Legislative Advisory Committee Members

Tom Begich

Senator, Alaska State Legislature

Mike Cronk

Representative, Alaska State Legislature

Roger Holland

Senator, Alaska State Legislature

Andi Story

Representative, Alaska State Legislature

Connie Leyva

Senator, California State Legislature

Kevin McCarty

Assemblymember, California State Legislature

Jose Medina

Assemblymember, California State Legislature

Richard Roth

Senator, California State Legislature

Aaron Ling Johanson

Representative, Hawai'i State Legislature

Donna Mercado Kim

Senator, Hawai'i State Legislature

Michelle N. Kidani

Senator, Hawai'i State Legislature

Gregg Takayama

Representative, Hawai'i State Legislature

Paul Amador

Representative, Idaho State Legislature

Kevin Cook

Senator, Idaho State Legislature

Dave Lent

Senator, Idaho State Legislature

Senator Dave Lent represents District 33 in the Idaho State Senate, where he is a member of the education and agricultural affairs committees. He is sitewide training manager for Fluor Idaho at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), where he oversees both regulatory and facility-specific training programs and served as chair for the Energy Facilities Contracting Group. He received a Distinguished Leadership award from the Department of Energy for regulatory reform and cost-cutting initiatives, has consulted in the nuclear power industry in radiation protection and training, has managed several multimillion-dollar projects, and has participated in mission-critical activities at the INL since 1980. He served on the Idaho Falls School District 91 Board of Trustees, where he played a key role in replacing four elementary schools and transitioning a junior high into a successful project-based high school. A graduate of Eastern Idaho Technical College and Idaho State University, he and his wife, Terri, have five children and twelve grandchildren.

Melissa Wintrow

Senator, Idaho State Legislature

David Bedey

Representative, Montana State Legislature

Laurie Bishop

Representative, Montana State Legislature

Laurie Bishop resides in Livingston, MT, where she is representing her community in the Montana State House of Representatives. When not working as a legislator, Laurie is the Director of the Montana Afterschool Alliance. Her previous work has included improving statewide high school graduation rates with the Montana Office of Public Instruction and serving as the executive director of a youth development nonprofit.

JP Pomnichowski

Senator, Montana State Legislature

Daniel Salomon

Senator, Montana State Legislature

Teresa Benitez-Thompson

Assemblywoman, Nevada State Legislature

Marilyn Dondero Loop

Senator, Nevada State Legislature

Robin Titus

Assemblywoman, Nevada State Assembly

Mark Moores

Senator, New Mexico State Legislature

Mark Moores of Albuquerque has served in the New Mexico Senate since 2013. He is also the executive director of the New Mexico Dental Association. Moores served on the staff of the late Congressman Steve Schiff and as a chief-of-staff for Lt. Governor Walter Bradley in the Gov. Gary Johnson/Bradley administration. Moores has served as a former president of the UNM Letterman Association and currently is a board member of the UNM Lobo Club. He attended the University of New Mexico on a football scholarship and received a B.A. in political science while being a four-year letterman on the offensive line for the Lobos. Moores also earned a Master of Business Administration from the UNM Anderson School of Management.

Ray Holmberg *

Senator, North Dakota State Legislature

Ray Holmberg has served in the North Dakota Senate since 1977 and he chairs its appropriations and rules committees, he has held these roles for the past eight legislative sessions. He has served on WICHE’s Legislative Advisory Committee since 2008. Holmberg worked for many years as a high school guidance counselor in Grand Forks before retiring from that position in 2002. He graduated from the University of North Dakota with a B.S. in education in 1965 and a master’s degree in counseling and guidance.

Karen Krebsbach

Senator, North Dakota Legislature

Bob Martinson

Representative, North Dakota State Legislature

Mark Sanford

Representative, North Dakota State Legislature

Michael Dembrow

Senator, Oregon State Legislature

Teresa Alonso León

Representative, Oregon State Legislature

Rob Wagner

Senator, Oregon State Legislature

Casey Crabtree

Senator, South Dakota State Legislature

Reynold Nesiba

Senator, South Dakota Legislature

Tim Reed

Representative, South Dakota State Legislature

Larry Tidemann *

Representative, South Dakota Legislature

Larry Tidemann is a former State Senator from South Dakota. He was elected to the South Dakota Legislature for 14 years with terms in both the House of Representatives and the State Senate. He represented District 7 in Brookings, SD, which included the community where South Dakota State University is located. He served on the Appropriations Committee throughout all 14 years of his tenure in the legislature and for 11 years he was Chair or Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee. He also was appointed to the Retirement Laws Committee and served as chair of the Legislature’s Executive Board, and the Government Operations and Audit Committee (GOAC), during his time in the legislature.

