Jacqui Dietrich

President and CEO

Professional bio

Jacqui Dietrich, a fifth-generation West River South Dakotan, was born in Rapid City and grew up with a deep commitment to economic equity. She began her career in family-owned small businesses before spending over a decade in Colorado advancing initiatives for underserved communities. Jacqui holds an MBA from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a bachelor’s degree from Black Hills State University. She is married to Clint and has two adult sons, Dorian and Daevin, who live and work in the Black Hills.

A day in the life at JTVF
Meet Jacqui, our resident “enabler” (in the best way possible)! As an Aries, she’s naturally obsessed with the power of new ideas to transform neighborhoods and even the world—so the opportunity to support diverse initiatives and organizations at the foundation is a dream job.

Fun facts
When Jacqui isn’t busy building communities, you’ll find her out on a walk, streaming her favorite food podcast (despite being a terrible cook). As an empty-nester, she’s also tackling backcountry snowboarding and mountain biking with her adventurous husband, Clint—activities she loves but admits she’s not great at.

Priority areas
Investment Strategy, Economic Mobility, Community Collaboration

Leadership roles
Elevate Rapid City Board of Directors, Arts South Dakota Board of Directors, Early Learner Rapid City Advisory Committee

Jessica Olson

Grants Director

Professional bio
Jessica is our social worker turned Grants Director. In 2007 she moved to Rapid City and began at Children’s Home Society as a residential treatment counselor. She worked a few different positions for the organization supporting families and children. Jessica joined the JTVF team in 2018 as program associate and was promoted to grants director in 2022.

A day in the life at JTVF
We call Jessica our “elephant” because she has the uncanny ability to remember all the details about events, partners, and conversations. This makes her a perfect grants director. She helps potential grantees put their best foot forward in a grant application and maintains close ties until the end of the grant period and beyond. She also heads up our Different Lens Coaches Network.

Fun facts
When Jessica isn’t working with a grantee on their application, she is nerding out over the latest sports event, whether it is for one of her three kiddos Graham, Chase, or Claire or her Husband Tyler, a teacher and football coach for Stevens High School.

Priority areas
Grantee Relations, JTVF  Coaches Network

Participant roles
Black Hills Regional Homeless Coalition, Workforce Connections Collaborative, Western South Dakota Funders Group, Community Services Connections, Oyate Coalition, Community Prevention Partnership Network, Early Learner Rapid City

Shelly Adams

Grants Manager

Professional bio
Shelly brings with her decades of administrative excellence. Working her way up from Medical Records to Executive Assistant to the CEO at Behavior Management Systems, Shelly knows how to get things done and make everyone feel valued along the way. Shelly joined the JTVF team in 2008, one year after the foundation began, making her the longest serving staff member in the history of the Foundation.

A day in the life at JTVF
Shelly is affectionately known as “Utility Girl” and the “Historian” around the office. She makes sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed when it comes to processing grants, planning events, and hosting meetings. Shelly is likely to be the first person to answer the phone at the JTVF office, remind us about John’s vision, or make sure we have our daily candy intake.

Fun facts
If you ask her twin adult daughters Tessa and Tori and husband Tony, Shelly is the biggest Dolly Parton fan around. She hopes her grandson Luca follows in her fandom footsteps.

Priority areas
Grantee Relations, JTVF Coaches Network, JTVF Board Corporate Secretary

Participant roles
Early Learner Rapid City

Crystal Ortbahn

Communications Director

Professional bio
Crystal is a lifelong South Dakotan, born and raised in Pierre. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Augustana University, where she received a Covenant Award for Liberal Arts. She then worked in marketing, public affairs, and odd jobs before accepting an invitation to serve in the United States Peace Corps. After completing her two-year assignment in Uganda, where she helped direct a national reading event, she returned to South Dakota where she’s worked in community-based work for the last 5 years. She most recently worked with the South Dakota Community Foundation in Pierre. She recently relocated and is looking forward to living and working in Rapid City.

A day in the life at JTVF
Crystal is honored to step into this role and looks forward to lifting the important work nonprofits are championing across the region. Whether she’s digging into data, crafting a compelling message, or brainstorming with partners, she brings expertise in asking questions and connecting the dots.

Fun facts
When she’s not immersed in mission-driven work or grad school coursework, Crystal loves riding her bicycle, reading, and watching indie films (especially documentaries).

