The Center’s Beating Heart
The team behind the scenes
Tracy Bennett
Executive Director
Tracy refers to herself as the Center’s “Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.” She finds herself in all types of jobs daily from welcoming the over 35,000 visitors annually to the Center to doing the last-minute laundry, to working on grants that support the Center’s operations to the next fiscal year. Stop by and visit her: she will always have a smile waiting for you!
Lori Tagg Snow
Development Director
Lori’s background is networking, sales, marketing, and grant writing. She has great communication, presentation & interpersonal skills with a proven ability to build solid relationships and partnerships. This serves us well with businesses and guests when asking for donations/sponsors. These relationships will help the Center thrive long-term.
Joe Hlas
Facilities Manager
Joe has been a farmer for 35 years. And since 2021, he’s also responsible for the daily maintenance and upkeep of the Center and its campus. He finds joy in discovering how things work and repairing them wherever he can He is motivated by a desire to keep the Center looking fresh and new.
Amy Linder
Theresa Jackson
Michael Hlas
Director of Youth Programming
Administrative Assistant
Events Assistant
Amy, a resident of Akron IA and a lifelong resident of NW Iowa comes from a family of teachers and farmers. A USD graduate, she taught music in several area schools, including Sioux City, for thirty years. She has great respect for education and a love of this country and the land that it was built on.
Theresa came to work at the Center after taking early retirement from Western Iowa Tech Community College where she was an English instructor for close to 30 years. Theresa’s teaching and writing experience helps her with many of her duties. She primarily assists the Executive Director in all Center operations but also assists all the staff with various projects.
Michael is our brilliant go to person for solving a variety of problems from website issues to posting events on all the local calendars. He has many interests. He keeps us up to date on the weather by reading the clouds and he belongs to the Sioux City Gem and Mineral Society.
Randy Peters
Programming Director
Randy Peters ,the former director of the Betty Ling Tsang Fine Arts Series at Morningside College, has spent many years in Siouxland producing fine musical programs at various venues. Randy’s responsibilities at the Center are scheduling performers for the Sunday shows, arranging performers and dates of the outdoor Summer Series on the Spirit of Discovery stage, and organizing the Center’s gift shop.