Legends & LeadersDistinguished Alumni

Keith Bartels '67 & '74

Brookings 

Bartels, a Wessington Springs native and a longtime Mitchell resident, retired in 2007 as vice president of Martin and Associates, an electrical engineering consulting firm in Mitchell. He originally earned a degree in economics. After serving in the military, he returned to campus to earn a degree in electrical engineering.  

Late in his career, Bartels became very active on behalf of his alma mater.  

He and his wife, Glynn, have contributed nearly $4 million, with a sizeable amount of that directed to projects within the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering. He made a significant gift to every building project in the college in the past quarter century — from the renovations of the historic Solberg Hall and Crothers Engineering Hall to the construction of Daktronics Engineering Hall and Chicoine Architecture, Mathematics and Engineering Hall. 

Keith and Glynn have both served on the SDSU Foundation’s Board of Directors, with Keith also serving on the Board of Governors and chairing its budget and finance committee. The couple sponsors six endowed scholarships at SDSU. 

In 2018, he received the Jerome J. Lohr Volunteer Leadership Award to recognize his support of the SDSU Foundation. 

Kevin Haarberg '79

Woodland, California

Haarberg earned his degree in pharmacy and became a salesman of pharmaceutical products after college. After five years, he joined Edward Jones as a financial adviser and found his niche. He consistently ranks in the top 10 advisers among the 20,000 Edward Jones advisers in the nation and for 25 years was a general partner. 

Haarberg and his wife, Lorie, have given more than $3 million toward cancer research at SDSU. 

Among their gifts are a scholarship endowment, the Kevin and Lorie Haarberg Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, sponsorship of the Cell Culture Room in Avera North and funding a planned gift endowment for the Haarberg Drug, Disease and Delivery Research Center. 

Haarberg also has been active in Woodland, serving on the Woodland Healthcare Foundation board and funding a building for cancer treatment. In addition, he has helped fund a community center gymnasium, sponsored several plays at the Community Theater of Woodland and hosted several foreign exchange students. 

Haarberg also helps fund his boyhood church in Mission Hill, where he maintains relationships with many lifetime friends. 

Doug Hofer '72

Pierre

Hofer earned a degree in park management, and in 1972, right out of college, he was hired by the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks to prepare a comprehensive outdoor recreation plan. He wouldn’t retire from the agency until April 1, 2016, serving as state park director for 31 years, the longest of anyone in state history and believed to also be a national record. 

In 2015, he was inducted into the South Dakota Parks and Recreation Association Hall of Fame. 

During Hofer’s tenure, the department saw tremendous growth. Overnight park stays increased from 60,000 to 290,000; the number of campsites within the Division of Parks and Recreation increased from 1,900 to 4,200; and the number of park visitors more than doubled from 3.2 million to 7.4 million per year. 

Among his resume highlights are the development of the 114-mile Mickelson Trail in the Black Hills, the restoration of Fort Sisseton Historic State Park, boating access and campground development on the Missouri River reservoirs, substantial improvements at Custer State Park and establishment of Good Earth State Park near Sioux Falls.

Joan Hogan '94/M.S. '99

Brookings

Hogan, the wife of the late distinguished geography professor, Ed Hogan, didn’t enroll at SDSU until fall 1992 at age 49, when her youngest child also left for college. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and theater and a master’s degree in communications and journalism.  

Before going to college, in addition to raising five children, she owned and operated five shoe stores in eastern South Dakota and helped start what is now the multimedia production “Prairie Doc.” 

In 1993, while taking undergraduate classes, she created and hosted “Holmspun Medicine” alongside the late Dr. Richard Holm. It was a weekly, 30-minute, call-in radio program that delivered trusted, science-based healthcare information to the public. 

After earning her degrees, she helped Holm pursue a television version of the program. Through years of persistent effort, she connected SDSU, South Dakota Public Broadcasting and emerging production resources to launch “On Call with the Prairie Doc” in 2001.  

Also after graduating, she spent five years on the SDSU faculty and has excelled in community service throughout her 59 years in Brookings. 

Mike Huether '84

Sioux Falls

Huether earned a degree in commercial economics and built a career at Citibank in South Dakota, New York and Texas along with PREMIER Bankcard in Sioux Falls. He left corporate America to pursue public service, a dream he’d held since sixth grade in his hometown of Yankton.  

In his two terms (2010-18) as mayor, Sioux Falls, named “America’s Next Boomtown,” proved that “government can get things done.”   

Among the Huether-era achievements are the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, Midco Aquatics Center, City Center, Levitt Shell, phases II and III of the Big Sioux River Greenway, the BNSF Railyard redevelopment deal and reforming the city’s employee pension system, saving millions of taxpayer dollars. 

In April 2024, with funding from SDSU alums Mike and Cindy Huether and philanthropist T. Denny Sanford, SDSU announced the Mike Huether Public Service Academy to inspire future civic leaders. The couple also created the Cindy Huether Laboratory within the Avera Health and Science Center. 

The Huethers served on the Campaign Cabinet of the SDSU Foundation’s recent Bold & Blue campaign, the biggest comprehensive capital campaign in South Dakota history.

Debra Muller '83

Sioux Falls

Muller, an economics grad, had a 30-year career as a founding executive and eventual chief executive officer with Avera Health Plans. Muller helped build the organization from the ground up, scaling membership from 22,000 to over 140,000 and managing a complex $2 billion integrated claims portfolio. 

A national leader through sweeping regulatory shifts like the Affordable Care Act, her initiatives directly reduced South Dakota’s uninsured rate from 14.8% in 2013 to 9.8% in 2016.  

Prior to Avera, she served as South Dakota's director of health policy and planning, where she orchestrated the nation’s first public payment methodology for telemedicine and championed changes to rural hospital reimbursement. To this day, these changes have remained critical for rural healthcare access. 

She continued to support the next generation of innovators by establishing the Debra Muller Scholarship in Healthcare Systems Engineering in the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering.