Program Staff and Faculty Coordinators

E-mail: cis@umn.edu
Phone: 612-625-1855
Fax: 612-624-5891

Mailing Address:
University of Minnesota
College in the Schools
107D Armory
15 Church Street S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0216

Program Staff
Faculty Coordinators
Advisory Board Members 2006-2007

Program Staff:

Susan Henderson, Ph.D., Director. Program Development and Stakeholder Relations, Staff Liaison for English Language Arts. Phone: 612-625-6361; E-mail: hende002@umn.edu

Jan M. Erickson, Associate Director. Student Issues, New Teacher Applications and Orientation, Staff Liaison for World and Classical Languages. Phone: 612-624-9898; E-mail: j-eric1@umn.edu

Julie Williams, Communication, Research, and Evaluation Director. Staff Liaison for Math, Sciences, and Social Sciences.  Phone: 612-626-8179; E-mail: juliew@umn.edu

Cynthia Tidball, Program Associate. Course Management, Student Registration, Grades, Course Evaluation, Events Coordination. Phone: 612-626-0214; E-mail:  tidba002@umn.edu

Mary Lenhardt, School Liaison, Special Projects.  E-mail: lenha004@umn.edu

Faculty Coordinators:

Following are the academic department faculty who are responsible for overseeing their respective CIS courses and for providing discipline-specific professional development for each teacher cohort.

Agricultural Education

Vernon Cardwell, Agronomy, is a Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, where he has taught for the past 39 years. He earned his M.S. degree in 1961 from Colorado State University, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, and PhD from Iowa State University in 1967.  He was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers in 1981, upon receipt of the University’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education.  Vern also served as the President of the American Society of Agronomy from 1999-2000 and the Crop Science Society of America from 1993-1994.  He is a "Fellow" of the ASA, CSSA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He is a 2006 winner of the University of Minnesota Community Service Award.

Tony Seykora, Animal Science, received his PhD in Animal Science from North Carolina State University in 1982. Among Dr. Seykora’s many awards are Minnesota FFA Hall of Fame Inductee, Honorary American FFA Degree, and University of Minnesota Alumni Association Outstanding Faculty Volunteer Award. He has published research in the field of dairy cattle genetics and works with statewide 4-H dairy projects. Courses that he currently teaches include Introductory Animal Science, Animal and Society, and Animal Breeding.

English Language Arts Courses

Barbara Hodne, Basic Writing, is a Teaching Specialist in the General College and has her Ph.D. in English from the University of Minnesota. In California, Hodne taught courses in sociolinguistics for future public school teachers. She now teaches literature and writing classes both in the Commanding English program for non-native speakers of English, and in the Humanities program primarily for native speakers.

Donald Ross, Co-Coordinator Composition, Professor, Department of English. Ross’s academic specialties include literature of the American Renaissance, theory of the novel, travel writing, and the role of computers in writing instruction. He directs the English Department’s Composition Program and teaches composition and literature. Ross received the College of Continuing Education Teaching Award.

Muriel Thompson, Co-Coordinator Composition, helped establish the Minnesota Writing Project at the University of Minnesota and has served as its co-director since 1990. Teaching language arts at Burnsville Senior High School for more than 30 years, she has served as area leader and been actively involved with the district’s curriculum work and staff development programs. In addition, she is an adjunct instructor at Hamline University and works with the Best Practice Network in writing, a group of writing teachers from across the state who encourage good instructional practice in writing.

Toni McNaron, Literature, is a Professor Emerita in the University of Minnesota's English Department. Her research and teaching focus on Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, Milton, feminist criticism, feminist pedagogy, and lesbian poetry. Dr. McNaron has overseen the University of Minnesota Bush Faculty Development Program for Excellence and Diversity in Teaching since its inception in 1991 and recently created an Internet site devoted to the writings of women of color. She is the recipient of several teaching awards, including the Morse-Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award and the College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Teacher Award.

Social Sciences Courses

George Green, American History, is an Associate Professor of American history and the Associate Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Minnesota. He teaches mainly in the area of American economic and business history and historiography. Professor Green won the Morse-Alumni Award for Contributions to Undergraduate Education in 1986 and is a member of the University's Academy of Distinguished Teachers. The author of many publications, his current research focuses on the political economy of twentieth century America, particularly the explanations of the depression of the 1930s. He also has produced a television series and course on American business history.

Donald Liu, Applied Economics, is a professor and Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Applied Economics.  He received his B.S. degree in animal science from the University of Chinese Culture, Taipei in 1975, his M.S. degree in agricultural economics from California State University, Fresno in 1980, and his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Minnesota in 1985.  Before returning to Minnesota as a faculty member in 1995, he worked at Cornell University between 1985 and 1990 and at the Iowa State University between 1990 and 1995.  Professor Liu was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers in 2006, upon receipt of the University of Minnesota Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education.  He also received in 2006 the American Agricultural Economics Association Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award (for More Than Ten Years’ Experience).  In 2007 he is a regional winner of the United States Department of Agriculture National Awards Program for Excellence in College and University Teaching in the Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Timothy Johnson, Political Science, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science.  He received his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, in 1998. Johnson is particularly interested in the study of American judicial politics. He teaches classes on constitutional law, civil liberties, criminal rights, judicial process, and American politics.

