A native of Dayton, Ohio, Augustana College President Robert (Rob) C. Oliver holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the University of South Dakota.

Before being inaugurated as Augustana’s 23rd president on Oct. 6, 2006, Oliver spent nearly three decades working in the financial services industry. First with Norwest Bank, then Wells Fargo & Co., Oliver served as a Personal Banker, Commercial Banker and Business Banking manager. In 1987, he was named President of the Sioux Falls Market banks. He expanded the operations of the then Norwest Bank franchise in Sioux Falls to include 16 locations. In 1999, he was named Southeast District President, responsible for 27 banking locations in 13 communities in southeast South Dakota and southwest Minnesota.

During his financial services career, Oliver studied at The Stonier Graduate School of Banking. He taught classes for the University of South Dakota School of Business, both in its undergraduate and MBA programs in Sioux Falls. He also taught for the American Institute of Banking and the Institute for Financial Education.

Following his passion and interest for higher education, Oliver retired from banking in 2004 and joined the Augustana faculty as an associate professor and chair of the Department of Business Administration.

Oliver is an active civic and social volunteer. His area involvement has included the Avera McKennan Hospital Board of Trustees (Chair); Augustana Board of Regents (former Chair); member of the Board of Directors of Avera Heart Hospital of South Dakota; board of Communication Services for the Deaf; past chair of the Sioux Empire United Way Board; and board member of Volunteers of America. In addition, he has served Forward Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls Development Foundation, Main Street Sioux Falls, YMCA, Threshold Youth Services, the Civic Fine Arts Center, and the Sioux Empire Red Cross. Oliver will also serve as Chairman of the Board for the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce in 2012-2013.

Oliver and his wife, Angela, are the parents of two daughters, Laura Oliver and Andrea Cammilleri.

Cate Sommervold, EdD is a creativity and innovation expert. She writes, speaks and coaches leaders to increase creativity, critical thinking and communication: primarily in education and industry. Sommervold received her doctorate in Leadership, Policy and Administration from the University of St. Thomas where she studied decision-making. Cate is currently Vice President of Medical Affairs and Innovation for pharmaCline pharmaceutical company, co-founder of Goodwin & Sommervold Consulting and an adjunct faculty at South University and SDSU. When she is not working you can find her at swim meets, in her yard, or spending time with her husband and three sons.

Bill Anderson was born and raised in Huron, South Dakota, and meandered around the country before settling back in South Dakota. He is the Vice President for Quality, Innovation, and Change Engineering at the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society in Sioux Falls, where his teams are working to lead the way in providing well-being for America’s seniors and their families. Before coming to Good Samaritan, Bill worked with nonprofits, governments, and gifted college students as Director of the Government Research Bureau and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of South Dakota. His path back to South Dakota took him through the the intelligence community in Washington, DC, but that’s all there is to say about that. These days, Bill spends gathering intelligence on his three kids—Henry (6), Lydia (4), and Eleanor (1)—and his wonderful wife Angela spends equal amounts of time leading all of them. It’s all in good fun.

A native of Mankato, Minn., and an elementary education major, Miller served on the Chapel staff and was its Ambassador/Service Coordinator during her sophomore year. She helped organize the “For All Who Are Thirsty” water project, an initiative to bring clean water to people in need, and helped raise $3,000 for the effort during the 2009-10 academic year. In 2010, she was named one of two Augustana Peace Prize Forum Scholars and spent two months at Norway’s University of Oslo studying causes of armed conflicts, peace building, peacemaking, humanitarian interventions and aid, and nonviolent peace movements. For her final project as a Peace Prize Forum scholar, she examined the growing issue of human trafficking in South Dakota. To gauge the seriousness of the issue, she conducted undercover research during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and paired it with ongoing investigations conducted by Be Free Ministries, a non-profit organization based in Sioux Falls and committed to ending human slavery, trafficking and exploitation locally and round the globe. She presented her findings to the campus community at the Augustana Symposium while Be Free officials presented the evidence to South Dakota lawmakers who later passed legislation to address the serious issue of human trafficking in the state. She has dedicated countless hours to teaching and serving children with limited resources locally, in Tanzania and Slovakia. Earlier this year, she was named the recipient of the 2012 Covenant Award for Service, a distinguished honor recognizing students who have a commitment to service on campus and in the broader community; who inspire others to serve; who serve quietly without fanfare and with no desire for recognition; and whose future plans have been shaped by service. This fall, she will start her first year as a teacher at Hawthorne Elementary in Sioux Falls.

Joe Bartmann has spent the past decade working to help resilient communities cocreate something better. His work lives where chaordic design, rural life and cultureshifting dialogue run together, and he finds the greatest lessons while immersed in the wild, whether it’s in the woods and prairies, on the family farm with his four daughters, or at Town Hall.

Joe currently co-runs a community innovation company called Weaver, where they believe in a bright rural through practicing radical conversations and leading from the future as it emerges. Joe is an experienced group facilitator and practitioner/trainer in the Art of Hosting (see http://artofhosting.org). In the past few years he has co-founded the Meadowlark Institute, started an all-volunteer rural community design studio, launched a grass-roots environmental sustainability movement, guided the design and opening of the world’s only small town LEED Platinum conference center, and led a handful of community-driven rural non-profits. He also hosts Sioux Falls Green Drinks and leads the South Dakota Chapter of American Institute of Architects. Joe believes we’re all more connected than we truly understand, and that we really can re-learn how to listen to each other to build more vital communities.