Staff & Board

Jack is a native of Deforest, Wisconsin. His dad, Tom, was the American Family agent there for many years. Tom and Lila Salzwedel were members of Bethel for decades, and all of their kids were involved with Horizons – as campers and counselors.

Jack began his career with American Family in 1983 as a claims adjuster. After spending time in agency and sales management, he took product line leadership roles leading up to his election as President in 2000 and CEO/Chair of the Board in 2011. During his time as CEO, American Family revenue has nearly doubled from $5.8B to $11.6. In his current role, Jack oversees the American Family enterprise of companies, which includes the American Family brand and subsidiaries, CONNECT, Homesite, The General and Main Street America. In his tenure, the company has transformed, adding new companies and distribution systems to its enterprise. The American Family Enterprise has also more than doubled in revenue and assets since 2011.

Graduates of Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, Jack and his wife Sarah are very involved with their alma mater. They established the Slife Institute for Social Work Consultation, Research & Training in honor of Sarah’s parents, Harry and Polly Slife. They also established the Salzwedel Family Fund, a charitable foundation supporting local causes like the American Family Children’s Hospital, United Way of Dane County, The Overture Center, Aldo Leopold Foundation, Centro Hispano of Madison, The Boys and Girls Club in Dane Co, and Bethel Horizons.

In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of American Family Insurance Mutual Holding Company, Jack is a board member of the Insurance Information Institute, Badger Air Community Council, Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce and Milwaukee World Festival, Inc. He is on the U.S. Bank Advisory Board, UW Chancellor’s Advisory Board, UW Health, and numerous local nonprofits, including Bethel Horizons and Aldo Leopold Foundation.

Breseman graduated from Lawrence University with a B.A. in 1978 and a M.S. from UW-Madison in 1983. He was the Environmental Education Director at Bethel Horizons from 1985-1997, during which time he helped establish the Environmental Education and Adventure programs. In 1997 he returned to Lawrence University to direct Bjorklunden, an educational retreat facility in Door County. In 2009 Breseman’s duties expanded to include overseeing the Alumni Office at Lawrence as well as serving as a Principle Gift Officer for the Development Office. His wife, Jane Hillstrom, ran her own PR firm for many years and now works remotely from Door County for Filament, a Madison-based marketing firm. His daughter, Abby, lives in Madison and also works for Filament. His son, Adam, lives in LA and is pursuing his dream of working in the entertainment industry.

Abbie Wallhaus is the VP of Finance & CFO for Madison Development Corporation. As a key member of MDC’s Executive Management Team, Wallhaus oversees all accounting and finance functions for MDC and its affiliates; ensuring MDC’s accounting and financial operations are handled with efficiency and integrity.

Prior to joining MDC, Wallhaus served at Bethel Foundation as the Director of Finance, and Treasurer of the Foundation. She has extensive experience working within the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.
Abbie holds an M.B.A. with concentrations in Finance and Accounting from the University of Chicago – Graduate School of Business, as well as a degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
She lives in Madison with her husband Tom, and two daughters, Taylor and Truely.

Partner with Foley & Lardner law firm. Anne grew up on the west side of Madison and earned her undergraduate degree in Physical Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin, where her father was on the faculty and played a key role in the formation of the Institute for Environmental Studies (now known as the Gaylord Nelson Institute). Anne earned a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1981 and returned to Madison to practice law with Foley & Lardner LLP. She served as Managing Partner of the Firm’s Madison Office from 2008-2018.

Anne represents insurance companies and other business and nonprofit organizations on corporate governance, formation and capitalization, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and other transactions.

Anne’s current and former for profit and nonprofit Board experience includes Aldo Leopold Nature Center, Madison YWCA, Urban League of Greater Madison, Benedictine Life Foundation, Accelerate Madison, United Way of Dane County, Associated Bank Madison, SECURA Insurance Company, and Wisconsin Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company, among others. She is chair of the Dane County Henry Vilas Zoo Commission.

