Saint Paul – Governor Tim Pawlenty today announced the appointment of Dr. Imam Hamdy El-Sawaf, Rev. Larry Forsberg, Dr. Wilhelmina Holder, Debra Jacoway, Rev. Christopher Morton, Jon Pratt, Rev. Gary Reierson, and Mala Thao, and the reappointment of G. Paul Beaumaster, Rev. Windell Calvert, Rev. Richard Coleman, Nancy Haapoja, Susan Hilgart, Kimberly Ketola, and Andrew Parker to the Governor’s Council on Faith and Community Service Initiatives. All are appointed to two-year terms that expire January 4, 2010.

Beaumaster, of Faribault, has been Rice County attorney since 1999. He started the first CASE (Communities Against Senior Exploitation) Program in Minnesota to prevent elder abuse by partnering with churches, senior centers and other community organization to educate and warn seniors of potential crime. He is a member of several organizations including the Faribault Rotary and Chamber of Commerce, the Minnesota County Attorney’s Association and is an assembly member of the Minnesota State Bar Association. He serves as a volunteer to Meals-On-Wheels, American Red Cross, and the Minnesota State Bar Association Mock Trial program.

Calvert, of Rochester, is church health director of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention. He leads a team of church consultants and produces training experiences for mission leaders. His 20 years of pastoral experience includes ministry as senior pastor, mission pastor and church planter for churches in Minnesota and Texas. His professional experience includes public relations, fundraising and executive services for the Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota, Ability Building Center, Inc. and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Coleman, of Eagan, serves as chief operating officer for The Kingdom Oil Christian Foundation. In 1979, he was ordained an Itinerant Elder through the African Methodist Episcopal Church and has pastored congregations in Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan. He has served a number of organizations including as board member to Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches; representative to Minnesota Council of Churches, board member to United Way of Minneapolis, Hennepin County American Cancer Society, the African American Adoption Agency, Greater Minnesota Association of Evangelicals, Co-chair of the Luis Palau 2004 Twin Cities Festival, Commissioner of Hennepin County African American Men's Project and member of a number of other faith and community organizations.

Forsberg, of Stillwater, is field director for Prison Fellowship of Minnesota. His responsibility is to expand ministries within the Minnesota prison system and develop reentry programs for ex-prisoners. Prior to coming to Prison Fellowship, he served in the pastoral ministry for 30 years. He has served in the pastorate in Minnesota, California, Iowa, and Illinois. His last senior pastorate was in Stillwater at Oakridge Community church from 1988 to 2004. He is the founder of True Sports Baseball, a Christ-centered youth evangelism outreach.

Haapoja, of Redwood Falls, is the Redwood Falls Youth for Christ campus life director, a position she has held since 1989 where she provides spiritual life guidance for junior and senior high school, and college age students. She is a charter board member of Redwood Falls Crisis Pregnancy Center and has been vice president of the Redwood Ministerial Association since 1994.

Hilgart, of Brainerd, is manager for the Brainerd WorkForce Center and team leader for Rural Minnesota Concentrated Employment Provider, Inc., a Minnesota WorkForce Center partner. Previously she worked as a human resources professional from 1991 to 2005 in the public and private sector. She currently serves as chair of the City of Brainerd Police and Fire Civil Service Commission and as a member of the children's ministry to the Lakewood Evangelical Free Church.

Holder, of Plymouth, is executive director of Women’s Initiative for Self Empowerment (WISE), Inc., a non-profit, multicultural organization that provides direct services and leadership development opportunities to empower immigrant women and girls to succeed. She also serves as a consultant for Development and Evaluation for the African and American Friendship Association for Cooperation and Development (AAFACD), Inc. Her previous work includes a targeted focus on HIV/AIDS prevention while serving as a director with Breaking Free, Inc., Turning Point, Inc, and Whisper, Inc. She holds many professional memberships and affiliations including the New American Collaborative, the University of Minnesota Cancer Center, the Global Health Ministries, the MN Public Health Association, Red Cross Association, and Bush Medical Fellows.

