Meet Our Four New Team Members: Celeste, Mark, Lisa, and Deb

West Central Initiative welcomed four new team members in the areas of community planning, operations, and accounting.

West Central Initiative (WCI) has been working side by side with community partners in this region since 1986.  “We all share a dream of this place as vibrant and welcoming, a corner of the world where everyone can experience a very high quality of life,” says WCI president Anna Wasescha.  “Over the past thirty-five years, the issues that were the catalyst for our founding have evolved.  Many of them are more challenging than ever.  It is vital that we have the capacity to do more and so we are thrilled that Celeste, Mark, Lisa, and Deb have joined our team.”

Celeste Koppe and Mark Kaelke are new Assistant Community Planners, offering services through WCI, which is the federally designated planning organization for the region through the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

Celeste Koppe graduated from Detroit Lakes High School and Carleton College and traveled overseas to earn a master’s degree in Political Science from Central European University in Budapest. Prior to working for WCI, Celeste taught English and Political Science in Tunis, Tunisia. She enjoys watching British comedies, hanging with family in Detroit Lakes and considers herself a “foodie” – but only the eating part. “I’m a foodie who can’t cook,” she laughs. She occasionally finds time to write creative non-fiction about cross-cultural differences and usually is reading more than one book, including her current weekend read “Early Morning Riser” by Katherine Heiny.

Celeste notes some irony in being a planner since some of her best adventures, particularly in Europe, were spontaneous. “I went to Romania on a whim in 2016 as a birthday present to myself,” she says, and two years later caught the travel bug to Paris. “That time I booked a same-day flight and literally had to wash my socks in the sink of the hostel I stayed in!”

Mark Kaelke and his wife Denise moved to Underwood from Alaska in the fall of 2019 . Mark worked for Trout Unlimited in Alaska for 12 years before the move. He grew up near the Twin Cities and majored in English at Montana State. He notes that he has family roots in nearby Abercrombie, North Dakota, but today his relatives call Nisswa, Minnesota, home.

If it’s done outdoors, Mark loves it! He hunts, fishes, mountain bikes, kayaks, works out and raises German Wirehaired Pointers. “And I think people may be surprised that although I’m not very good at it, I really enjoy yoga.” Mark does find time for a good book, including his current read “Cadillac Desert” by Marc Reisner. “It’s an incredibly well-researched book on how we’ve used and misused water in the United States over the last 150 year or so,” he says. He’s thankful for the experiences he’s had in remote, wild places “basically because I survived them,” but family adventures have been the best with his wife and two daughters.

Lisa Turner is the new Executive Assistant to WCI President Anna Wasescha. She was born and raised in St. Paul, and attended college in Boulder, Colorado, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and master’s in Higher Education. Her career as a teacher took her to the Czech Republic and Japan, but she later returned to St. Paul where she most recently served as coordinator for leadership at Walden University in Minneapolis.

Lisa remembers a decade of summer vacations on a cabin on Lake Brophy in Alexandria. “We created some of our best family memories there on the water, the dock, the bike trails, and around the campfire,” Lisa says “We found it by chance, but completely fell in love. I feel fortunate to now work in the region that holds so many fond memories and is a showcase for some of Minnesota’s most beautiful nature.” Lisa enjoys cooking – Julia Child’s “My Life in France” is one of her favorite books – and believes like Julie that the more one learns, the more one can create. She describes herself as a passionate reader and says parenthood is an “on-going, unpredictable adventure and it’s amazing how awesome and how challenging it can be at the same time.”

Deb Raasch joins WCI as an Accounting Specialist. Originally from Granite Falls, Minnesota, Deb is a Moorhead State University graduate. She worked for the City of Morris for many years but recently moved to Alexandria where she works from her home. Deb appreciates having family gatherings with two daughters and two granddaughters who, she says, take up much of her spare time. Deb loves doing puzzles, watching movies – an old favorite is “The Fugitive” –  playing cards and spending time at the lake. Learning new accounting processes and software has occupied a lot of her time during these few first weeks, but “so far, so good!” she says.

Ask Deb about being a member of the Granite Falls Unicycle Club as a kid. “We actually rode out unicycles in area parades,” she says. “It was great fun.” She also enjoys reading and just started a new book, “Apples Never Fall” by Liane Moriarty.

Welcome, Celeste, Mark, Lisa, and Deb!