World and Classical Languages Courses

Zhen Zou, Chinese, is an Associate Education Specialist in the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures. A native speaker of Chinese, Zou is currently developing Chinese language and literature courses as well as teaching at the University. He has taught Chinese and English language and literature courses at universities in China and the United States.

Betsy Kerr, French, is a Professor in the Department of French and Italian.  She has published corpus-based studies of various aspects of informal spoken French, notably the pragmatic correlates of certain syntactic constructions and the functions of various discourse connectors. She also has studied the occurrence of similar features in oral narratives of learners of French. Kerr is co-author of the first-year college textbook, Deux Mondes: A Communicative Approach, now in its 4th edition. She teaches courses in French language and linguistics and in second language pedagogy.

Ginny Steinhagen, German, is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of German, Scandinavian, and Dutch and has her Ph.D. in German from the University of Minnesota. A former CIS German instructor who now teaches at the University of Minnesota, Steinhagen is particularly interested in multiple intelligences and strategies for teaching reading. She is president of the Minnesota Association of Teachers of German and workshop leader for the Chicago Goethe Institute.

Renana Schneller, Hebrew, is an Associate Education Specialist in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies. A native speaker of Hebrew, Schneller is currently developing curriculum as well as teaching at the University. She has taught Hebrew and Arabic language and literature in schools and universities in Israel, Germany, and the United States.

Fumiko Matsumoto, Japanese, is a Teaching Specialist in the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures. A native speaker of Japanese, Matsumoto is teaching  Beginning Japanese at the University of Minnesota. She has taught Japanese in schools in Japan.

Oliver Nicholson, Co-Coordinator Latin, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies. His interests lie in Late Antiquity, where “the history is unusually vivid and the ideas unusually influential.” He is currently at work on two books, a short thematic study of the persecution of the Early Christians, called An Anatomy of Persecution, and a full-scale study (the first in English) of the early Christian apologist Lactantius (c. 250- c. 325 A.D). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, the first single-volume reference book devoted entirely to the half-millenium from 250 to 750 A.D., is being prepared under his editorship. He teaches a wide range of Latin and ancient history courses and was, until recently, Director of the University's Center for Medieval Studies.

Stephen Smith, Co-Coordinator, Latin, is Lecturer in Latin in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies, where he serves as coordinator for beginning and intermediate Latin and Greek. He holds a B.S. in mathematics from Virginia Tech and an M.A. and Ph.D. in classics from the University of Virginia. His research interests include Latin literature of the Augustan period and Roman historiography. He serves as the current chair of the Committee for the Promotion of Latin in the Classical Association of the Middle West and South. He is also serving as the "Forum" editor of The Classical Journal.

Susan McMillen-Villar, Spanish, is an Education Specialist in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies. She completed her Ph.D. in Peninsular Hispanic Literature at the University of Minnesota in 1993 and is currently Director of Spanish and Portuguese Language Programs. She is co-editor of the textbook Hacia la literatura and was recipient of the 2003 College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Service Award.   

College in the Schools Advisory Board Members

Linda Albertson, CIS French Teacher, Eagan High School
Jim Anderson, Parent Volunteer, ISD 196
Ted Anderson, CIS German Teacher, White Bear Lake High School
Wendy Behrens, Gifted and Talented Education Specialist, Minnesota Department of Education
Gaelle Berg, World Language Curriculum Specialist, Minneapolis Public Schools
Michael Bowlus, ESL Program Coordinator, St. Paul Public Schools
John Christiansen, Superintendent, Intermediate District 917
Gregory Clausen, Principal, Rosemount High School
George Green, CIS Faculty Coordinator, History Department, University of Minnesota 
Norm Hande, Principal, Blaine High School
Betsy Kerr, CIS Faculty Coordinator, French Department, University of Minnesota
Karen Kirschner, School Board Member, Mora Public Schools
Mary Lenhardt, CIS Political Science Teacher, Burnsville High School
Linda Madsen, Director of Teaching and Learning, Forest Lake Area Schools
Joyce Malwitz, CIS English Teacher, Anoka High School
Naomi Marietta, Counselor, Hastings High School
Steve Massey, Principal, Forest Lake High School
Connie Nicholson, Principal, Roseville Area High School
Larry Peterson, Superintendent, Eden Valley-Watkins School District
Elona Street-Stewart, Chair, St. Paul Board of Education
Arlene Taraoka, Associate Dean, CLA, University of Minnesota
Judi Tomczik, High Potential Coordinator, Shakopee High School

Ex Officio Members:
Mary Nichols, Dean, College of Continuing Education, University of Minnesota
Bill Van Essendelft, Director, Degree and Credit Programs, University of Minnesota