Jacoway, of Minneapolis, is a principal planning analyst for Hennepin County Human Services and Public Health Department, a position she has held since 2006. She has served in other capacities within Hennepin County since 1997, including as a liaison for faith and community based organizations to provide resource and referral services to both county staff and the Hennepin County community. In 2006 she was designated as liaison for Hennepin County to the Governor’s Council on Faith and Community Service Initiatives, and the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to help establish a closer connection between county, state and federal resources. Prior to joining Hennepin County, she served as a director with the Employment Action Center and a workshop facilitator at Resource, Inc. She currently serves on the board of Here’s Life Inner City, is active with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and previously served on the boards of the Council on Black Minnesotans, MADDADs, Women Planting Seeds and Alive Ministries.

Ketola, of Maplewood, hosts a daily talk show on KTIS-AM Faith Radio network in the Upper Midwest since 2005. She has 30 years of broadcast experience including hosting programs on KS95, and WCCO Radio and TV. She serves as chair of the Governor’s Council on Faith and Community Service Initiatives, board member at Union Gospel Mission, a volunteer with Charis Prison Ministry and missionary evangelism to corrections jail outreach. She contributes articles to Minnesota Christian Chronicle and has been published in the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, and Minnesota Women’s Press. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill-MN awarded Ketola their 2003 Annual Media Award.

Morton, of St. Anthony, is director of organizational development for the Minnesota Council on Churches. His previous experience includes positions of executive director for Minnesota Food Association, national director for Corporate, Foundation and Government Relations for Hazelden Foundation, and director for Minnesota FoodShare. During his career, Morton has served as minister at churches in Minnesota, Indiana and Kentucky. He is a consultant to non-profits providing services with a focus on capacity building, resource development, and strategic planning. He serves as board chair for the Minnesota Environmental Fund and the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition served on the board of the Minnesota Future's Fund, on the Development Committee for the Church World Service/CROP, and is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Parker, of Minnetonka, was founder of Smith Parker, PLLP. Before establishing the law firm of Parker Rosen, Parker was co-founder of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He currently serves on the board of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation.

Pratt, of Minneapolis, is executive director of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN), an association of 1950 Minnesota organizations, that sponsors research, training, lobbying and negotiated discounts to strengthen the state’s nonprofit sector. Before coming to the council in 1987, he worked as attorney/lobbyist for the (Minnesota Public Interest Research Group, as regional director for the Youth Project, and as director for a coalition formed by nonprofits to reform corporate and foundation philanthropy. He currently serves on the public policy committee of Independent Sector, Washington, D.C., a national leadership forum for charities, foundations, and corporate giving programs. Pratt is a contributing editor of the Nonprofit Quarterly; a national journal based in Boston, and has been recognized several times by The NonProfit Times as one of the 50 most influential nonprofit leaders in the United States.

Reierson, of St. Louis Park, is president of the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches (GMCC). He currently serves as adjunct instructor at the School of Theology Seminary, St. John’s University, and previously was adjunct professor of theology at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities and a teaching specialist at the University of Minnesota. He has served as a pastor of several United Church of Christ congregations in the Twin Cities. GMCC has received many state and national awards under his leadership, and he has received many individual awards and recognition for his publications and contributions. He chairs the board of directors of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research and is a member of the boards of numerous other nonprofit organizations in Minnesota, as well of Franklin Bank, Minneapolis.

El-Sawaf, of Minneapolis, is a psychotherapist and serves as consultant to the U.S. courts and legal system. He is the founder and president of the Al-Wafaa Center for Human Services. He is the co-founder the Islamic Jurisprudence Council of Minnesota, Al-Birr Social Services and Counseling, Islamic University of Minnesota, and Muslim Council of Minnesota (MCM). Hamdy has served as professor for the Islamic American University in Southfield, MI, the Islamic University of Minnesota and adjunct professor at Luther Seminary. He is the vice president of the East Side Neighborhood Services, an advisory board member for the Center for Religious Inquiry, member of the Down Town Clergy Council, Twin Cities Interfaith Network, and Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

Thao, of St. Paul, is the associate director of development at Washburn Center for Children. Prior to 2007 she was employed by the Asian American/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP), the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota (WFM), served as a consultant to the Indian Land Tenure Foundation and was the co-founder of the Hmong Women’s Giving Circle (HWGC). She serves on the board of the Minnesota Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Prevention and Parenting (MOAPPP) and is a member of AAPIP, HWGC, and Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP).

The Governor’s Council on Faith and Community Service Initiatives make recommendations on how to level the playing field for faith and community organizations and increase access to public and private funding opportunities. The council includes leaders who represent the diversity of the State of Minnesota geographically, ethnically, by gender and faith. It is made up of 15 members appointed by the Governor.