The State Bar Association of North Dakota Winter 2013 Gavel Magazine | Page 13

In April 1997, Governor Ed Schafer recalled him to state active duty to coordinate public safety issues in Grand Forks, following the city’s evacuation during its historic flood. A few months later, Schafer named him State Flood Recovery Coordinator to assist Grand Forks and other communities through January 1998. Meanwhile, the State Health Officer resigned, and Governor Schafer appointed him to fill that position, which he held until the end of Schafer’s term in December 2000. In this position, he administered a variety of public health and licensing programs, and was an ex officio member of many state statutory boards. For three months beginning in December 2000, Sagsveen assisted the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to implement federal regulations relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and dealt with other legal issues related to bioterrorism. General Counsel For Neurology Group In April 2001, Sagsveen became associate executive director for the American Academy of Neurology in St. Paul, Minnesota, and served as general counsel for this association with 23,000-members worldwide. Sagsveen has maintained many military connections through an international human rights organization, Human Rights First. In 2008, that organization coordinated a group of retired generals and admirals to meet with presidential candidates, including Senators Obama, Clinton and Biden. In 2009, only several days after President Obama was inaugurated, he invited the retired generals and admirals, including Sagsveen, to be present in the Oval Office when he signed executive orders to close the Guantanamo detention facilities and to ensure lawful interrogations. Sagsveen continues to work with Human Rights First and the retired generals and admirals. Sagsveen has traveled to 18 countries for military, business and personal purposes. He was on a medical team that traveled to Iraq in 2004 to establish medical societies and provide continuing medical education to Iraqi physicians. Also, in 2000, he traveled with Dr. John Baird, from the North Dakota Department of Health, to Turkmenistan to establish a primary care training facility as part of a USAID program. After 10 years in Minnesota, Sagsveen

“

I thought being a lawyer would give me a lot of flexibility in a professional career.

”
Sagsveen confers with Willie Nunn, FEMA’s federal coordinating officer, at a Minot flood briefing on July 12, 2011.

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