LRH Foundation Opens Applications for 2026 Tommerdahl Mental Health Scholarship

Jordan Tommerdahl was 26 years old and had made up his mind. Despite his own struggles with mental illness, he wanted to pursue a career in mental health so he could help others through the same kind of suffering more effectively. He died by suicide on November 27, 2019, before he got the chance. The scholarship his family and community built in his memory opened its 2026 application window this week, and the need it was designed to address has only grown more urgent since.

The Lake Region Healthcare Foundation is accepting applications for the $2,500 Jordan Tommerdahl Memorial Scholarship through July 15, with the award to be announced in August. The scholarship is open to students who have lived or worked in the LRH service area and are pursuing a master's or doctoral degree in psychology, social work, mental health counseling, marriage and family therapy, psychiatric nursing, psychiatric nurse practitioner training, or psychiatry. Applications are submitted through lrhc.org/jordan; the Foundation's Kate Bjorge can answer questions at 218-736-8495.

The vacancy the scholarship targets has not closed. A Minnesota Department of Health workforce analysis found that 1 in 4 mental health and substance abuse counseling positions across the state is currently open and unfilled, a proportion that hits harder in rural counties like Otter Tail. LRH, a community-owned nonprofit health system, employs more than 1,100 staff and more than 120 physicians and advanced practice providers across nine communities including Fergus Falls and Elbow Lake, and behavioral health remains among the most difficult specialties to recruit.

Jordan's parents, Kay and Stuart Tommerdahl of Fergus Falls, were among those who helped build the fund. Donations from friends and family, together with a portion of the 2020 LRH Foundation Gala proceeds, established the endowment in 2021. The first award went to Heidi Peterson in 2024.

LRH describes the scholarship's purpose plainly: to help "fill the resource gap in mental healthcare" in rural west-central Minnesota by backing students with local roots who may return to practice in the same communities. That was the career Jordan Tommerdahl never had the chance to begin.