The PMI MN Volunteer of the Month Award recognizes PMI MN members who exhibit leadership, dedication, initiative, and whose multiple accomplishments in their area(s) of volunteerism, on behalf of PMI MN, contribute a high level of impact to the Minnesota Chapter of the Project Management Institute.
To nominate an outstanding PMI MN Volunteer, submit a Volunteer of the Month nomination!
2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present Jenna Halstead as our November 2020 Volunteer of the Month.
Jenna Halstead was presented an opportunity to join PMI MN in the role of Program Manager to assist our chapter with the logo refresh efforts, mandated by the changes rolled out initially by PMI Global. Because PMI Global had specified a deadline for all global chapters to have all their logo designs and collateral updated and ready for presentation to their chapter by the end of Q2 2020, PMI MN needed someone with experience with Marketing re-branding efforts. Jenna took the plan, initially drafted by the Marketing Committee Team, and worked quickly and efficiently with our Primary Executive Administrative Partner to ensure that our re-brand was delivered ON-TIME and UNDER BUDGET! Although we were going to roll-out the re-brand at our annual member meeting, Jenna prepared to have an e-rollout up and running to have a great member experience.
PMI-MN would like to thank you for your commitment to excellence and all you do for the chapter.
Congratulations, Jenna!!
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present Kelly Mayerle as our November 2020 Volunteer of the Month.
Kelly originally joined as a volunteer to help around the edges but ended up being the point of contact for CE21, our PDD virtual conferencing platform. She became the de facto expert for the platform and became the go-to person for all our needs. She went above and beyond stepping up to the plate to ensure PDD 2020 operated smoothly and she did it all with an upbeat attitude and enthusiasm.
PMI-MN would like to thank you for your many contributions to the chapter.
Congratulations, Kelly!!!
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present Shaina Parsons as our October 2020 Volunteer of the Month.
Shaina Parsons has been a committee PMI MN volunteer throughout 2019, stepping up as needed to lead many of our Events as a dedicated Program Manager. Shaina demonstrated exception project management practices, learned our PMI MN tools and processes during her early projects assigned. Due to unfortunate circumstances with the COVID-19 environment and restrictions on our in-person events this spring and summer, her project efforts were canceled part way through. Shaina could have become discouraged, but she stepped up to each project with enthusiasm and enjoyed an opportunity to contribute her skills to our organization, add value to our projects and committees, and learn and grow through her experiences with PMI MN. When she was called upon recently to step up, and step in, to chair one of our most critical committees, she was more than willing to take on the role and complete the project on behalf of PMI MN. We are fortunate to have Shaina as a part of our committee volunteers and willing to help wherever her project management skills take her.
PMI-MN would like to thank you for your many contributions to the chapter.
Congratulations, Shaina!!
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present Brandon Guthman as our October 2020 Volunteer of the Month.
Brandon Guthman has served as our IT Committee Chair for the past few years. He has contributed over the years to the IT Strategy, building relationships with key stakeholders to make the committee and related activities successful, and stepped up to the many challenges of the position. Within the IT Committee Chair positions in 2020, Brandon has delivered several key Board analysis and decision documents on which PMI MN leadership made several core technology strategic decisions, he has driven discussions, analysis and critical relationships with our IT Vendor to ensure the organization could not only be sustainable but also successful during Covid restrictions and changes. He has onboarded several volunteers to support the IT Committee work moving forward. Brandon has always been thoughtful, planful, and well versed in his approaches to IT situations and concerns that come to his committee. He never falters in being willing to step up to each and every challenge to ensure it is followed through to full resolution.
PMI-MN would like to thank you for your commitment to excellence and all you do for the chapter.
Congratulations, Brandon!!!
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present Jessica Harper as our September 2020 Volunteer of the Month.
Jessica Harper joined us as a Program Manager a couple of months back in our Programs Committee. Jessica has jumped right in to help in building out our entire Fall 2020 Programming Schedule for our Members. Her contributions have included: planning and aligning on meeting topics, reaching out to and finalizing our speaker line-up, picking up any and all tasks related to making sure that we can offer our members great events and PDUs needed to maintain their PMI certifications. Jessica's contributions have been appreciated and critical to making sure our events are set up timely, according to our PMI MN methodology and processes, and helping to lead us through the many changes needed as a chapter due to Covid. Thank you for all you do, Jessica!.
PMI MN would like to thank you for your time and dedication.
Congratulations, Jessica!!!
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present AnneMarie Kaul as our August 2020 Volunteer of the Month.
AnneMarie Kaul has been a long-standing member and volunteer of PMI MN. She participated as a PDD Event Volunteer in prior years. When AnneMarie found capacity to join PMI MN as a volunteer leader, she worked with Volunteer Services and Operations to ensure that she would be able to make a long-term commitment as a Committee Lead. She has stepped in, and stepped up to provide Vice Chair support for our Sponsorship Committee and quickly began to learn about the inner workings of the Operational Committee structure. During her time as the Vice Chair of Sponsorship, she additionally assisted with special IT projects, following a "call-out" for volunteer support. In demonstrating her commitment and passion to ensure we provide the best possible online, registration, and interactive experiences to our members, we were pleased when AnneMarie took the position of Membership Committee Chair. She immediately got up to speed on the role, projects underway and anticipated within that committee holistically, and made instant connections with key stakeholders within the committee and that the committee serves. Thank you for your many contributions to PMI MN.
PMI MN would like to thank you for your time and dedication.
Congratulations, AnneMarie!!!
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present Anastasia Ware as our July 2020 Volunteer of the Month.
As a Professional Development Committee member, Anastasia is in charge of PMP Prep Certification classes and has been doing an incredible job this year.
