Peter Lahn • Chair • Serving since 2000
Pete Lahn serves as in-house legal counsel for Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company. He moved to Grinnell in 1995.

He decided to accept a position on the GRMC board of directors because he loves this community. “I’d feel selfish not giving back to this community. It’s a great place and the people are wonderful. The medical center is fantastic,” Lahn says. “I want to be associated with the hospital and give back to the community.”

During his term he hopes to help address the Medicare inequity and Balanced Budget Act of 1997 challenges.

He has two children, Ethan and Cameron. His roots are from Iowa, having been born in Marengo and raised in Clinton, Iowa. He attended the University of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana and received a political science degree. While working in Maryland, he began attending law school at night and received his law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

He calls himself a hangar rat and loves to fly, but as the father of two young boys the majority of his time is spent with his family. He also loves playing piano and reading.

Susan Witt • Chair-elect • Serving since 1999
Susan Witt of Grinnell joined the GRMC board of directors to sustain the rich tradition of supporting the hospital. Witt, the daughter of the late Paul W. Ahrens and Dr. Peter and Diane Boeke, grew up in Grinnell and graduated from Grinnell High School. She earned a BA in English from the University of Iowa and is certified by Roosevelt University in Chicago to be a lawyer’s assistant.

Witt and her husband, Michael, returned to Grinnell ten years ago after living in Madison, Wis., where Witt was in retail management for a few years. The Witts are co-owners of Miraco in Grinnell and they have three children: Daniel, Ryan, and Katherine.

Since returning to Grinnell, Witt has been active in the community. She is a past board member of the Grinnell Country Club and Grinnell Athletic and Recreation Center and currently serves on the Ahrens Foundation. She is a member of PEO, chapter BM, and treasurer of Lavart Club.

Tradition plays a role in Witt’s decision to serve on the board. For 80 years the Ahrens family has been a supporter of Grinnell hospitals. In 1918, Witt’s great-grandfather, John Ahrens, purchased a painting in a fund-raising auction for the then outrageous price of $200 to help finance the construction of the first community hospital in Grinnell.

Deborah Pohlson • Past Chair • Serving since 2000
Debby Pohlson brings years of experience as a citizen of the community to the GRMC board presidency. She accepted the invitation to become a board member because she believes GRMC is a wonderful regional medical center. “The medical center reaches out beyond Grinnell,” Pohlson says. “It’s time to make sure small hospitals stay alive. I don’t want to see small, quality medical centers disappear.” Other issues of interest to her are the insurance and medical world reimbursement, wellness, and growth as a regional medical center.

She grew up in Grinnell and graduated from Grinnell High School, afterwhich she attended St. Ambrose College in Davenport, and received her BA in psychology. Pohlson and her husband, Paul, have two adult children, Sarah and Scott. They moved back to Grinnell more than 20 years ago to be closer to her parents, Don and Ethel Howig.

Pohlson has become very involved in the community including the Grinnell Community Theater, where her claim to fame was the role of Peter Pan. She also sings with Shults & Company. Her hobbies include knitting, sailing, and reading.

Frank Brownell • Treasurer • Serving since 2001
Frank Brownell is a dedicated man. He has been involved with his family’s business, Brownells, since 1964, and has been a member of the Montezuma City Council since 1965. He is a businessman and entrepreneur who loves the challenges of running a business, finding creative solutions, helping his people grow, and preparing the transfer of the management of the family companies to his son, Pete. Brownell presently serves on several national industry boards and committees and the UI Journalism School Advisory Board.

Brownell sees the importance of the medical center and how it plays in his life as well as his employees, friends, and community. “Top-quality healthcare is vital to our community,” Brownell says. “We need a place to take care of our families. A place that is close, offers exceptional care, and has a strong, talented medical and support staff.” He hopes to help the medical center continue to move forward and bring his experience to the table to help with the many varied and different hospital projects.

Brownell graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in journalism. After college and marriage, he was stationed in California and Oregon for more than three years with the United States Navy. He and his late wife, Nancy, have three adult sons: Bob and, wife, Jolene and grandson, Alex, Montezuma; Pete and, wife, Helen, granddaughter, Mairead, grandsons Aidan and Ruari, Grinnell; and Matt and, fiancée, Jodi, Golden, Colo.

While in the navy, he first tried scuba diving and has been seriously hooked ever since. He has dived throughout the Caribbean and is equally passionate about opera, ancient and modern art, fly fishing, guns, shooting and hunting, and sprint car and top-fuel dragster racing.

Sigmund Barber • Serving since 1998
Board member Sig Barber has been a professor of German at Grinnell College since 1977.

He earned his MA and PhD in German literature from the State University of New York at Albany. In 1997, he was the recipient of the Grinnell Chamber of Commerce’s Outstanding Educator and Citizens’ Award.

Barber spent most of his pre-college years in Austria and Germany. He and his wife, Judi, moved to Grinnell in 1977 from Saratoga, N.Y. Their two daughters, Melissa and Jessica, were both born at GRMC.

