Former Board of Directors

Rosemarie Ward, of the Iowa Great Lakes and Des Moines, serves as Past President of HI's Board of Directors. Mrs. Ward was born in Fort Dodge, attended public schools in Fort Dodge and in Des Moines, graduated from St. Joseph's Academy high school in Des Moines and received a B.S. in Education from Drake in 1968. She was the past president of the Des Moines League of Women Voters, past chair of the City of Des Moines Planning & Zoning Commission and the coordinator of the Great Books Foundation in Des Moines. She served as chair of the Lakes Art Center in Okoboji, and was the coordinator of the Great Books Foundation at Lakes Art Center. She is currently on the Advisory Council Board of the Lakes Art Center. She is past chair of the City of Okoboji, Planning & Zoning Commission and a member of the Dickinson County Clean Water Alliance.

Mrs. Ward retired from the board in June 2010.

Judy is the director of the Bloomfield Main Street Association. From 1965-1998, she was a secondary school teacher in the Bloomfield public schools and taught one year and several summers on staff of Northwest Missouri State University, where she designed and coordinated gifted education programs. Currently, she supervises student teachers in Davis County for Iowa State University. Judy served two terms on the board of the Davis County Fine Arts Council and for 11 years on the board of the Bloomfield Historic Preservation Commission. She is the Davis County representative for the Iowa Barn Foundation and supervised History Day activities for Area Education Agency 15. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including being named the 1985 Iowa Reading Teacher of the Year, the 1998 Iowa History Day Teacher of the Year, and the 2001 Davis County Citizen of the Year by the Davis County Farm Bureau. She is a recipient of the Governor's Volunteer Award in Economic Development in 2000.

For the last 15 years, she and her husband have worked to restore 260 acres of abused land, planting thousands of trees, establishing native prairie grasses and introducing other conservation measures. She teaches quilting classes and one of her quilts was selected for display at the National Quilt Guild Show.

Judy received a B.S. in Elementary Education from Northwest Missouri State University, an M.S. in Elementary Teaching (Reading Specialization) from the University of Missouri, and an M.S. in Elementary Administration and Supervision from Northwest Missouri State University.

Judy retired from the board in June 2010.

Janell Hansen is the general manager of Marne & Elk Horn Telephone Company of Elk Horn, Iowa. She received her B.A. from Buena Vista College and is a certified public accountant. She has served on the board of directors of the Iowa Telecommunications Association since 2003 and served as Chair in 2008. She is also on the Audubon County Endowment Fund. She is actively involved in many local community organizations in the Elk Horn and Kimballton area, has served in the past as president of the Better Elk Horn Club, and currently is president of the Tivoli Inns, LLC, which operates the Americinn of Elk Horn.

Janell lives just outside of Elk Horn on an acreage with her husband, Wayne, and her 3 children, Aaron, Kristin, and Jared.

Janell retired from the board in June 2010.