What brought you back to Iowa originally?

As a kid on a working family farm, I thought I was missing out on everything. My plan as a young person was to leave the state and catch up on everything I thought I was missing, and somewhere along the line, I realized that I really missed what came with living in Iowa. So I returned, and in the year 2000, my husband and I built a house on the farm that I couldn’t wait to get away from.

What drew you away before coming back?

Building a home is a pretty serious commitment, especially when it’s on a family farm that’s going to be in your family for generations. I was working with Pioneer Hi-Bred (International Inc.) and DuPont. I loved that organization. But about five years into my role with Pioneer, I got tapped on the shoulder by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the job was to move to Seattle and help them build out their human resources function. It was really tough for me, and my brother, Dan, asked me the defining question: What will you regret more? Will you regret not going to the Gates Foundation, knowing what they want to do in the world? And that just provided such clarity to me that I said yes to that opportunity.

How did you decide now was the time to come back?

When we moved to Seattle, we said: “This will be more of a shorter-term assignment for us. Our home is in Iowa.” So I was there just shy of three years. For family reasons, we needed to start looking back at Iowa again, and my husband was the first to receive the offer from Drake University. So I started looking, and as luck would have it, this position was open when I started looking. I just had a great conversation with the folks that were on my interview schedule, and I spent a really nice amount of time with Dennis Folden, our chief operating officer, and Kyle Krause, our CEO and president, and really saw this was a great opportunity for me to do a few things that I love.

What drew you to Kum & Go?

The role of helping expand HR was something I found in my career that I love to do – not just like – I love to do. Building and expanding the HR function and really seeing what it can provide organizations, and I’ve been able to see that in a number of different industries. The c-store (convenience store) business, that’s what I launched my career in. In many ways, this was coming full circle.

What does your job entail?

HR is responsible for the life cycle of an associate or an employee. We also work on work structure, the design, to make sure that whatever the strategy of the organization is, that the things that support it are aligned with that. Kum & Go is mature. We’re wanting to provide a full complement of (all human resources functions).

Why does Kum & Go refer to HR as “Grow People”?

You want to grow every year in your job, so that needs to be planned. Either in the projects and work that you get, so you feel like you are expanding your toolkit, but also learning and development, formalized or informal. You want to expand your skill set for the organization, so they benefit and you can do more. And also growth around what you want to do next.

What do you do outside of work?

I have written my own list of things I wanted to do before I left this world. I only had one at first, but then I had the majority of that crossed off so I created another one. I like to spend time with my family and the community I know and love. Second to that, I’m an adventurer. I’m not good at much outside the workplace, but I like to try everything. I went to Skip Barber Racing School and learned how to drive a race car. I went on a service project to Peru. Also on my list is spending as much time as I can with the oldest relatives that are still with us. There are things large and small on the list.