The Golden Awards’ honorees include Dan Langemo, Teresa Loftesnes, Dr. Jeffrey Sather and Julie Stavn, according to an MSU news release. The Young Alumni Achievement Award winner is Jazmine Schultz, according to release.

The Golden Awards are the highest award bestowed by the MSU Alumni Association. Selections are based on outstanding service to the university, alumni association, or their community and distinguished leadership in the recipient’s career or community.

The Young Alumni Achievement Award recipient is between the ages of 21 and 39.

The MSU Alumni Association will honor the recipients at its annual awards dinner on Thursday, Sept. 12, with a social at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6 p.m. in the Minot State Student Center Conference Center. To RSVP for the dinner, contact the Alumni Association

Teresa Loftesnes

Langemo, a Valley City native who lives in Minot, retired from First Western Bank & Trust (FWBT) in 2015.

He began his 40-year career in the asset management business in December 1975 when he was hired as a trust representative for First National Bank and Trust of Fargo. He moved to Minot in 1979 to manage Norwest Bank, now Wells Fargo, and worked for Bremer Bank before securing a position with FWBT in 1999.

Langemo worked on a part-time basis for Minot State as a development officer for the MSU Development Foundation following his retirement from FWBT until May 2019. Active in the MSU community, he is a longtime member of Beaver Boosters, is a past chair of the MSU Board of Regents, and is currently the vice president of the MSU Development Foundation and the MSU Summer Theatre boards.

Loftesnes, of Norwich, retired in 2021 after 42 years at Minot State in various roles, including her last 14 as marketing director.

In July 1978, she stepped onto the campus of Minot State College with the single purpose of earning a degree. She became a student worker in the post office and switchboard and later became the first printing press operator. Her career progressed as an administrative assistant for the dean of continuing education and college and high school relations, Archie Peterson.

Jeffrey Sather

In 1987, Loftesnes was hired in the graduate school and continuing education office, which started College for Kids, now in its 35th year. She continued in this role from 1990-1994 and became director of continuing education from 1994-2006.

Loftesnes was a charter administrator for MSU’s online education program, the first in the North Dakota University System. Marketing was a key responsibility in all these positions, leading to her appointment as the university’s first director of marketing in 2006.

Along with earning two degrees, Loftesnes mentored numerous student interns, was inducted into MSU’s Old Main Society, established the Lofty Goals Scholarship, and received numerous recognitions, including the 1994 Board of Regents Staff Achievement Award and the 2013 MSU Vision Award.

A Velva native, Sather, now of rural Norwich, began his career in healthcare when he enrolled in the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) program at John Moses Air Force Regional Hospital in Minot. He worked for the newly developed Community Ambulance Service and started the registered nursing program at Trinity Hospital.

After becoming a certified paramedic in Grand Forks and manager of Care Ambulance in Yakima, Washington, he moved back to Minot to become the clinical coordinator and transition the service to Advanced Life Support. He had simultaneously desired to further his own education with a goal of getting into medical school when he enrolled at MSU in 1990 and graduated with a degree in psychology in 1994.

Julie Stavn

Sather graduated with his Doctor of Medicine degree in May 1998 from the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences and did an emergency medicine residency at St. Vincent Mercy Health System in Toledo, Ohio.

In July 2001, he joined the medical staff of Trinity Health. In 2003, he became the medical director of the Emergency Trauma Center. He has participated in and led multiple quality initiatives and has held multiple leadership positions over the more than 400 credentialed medical staff members of Trinity Health, including chief of staff.

He has been a medical director for the Department of Health and Human Services for the State of North Dakota since 2014. He is responsible for medical direction over the Division of Emergency Medical Systems, including the prehospital EMS system, cardiac and stroke systems and emergency preparedness.

Stavn, of Bismarck, is a former teacher and coach in the Bismarck Public Schools, earning multiple state championships and Coach of the Year awards during her 41 years in education.

She earned her first North Dakota High School Coaches Association (NDHSCA) Class A Girls Coach of the Year award in 1988 in cross country. She repeated that award in 2010 and 2014. In track and field, she was named Coach of the Year in 1996, 2005, 2008, and 2012. In 2009, she was inducted into the NDHSCA Hall of Fame and was inducted into the National High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2017, having been named a finalist for National Coach of the Year four times. She was also inducted into the North Dakota Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2009.

Jazmine Schultz

Stavn earned a degree in physical education with a minor in special education from MSU in 1976. While at Minot State, she was a varsity cheerleader for two years and competed in track and field, was a Mu Sig Fraternity Sweetheart in 1974-75, and served as Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority president in 1974-75

She followed her time at MSU with a master’s degree in physical education at the University of North Dakota in 1982, earning a graduate assistantship for the 1981-82 academic year.

She was employed as a physical education teacher in Bismarck for 36 years. She coached basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, swimming and diving, cross country, and track and field. She captured four state championships and two runner-up finishes in track and field and won a state championship with three runner-up finishes in cross country.

She earned the North Dakota Alliance of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Secondary Physical Education Teacher of the Year in 1994 and the Association’s Pathfinder Award in 2006. The Bismarck Quarterback Club gave her the Roger Higgens Award for Dedicated Service in 2017.

Stavn was an active member of the NDHSCA, serving on its executive committee for five years, and was president of the organization in 1998-99.

Schultz, originally from Burlington, is the co-owner of Prairie Sky Breads in Minot.

She is a 2011 graduate of MSU with degrees in theatre arts and elementary education. While at MSU, Schultz was an active member of the theater department, participating in about 30 productions and four MSU Summer Theatre seasons. She was president of the MSU Honors Club in 2009 and 2010 and a reporter for the Red and Green.

Schultz also spent her college years incubating all-ages, affordable arts opportunities in Minot. With friends, she founded an all-ages art space called Pangea House and created the Why Not?! Minot Music and Arts Festival and GRip (Girls Rip) Fest.

Since graduating, she has had a multitude of work experiences, most notably spending three years in Velva as the school’s family and consumer science teacher and Family, Career and Community Leaders of America coach and working as a financial planner for Northwestern Mutual, with recognition as the 2019 New Rep of the Year for Minnesota and North Dakota and accomplishing both Pacesetter First 40 and Second 60. In February 2020, she opened Prairie Sky Breads in Minot.