BOARD OF DIRECTORS

International Crossroads Group

Ron Lukenbill has worked as a ranch hand, fire fighter, interior designer, oil painter, stoneware potter, and enjoyed forty three years as a school teacher and educator in California, Tennessee, and Montana.

He holds a BFA in Painting and Sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute,  a K-12 Teaching Certificate from San Francisco State University, and a MA in Special Education from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.

During his career in education, he taught classes in elementary and middle schools in California, undergraduate and graduate classes at Tennessee Tech University, and was an education program specialist at the Office of Public Instruction for 31 years.

He has a lifelong interest in travel, community service, international affairs, and citizen diplomacy.  He has served as a founding member and officer of the Helena International Affairs Council and has prior experience as a member and board officer of WorldMontana before rejoining the WorldMontana board in December of 2016.

Ron and his wife, Tatiana, a professional Russian and Ukrainian language interpreter and translator, founded two non-profit organizations during the 1990s to bring high school and university level students from countries of the former Soviet Union to graduate from Montana schools, colleges and universities.  They enjoy staying in contact with former students and hosting new international visitors in their home in Helena.

Ron was honored for his 31 years of service with WorldMontana^® in May, 2019.

Jeff Tiberi recently retired as a lobbyist for farmers and ranchers. Prior to that, he served six years as executive director for Montana’s Conservation Districts and nine years as executive director for the Montana Heritage Preservation and Development Commission. He worked for state park systems in Pennsylvania, Maryland, South Dakota, and Montana. His time with the federal government included jobs at Assateague Island National Seashore, the Statue of Liberty National Monument, and Yellowstone National Park. He served as the first deputy director of Intermountain Children’s Home. Jeff served the Bermudian Government for nearly a decade as Senior Parks Officer. He drafted legislation to establish the Bermuda national park system. Soon after he moved to Montana in 1990, he drafted legislation to establish a park ranger program for Montana State Parks. His job as the first executive to manage state properties in Virginia City and Nevada City taught him many lessons.

Jeff has spent time in Burkina Faso, Uganda, Mozambique (where his son lives), Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Croatia, Italy, England, Ireland, Ecuador, Bahamas, France, Netherlands, China, Greece, Mexico, Iceland, Nepal, and India. He and his wife Vicky have hosted visitors from England, Czech Republic, Poland, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Nikki Andersen is a retired non-profit Executive Director at ExplorationWorks. She holds a BA in European History, MA in Cultural Anthropology, and did a course work for her PhD. Nikki has been involved in volunteering for organizations similar to World Montana for twenty-some years. She also participated in USIA one-year cultural exchange program in Sweden working for Nordiska Museet, did multi-year consulting with Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam and completed major project for Schloss Schrunbrun in Vienna.

Additionally, she served as a speaker at international conferences in Oaxaca and Mexico City, took occasional week-long art workshops in Oaxaca, consulted on joint projects with Canadian Museum of Civilization in Quebec, with Royal Ontario and Royal BC Museums, plus travels extensively for own pleasure in Europe, Canada and Mexico.

Nikki has an extensive volunteer board work for local, regional and national non-profits including Association of Midwest Museums and American Alliance of Museums, Visitor Studies Association, Association of Children’s Museums, Montana Shares, Big Sky Institute, Girls Inc. She served as a board member in several cities, was a grant reviewer for Institute for Museum and Library Services, and National Endowment for the Humanities.

Jane Amdahl is a retired attorney who loves to travel and host foreigners in her home. She has traveled to India numerous times, as well as to Nepal, Tibet, Mexico, Spain, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, and the Republic of Korea. She and her husband, Chuck, have hosted guests from Iraq, India, Indonesia, Belgium, Peru, Spain, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Ukraine, and Botswana. They hope to host many more foreign guests in the future.

Jane received her bachelor’s degree in social studies education (with a concentration in history) from the University of Minnesota, and her law degree from Northwestern University School of Law. She served as a law clerk for the Hon. James T. Moody, a federal district court judge in Hammond, Indiana, after which she practiced law in both Chicago and Indiana. She moved to Montana in 1999 and served as a special assistant attorney general with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality until she retired in 2012. She has taught classes in federal wage and hour law, as well as environmental law. She now occupies herself with volunteer work through the Retired Seniors Volunteer Program (RSVP), the Helena Rotary Club, of which she is a member, the Salvation Army, where she serves on its Advisory Board, and AARP Montana, where she serves on the Executive Counsel. She also sponsors Tibetan refugees in exile in northern India, where she has helped pay for the education of three students and helps provide living expenses for a destitute Tibetan refugee elder.