Tuesday Group

Our Tuesday Group presentation on August 18, 2026 featured Wendy Longacre Brown, a Death Doula & co-founder of Minnesota Death Collective. Wendy Longacre Brown is a certified end-of-life doula (INELDA, NEDA), filmmaker, and national speaker dedicated to supporting individuals and families navigating the end of life. She specializes in guiding those considering Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED), a legal option for eligible individuals seeking to shorten the dying process with compassionate support. Wendy is the co-founder of the Minnesota Death Collaborative and producer of The Cheryl Hauser Effect, a documentary currently in production inspired by her mother's end-of-life journey. Drawing from both her work as an end-of-life doula and her family's experience, Wendy invites meaningful conversation about VSED, personal choice, and what it means to live fully through the end of life. Her presentation includes a preview of The Cheryl Hauser Effect followed by time for questions and discussion.

Our Tuesday Group presentation on August 25, 2026 featured Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters with an update the work over the last year. Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters, present ed on updates in the effort to protect the Rainy River watershed from copper mining, including Governor Walz’s recent Executive Order.

Our Tuesday Group presentation on September 1, 2026 featured Becky Rom with a presentation on the history of the Kekekabic Trail through today. The historic Kekekabic Trail (“the Kek Trail”) traverses America’s most-visited national wilderness area, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, for forty miles from Snowbank Lake on the west to the Gunflint Road on the east. The Kek Trail was built during the Great Depression to connect four U.S. Forest Service fire lookout towers. Crews of 10 or 12 young men grubbed every foot of the Kek Trail with hoes; they moved rocks and leveled the ground. They cleared brush and trees with hand axes, crosscut saws, and brush scythes. A major reward for this grueling work was immersion in truly wild country. Becky will tell the story of the construction of the Kek Trail and nearby portages in the 1930s based on the recollections of her father, Bill Rom, who was one of the young men in the Forest Service’s Kek Trail crews of 1937 and 1938. She will also describe Bill Rom’s year manning the Kekekabic Fire Tower in 1939 and his year as a wilderness ranger in 1940.

Our Tuesday Group presentation on September 8, 2026 featured Karl Schuettler, Vice President of Northspan, and Tony Sertich, CEO and President of the Northland Foundation. How can Northeast Minnesota collaborate to build stronger communities across our large and varied region? In 2024, the Northland Foundation and Northspan launched a project now called Moving Forward Together to seek longer-term, community-based solutions to some of the deeper challenges we face. Using an innovative new framework from the Aspen Institute's Community Strategies Group, we analyzed the region and identified a series of gaps in need of regional action. After thorough research, two rounds of engagement, and the creation and refinement of a series of action areas, we are now moving toward concrete steps to address some of the challenges we collectively face. Whether in housing, leadership development, information-sharing, or other pressing concerns, we're building the momentum we need to make a difference. We know we can't take on all these issues alone, though. Join us to learn more about the project and how we can all work together to build a thriving region.

Our Tuesday Group presentation on June 9, 2026 featured Jess Edberg discussing History Happy Hour and the Dorothy Molter Museum. It may seem like the work being done at the Dorothy Molter Museum is pretty straightforward but behind the scenes there are a variety of programs, initiatives, partnerships and collaborations that might come as a surprise to many and that's not even including the commercial root beer part of the organization. The Museum's vision of inspiring the next generation of Northwoods stewards to make a significant contribution toward a better world through the lens of Dorothy's remarkable life is getting closer through unique and sometimes unexpected initiatives, including History Happy Hour. Jess Edberg is the Executive Director of the Dorothy Molter Museum, a board member for the MN-Alliance for Heritage Response, MN Alliance of Local History Museums and St. Louis County Historical Society, as well as a member of the Ely Cultural Alliance and the Ely for Ely Steering Committee. Through her work she also creates and hosts the popular History Happy Hour program monthly October-May at the Boathouse Brewpub. Jess also plays on the local women’s hockey team Chix with Stix, takes advantage of the amazing regional natural resources with her spouse and two labs, volunteers for the International Wolf Center and travels when she can.