Anne lives with her partner, Carrie Nelson, and their 2 year old retriever, Linus, on the west side of Madison.  They are stewards of 56 acres of prairie and oak savannah on the banks of Gordon Creek in Iowa County, about 20 miles south of Bethel Horizons.

Bio coming soon!

Elly is a pediatric nurse practitioner. She received her BS in Nursing in 1976 at UW-Eau Claire and her Master’s in Maternal Child Health in 1982 from UW-Madison. She was employed by the Madison Metropolitan School District as a school nurse in 1987. After retiring in 2014, she was re-hired 10% time as a diabetes specialist with final retirement expected June, 2021. Elly provides childcare for her 5 grandchildren. Her two children were campers at Bethel Horizons. Her daughter was a Horizon’s counselor throughout high school & college and was program director for at least one year. Elly is married to Tim. They joined Bethel Church in 2007. In January 2017, Elly joined the Horizons Board of Directors.

Sam Geraci is the Vice President of Strategy for American Family.  He rejoined American Family in May 2013 after serving as the Director and AVP of Corporate Strategy and Research at Liberty Mutual in Boston.  Sam originally joined American Family in 2003 and spent seven years in various strategic functions in Marketing. He also has five years of experience at the Boston Consulting Group and an MBA and JD from the University of Chicago.  He also holds a BS from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.  Sam lives in Waunakee with his wife and four children.

Sharon graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing.
 
Sharon began her career at Xerox Corporation in Washington, DC as a Federal Government Marketing Representative responsible for the U.S. Department of Justice and all of its agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Attorney Offices nationwide.  Sharon became the representative for the White House and its agencies before being promoted to Sales Manager responsible for the Defense Department agencies.
 
Sharon was born in Norfolk, VA.  Her family moved to Timonium, MD in Baltimore County where she attended middle school & high school.  Sharon met Eric Hovde in Washington, DC where they were married in 1997.  They moved to Madison, where Eric was born and raised, in August, 2011.  They have two daughters.  Carlin, 32, is married to Tom Fuge and they have two daughters Maddie 2 1/2 years and Georgia, 18 months and reside in Bethesda, MD.  Brita, 22,  is a senior at the University of Colorado, Boulder and upon graduation will be working for a REIT in Denver.  Brita attended Edgewood High School and has been a member at Bethel since she was confirmed there in 2011. Since moving to Madison, Eric and Sharon have been Bethel members and Sharon has been involved with projects at the family real estate development company, Hovde Properties and with The Hovde Foundation.  The foundation’s focus is on providing shelter to abused and vulnerable children throughout the world.

Dr. Jewell was born and raised in Southwest Wisconsin where she grew up on a hog farm outside of Dodgeville. She was given the opportunity to travel, and graduated from high school in Barcelona, Spain.

Dr. Jewell returned to Wisconsin as a young adult and received a Bachelor’s in Biology from the UW Madison in 2005.

Shortly after graduation she moved to Florida in pursuit of a nursing degree. After completing a certificate in Licensed Practical Nursing 2008 she changed career course and began to pursue a career in Medicine.

She graduated from LECOM Bradenton with a Doctorate in Osteopathy in 2014. Dr. Jewell completed a residency in Family Medicine at the UW Department of Family Medicine and Community Health in 2017. Since that time Dr. Jewell has been employed with SSM/Dean at the Dodgeville Family Medicine Clinic.

Dr. Jewell practices full spectrum family medicine with OB. She is transitioning to director of hospitalist services at Upland Hills Hospital in Dodgeville in the spring of 2024.

As an extension of the Community Connections Free Clinic in Dodgeville Dr. Jewell spearheaded an effort to bring healthcare to dairy farms in Southwest Wisconsin. Dr. Jewell and the FCOW (Free Clinic On Wheels) bus make monthly visits to largely Spanish speaking migrant farm workers to provide physical exams and preventative healthcare.

