Vesterheim Museum welcomes five new trustees

Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum and Heritage Center has added five new members to its board of trustees.
 
Carol Birkland, Lindsay Erdman, Rachel Reitan, Louise Hanson, and Thomas Mannes will begin serving on the 25-member board.
 
Birkland is a Luther College graduate who has worked at Luther College as director of church relations and at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
 
Erdman is a Decorah native who for 30 years has owned and operated Erdman Engineering, P.C. and has worked on projects including Trout Run Trail, reconstruction of Luther College campus street and parking lots system, Decorah Water Street reconstruction, and the development of the Decorah Business Park.
 
Reitan is a Decorah native who works for the Louisiana State University Healthcare Network in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and is a medical reporter with ABC News in New Orleans for the show "Dr. Rachel: The Teaching Doctor."
 
Hanson and her husband Walter own The Nordic Shop, a Scandinavian clothing and lifestyle store in downtown Rochester.
 
Mannes lives in Norway and Texas.  In Texas, Mannes and his wife Eldbjorg Djonne-Stuve are the owners of the Cleng Peerson homestead, which they had listed on the National Historic Register.