Mark Kinders has served as Director of Public Affairs since joining UW-RF in 1985. His responsibilities include media relations, serving as the liaison between the University and Legislature, maintaining community and business relations, and providing oversight to Sports Information and Photography Services.

His additional responsibility is to act as the information and media liaison between the University and the Kansas City Chiefs, which holds its Summer Training Camp at UW-RF.

Kinders also provides assistance to the bi-state St. Croix Valley Regional Tourism Alliance by serving as President of this nationally recognized marketing collaborative that includes 20 communities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He also is a member of the Professional Development Committee of the Wisconsin Governor's Council on Tourism. Kinders' activities related to developing the hospitality and tourism industry led to his recognition as a Wisconsin Idea Fellow by the Univesity of Wisconsin System Board of Regents in 2004.

Kinders also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Leadership River Falls, which develops leadership capacity in emerging community leaders by presenting them with a holistic understanding of the community, as well as training them in the shared-power decision-making techniques characteristic of government and non-profit community organizations.

Prior to joining the University, he held editing and reporting positions with Lee Enterprises newspapers, including the Decatur Herald & Review in Illinois and the Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota. He also served as a correspondent for the Southwest News Herald in his home town of Chicago.

Kinders holds a bachelor of science degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, a master's degree in history from UW-River Falls, and a master's degree in Public Affairs through the Executive Program of the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. While at the Humphrey he was named a finalist for a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship.

He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1968-72. Kinders is married to Linda Bowlby-Kinders, a specialist in computer graphics (who designed the Public Affairs Home Pages and St. Croix Valley graphics.) They have three sons: Christian, Casey and Matthew.

Jim Thies is a veteran of sports media relations and has been the Falcons sports information director since 1976.

He has served on several national, state and local committees including the College Sports Information Directors of America, the Wisconsin Sports Information Directors Association and the UW-RF Athletic Hall of Fame committee.

His Game Day publications and media guides have won over 20 national awards for excellence. He manages an office of 10 student workers and also serves the University as Assistant News Bureau Director.

He is married to Cheri and they have two children, a son James and a daughter Kairsten. Thies is also active in the Hudson Hockey Association and St. Patricks Catholic Church. Thies served as the Hudson High Girl's Hockey coach and has led them to two consecutive state championship titles.

He is a member of the American Football Writers Association and the United States Basketball Writers Association.

He earned his undergraduate degree in mass communications from Mankato State, Minn., University.

Jens Gunelson has served as photography services manager since 1977. He has a master's degree in Instructional Media and Technology from Mankato State University. Some of his other interests include wood working and computer programing.

In addition to his extensive responsibilities providing studio and campus photography services, Gunelson also serves as the systems operator of the Macintosh Local Access Network for Public Affairs.

He has written numerous database management programs in HyperCard for Photo Services, Sports Information and the News Bureau. Gunelson is available to answers questions about the University's customized Zip Code sort program for the University's hometown release programs, and he also can be contacted by those interested in obtaining the UW-RF Faculty/Staff Directory in a HyperCard Stack.

He has a daughter, Jordan, 15.

Deb Toftness joined the Public Affairs office in 1989. Her responsibilities include office management, supervision of student workers, and news release editing/writing and distribution. Toftness has worked with the Kansas City Chiefs Summer Training Camp at UW-RF since their first camp in 1991.

Toftness began her career at UW-RF in the Director's Office of the Chalmer Davee Library in 1985 before transferring to the English Department in 1986. Prior jobs included working for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and for West Publishing Company.

Toftness earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in print journalism from UW-Eau Claire. She enjoys spending time with her four children and frequently volunteers in school, church and community activities. Toftness is an annual participant in the Campus and Community Clean-up and in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.

Brenda K. Bredahl joined the Office of Public Affairs in 2004 as a part-time senior communications specialist. She was principal writer/researcher for UWRF's 125th anniversary publication, which received a Council for the Advancement and Support of Education bronze award in 2000. Since 2000 she has occasionally taught in the journalism department as well as precollege journalism camps.

She is also a contract editor for the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition at the University of Minnesota. Her freelance articles and photos have appeared in Corporate Report Wisconsin, Grit, Historic Traveler, Milwaukee magazine, Minnesota Monthly, Where Twin Cities, Wisconsin Trails, and others. She is also a former consulting editor of International Wolf and Wisconsin West magazines.

Former staff positions include associate editor at Minnesota Medicine magazine, public relations representative at Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College-New Richmond, publications manager for the Minnesota Historical Society, and associate editor at the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center Public Relations. In 1996 and 1997 she received the Minnesota Government Communicator's Northern Lights Award of Excellence for annual report writing.

Bredahl has a B.S. in liberal arts from UW-River Falls and a M.S. in mass communication from the University of Minnesota. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Depression After Delivery in Raritan, N.J. She is married to Tony, art director in the UW-RF publications office. They have a son, Cole.