2008 Jonathan Leddige, ’08, ’11, was appointed Magistrate Judge for South Dakota’s Second Judicial Circuit. Laine (Beyer) Martinez, ’08, is the 2023 recipient of the Graciela Wilborn Teacher of the Year Award from the Foreign Language Association of North Dakota. Martinez teaches Spanish at Bismarck High School. Tom Miller, ’08, is sports editor at the Grand Forks Herald.
2009 Aaron Fornshell, ’09, is a civil engineer and partner at AckermanEstvold in Minot, N.D. Stephanie Gravning, ’09, was named the state correctional health authority for the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Cierra (Roebuck) Hangsleben, ’09, is principal of Crookston (Minn.) Middle School.
2010 Amber Laffin, ’10, was promoted to associate professor of criminal justice at Bemidji State University.
2011 Matt Bakke, ’11, ’13, is the assistant superintendent of elementary education for the Grand Forks School District.
UNDalumni.org/magazine
Holly (Forsness) Gruhlke, ’11, was named vice president of Dickinson State University.
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Adam Landstrom, ’11, co-chaired the Austin Under 40 Awards, a celebration of emerging professionals and their mentors who are making an impact on the Austin, Texas, community. Sara Monson, ’11, was named partner at O’Keeffe O’Brien Lyson Attorneys in Fargo.
Kyle Rosseau, ’11, ’17, a former UND cross country runner, is head girls’ cross country coach at Grand Forks Central.
A L U M NI IN A C T IO N
2012 Travis Bledsoe, ’12, a former UND men’s basketball standout, was named assistant women’s basketball coach at UND. Chantell (Bergsrud) Hunt, ’12, is a third-grade teacher in Stanley, N.D.
2013 Brandon Bigelbach, ’13, is the science and operations officer at the National Weather Service forecast office in Glasgow, Mont. Bigelbach works with fellow UND alumni Patrick Gilchrist, ’01, meteorologist-in-charge, and meteorologists Jacob Zanker, ’20, and Julianna Glinska, ’21. Jim Champion, ’13, is an associate professor of art at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. Nicholas Christensen, ’13, ’16, was appointed chief judge to the 59th District Court in Kent County, Mich. Joseph Mehus, ’13, Mayville State University associate professor of biology and INBRE (IdeA Networks for Biomedical Research) researcher, has studied mosquitoes in the Red River Valley for 17 years.
2014
DRIVING CHANGE
MONIQUE VONDALL-RIEKE, ’01, ’04 Alaskan travel challenges don’t stop justice. Working in Alaska has been the highlight of Monique Vondall-Rieke’s life. But before she was hired as Tribal Justice Director for the Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP) in Bethel, Alaska, the 2004 UND Law School graduate was asked a surprising interview question: “Are you willing to travel in unique ways?” She was and she has. Bethel, a hub for 58 Native American tribes, is not accessible by car, and you can only get within 12 miles before flying or boating in. Monique moved to the town of 6,000 in 2015.
Tribal Court Assessments Because tribes are considered sovereign nations, they enact and enforce their own laws through tribal courts. At AVCP, Monique assisted the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to set up the Tribal Court Assessment, a Congressionally mandated process. Completing the assessment is a requirement that tribal courts in Alaska must repeat every four to five years to maintain funding from the BIA. “The very first tribes in Alaska to receive those assessments were tribes in my region,” Monique said. “That’s basically what I do now for Koniag.” In 2020, Monique moved to Anchorage to be the Tribal Court Project Manager for Koniag Government Services. The move was not a straight shot. After two years in Bethel, she and her husband, Stuart Rieke, ’01, ’08, moved back to North Dakota, where Monique continued her work in Alaska remotely before she was offered a job in Anchorage.
Jacob Kostecki, ’14, is the engineering superintendent at American Crystal Sugar Company’s Drayton factory district.
Regardless of her location, Monique has impacted Alaska’s tribal court system. “From 2018 until now,” she said in mid-August, “we have brought $20 million into the state.
Chad Kurtyka, ’14, ’22, was named principal at Nathan Twining Elementary and Middle School at the Grand Forks Air Force Base.
Treacherous Travel
“That’s significant because (the tribal courts) have never had continuous funding,” Monique said. “Now, when we come (to a tribe) to do an assessment, they know we have money for them to operate one year after another.” While assessments have gotten easier, travel continues to be challenging. Monique described a recent journey. “To get to the Alahtna Tribe, my coworker and I had to fly from Anchorage to Fairbanks and charter a plane to a neighboring tribe. The court administrator picked us up on a four-wheeler. We drove to the river, took a boat across, got in a four-wheel-drive truck and then went to the Alahtna Tribal Office.” That kind of travel takes tenacity and perseverance, which Monique has in spades. \\\