Sailboat racing on Lake Red Rock aboard the ‘Valkyrie” is one of his favorite past-times. He sings and plays guitar in “The Too Many String Band.” He also loves to ski, golf, play racquetball, and play tennis.

Barber is proud to represent the citizens of Grinnell and the surrounding area on the board, citing his own very positive experiences at the medical center and the opportunity to contribute to the continued success of such a well-run facility.

Leila Maring • Serving since 1998
Leila Maring is a retired home care/public health nurse and long-time resident of Grinnell. She came to Grinnell after her mother was injured in a car accident in the Grinnell area in 1948 with a fatal prognosis. Already a registered nurse, Maring came to her mother’s aid and has been here ever since. And she’s real good at what she does–her mother lived until 1990!

Some residents describe Maring as “a walking history book on healthcare in Grinnell.” She started working at Community Hospital in 1948 (she believes only Dr. John De Meulenaere can boast more years delivering healthcare in the area); spent 20 years with Poweshiek County Public Health and Home Health; served on the steering committee to develop home care; and was a member of the original hospice board on which she stayed until 1990.

Maring and her late husband, Bob, have three children: Lana Maring-Woodside, Linda Griswold, and Chas Maring, and six grandchildren.

Maring’s interests include reading, crafts, bridge, hospice, and volunteering.

She wants the best healthcare possible, wants health and wellness to be seen in a positive light, and wants “all patients, the community, and the hospital family to feel loved and respected with a feeling of belonging.”

Wally Walker • Serving since 2000 and 1989 to 1997
Wally Walker rejoined the board in 2000. He had served nine years on the GRMC board of directors, leaving in December 1997.

Walker decided to come back because he always enjoyed working with the medical center. “I want to help the medical center continue to move as brilliantly forward as it has in past years. It clearly has become a regional medical center. When we first called it regional it wasn’t nearly the flourishing place it is today. I want to help keep that momentum growing.”

Walker is Professor Emeritus of biology at Grinnell College. He has served as the executive vice-president and academic dean over a span of 24 years, twice as acting president of Grinnell College. He earned the Iowa Hospital Association’s Ernest Hayes Excellence in Hospital Governance Award in 1995. However, it’s not his credentials but his contributions that make Walker such a valuable asset to the community.

He and his wife Rita have three daughters. He also enjoys music and listens and reads avidly about classical and jazz music.

Michelle Rebelsky, MD • Serving since 2004
Michelle Rebelsky, MD, joins the board as part of her two-year role serving as the GRMC medical staff president. She brings 10 years of family practice experience to the position.

Rebelsky received her medical degree from the University of Illinois–Chicago College of Medicine. She completed a residency at Maine-Dartmouth Family practice. She is a fellow with the American Academy of Family Practitioners. In addition, she is board certified and has completed a post-graduate course in intensive care unit management.

Her mission as a physician complements the GRMC board. She believes healthcare should be accessible and available to everybody and considers it her job to make it accessible. This translates into her decision to have early morning hours and some after work hours to accommodate working parents.

Michelle’s determination and skills showed up early in life. At the age of five, she was known to disassemble and assemble a Volkswagen engine, by herself. Though she admits she couldn’t put an engine back together now, she does has the talent to bring together all the pieces of a patient’s health picture and help patients stay on the road of good health.

“I come to this board as a community member as well as a physician,” Rebelsky says. “I serve as a liaison between the board and physicians as I work with administration to help residents in our service area.”

Rebelsky, and her husband, Sam, have three boys, William, Jonathan, and Daniel. She keeps very busy in her nonworking hours serving as a Scout leader and refinishing woodwork in her home.

Joanne Yuska • Serving since 2004
Joanne Yuska is passionate about GRMC and feels fortunate to have access to the quality of healthcare available at the medical center. She believes GRMC helped her late husband, Melvin, during a long illness. Now she wants to give back to GRMC.

Yuska brings business and insurance experience to the board. She is a career insurance agent with Farm Bureau Financial Services in Toledo. She has worked with Farm Bureau for more than 27 years, selling and servicing the company’s insurances and mutual funds.

She admits it was a big decision to take on the three-year commitment as a GRMC board member. But, she feels she has common sense and a passion to make sure GRMC continues its path of success.

Yuska also brings a wonderful reputation and many life experiences to the board. She has lived all of her life in the Toledo area. She represents residents of the area well and will work to ensure that access to quality healthcare continues for friends and neighbors.

She has a rich life history. After graduating in 1954 from Toledo High School, she had planned to attend airline school to become a stewardess. But she met Melvin, married, and then worked for the selective service.

She and her late husband Melvin have four grown children: Debra Burnes, and Doug, Dale, and Danny Yuska. The couple enjoys seven grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and five great grandchildren. When she has free time, she enjoys reading, traveling, and family.

Laura Ferguson, MD • Serving since 2006 and 2002 to 2004
Laura Ferguson, MD, brings to the board more than seven years of experience on the GRMC medical staff as well as many more in the community.

