Three alumni join Creighton Board of Trustees
Creighton President the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD, announced three additions to the University’s Board of Trustees on Monday, June 30.
Alex Calfo, JD’90, a senior partner at the California-based law firm King & Spalding; Karen Rauenhorst, BSN’75, a retired nurse and philanthropist serving on the board of Catholic Relief Services; and Doug Wells, BSBA’76, former owner and director of Wells Enterprises Inc., a family-owned national dairy company based in Iowa.
“Our newest trustees are leaders in their fields and, importantly, have shown a commitment to their communities,” Fr. Hendrickson, said. “I am thankful for their willingness to serve in support of our University.”
Fr. Hendrickson also recognized two outgoing members of the Board for their service with “trustee emeritus” status: Richard Kizer, BSBA’71, JD’73, former chairman of Central States Health & Life Co. of Omaha, and Mark Rauenhorst, BA’75, president of Marren Properties, LLC. Kizer served as the Board’s vice chair from 2011 to 2015.
“I am deeply appreciative of Richard and Mark’s contributions in service to our students and mission,” Fr. Hendrickson said. “Our University has achieved much during their tenure and I know that they will continue to remain committed to Creighton’s success long into the future.”
Meet the New Trustees
Alex Calfo, JD’90
Alexander Calfo, a senior partner at King & Spalding, has repeatedly won the most difficult and challenging trials involving medical devices and pharmaceuticals, airplane crashes, class actions, toxic torts, automotive products liability, insurance coverage, and commercial business disputes. He has been awarded five of the Top 10 winning first-chair trial verdicts in California by The Daily Journal; his verdicts have been selected Top 5 nationally by LexisNexis; and Courtroom View Network recently named another high-profile national verdict as the “Number One Impressive Defense Victory in the United States.”
The Los Angeles Business Journal chose Calfo as a 2022 Top 100 Lawyer for his legal skill, achievements, and exemplary leadership, and recognized him as one of the first partners to join King & Spalding’s Los Angeles office, stating that he “has been instrumental in building the firm’s reputation as a West Coast trial powerhouse.” Calfo is keenly familiar with the tradition and distinctiveness of a Jesuit education, having earned his bachelor’s degree from Marquette and law degree from Creighton. He also serves on Creighton’s inaugural cohort of the Council of Regents.
Karen Dolan Rauenhorst, BSN’75
Karen Dolan Rauenhorst is a retired nurse and philanthropist who currently serves on the Catholic Relief Services board, chairing its governance and nomination committee. She also serves as vice chair on the boards for the National Catholic Education Association and Mark and Karen Rauenhorst Family Foundation. She previously served as board chair for the Better Way Foundation, a Minnesota-based nonprofit supporting childhood development, and was founding chair for the Aim Higher Foundation, which provides tuition assistance for children to attend Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
In addition to other board service over the past 30 years, Rauenhorst enjoyed a long tenure on the Board of Trustees at St. Catherine University, chairing the board for four years and acting as the University’s interim president during the summer of 2016. Receiving a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Creighton University and a Master of Public Health from the University of Minnesota, Rauenhorst worked in clinical settings and administration at several Midwestern hospitals from 1975 – 1987. Her husband, Mark, also served on Creighton’s Board of Trustees; they have four married adult children and nine grandchildren.
Doug Wells, BSBA’76
Doug Wells is the former owner and director of Wells Enterprises Inc., a family-owned national dairy company. After earning his degree at Creighton, he attended South Dakota State University for dairy science. He spent his entire career with his family's business, developing internal capabilities in processing, quality, research, engineering, and operations. This included managing the renovation of a food processing plant in Omaha and later leading the design, construction, and operation of the largest state-of-the-art frozen dairy dessert manufacturing facility in the world.
As an executive, he worked in supply chain management to develop a culture of continuous improvement, create a learning environment that helped improve asset utilization, grow sales, and enhance consumer perceptions. Alongside family members, he recruited professional, independent board members, and management personnel for the strategic sale of the company in 2023. Wells’ service includes being a member of the International Ice Cream Association, Iowa Dairy Foods Association, Iowa Department of Agriculture Advisory Board, Industrial Refrigeration Consortium, Students in Free Enterprise, Primebank Inc., and numerous local community betterment associations.
