Meet The Team
Jake & Jenessa Fillipi Family
Co-Founders & Directors
Down Home Followers, Supporters and Visionaries,
Down Home has been a long time coming. Jake and I both grew up on farms and enjoyed small town living. Our basic comforts provided a down-home feel. We grew up in Christian homes, listening to the band Alabama and seeing down-home values being lived out, "Where they know you by name and treat you like family."
Jake and I married in 2002, and even from our first years, we have felt called to combine our gifts and talents to serve others. Fast forward 15 years, 4 children, and 3 homes later, we shared a Divinely-inspired vision with our children that forged forward into action, and Down Home became an official non-profit in November 2017. By trade, Jake is a handyman. He is practical, innovative, sincere, hard working, faith-filled, perseverant, patient, and he believes in the power of the human spirit. I, Jenessa, love being an elementary school counselor, and there has been a tug at my heart to take one of my other loves, interior decorating, and do something with it to serve others. We definitely don't claim to have it all figured out, yet we claim inner strength and conviction to be bold and push ourselves to leave a lasting legacy for our family, community, and other families who are called to join in Down Home's mission. Come be movers and shakers with us as we empower lives and transform empty spaces into comfortable homes for families transitioning from homelessness into housing in our community.
Sincerely,
Jenessa & Jake Fillipi
Jeremy Welsand
Board of Directors
Treasurer
Jeremy joined Border States as the CFO in 2011 and leads the finance and legal functions of Border States. Jeremy serves on the company’s Board of Directors, Executive Committee, Officers Council, and other company committees.
Jeremy graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Superior in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and started his public accounting career at that time. He is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in North Dakota and Minnesota. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and both the North Dakota and Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Jeremy currently serves on the Board of Directors of Employee-owned S-Corporations of America (ESCA) and the Board of Directors of the Elite Distributors Insurance Captive (EDIC) and is active with the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) and the ESOP Association. He serves on the board of Down Home, a not-for-profit organization and is involved with other not-for-profit organizations.
Jill Waslaski
Board of Directors
Bio coming soon!
Angie Lord
Board of Directors
Angie Lord is a shareholder and attorney at Vogel Law Firm at their Fargo location, practicing in the area of healthcare law and professional liability defense and serving on Vogel Law Firm’s management team as an officer and Litigation Practice Group chair. She has been actively involved in community service in the past, including as Chair of the Board of Directors for Make A Wish North Dakota, and looks forward to contributing to the mission of Down Home. She is married to Winston Lord, and they have two children, Chloe and Foster. Angie enjoys seizing the day with her family, spending time at Lake Lida in Minnesota lakes country, traveling, and planning the next family adventure.
Charlene Kuznia
Administrative Assistant
Charlene's position is to help with the Down Home mission in creating relationships with our donors and clients, being the face of DH when folks walk in the doors with donations, organizing donated furniture and décor, managing records and bookkeeping, coordinating volunteers, arranging and creating home furniture and décor for our clients new home move ins. As you can tell, Charlene wears many hats in a given day. She looks forward to every one of them as an opportunity to serve another person in need. Dignity of each person is as the forefront of her work.
Charlene is originally from the farming community of Argyle, MN and has recently moved, along with her husband, to Frazee, MN. She was employed as a Personal Banker at KodaBank of Stephen, MN for over 40 years before becoming a part of the Down Home team and its mission. Charlene served many customers over all those years, and she took pride in being able to help them with their financial and banking needs. Yet, she states, "I have to brag even more that serving and helping the homeless and less fortunate in our community is very humbling and rewarding. It surpasses all feelings of gratitude." She is quoted as saying to our clients, "It is our honor to serve you."
Kristie Eid
Board of Directors
Secretary
Kristie is an active volunteer in the Fargo-Moorhead community and has been a Down Home Board Member since 2018. Growing up in a small central Minnesota town she experienced the importance of helping others in your community and has learned how rewarding that can be.
Since working in marketing and interior decorating for Eid-Co Homes, Kristie understands the need for families “to have a home to embrace” and grow together. When she discovered Down Home, she was immediately drawn to the organization and it’s founders, and knew it would be a good fit for her to help out the community.
