Mary Ellen Cremer – Board Chair
Big Timber, MT
Mary Ellen Cremer, a Montana native, has lived most of her life in the state. She earned graduate degrees in Economics and Business Administration and worked for a few years at Deloitte and Touche in Seattle before returning to Montana to reside south of Big Timber on the little ranch where she raised her family.
Joseph Hansen – Treasurer
Big Timber, MT
Joseph is a longtime Sweet Grass County resident. Joe has spent most of his adult life as a volunteer EMT and devoting his efforts to caring for ill and injured people of all ages. As a family advocate he has worked with other volunteers, medical providers and the State Department of Health to improve care and to instill principles of patient and family centered care in pre-hospital and hospital phases of care. Since 1976 Joe has created improvement in curriculum development, from his experiences in conducting and instructing many Emergency Medical Service Education Programs. When He is not advocating for these causes he works as a rancher.
Sharon Sweeney Fee – Secretary
Livingston, MT
Dr. Sweeney Fee is a nursing informatics specialist and education coordinator at Livingston HealthCare. Sharon works across LHC’s services implementing an electronic health record. In 2009, Sharon worked for a year as a Research Scientist, working on the Knowledge-Based Nursing Initiative (KBNI), with Aurora HealthCare in Milwaukee, WI. The KBNI was a project that developed new knowledge, evaluated nurses’ workflow, embeded best evidence into nurses’ workflow, and evaluated nursing process and patient outcomes in an electronic environment. Sharon has a PhD in Nursing from the University of Arizona with a focus on Health Systems and Vulnerable Populations. Sharon came to Montana to work as an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Montana State University, teaching junior and senior level clinical and health policy courses and graduate courses in research using web-based and videoconferencing technologies. She has experience on a number of projects that included calculation of return on investment, cost analysis, and system wide evaluation of outcomes at the individual,unit and system level from both the private and federal arena. Sharon is serving her second term as an appointed member, and is currently Chair of the board of the ANA Committee on Ethics and Human Protections.
Dude Tyler
Livingston, MT
Dude Tyler grew up ranching in Sweet Grass County. He attended K-12 Public Schools in Big Timber, Montana and graduated from Williams College with a BA in American History. He and his brother managed the family ranch as a combination sheep and cattle ranch and eventually merged that with their outfitting business, running a successful B&B on the Boulder River in the 80’s and 90’s. Dude has long been an outspoken advocate for sustainable ranching practices and open space preservation. He is a founding member of Cottonwood Resource Council, Big Timber’s Northern Plains Resource Council Affiliate, and Past President of the Board of Directors of the Montana Land Reliance. He served on the Sweet Grass County Planning Board up until his move to Livingston, at which time he was appointed to the Livingston City Planning Board, where he still serves. In 2007 he was appointed by Governor Schweitzer to the Water Pollution Control Advisory Council where he serves as Chair.
Cynthia Matty-Huber
Livingston, MT
Cynthia moved to Livingston, on a full time basis, from Sanbornton New Hampshire in June of 2009. Cynthia’s interest in child services started when she became a educational advocate in the State of New Hampshire in 1984 . She furthered her interest by becoming a CASA of New Hampshire in 2004. She has a deep passion for children in need of services and will devote her time to the CASA program here in Livingston when she is not enjoying her own five children and her four grandchildren. Cynthia has owned and operated her own businesses, in the past she was the primary fundraiser for the Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect in the State of New Hampshire. Cynthia looks forward to being of service to the children of Park County.
Alex Rate
Livingston, MT
Alex is a solo practitioner with Rate Law Office, P.C., based in Livingston, Montana. His practice areas include plaintiffs’ work, criminal defense and estate planning. He is a firm believer in the value that CASA adds to the legal system, and has seen first hand the positive role that CASA volunteers can fill. Alex graduated from the University of Montana School of Law in 2009, and received his undergraduate degree from the University of California-Berkeley in 2000. Originally from Alaska, until recently Alex owned and operated a commercial salmon fishing operation in Bristol Bay.
Marcus Lilley
Livingston, MT
Marcus moved to Livingston in February 2005 after attending college at MSU-Billings, studying Marketing and International Business. Born and raised in Central Montana, he has a great love for sports, animals, and the outdoors. He is the Operations Manager for Fire Mountain Forge, a hand-forged lighting company here in Livingston. He enjoys spending time with family, friends, his dog Rowdy and any opportunity he can in the outdoors being its hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, and etc. Marcus loves kids and being around them. He was T.A. all through high school for grades K-1 and had originally started college in Elementary Education while working in a day care. He is excited about being on the board for CASA and helping give the children a voice.
Peggy O’Neil
Livingston, MT
Born in San Angelo, Texas while her Dad was in the Air Force, Peggy lived in both San Angelo and Lorado, Texas before moving to Montana. While growing up in Livingston, she attended East Side, Lincoln and graduated from Park High, then attended Northern Montana College where she graduated from Nursing School. After nursing school she worked at Warm Springs for several years and later returned to Livingston, where she has now been employed by the Livingston Healthcare system for the past 34 years. Currently, she is the Infection Prevention Nurse for the local hospital. Peggy has 3 children; 2 boys who are 18yrs and 35yrs and a daughter who is 21yrs. Just recently, Peggy became a small business owner and has opened a salon, Happy Feet and Hands Day Spa, with her daughter in Livingston. She loves to travel to warm, sunny destinations and enjoys both swimming and snorkeling. For the past 9 years Peggy has been involved with the Foster Care system and has had 15 foster children in her home. She feels that CASA’s mission aligns with that of the Foster Care system, which is to find safe, permanent, loving families for all our children in need. Peggy looks forward to serving on the CASA Board of Directors.