Our Tuesday Group presentation on June 16, 2026 featured Amy Yoelin, speaking on the Minnesota DNR grant programs. While I am originally from Colorado, I consider Minnesota my home. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, studying Geology and English, I went to the BWCAW for the first time and fell in love with this state. For the past year and a half, I have been working at the DNR in the Fish and Wildlife section, administering the Conservation Partners Legacy program. Prior to this role, I was at Save the Boundary Waters, Great River Greening, and other community-based non-profits. When I am not working, I try to get outside as often as I can and enjoy finding new restaurants across the Metro.

Our Tuesday Group presentation on July 21, 2026 featured Dr. Bill Rom speaking about his new memoir, Adventure is in His DNA. One of the most exciting times in medical research was at NYU/Bellevue with breakthroughs on tuberculosis, AIDS, lung cancer, environmental lung disease, inflammation, and cytokines. Upon arriving at NYU/Bellevue in 1989, Dr. William N. Rom recruited a research team that deciphered how cytokines are activated, elucidated how TB activates HIV replication, and determined how aldehydes in cigarette smoke cause lung cancer. He later studied toxic dust from the collapse of the World Trade Center and the effects on medical centers from the tidal surge of Hurricane Sandy, a sentinel event of climate change. In Adventure Is in His DNA: Exploring the Boundary Waters, Skiing, and Academic Medicine, Rom retraces his career as a physician-scientist, from founding the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Utah to working as a senior investigator at the Pulmonary Branch/National Institutes of Health and finally to NYU/Bellevue, where he was director of the NYU Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine; chief of the Bellevue Chest Service for twenty-five years; and program director of the NYU General Clinical Research Center for sixteen years. In addition to his medical career, Rom has spent a lifetime pursuing outdoor adventures across the globe. From his beginnings as a wilderness canoe guide in the Boundary Waters and Quetico Provincial Park, where he paddled practically all the lakes, he went on to conquer major rivers across North America and has summited some of the world's highest peaks, including Denali and Mount Doonerak in Alaska, Switzerland's Monte Rosa, and Kilimanjaro. The excitement he experienced on these expeditions led him to join the first team of Westerners to climb Geladaindong Peak, the source of the Yangtze River in Tibet, and, later, to follow in the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shackleton, crossing the Allardyce Range of South Georgia in the South Atlantic. Recent exploits have included a decade of ski racing in Aspen, as well as commissioning a life-size bronze sculpture of the canoeing voyageurs as a way to give back to his hometown, Ely, Minnesota.

Our Tuesday Group presentation on July 21, 2026 was our quarterly Meet New Elyites presentation. We hear from new members of the community about their journey to Ely and their hobbies and interests.

Our Tuesday Group presentation on August 4, 2026 featured Kathryn Hoffman from MCEA discussing Data Centers in Minnesota. If just 10 of the more than 20 proposed data centers proposed in Minnesota were built, they would consume as much energy as all the homes in the state. That kind of spike could leave utilities scrambling to meet the demand, potentially leading to delayed coal plant retirements or the construction of new fossil fuel plants. The potential strain on water is also alarming, not to mention the implications for metal demand in the state. With so much at stake, robust environmental review of these proposals in accordance with Minnesota’s bedrock laws is critical. Instead, we’ve witnessed project proposers try to short-circuit that process. MCEA’s Executive Officer, Kathryn Hoffman, will discuss the environmental risks posed by underregulated hyperscale data centers in Minnesota, as well as the legal strategy her organization is pursuing to ensure Minnesotans and our natural resources are protected. Kathryn Hoffman is the Executive Officer of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA), a St. Paul and Duluth-based environmental law nonprofit that uses the law and science to protect Minnesota’s environment and defend the health of its people. Kathryn joined MCEA as a staff attorney in 2010 before becoming EO in 2017. The organization works on a wide variety of environmental issues, including water and air pollution, sulfide mining, climate change, and environmental justice. MCEA has also been leading the legal response to the environmental risks posed by hyperscale data centers in Minnesota. It’s filed several lawsuits challenging the inadequate environmental review conducted on proposals, including the hyperscale data center under consideration in Hermantown. Kathryn graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2006 magna cum laude and earned a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the Humphrey Institute at the same time.