Dr. Andrew Oxenham Board Chair	Dr. Mary Zellmer-Bruhn Vice Chair
Debra Haessly Treasurer	Kim Kompel Secretay, Parent Liason and Facilities Committee Chair
Kenneth Greener	Susanne Grimm Teacher Representative
Dr. Jürgen Konczak Grants Committee Chair	Gretchen Nesset
Holly Wiste Technology Committee Chair	Rebecca Hauth-Schmid Steering Committee Chair

I have been a teacher at the Twin Cities German Immersion School since 2006. I was born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany. My unique background allows me to have a multifaceted perspective. I spent most of my professional life in various start-up type environments ranging from teaching to business. As a result, I had to reinvent myself numerous times. As a member of the Board, I would be able to utilize my diverse teaching experiences (in immersion and non-immersion settings) to help shape the direction of the school and represent the teachers’ point of view. I want to grow my body of knowledge about the inner workings of the school, increase my understanding of the curriculum implemented at various grade levels and participate in the decision making process. I enjoy being a teacher at the Twin Cities German Immersion School because it is a dynamic professional environment which encourages active involvement by both staff and community as an essential driving force. If there is one theme that has motivated me throughout my life, it is education. I honestly believe that there is no greater cause than the education of children! I am passionate about everything I do. Over the last three years I have discovered that I am in good company in this respect. I have never seen people more committed to the education of children than the parents and teachers at TCGIS. What an interesting, talented, hardworking pool of people! It would be an honor to be invested in a community which took the risk to create something new and unique in the educational system of Minnesota.

I grew up on a Minnesota dairy farm close to the Twin Cities. I retired from a position as an administrative director at the University of Minnesota in September 2008 to work part-time in education and on other interesting and creative activities. The opportunity to serve as the Treasurer of the TCGIS is one of them. As an outside board member, I bring over 25 years of experience in administration in education, and as Treasurer experience in budgeting, grants, contracts, and reporting. I enjoy being part of a team that hits the issues directly, with inclusion of as many points of view as possible, that can work together without letting personal egos interfere, and enjoy each other during their efforts. I find this at TCGIS and believe it is because of the enthusiasm, commitment, and united purpose of the parents at the school -- which is key to a successful charter school. I realize the state fiscal situation is difficult right now, but believe that attention to priorities, strong accounting, creative and sustained fundraising, and connections with our community will assure a long future and quality education at TCGIS. I have traveled to Germany several times, and was thrilled to visit the place where my great grandparents lived and were married, which greatly resembled where they settled to farm here in Minnesota, so the school is of special interest to me. I have three grown children and two grandchildren and live in the Longfellow neighborhood in Minneapolis.

Hi! My name is Rebecca Hauth-Schmid, and my twins, Eamon and Eleanor, are in kindergarten here at TCGIS. I am interested in serving as a board member because my life has been dedicated to education. I have been a high school English teacher for 17 years. I see teaching as more of a vocation than a career, and serving on the board of TCGIS would be an extension of my passion for education.

My experience encompasses both private and publics schools. I began my teaching career at St. John's Preparatory School and Cretin-Derham Hall and have been at Mounds View High School for the past 12 years. My primary focus has been teaching both Advanced Placement (AP) Literature and AP Language and Composition. Because of the success of the AP program, I was invited by the College Board to serve as a consultant, training other teachers around the upper Midwest. My experience also includes managing the demands of school budgets, both as department head and a member of the budget committee, understanding the complexities of special education requirements, offering gifted and talented/high potential enhancements, and implementing disciplinary procedures. My community service includes serving on the curriculum committee for TCGIS.

TCGIS is still in the critical stages of development with many complex decisions ahead of it, and I believe my background would be an asset at this time. In addition, my children, my husband, and I have felt so welcomed into this unique community that I would like to give something back to TCGIS in a way that best uses my experience and meets the school's needs. I have always approached my work with the student's best interests in mind, and I believe my perspective would enhance the work of the board. I truly look forward to serving on the Board with such a dedicated group of volunteers and working to realize the promising future of TCGIS.

Being a part of a bicultural family, I am committed to the mission of TCGIS and believe the school and its community are truly special. My husband is German and my family lived in Germany for 4 years before moving to St. Paul in 2008. Before becoming a full time mom, my profession was in city planning. I worked for several local governments, mostly in Colorado. My professional project management experience includes working with interdisciplinary technical teams, the community, and elected officials using communication, problem solving, negotiation, and facilitation skills. This experience has translated well to the work I do as a TCGIS Board Director. I received a BA in Law and Society at UC Santa Barbara and received a MS in Community and Regional Planning at UT Austin. While in Germany I served on the board of the kindergarten my children attended and was involved with fundraising, budgeting, teacher hiring, program planning, volunteer recruitment, special event planning, and the development of admission policies. My two sons are currently attending and thriving at TCGIS.