Lee Strubinger

Research & Reporting Director

Professional bio
Lee spent nine years covering the South Dakota state legislature for South Dakota Public Broadcasting as the Politics and Public Policy reporter. While in this role, he reported on three different governor administrations and covered many of the biggest stories the state has faced in the last decade. He’s familiar with the inner workings of state government and politics and looks forward to bringing his strengths to the John T. Vucurevich Foundation.

Lee is a two-time national Edward R. Murrow winning broadcast journalist, who was born and raised in rural Illinois. Lee holds a Master’s degree in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois-Springfield and a bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University

A day in the life at JTVF
As Research & Reporting Director at JTVF, Lee leads efforts to understand the issues impacting our communities and to produce nonpartisan analysis based on his studies and research with data sets, stakeholder feedback and grantee reports.

Fun facts
Lee spends his spare time with his wife, Amber, and his dog, Hank, on hiking trails and at dog parks. When he’s not outdoors, he can be found playing or recording music on drums and synthesizers.

Barry Tice

Senior Director of Partnerships & Impact

Professional bio

Tice is a life-long Rapid Citian with more than two decades of public service and cross-sector leadership experience. Throughout his career, he has been recognized for building strong partnerships and helping organizations work together to address complex community challenges and improve outcomes for vulnerable populations.

Before joining the Foundation, Tice served as Director of Human Services and Veterans Service Office for Pennington County, where he led initiatives focused on housing stability, reentry support, substance use and behavioral health coordination, and economic assistance for individuals and families across the region. His work emphasized collaborative solutions among local government, nonprofit organizations, and community partners working toward shared goals.

Tice is widely respected for his ability to convene diverse stakeholders, align shared priorities, and move community conversations into coordinated action. In addition to his work locally, he has collaborated with partners across the country focused on strengthening reentry systems and improving community responses to poverty, homelessness, substance use, behavioral health needs, and justice-involved populations.

Tice holds a master’s degree in public administration and a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and human services. Tice has been married to his wife, Jill, for 23 years. They have two children, Stella and Baird.

Whitney Rencountre II

Board Member
Since April 2024

Whitney is Crow Creek Hunkpati Dakota from the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and CEO of the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation. Whitney previously served as Associate Director and Instructor at The Indian University of North America®. Whitney was a 2019 Honoree of Western South Dakota Child Protection Council. Whitney was named one of 605 Magazine’s South Dakota Young Leaders of 2017. Whitney served as Chairman of the South Dakota Humanities Council and Chairman of Visit Rapid City. For 11 years, Whitney was Director of the Ateyapi Program, a culturally based mentoring program working with over 1,000 students each year in the Rapid City Area School District.

David Emery

Board Member
Since April 2020

David Emery is the retired Chief Executive Officer and former chairman of the Board of Directors for Black Hills Energy. During his 29 year career with the company, he led the company through a transformative period of sustained growth, growing from a diversified energy company with 61,000 electric customers to an electric and natural gas utility with 1.25 million customers in 800 communities in eight states.

Sandy Diegel

Board Member
Since April 2019

Sandy Diegel is the retired CEO of the John T. Vucurevich Foundation from 2007 to 2019. As the foundation’s first CEO, Sandy built on John T. Vucurevich’s personal legacy of giving and worked with the board to set funding priorities consistent with his philosophy. Under her leadership, the foundation facilitated solutions to key challenges, initiated relevant collaborations, and brought awareness to important issues. Prior to her role at JTVF, Sandy had a 19-year career with Behavior Management Systems and was its CEO from 1994 to 2007.

Claudia Vucurevich

Board Member
Since March 2024

A life-long disability advocate and former elementary educator, Claudia Vucurevich has previously served on the Board of Directors for Lifescape, South Dakota Guardianship Program, South Dakota Guardianship Trust Fund, and Consumer Credit Counseling Service of the Black Hills. Claudia was daughter-in-law of our Founder John T. Vucurevich. She was married to his son, and former JTVF board member, Tom Vucurevich for 52 years before his passing earlier this year.

Liz Hamburg

Board Member

As former CEO of the Black Hills Area Community Foundation, Liz was an active participant in various nonprofit initiatives for over a decade, many in direct collaboration with the John T. Vucurevich Foundation. Her extensive knowledge of the local landscape, especially the development of affordable housing, addressing food security, and her broad understanding of the challenges faced by those in need will bolster the John T. Vucurevich Foundation’s vision of making a community where working families and thriving children reach their full potential.