunity to work with SEIU Healthcare MN and the workers at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Buffalo Hospital in their fight for a union. In 2008, Liz took a permanent External Organizing position at SEIU Healthcare MN. In 2009 she became an Internal Organizer in the Allina Sector and in 2012 became Director of the Sector. Liz was elected to her current position, Executive Vice President, in December of 2013 and took on the role of Metro Hospital’s Director as well as Clinic Director in 2014. Liz is originally from Lebanon, Ohio and completed her Political Science, Bachelor of Arts in 2002 from Ohio University and worked towards her Master’s in Political Science with a focus on Political Feminist Theory in 2007. |
|
 Phillip CryanExecutive Vice President |
Phillip Cryan was elected Executive Vice President by the Board in 2015, when the first contract for the new home care workers’ sector of our union went into effect. He led the 2012-2013 legislative campaign to win organizing rights for consumer-directed home care workers in Minnesota and the home care union election campaign in 2014. He first joined the local’s staff in 2009 as Assistant Organizing Director and then became Organizing Director, before transitioning into leading the new home care sector after the August 2014 union election. Throughout his time with the local, he has also led our engagement in state policy work related to the Affordable Care Act, serving as an appointed member of multiple state task forces and working groups that have shaped healthcare policy – in particular, defending and expanding the state’s MinnesotaCare and Medical Assistance programs. He served from 2010 until early 2016 as the SEIU’s representative on the Board of Directors of TakeAction Minnesota, and from 2011 through 2014 as co-coordinator of Minnesotans for a Fair Economy. He holds a Masters degree from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and received his Bachelors from the same university. For nine years before joining the local’s staff, he organized for a number of different community, faith-based, and political organizations in Iowa, California, and Colombia, and did public policy research and writing on a variety of issues, especially health care reform and U.S. foreign policy in South America. He lives in St. Paul with his two children, Brodie and Flora. | |
 Lynn CarlsonVice President – Allina Allina Phillips Eye Institute |
 Sonja LemireVice President – Long Term Care Park View Care Center |
 Kate LynchVice President – Clinics HealthPartners Clinics |
 Mindy TomfohrdeVice President – SouthEast Olmsted Medical Center |
 LaTanya HughesVice President – Home Care Home Care |
 Corey VanDenburghVice President – Home Care Home Care |
 Maxine MaxonVice President – Twin City Hospitals Fairview U of M Medical Center |
 Kent WilcoxGuard HealthEast Bethesda Hospital |
 Kamala RamnauthAssistant Guard North Memorial Medical Center |
 Cleveland DonazalTrustee Healtheast Bethesda Hospital |
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 Dan MinteyTrustee Olmsted Medical Center |
Melody Nordby |
 Jeff SarroDelegate At Large – Allina Allina Abbott Northwestern Hospital |
 Kaytie ElriteDelegate At Large – Clinics HealthPartners Clinics |
 Darleen GrayDelegate At Large – Home Care Home Care |
 Francis HallDelegate At Large – Home Care Home Care |
 Deb HowzeDelegate At Large – Home Care Home Care |
 Robin PikalaDelegate At Large – Home Care Home Care |
 Cortney PhillipsDelegate At Large – Home Care Home Care |
 Jan WirpelDelegate At Large – Home Care Home Care |
 Emma WoodardDelegate At Large – Long Term Care Providence Place |
 Mary BaleDelegate At Large – SouthEast Mayo St. Marys Hospital |
 Bennie CromedyDelegate At Large – Twin City Hospitals Fairview Southdale Hospita |
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 Brianne BerniniDelegate At Large Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital |
 Rajib BhattaraiDelegate At Large Mayo Rochester Methodist Hospital |
 Charlie ButterDelegate At Large Cook County |
 Yankuba FaderaDelegate At Large HealthEast St. John’s Hospital |
 Mark FreemanDelegate At Large Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital |
 Penny HansenDelegate At LargeAicota Health Care Center |
 Crissy Hanson Delegate At Large Cuyuna Regional Medical Center |
 James Holt JrDelegate At Large Fairview Southdale Hospital |
 Natalie JacksonDelegate At Large Allina Aspen Clinics |
 Russ MaloneyDelegate At Large Allina St. Francis Medical Center |
Rita Matthews |
 Kathy MeyerDelegate At Large Cuyuna Regional Medical Center |
 Jennifer NorgrenDelegate At Large Mayo St. Marys Hospital |
 Becky SchmitzDelegate At Large Chippewa County Montevideo Hospital |
 Johnnie SmithDelegate At Large St. Paul Children’s Hospital |
 Vivian StraumannDelegate At Large Allina United Hospital |
 Marty ZahnDelegate At Large Mayo Rochester Methodist Hospital |
 Elsie UrmanDelegate At Large – Retired HealthPartners Clinics |
Louise Duffee
