2024-2025 Board of Directors
Minnesota Valley Refuge Friends board members are a dedicated group of individuals who are personally and professionally committed to the long-term success of the mission of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge and Wetland Management District. Members are purely volunteer in bringing their individual and collective knowledge, experience, skill, integrity, passion, and motivation to this agenda.
Dave Guzzi has been passionate about the outdoors since before he could remember and was introduced to it by his parents with camping and fishing in remote locations across North America. Dave continues this passion, having gone on several extended hunts and backpack trips throughout the Rocky Mountains in Canada and the United States. While he has hiked, fished and skied much of North America, his passion lies with his home state of Minnesota. “There is nothing better than a Minnesota waterway or lake site,” says Dave. His current passion includes training service and hunting dogs as well as introducing youth to outdoor experiences. After Dave’s spinal cord injury in 1996, he has devoted much of his life to ensuring that wild places are accessible in ways that are practical. Dave began volunteering with the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge in 1997, dedicating much of his time in creating accessible hunting opportunities for wild turkey, deer and duck.
Dr. Mark Jensen was born and raised in St Louis Park. He practiced general dentistry in Chicago for several years before completing his residency in Endodontics at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Following private specialty practice in Illinois, Dr. Jensen returned to Minneapolis in 1992 to open Endodontic Professionals. Dr. Jensen enjoys Gopher football, the Twins, and spending time with his family. Dr. Jensen joined the board in 2021.
Shannon Breimhurst is a marketing/communications consultant and writer with a background in healthcare, nonprofit organizations, and journalism. She is a creative manager and senior copywriter at Patterson Dental. She holds a master's degree in Strategic Communications from the University of Minnesota. She has served on the Friends' board since 2019, lending her expertise in writing, fundraising, and donor relations and communications. When not working, she enjoys time spent outdoors hiking, camping, and playing with her husband, son, and daughter.
Michael Kurtz, a longtime volunteer of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, joined the board of directors in 2021. Kurtz is a self-taught photographer, wildlife tracker and serves as a cultural interpreter at Hoċokata Ti (ho-cho-kah-tah-tee), the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community's cultural center and gathering space for the Community's tribe members. Kurtz is an enrolled member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.
Tom Worthington worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 38 years before retiring in 2018 as the Deputy Regional Chief of Refuges for the Midwest Region. He started his career with the Service at the Okefenokee Refuge in southeast Georgia, moved to Minnesota Valley Refuge in 1983 where he helped plan and design the current Visitor Center, and later took on a variety of Refuge System leadership positions in the Midwest Regional Office. Tom remains active on the Service’s History Committee, recording oral histories from retired Service employees and partners. He enjoys playing tennis and sailing. He and his wife Melissa volunteer at the Refuge Nature Store and Information Desk and are frequent refuge trail hikers. They have two grown children and three grandchildren.