"I'm excited to join the board of the hospital, which I have been familiar with all my life," says Ferguson. "I have memories of visiting GRMC with my father when I was a child. My family returned to Grinnell because it is such a wonderful place to live and to practice medicine. I believe physicians can be especially helpful to the board as we seek to implement quality guidelines to measure the great care our patients receive."

Ferguson is a family practice physician at Family Medicine. She came to Grinnell in 1998 to practice with her father, Dr. David Ferguson. She developed a familiarity with the medical center before most board members as she watched her father. Her admiration for her father and commitment to the profession have established Ferguson as a successful physician at GRMC.

After graduating from Grinnell High School, Laura attended Grinnell College as an art major. She then attended the University of Iowa College of Medicine, and received her medical degree. Her residency was in Mason City at the North Iowa Mercy Family Practice and received chief resident recognition in 1997-1998.
Ferguson sat on the GRMC Board of Directors in 2002-2004 while she served as president of the GRMC medical staff. She also serves on the Grinnell College Board of Trustees and Statewide Perinatal Advisory Board.

She and husband, Scott Wiley, have two children, Kate and Samuel. In her free time she enjoys gardening, reading, jogging, and walking.

Ed Hatcher • Serving since 2007 and 1990 to 1999
Ed Hatcher brings excellent skills and perspective to the board as a farmer and former high school science teacher. As a returning board member and past board chair, he already understands what the issues are and the homework to be done for board meetings.

“The major challenges continue from when I left the board back in 1999,” says Hatcher. “Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement continues to undermine the great work done by our medical staff, clinical staff, and administration. Our medical advances in a variety of different healthcare venues to better serve the public are hampered by the lack of funding. We deserve to be fully compensated for the work done. Our Iowa legislators know the problem but it is a political issue and the process is not being fixed.”

Hatcher received two bachelor degrees from Missouri State University (now known as Truman State University) in pre-medicine/zoology and education. He earned a masters degree in biology from the University of Northern Iowa and has completed post graduate/pre-doctorate studies at the University of Iowa.

He was in a private OB/GYN practice in Iowa City for 24 years and then practiced office gynecology for 10 years in Minneapolis. Of interest while working, he helped teach family practice physicians, including David Cranston, MD, GRMC’s current vice president of medical staff affairs, as a resident student.

Connections to the Grinnell medical community spill over into multiple areas. He was completing a residency in OB/GYN when Victor Wilson, retired surgeon, and David Ferguson, retired family practice physician, both who served the area for more than 25 years, were in medical school.  

Over the course of his medical career, Greenwald delivered more than 5,700 babies, including three sets of triplets, and 100 sets of twins. His passion for quality care to women and children as well as community health guided Greenwald’s decision to serve on the GRMC board of trustees.

Greenwald brings a deep understanding of healthcare to the board having been in the trenches, so to say, with hospitals. He understands the issues GRMC faces with Medicare, Medicaid, regulations, and specialization. He also knows the rural culture, having grown up on a farm in the area.

Todd Linden • President & CEO
Todd C. Linden earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Iowa. He completed his administrative residency at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines. At the end of his residency, Linden joined Greene County Medical Center in Jefferson, Iowa, as administrator for five and a half years.

Linden became GRMC’s president and CEO in January 1994. In addition to his duties at GRMC, he is past chair of both the Iowa Hospital Association and Health Enterprises of Iowa.

Linden is a diplomat of the American College of Health Care Executives and has been recognized by Modern Healthcare, the Iowa Hospital Association, and the Healthcare Forum in their awards for “outstanding leadership.”

Linden serves as a board member for the American Hospital Association and Grinnell College. Locally, he serves on the boards of Grinnell Renaissance and Poweshiek Iowa Development.

He has three children: Davis, Courtney, and Grant. When not working, Linden enjoys family activities especially water sports and wilderness camping.

Clayton A. Francis, MD • Serving since 2008

Clayton A. Francis, MD, joins the GRMC board of directors as part of his role serving as the GRMC medical staff president. He practices medicine in the Grinnell Medical Associates group. Francis came to Grinnell in 1994 along with his wife, Ann Ellis, who is a developmental psychology professor at Grinnell College.

Francis received a Bachelor of Science degree from Denison University, Granville, Ohio. He earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Ohio, in Toledo (now known as The University of Toledo Health Science Campus). Francis completed a family practice residency at the University of Minnesota and began practicing medicine in 1990.

For Francis the opportunity to serve on the board allows him to address major issues involved in keeping the medical center solvent in the future. He will focus attention on the present political issues, retaining physicians on the medical staff, and recruiting physicians to the area. Already the medical staff is discussing ways to enhance the practice friendly environment at GRMC and build more camaraderie within the group.

As a physician, Francis is passionate about patient care issues. He believes in providing high-quality patient services and he can contribute to the board’s ability to facilitate that vision for the entire organization.