Kristie has M.A. in Speech Communication from NDSU. She has lived in the F-M area for 20 years and is married to Jason. They have 3 children: Emily 22, Paige 15, Thomas 13. Kristie’s favorite activities include spending time at the lake, traveling, working on projects with friends or family and decorating.
Kristie has been involved with the American Heart Association, has held various positions within her church and children’s schools, and is currently is a trustee for the Home Builders Care Foundation of Fargo-Moorhead.
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Brittaney VanDerHagen
Board of Directors
Brittaney is a commercial realtor at JBC Commercial Real Estate. She has lived in the Fargo-Moorhead area her entire life and is a graduate of Minnesota state University Moorhead. She has over 20 years of experience working in a variety of real estate transaction roles including legal, underwriting, investor relations and administration. Brittaney enjoys traveling with her husband, Scott, carting her daughters, Veda and Willa, to their activities and unwinding at her family’s lake cabin on Big Floyd lake in Minnesota.
Dan Seefeldt
Board of Directors
Dan Seefeldt has worked in the software industry for over 30 years. Currently a software engineer at Microsoft, he has a B.S. in Computer Science from Minnesota State University Moorhead. Dan, and his wife Bernadine, have 5 children and 2 grandchildren. They reside in West Fargo and are active members at Sts. Anne and Joachim Church. His past volunteer involvement includes serving on the theater committee at Shanley High School, the fall festival committee at Sts. Anne and Joachim Church and as a member of the Microsoft TechMobile, an initiative that brings hands-on STEM learning activities and mentors to schools and organizations in North Dakota. He is also an adjunct professor of Computer Science at Minnesota State University Moorhead. In his free time, Dan loves spending time with his family at home and at the lake and he enjoys any activities involving boats. He is excited to be involved with Down Home because of the direct and lasting impact it has on families and the community.
Chris Welsand
Marketing Volunteer
Chris moved to the Fargo area in 2013 with her husband and daughter. She has a B.S. in Corporate and Community Health from the University of Wisconsin-Superior and a Master's Degree in Communication from Bethel College. Her professional experiences have been in fitness, health education, fundraising, communication, management and photography. Chris enjoys combining her education, experiences, skills, and passions into volunteer work for non-profits in her community.
Chris is thrilled to be a part of the Down Home team, helping make a difference to families transitioning out of homelessness into permanent housing.
Matthew Bye
Warehouse Coordinator & Guru
Bill Bienek
Board of Directors
Bill has been a resident of the Fargo community since 1998. He attended NDSU where where he earned his bachelors degree in human performance and fitness and a masters degree in Business Administration (MBA). Bill served in the North Dakota Army National Guard from 1997-2006 with one deployment to Iraq in 2003-2004. After returning from overseas in 2004, Bill started a career in real estate and later in 2009 became an insurance agent with Farmers Union Insurance and has been with Farmers Union Insurance for 10 years.
Anne Kallhoff
Board of Directors
Anne Kallhoff works at ROERS. She is married to her husband Trevor and they have 3 kids Gage, Kane, & Veda. They live just south of Moorhead and attend Good Shepherd Church. In her free time Anne can be found at the hockey rink or at the baseball field supporting her 3 kids and the Moorhead Spuds. Anne participates in a number of community activities and organizations including Down Home, United Way, Moorhead Youth Sports, church activities, and the Roers/Keller Williams Chilli Feed.
Kirstin Schiotz
Connections & Committees
"DH Junkie"
Kirstin has lived in Fargo since graduating from Concordia College with a degree in elementary education. She delights in teaching and molding the lives of her Super Stars at a local elementary school. When Kirstin isn’t laughing and hanging out with family or friends, she enjoys reading and stamping. Being a Down Home Junkie has given her an extraordinary way to live out her faith. For her, there is no greater high than helping the Down Home Team “transform an empty space into a place to embrace” for another one of God’s children.
Deb King
Connections & Committees
Bio coming soon!