I am a Professor of Biomechanics and Movement Neuroscience at University of Minnesota. I have been a scholar and teacher for many years. Although public schools and public universities may not seem to have much in common on the first sight, they face, in reality, many of the same problems. In this respect, I feel I could bring to the board a keen understanding of the inner workings of educational institutions and their challenges. I am task-oriented and pragmatic. I am very committed to providing our children with a well-rounded curriculum that educates them as citizen of one world and encourages them to become to become critical thinkers and life-long learners. I am interested in serving as a board director of Twin Cities German Immersion School in order to shape the future of this school. I can contribute to the TCGIS board by offering my knowledge about the education system, my experience in organizing and directing efficient committees that need to accomplish a certain task, and by providing my experience in grant-writing.

I am passionate about education and have enjoyed being able to advocate for students, teachers and immersion education over the past year and a half on the TCGIS board. Specifically, I would like to stay on the board to help the school find a permanent home, ensure the library continues to receive the funding and support it needs, protect music, art and PE from budget cuts, consult on the adoption of an English language curriculum and continue to work with a group of dedicated staff, parents and board members to help keep this school a vibrant, friendly, engaging setting that will continue to attract, excite and challenge students like my own daughter for many years to come. Finally, I believe I can bring continuity to the board at a crucial time in the school’s development. My background in education is my strongest asset as a board member. I bring a teacher’s perspective to the meetings and the experience of living overseas and of working with diverse cultures. During the past 15 years, I have taught many different grade levels (2nd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th) in many different places (Horváth Mihály Gimnázium, Szentes, Hungary; Twin Lakes Elementary, Navajo Nation, NM; JFK Jr. High, Gallup, NM; EXPO Middle School, St Paul, MN; and, currently, Mounds View High School, Arden Hills, MN). I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Hungary and a Peace Corps Fellow in New Mexico. In all of these situations, as well as being a public school teacher and a charter school board member, and the American spouse of a German citizen, I have had the opportunity to bridge two worlds. This has taught me to be flexible and think outside of the box when seeking solutions. During the past year-and-a-half, I’ve fallen head-over-heels in love with both the vision and reality of this school and I want to help this academic adventure thrive and grow.

I am a professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Minnesota, where I leadsthe Auditory Perception and Cognition Research lab. I lived for two years in Germany but spent (and misspent) most of my youth in England. After obtaining my PhD from the University of Cambridge, England, I worked for two years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Netherlands before moving to Boston, where I led a research group and taught graduate courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for seven years. I have lived in the Twin Cities with my wife, Sylvia, and three children since 2006. All three children now attend the Twin Cities German Immersion School.

As an involved parent of two children in TCGIS since 2006, I know the people and functioning of this school quite well. I understand the importance of communicating with the parent community, especially within our relatively small district. Parents want to be informed and involved, and this involvement will only serve to strengthen our united resolve to provide our children with the best education possible. I understand the importance of keeping the lines of communication between the Board and families open—and well-travelled. I also understand and embrace the complexities of an immersion language public charter school, and hope to contribute to the flourishing and strengthening of the program at TCGIS. Many unknown variables exist in our mission, and creative and unconventional solutions need to be found to enhance the infrastructure of our school. I am already highly involved in many organizations, functions, and committees in our school, including membership on the Library Committee, Grants Committee, Facilities Committee, New Teacher Search Committee, and the Recruitment and Retention Committee. I believe serving on the Board will unify the work I am currently doing on other committees and will assist in streamlining the functions of these groups. My pragmatic approach to problem-solving has served me well, and I have had the pleasure of coordinating and volunteering in the school library, alongside other committed parents and grandparents! It is this community—the teachers, staff, and students—that make this a truly unique school and I would like the opportunity to serve them in a Board Member capacity.

I am a professor at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. I obtained my PhD in Organizational Behavior from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and joined the University of Minnesota in 1999. I teach courses on the management of teams, organizational behavior, general management, and cross-cultural organizational behavior. In addition I have developed and taught courses on cross-cultural organizational behavior in Berlin, Germany, and in Vienna, Austria. My research interests surround teamwork, including cross-cultural and global teamwork, the effects of diversity in teams, the formation and effectiveness of entrepreneurial teams, and knowledge management and learning in teams and boards of directors. My husband, Peter, and I live in Minneapolis with our two children (one currently attends the Twin Cities German Immersion School and the other will join the school in a year).