GSRVAA Leadership Team

Kris Klos, Chair

Kris is a Lifetime Girl Scout who proudly earned her Gold Award as a girl while in the Woodlake Service Unit (Richfield, MN). She is a founding member of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and the Lily of the Valleys Garden Club Special Interest Groups and has volunteered her time in different roles at the service unit level and at council and alumnae events. Kris is now a leader for her daughter’s troop.

Kris works at the Minnesota Department of Health as the Supervisor of the Health Risk Assessment Unit.

Ellen Earixson, Vice Chair

Ellen started as a Girl Scout Daisy and earned her Silver and Gold Awards. She worked for Girl Scouts River Valleys in various roles, mainly in Program and Leader Support, while volunteering as a troop leader. Ellen has served on the Forever Green Breakfast Committee off and on since 2013.

Ellen is a Makerspace (science) teacher at an elementary school in St Paul. She loves to spend time skipping rocks on the Mississippi River and finding the best ice cream in the Twin Cities with her family.

Juliann Nelson-Duffy, Treasurer

Juliann began her Girl Scout journey as a Brownie and Junior Girl Scout. As an adult, she led both of her daughters’ troops and was a member of the North Pines Service Unit Team, earning the Outstanding Volunteer Award for her service. She is a founding member of the STEM Special Interest Group. She joined the RVAA Leadership Team as Treasurer in 2014. Juliann worked as an actuary for Securian Financial Group for 39 years and retired in 2016.

Mary Selby, Media & Data Management

Mary’s connection to Girl Scouts began when she became a leader for her youngest daughter’s Brownie troop,w hich she led until they graduated from high school. Since then, she has filled many volunteer roles with the Rosewood and Roseville Service Units, incluidng cookie manager, events coordinator and digital media manager. She joined the RVAA Leadership Team in 2013 as Events Coordinator and served for many years as the Forever Green Breakfast Chair.

Mary and her husband, Denny, have two grown daughters and five grandchildren. She retired from her medical records duties in 2015 and enjoys quilting and many other hand crafts.

Emily White, Adult Awards

Emily has been a registered Girl Scout for 66 years, including 56 years as a troop leader. She currently leads a CSA troop and is a caddie trainer and service unit volunteer. She has attended seven national conventions, including serving as a delegate. She has been a day camp director and co-chair of the Friends of Our Chalet USA. She is the chair of the Heritage Committee Special Interest Group.

Besides Girl Scouts, she volunteers for many other community non-profit organizations, including a food shelf, Newport Park Board, North Star Museum and her church council. She enjoys gardening and sewing and spending time with her children, grandchildren and spoiled pug Apollo.

A.J. Steinbring, RVAA Scholarship

A.J. Steinbring has been a Girl Scout since she was in first grade and earned her Silver and Gold Awards. After attending Camp Northwoods for a decade as a camper, she spent seven glorious summers working there and now serves as the chair of the Camp Northwoods Alumnae Association. She also volunteers on the council’s Caddie Committee and Forever Green Scholarship Committee and is an outdoor trainer.

She graduated from Metropolitan State University with a double BA in Research/Information Studies and English Literature and is an administrative assistant for General Mills. She married the love of her life in 2020. She spends her free time caring for a balcony garden and a growing collection of houseplants, competing with a trivia team and being an “Auntie” to friends’ kids.

Natasha Groth, Member Engagement

Tasha started as a Brownie Girl Scout in Delano and remained a Girl Scout until her leaders moved out of the Service Unit when she was a Cadette. Tasha got back into Girl Scouts when her daughter started Kindergarten and the troop needed a co-leader and cookie manager. A year later she took over the troop, and the girls and Tasha went on many adventures through 16 states. Tasha also served as service unit manager for four years.

Tasha graduated from CSB/SJU with a BA in Psychology and is the HR and Office Manager for a steel erection firm in the west metro. She has a daughter, son and great husband. Her hobbies include running her gluten free cottage bakery and being outdoors as much as possible, including a minimum of 20 camping trips a year!

Mary Eisele Slack, Chair Emerita

Mary’s Girl Scout career started as a Brownie in Waterloo, Iowa. After she earned her First Class Award, she led and volunteered with troops through her 20s. Mary was a trainer/facilitator for Greater Minneapolis/River Valleys for many years and now volunteers for special projects.

She is clinical faculty at the University of St. Thomas in the Management Department and owns a consulting business, Eisele and Associates, Inc. Her areas of expertise are leadership, management, human resources, process improvement, project management, team dynamics and strategic planning. Mary and her husband, Dave, have two grown sons and they all love to spend time at the lake.

Norma Porter, Member at Large

Norma has a long and distinguished history in Girl Scouts, serving on the Board of Directors for 10 years, the previous strategic planning task force and well as two terms as treasurer during which she also served on the executive, finance, investment, audit, and property board committees. Norma has served as council national delegate and chair of the council’s property committee. She previously held various positions for the Wayzata Service Unit. She is a member of the Second Winds Special Interest Group, which focuses on outdoor education for Girl Scouts. She is a lifetime member and has earned the First Class Award.

Norma is a director of change management at Elevance Health, where she has responsibility for change management for the Dental Operations Division.

Karen Klose, Member at Large

Karen Klose began her Girl Scout adventures in 1975, when she took her 8-year-old daughter to day camp. She was a troop leader, service team member and day camp director. She worked for the Minneapolis Council in many camp and outoor programming positions, including Day Camp Coordinator for all council day camps and Director of Camp Greenwood and Camp Ruby Lake. She is the founder of the Second Winds Special Interest Group and a member of several others.

Becca Mitchell, Member at Large

Becca Mitchell was in one of the first Daisy troops and she stuck with Girl Scouts through the end of high school. She is a Lifetime member and a member of both the Camp Northwoods Alumnae Association and the Caddie Committee.

She as a BS in Mathematics from Butler University and found her niche working in biostatistics at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. She’s a newly avid soccer fan and enjoys playing percussion, container gardening, cross-stitching, video games and relaxing in the backyard around a fire.

Stephanie Burton, Member at Large

Stephanie became a Girl Scout in 1965 and has been enjoying everything about it ever since — especially spending time outdoors, making new friends, singing around the camp fire, teaching others and working with girls. She earned the First Class Award and was a Mariner Scout. She led her first troop at age 18 and has held nearly every position available (except anything to do with cookies) in three councils. She is chair of the Connections Retreat Committee and a member of the Cambridge/Isanti Service Unit team. Though she does not have any children of her own, she recognized the importance of sharing her wonderful experiences with both girls and adults and continues that today.

The GSRVAA Leadership Team is scouting for new board members, including Special Interest Group Liason. For more information, please email Kris.