LifeNets Board of Directors

LifeNets is proud to be served by a dedicated, qualified Board of Directors. All of our directors are donors as well as volunteers.

Lydia Bauer

Lydia Bauer is a business consultant who specializes in finance, accounting, and business development. She recently completed a 2 ½ year project in the Republic of Moldova, a former Soviet republic, where she managed two dairy processing plants.

She has been an active volunteer in refugee resettlement, immigrant services, and humanitarian aid projects, primarily working with people from the former Soviet Union. She has served on a number of non-profit boards.

Bauer serves as LifeNets controller and is in the process of developing a program to aid orphans and foster families in Moldova. She currently lives in Kansas City, Missouri, with her husband, John, and son, Julian.

Suzan Johns

Suzan Johns is one of LifeNets’ pioneer volunteers and program organizers. Her energetic style and exceptional organizational abilities have been instrumental in LifeNets ability to donate significant quantities of dental equipment and supplies to the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine. She organized and led a group of five dental professionals on a mission to Ukraine in 1999. She currently serves as secretary of LifeNets.

Her husband, Jim, is a dentist; and together they operate and manage a dental practice in Myerstown, Pennsylvania. They have four children.

Johns began working with Victor Kubik in the relief efforts that predated the formal organization of LifeNets and remains committed to serving needy peoples worldwide.

Victor Kubik

Victor Kubik, an ordained minister and president of LifeNets, has served Christian congregations for more than three decades in South Dakota, Minnesota, Kentucky, California and Indiana. He has held various pastoral and senior administrative positions, and currently serves on the board of United Church of God, an international Christian organization with central offices in Cincinnati, Ohio.

He graduated from Ambassador College in Hertfordshire, England, in 1969 and also attended the University of Minnesota. He is an active member of Rotary International.

After organizing several relief efforts for radiation victims of the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine and other projects elsewhere, Kubik founded LifeNets International, Inc.

He speaks fluent Ukrainian and Russian, and travels extensively around the world, particularly in Eastern Europe, as part of his ministry and work in LifeNets.

He is married to the former Beverly Skogen, and they have three children.

Belinda McCloud

Belinda McCloud formerly owned two successful businesses in Iowa. Belinda became involved with LifeNets because she saw a real opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives. She has been tirelessly managing the day-to-day operations of LifeNets’ Central American program since 1999. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband, Greg.

John Merritt

John Merritt, M.D. graduated from Wofford College and Medical University of South Carolina and is board-certified in internal medicine and in physical medicine and rehabilitation.

Merritt has served as professor at three medical schools: the Mayo Clinic; the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine; and the Medical College of Wisconsin. He also has served as medical director of two rehabilitation hospitals, Charlotte Rehabilitation Hospital and Tustin Rehabilitation Hospital, and as chairman of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is an expert and researcher in medical rehabilitation of spinal cord injuries, and injuries to the brain and the nervous system. He has served on numerous Christian philanthropic boards.

Merritt and his wife, Marcie, live in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and have five children.

Tom Peine

Thomas D. Peine is a registered professional engineer with expertise in the HVAC industry. He is vice-president of Peine Engineering Company, Inc., which has been in the HVAC business for 54 years in the Indianapolis market. He is a graduate of Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. He and his wife, Sue, have four children and nine grandchildren, and reside in Indianapolis.

Michael Snyder

Michael Snyder, chairman of LifeNets, is vice president of Strategic Marketing Services for Expidant, an interactive services agency with offices in the Midwest. Snyder, who holds an honors MBA from California State University, Los Angeles, also served as chairman of The Wellness Community of Central Indiana, a non-profit organization that provides certified psychological support for cancer patients and their families. He is a published author and has been featured as a national speaker for the American Marketing Association, the Public Relations Society of America and the National Society of Fund Raising Executives. He previously served as vice-president and director of public relations for the MARC USA office in Indianapolis, and served as an assistant professor of journalism for Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, in 1992-1993. He also was a member of the adjunct faculty at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis.

Snyder and his wife, Jamie, have three sons and a daughter. They reside in Indianapolis.

Guy Swenson

Guy Swenson has been president of Management and Technology Consultants since 1995. MTC is an Indiana-based provider of convergence business solutions utilizing sophisticated Internet, telephony and database technologies. He is a member of Kiwanis International and the National Association of Test Publishers.

Swenson has 10 years of sales, marketing and corporate management experience with NCR and Motorola. In addition, he worked in pastoral roles for nine years and served two years in management operations for his church. He has extensive experience in strategic, operational and business management planning.

He has been married for more than 25 years to his wife, Jennifer. They have four children and live in Avon, Indiana. He serves as treasurer of LifeNets.

Lilya Wagner

Lilya Wagner, Ed.D., CFRE, is associate director of the Public Service Division at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Wagner was elected to the LifeNets’ board in 2000.