Officers and Executive Board

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 President	Jamie Gulley joined the labor movement in 2001, and has dedicated his energy to building Union power for workers ever since. He began his career with SEIU as an organizer in 2002, and in 2012 was elected to his current position of President. Over his ten years with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, Jamie has led some of the most important victories SEIU Healthcare MN has won, including: organizing campaigns that brought close to 1,000 new hospital and nursing home members into SEIU; and negotiating contracts for higher standards in every sector of the Union, including standard-setting contracts. Jamie has led the transformation of healthcare workers into bold, fighting, winning SEIU Healthcare Minnesota members, and he led the merger discussion with the Healthcare Division of Local 21 that resulted in the creation of the state-wide bolder, stronger, and united Healthcare Union. In addition to serving as President of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, Jamie represents our members on the following governing boards: SEIU International Executive Board, SEIU Minnesota State Council, Minnesota AFL-CIO Executive Committee and, The Greater Twin Cities United Way. Jamie graduated from the National Labor College, based in Silver Springs MD, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration.
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.
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	Shaquonica Johnson Vice President – Home Care Home Care	Sumer Spika 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	Sandy Koski Trustee Allina United Hospital
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	LaTanya Hughes Delegate At Large – Home Care Home Care	Cortney Phillips Delegate At Large – Home Care Home Care
Robin Pikala Delegate At Large – Home Care Home Care	Corey VanDenburgh 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 Hospital
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	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
(Pic Coming Soon) Katrice Newsome Delegate At Large Allina Abbott Northwestern Hospital	Jennifer Norgren Delegate At Large Mayo St. Marys Hospital	(Pic Coming Soon) Harry O’Mara Delegate At Large Allina Abbott Northwestern Hospital
Becky Schmitz Delegate At Large Chippewa County Montevideo Hospital	Johnnie Smith Delegate At Large St. Paul Children’s Hospital	Vivian Straumann Delegate At Large Allina United Hospital
Marty Zahn Delegate At Large Mayo Rochester Methodist Hospital	(Pic Coming Soon) Patti Fritz Delegate At Large – Retired	Elsie Urman Delegate At Large – Retired HealthPartners Clinics