Larry has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from South Dakota State University. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from SDSU in 2019. Larry is retired from South Dakota State University where he was an Associate Dean of Agriculture and Director of the South Dakota Cooperative Extension Service.

Jude Hofschneider

Senator, Northern Marianas Commonwealth Legislature

Jude Hofschneider is a senator in the Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Legislature. In 2004, he was elected to the Tinian & Aguiguan Municipal Council. He also served for two years on the Association of Mariana Islands Mayors and Municipal Councilors. Hofschneider was elected to the senate in 2006 and has served in a variety of roles. From 2010 to 2013 he was the vice president of the Senate, and in January 2013, was elected President of the Senate. Hofschneider also served as lieutenant governor from 2013-2015 and was re-elected back in to the senate in 2014. He currently chairs the Fiscal Affairs and Rules and Procedure committees. Hofschneider has a degree from Northern Marianas College and has pursued continuing education online through the University of Phoenix.

Tina Rose Muña-Barnes

Senator, Guam Legislature

Amanda Shelton

Senator, Guam Legislature

Ralph N. Yumul

Representative, Northern Marianas Commonwealth Legislature

Melissa Ballard

Representative, Utah State Legislature

Michael McKell

Senator, Utah State Legislature

Kelly Miles

Representative, Utah State Legislature

Ann Millner *

Senator, Utah State Legislature

Ann Millner serves as the state senator for Utah District 18. She serves in senate leadership as the senate majority assistant whip.  She serves on several committees including the executive appropriations committee, the legislative management committee, co-chair of the Higher Education Strategic Planning Commission and the appropriations subcommittees for both public and higher education. Additionally, she is a member of the National Conference of State Legislatures executive committee. She has sponsored legislation focused on economic development specifically related to business development strategy and workforce preparation, public and higher education, and improving affordable health care. In 2018, she was awarded the Utah Business Legislator of the Year by the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Utah Technology Council Legislator of the Year.

She is a Regents Professor of Health Administration and former president at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. Under Millner’s leadership as president from 2002 to 2012, Weber State became a multi-campus institution, experienced a nearly 40 percent increase in enrollment, initiated a major facilities revitalization effort, expanded its network of community partnerships, launched WSU-Davis, emerged as a regional center for economic development, and earned national recognition for its undergraduate research and community-based learning initiatives.

Millner currently serves on the board of trustees for Intermountain Healthcare, the board of directors for Merit Medical and the advisory board for Zions Bank. In addition, she is chair of Ogden United, and a member of the advisory board for the Kem Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah, and the Governor’s Taskforce on Educational Excellence.

Gerry Pollet

Representative, Washington State Legislature

Representative Gerry Pollet has served in the Washington State House since December 2011. Gerry is an attorney and faculty member at the UW School of Public Health. Gerry is Vice-Chair of the House Higher Education Committee and serves on the Education and Finance Committees.  Gerry was the author of the successful efforts in 2016 to pass the nation’s first comprehensive regulation of electronic cigarettes and a comprehensive program responding to the critical shortage of teachers in Washington, including a grant program to pay tuition for low income students seeking to be teachers in under served areas. Gerry has been honored as the “Legislator of the Year” for his work to improve affordable access to higher education and improved student success. He is the House sponsor of “The Washington Promise,” for free community college tuition.

Fred Baldwin *

Senator, Wyoming State Legislature

Fred Baldwin, a physician assistant in Kemmerer, is serving his first term in the Wyoming State Senate. He serves on the Senate’s labor, health and social services committee as well as on the transportation, highways and military affairs committee. Baldwin is active in his community as assistant chief of the South Lincoln fire district, and as a member of the medical advisory committee of the Wyoming High School Activities Association. He also works with Kemmerer’s suicide prevention group. He is a fourth generation Wyomingite who graduated from the University of Utah School of Medicine in physician assistant studies and earlier was enrolled in the nursing program at Casper College and pursued studies at the University of Wyoming, the University of Wisconsin Washington County, and Western Oregon State University.

Mark Kinner

Representative, Wyoming State Legislature

Sue Wilson

Representative, Wyoming State Legislature