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Board Members 2007-2008
Committees
Important work could not take place without the many committees and the hard working parents and other volunteers who take leadership roles within these committees. Please inquire about current and newly forming committees.
Board Member Bios
Mr. Eliasen is a long time resident of the Twin Cities and currently resides in St. Paul with his wife and 2 children. Earning a B.A. in Political Science in 1993, he went back to school in 1999 to earn an M.B.A. and spent the next 3 years employed as a management consultant working both domestically and internationally. Currently Mr. Eliasen holds a management position with Andersen Windows. His oldest child will be entering Kindergarten at the Twin Cities German Immersion School this year.
A professional educational administrator, Dr. Greener completed his undergraduate work in German at Wheaton College (IL), a Master's Degree in German and Russian at Syracuse University and his Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of Minnesota. Following twenty-five years as the Dean of Students and Principal at the upper school at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis, Dr. Greener eventually helped start a charter school in Eden Prairie in 2004. Currently he serves as a program planner and advisor in Ed.D. program in Eduational Administration in the Graduate School of Bethel University in St. Paul.
Mr. Pearson is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Petroleum Tank Release Compensation Board, which is administered by the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Mr. Pearson also serves on the Agricultural Chemical Response Compensation Board as the delegate of the Commissioner of Commerce. Mr. Pearson attended the Heinrich-Heine Universität zu Düsseldorf and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cites, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Minnesota in 1995. Mr. Pearson was selected in 1996 to participate in the Bundestag Internship Program, where he was paired with MdB Günther F. Nolting, Speaker of Security Policy, for the Freie Demokatische Partei (F.D.P.). Mr. Pearson is a native Minnesotan and currently lives with his wife Jana and their three children, ages 6, 4, and 2 in St. Paul. Currently, two of their three children are enrolled in the Twin Cities German Immersion School.
Dr. Thekla Rura-Polley holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her doctoral thesis compared changes in management strategies in German and American Catholic Children’s Institutions from 1895 to 1970. From 1996 to 2002 she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Lecturer and Senior Lecturer (tenured) at the University of Technology in Sydney Australia where she researched organizational and population level learning in a variety of industries. She currently takes care of her two young children and works as Adjunct Faculty at the University of St Thomas and teaches cultural classes at the Germanic-American Institute. She has volunteered in many non-profit organizations and currently serves on the St Paul All-City ECFE Advisory Board.
Mr. Sampson is an attorney specializing in Trusts & Estates law at Lindquist & Vennum P.L.L.P. He received his B.A. in German from Carleton College and his J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law. Before attending law school, Mr. Sampson spent two years living in Munich, Germany, first as a student at the University, then as an assistant at a small publishing company. While living in Munich, he met his wife, Cornelia, who is a German citizen. Mr. Sampson and his wife have two daughters, Ingrid and Maya, and they currently reside in Vadnais Heights.
Dr. Dorneich is a Senior Scientist at Honeywell Laboratories in the Human Centered Systems Group, where he works on aviation and NASA-related projects. He graduated in 1999 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering in the Human Factors Program, where his thesis work centered on the design of collaborative learning communities, computer-aided tutoring, and decision-support systems. Previously, Michael earned his M.S. and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering, with an International Minor in Germanic Studies. In high school, he spent a summer in the Orient as part of the People-to-People High School Student Ambassador Program. Dr. Dorneich has lived and worked in Germany and Norway, and currently lives in St. Paul, MN with his wife Caroline and daughter Marlene, who attends the Twin Cities German Immersion School .
Dr. Knep graduated from veterinary school in Berlin, Germany in 1990. He moved to Minnesota with his wife Heidi in 1991.
He received his Doctor of Veterinary
Medicine degree in MN in 1993 and worked for almost 12 years at Long
Lake Veterinary Clinic in Long Lake, MN. In 1995 he switched to St. Francis
Animal Hospital in Roseville where he still tries convince dogs, cats, rabbits
and hamsters that they should NOT
bite him. He and Heidi live with their above average children, Maren (12), Evan
(9) and David(7, in first grade at
TCGIS) in the Longfellow neighborhood in Minneapolis.
Dr. Knep is also an avid soccer player
 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.
 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.
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