K-12 Education

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Sally Baas

Director, Southeast Asian Teacher Licensure program; Director, Hmong Culture and Language program; Director, English as a Special Language; Professor, Special Education, Concordia University, St. Paul

Phone: 
Lindsey Brown, 651-641-8722
Email: 
brown@csp.edu

Baas' areas of expertise include urban teacher education, school psychology and special education. She collaborates with psychologists to provide support to communities affected by trauma, such as school shootings. Her current projects include how to address mental health issues among immigrants and refugees; ethnic identity issues and leadership in the Hmong community; research of the efficacy of bilingual teaching and writing a Hmong component to the Cultural Detective instrument.

Phyl Burger

Instructor, College of Education, Concordia University, St. Paul

Phone: 
Lindsey Brown, 651-641-8722
Email: 
brown@csp.edu

An author/contributor for a global Christian leadership e-magazine, Burger is an award-winning educator cited for her development of successful online learning programs. She has written and lectured extensively on bullying and cyber bullying, and has vast experience in curriculum development, course design, and design of forward-thinking plans. Burger also is a certified Leadership and Talent Management Coach.

Linda Distad

Professor of Education, St. Catherine University

Phone: 
Linda Distad, 651-690-6798
Email: 
lsdistad@stkate.edu

Distad is a leader in the Twin Cities Teacher Collaborative, a collaborative partnership of seven higher education institutions to improve K-12 teacher effectiveness as a means to close the achievement gap. The partnership was among those funded by the Bush Foundation in 2009 with an historic $40 million, ten-year grant.

Dennis Donovan

National Organizer, Public Achievement, Center for Democracy and Citizenship, Augsburg College

Phone: 
Stephanie Weiss, 612-330-1476
Email: 
weisss@augsburg.edu

Donovan's expertise is in the theory and practice of democracy, civic engagement, citizen politics, culture change in K-12 settings, strategies for public engagement of K-12 and university students and international democracy building. He has spoken for and worked with school, university, professional and community groups, nationally and in Macedonia, Northern Ireland, Poland, South Africa and Turkey. Donovan has 24 years of experience in K-12 education, including 16 years as a school principal.

Joseph Erickson

Professor, Education, Augsburg College

Phone: 
Stephanie Weiss, 612-330-1476
Email: 
weisss@augsburg.edu

Erickson is an expert in the areas of testing and measurement, K-12 education, school policy and governance, service-learning and technology integration in schools. He recently served on the Minneapolis School Board.

Lori Maxfield

Associate Dean for Education programs, St. Catherine University

Phone: 
Lori Maxfield, 651-690-8898
Email: 
lrmaxfield@stkate.edu

Maxfield leads education programs that integrate practical courses with an emphasis on fieldwork, including the EcoStars environmental education collaboration with elementary schools. An expert in program assessment and evaluation, Maxfield has served as an evaluator for programs ranging from the graduate level to elementary enrichment and curriculum research programs.

Tony Murphy

Executive Director of the National Center for STEM Elementary Education, St. Catherine University

Phone: 
Tony Murphy, 651-690-8877
Email: 
apmurphy@stkate.edu

Formerly Associate Dean of Education, Murphy led the formation of the national center for STEM Elementary Education at St. Catherine University with a vision to positively affect the crisis in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) literacy in U.S. schools by focusing on elementary teacher preparation and professional development.

Susan O'Connor

Associate Professor, Special Education, Augsburg College

Phone: 
Stephanie Weiss, 612-330-1476
Email: 
weisss@augsburg.edu

O'Connor's focus is in the area of community inclusion of people with disabilities. Specific foci include issues around diversity, the disproportionate representation of students of color in special education and promotion of self-determination through the use of service learning and public achievement.

Jo Olsen

Assistant Professor and Dean of the School of Education, The College of St. Scholastica

Phone: 
Bob Ashenmacher, 218-723-6075
Email: 
rashenma@css.edu

Olsen is a nationally certified school psychologist and has worked for more than 20 years in Wisconsin and Minnesota public schools. Her expertise encompasses behavioral interventions, positive school climate, understanding mental illness in school-age children, emotional issues of students, and play therapy.

Sue Starks

Professor, College of Education, Concordia University, St. Paul

Phone: 
Lindsey Brown, 651-641-8722
Email: 
brown@csp.edu

Starks began her career in early childhood education as a pre-school teacher. Twenty-two years later, her passion for teaching and making a difference in the lives of children continues through her instruction of future teachers at Concordia. Her doctoral dissertation explored approaches to early childhood teacher training in teacher education programs. She is a Master Cadre member for the state of Minnesota, working with the Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children (TACSEI) initiative.

Chery Takkunen

Associate Professor of Education, The College of St. Scholastica

Phone: 
Bob Ashenmacher, 218-723-6075
Email: 
rashenma@css.edu

Takkunen has expertise in educational technology, which was the subject of her doctoral research, effective online teaching practices and inquiry based learning. She recently led a highly successful conference for K-12 educators on educational technology and has served on the Minnesota Digital Learning Committee and the Minnesota Academic Standards Committee for Mathematics.

Valerie Tanner

Assistant Professor of Education, The College of St. Scholastica

Phone: 
Bob Ashenmacher, 218-723-6075
Email: 
rashenma@css.edu

An enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Tanner has worked with Indian education programs throughout Minnesota at grade school through college levels. She has expertise in a variety of aspects of Native American education as well as culturally responsive teaching methods that embrace a diverse student body while building a sense of community among all learners.