SEIU Healthcare Minnesota Executive Board |

Jamie Gulley
President |
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 Ugen
Executive 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 Weed
Executive 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 Asmus
Executive 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.
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Phillip Cryan
Executive 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 Carlson
Vice President – Allina
Allina Phillips Eye Institute |
Sonja Lemire
Vice President – Long Term Care
Park View Care Center |
Kate Lynch
Vice President – Clinics
HealthPartners Clinics |
Mindy Tomfohrde
Vice President – SouthEast
Olmsted Medical Center |
LaTanya Hughes
Vice President – Home Care
Home Care
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Corey VanDenburgh
Vice President – Home Care
Home Care |
Maxine Maxon
Vice President – Twin City Hospitals
Fairview U of M Medical Center |
Kent Wilcox
Guard
HealthEast Bethesda Hospital |
Kamala Ramnauth
Assistant Guard
North Memorial Medical Center |
Cleveland Donazal
Trustee
Healtheast Bethesda Hospital |
Louise Duffee
Trustee
Extendicare-St. Louis Park
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Dan Mintey
Trustee
Olmsted Medical Center |

Melody Nordby
Trustee
Montevideo Hospital |
Jeff Sarro
Delegate At Large – Allina
Allina Abbott Northwestern Hospital |
Kaytie Elrite
Delegate At Large – Clinics
HealthPartners Clinics |
Darleen Gray
Delegate At Large – Home Care
Home Care |
Francis Hall
Delegate At Large – Home Care
Home Care |
Deb Howze
Delegate At Large – Home Care
Home Care |
Robin Pikala
Delegate At Large – Home Care
Home Care |
Cortney Phillips
Delegate At Large – Home Care
Home Care |
Jan Wirpel
Delegate At Large – Home Care
Home Care |
Emma Woodard
Delegate At Large – Long Term Care
Providence Place |
Mary Bale
Delegate At Large – SouthEast
Mayo St. Marys Hospital |
Bennie Cromedy
Delegate At Large – Twin City Hospitals
Fairview Southdale Hospita |
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Brianne Bernini
Delegate At Large Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital |
Rajib Bhattarai
Delegate At Large
Mayo Rochester Methodist Hospital |
Charlie Butter
Delegate At Large
Cook County |
Yankuba Fadera
Delegate At Large
HealthEast St. John’s Hospital |
Mark Freeman
Delegate At Large
Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital
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Penny Hansen
Delegate At LargeAicota Health Care Center |
Crissy Hanson
Delegate At Large
Cuyuna Regional Medical Center |
James Holt Jr
Delegate At Large
Fairview Southdale Hospital |
Natalie Jackson
Delegate At Large
Allina Aspen Clinics |
Russ Maloney
Delegate At Large
Allina St. Francis Medical Center |

Rita Matthews
Delegate At Large
Allina Mercy Hospital |
Kathy Meyer
Delegate At Large
Cuyuna Regional Medical Center |
Jennifer Norgren
Delegate At Large
Mayo St. Marys Hospital
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Becky Schmitz
Delegate At Large
Chippewa County Montevideo Hospital
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Johnnie Smith
Delegate At Large
St. Paul Children’s Hospital |
Vivian Straumann
Delegate At Large
Allina United Hospital
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Marty Zahn
Delegate At Large
Mayo Rochester Methodist Hospital |
Elsie Urman
Delegate At Large – Retired
HealthPartners Clinics |
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