Although many new challenges have emerged this year due to COVID-19 and new processes implemented by PMI Global, Anastasia has worked vigorously to help our Chapter overcome them. Here are just a few of Anastasia’s accomplishments:
The business case allowed the Board of Directors to see the value we can provide to our members with the exam preparation courses, which will continue to improve our Chapter and our offerings to members. Additionally, on the North America Leaders call PMI Global asked PMI MN to present Anastasia’s business case regarding continuing the PMP Authorized Training Partners (ATP) program so other chapters could learn from her analysis and potentially reuse it.
PMI MN would like to thank you for your time and dedication.
Congratulations, Anastasia!!!
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present Colin Clifford as our June 2020 Volunteer of the Month.
Colin took on the Speaker Committee lead role for PDD 2020. He has put in countless hours ensuring PDD 2020 has a great line up of speakers. He was able to connect with his team and get everyone on boarded all while getting the speaker reach out started. He has led the speaker team and guided them as to how the process works and how they could best utilize their skill set to help out. Colin has done an amazing job in keeping the team focused and meeting deadlines. The Speaker team in the midst of determining the right speakers for this year, PDD had to adjust from doing an in-person event to a virtual event and reach out many times to the speakers to ensure the switch would be doable.
Colin keeps his team members all smiling through it all and has shown great leadership and project management skills throughout. We appreciate all he has done and the countless hours he has taken to ensure PDD 2020 has a great line up of speakers!
PMI MN would like to thank you for your time and dedication.
Congratulations, Colin!!!
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present Glory Ikeata as our May 2020 Volunteer of the Month.
Glory is currently the chair-volunteer services PMI MN and she has done a lot to ensure the sustainability and smooth running of the committee. Glory ensures that the committee meets regularly to plan PMI MN volunteer events ahead of time. She carries every committee member along and encourages commitment. On a regular basis Glory keeps the team updated, encourages other members to participate actively and reminds us of the benefits of volunteering.
Glory's passion for PMI activities cannot be overestimated. Glory was actively involved in the last PMI career fair and PDD held in Saint Paul MN. Glory was at the forefront despite being pregnant at the time. Glory organized and involved other members of the volunteer service committee in the events. Glory was equally present and was actively involved. Glory is a great leader, she is highly knowledgeable and current about the institute's activities and she deserves to be recognized for her hard work, commitment and passion. Thank you, Glory, for all you do.
PMI MN would like to thank you for your time and dedication.
Congratulations, Glory!!!
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present Benjamin Crist as our April 2020 Volunteer of the Month.
Ben has been extremely helpful and creative with the PMI MN Chapter’s 2020 budget process. He had several rounds of meetings with committee chairs, was critical in budget discussions, owned the process from start to finish, ensured that the overall timelines were met, and the budget was reasonable and achievable. Kudos to Ben for working Tenaciously to ensure the success of 2020 budget. The PMI MN Chapter appreciates your effort!
PMI MN would like to thank you for your time and dedication.
Congratulations, Benjamin!!!
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present Marlaina Love as our March 2020 Volunteer of the Month. 
Marlaina was instrumental in successfully dealing with many issues related to our March Seminar. One of the first tasks she resolved was quickly finding a replacement for the March Seminar’s speaker who could no longer present. She coordinated a replacement from Atlanta, who was about to fly in, when COVID-19 shelter-in-place occurred. She worked with him to transition this to a virtual seminar instead, as he hadn’t taught in this manner previously. Marlaina worked with our IT partner Trimax to use our technology platform as we worked through various setup issues. Some of our students were going to cancel due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but decided to attend after we switched to a virtual seminar. Not only did we retain our students, but we also landed a 4.5 out of 5.0 score from their seminar survey! All in all, Marlaina was outstanding and gave us a true example of grace under pressure!
PMI MN would like to thank her for her time and dedication.
Congratulations, Marlaina!!!
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present Linda Lokkesmoe as our February 2020 Volunteer of the Month.
Linda Lokkesmoe planned the Chapter's Gala held on January 25, 2019, to recognize the Chapter's 2019 giving volunteers. Linda demonstrated what a savvy project manager she is by finding the perfect venue and wonderful entertainment while working with limited resources. The venue was a perfect location, and the food was delicious; and the entertainment was a big treat. A true testament to the great event Linda planned was demonstrated by the room filled laughter and hilarious engagement. Linda was highly responsive to emails and requests from leadership. Thank you, Linda, you are very appreciated, and the Chapter is fortunate you are a part of our PMI Minnesota community.
PMI MN would like to thank her for her time and dedication.
Congratulations, Linda!!!
The PMI MN Chapter is honored to present Kimberly Berger as our January 2020 Volunteer of the Month.
Kimberly Berger has demonstrated over and over as a talented project manager and is a generous volunteer with the PMI MN Chapter. As the 2019 PDD Vice Chair, Kimberly supported the newly assembled PDD Team, and contributed to a very successful event, especially with leading the Speaker Committee and Sponsorship Committee, which takes an enormous amount of time. This year, Kimberly is the 2020 PDD Chair, and was already in planning mode before the 2019 PDD event was completed. She has implemented many of the Lesson Learned from the 2019 PDD project wrap-up finding Committee Leads for critical committees, hosted a comprehensive Committee Lead kick-off, and implemented many of the project start-up processes to put the project on a path to a successful PDD 2020. Kimberly, PMI MN would like to thank you for your contributions, your time, your attention to detail, your humor and we recognize all you have done and continue to do.
PMI MN would like to thank her for her time and dedication.
Congratulations, Kimberly!!!