Dr. Jewell speaks fluent Spanish and her special interests include advocating for immigrants and asylum seekers. She is married to a Honduran national, and has intimate knowledge of the health and legal challenges facing the immigrant and undocumented communities.

In addition to her health service work Dr. Jewell is certified as a pro-bono legal representative in the immigration court system, a necessity borne out of her Honduran extended family’s needs for affordable legal representation in the United States.

Dr. Jewell enjoys spending free time with her four children and husband on the Jewell family’s century farm outside of Dodgeville.

Serves as the Strategy & Operations Leader and Chief of Staff to Ernst & Young’s Global Chief Innovation Officer.  She is responsible for driving strategic initiatives and enhancing operational effectiveness across their global team while working to support the orchestration of innovation across the global organization.

Previously she held a similar role within EY’s Global Wealth & Asset Management practice as well as positions at NASDAQ including Strategic Analyst and Client Director in their Corporate Client Group, and Project Manager in the Office of the President.  She also served in the role of Investor Relations Representative at Sony Corporation.

She currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her husband Scott and two school-age children.  Her family has been members of Bethel for the past 5 years, enjoying their active involvement in Bethel Horizons where Jennifer has served on the Board for the past 2 years.

Paul has worked for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a federal agency charged with promoting stability and confidence in the nation’s financial system, since 1989.  As a Senior Examiner, he regularly leads examination teams which assess the financial condition, risk management practices, and operational effectiveness of community financial institutions.  In addition to leading examinations, Paul has extensive experience contributing to special projects and providing examiner and industry training.  Paul holds a BS in Finance from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, and is a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 
 
Paul has been a Bethel member since 2001 and has been involved in many committees and other endeavors, including service on the Church Council, which included acting as the liaison to Bethel Horizons for several years.  Paul is married to Heather, and lives in Madison with sons Drae and Matthew, who all love Horizons.

Andrew Seaborg grew up at Bethel and spent his first week at Horizons the summer after his third grade year. Today, he attends Good Shepherd where he recently stepped down as Congregation President.

Andrew is married to UW Pediatric Neurologist Kristin Seaborg. Together, they have three cute kids who attend Middleton schools. Both boys, Alex and Will, have spent many weeks at Horizons, where they also completed their Eagle Scout projects by building a Scout Bridge in the valley (Alex) and creating the wilderness campsites by Food Village Cliff (Will).

Andrew holds an MS in Finance from the UW-Madison and works at The Capital Group in Madison. In his spare time, he loves to mountain bike, ski and boat with his family.

Bio Coming Soon!

Pam is presently the Director of Spiritual Nourishment at Holy Wisdom Monastery in Middleton, WI. She has been an elementary school teacher and also a professor of New Testament at Bangor Theological Seminary. She worked in the non-profit world and has also served in the church. She earned a B.S. in education from Carthage College, an M.S. in educational psychology from UW-Madison, and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Marquette University. Pam worked at Bethel Horizons in the early 1980’s as a senior counselor, program director, and retreat center coordinator and cherishes the place and the many friendships begun there. Pam lives in Sun Prairie with her partner, Judy, and their cocker spaniel, Lucy.

Bio coming soon!

Elise is a Luther Seminary student seeking ordination in the ELCA in Word and Sacrament following a call to ministry in 2019. Since then, her Masters of Divinity journey has highlighted a passion for hospital chaplaincy, exploring the ways God speaks to us in Creation, and the importance of youth and community development. Elise graduated with a B.S Cum Laude in Civil Engineering from University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, with a focus on hydrogeologic studies and environmental science.

In addition to her theological studies, Elise founded a female BSA Scout Troop on the near west side of Madison in 2023. She is an avid mountain biker, and mountain bike coach with the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA). She is engaged in her community, and occasionally finds herself being a special needs and disability advocate and speaker. She loves to bike, adventure, and sail with her spouse and three children all around the midwest. Originally from California, Wisconsin is her heaven on earth.