Staff / Faculty

Professor Haroun Er Rashid, Bangladesh program director, is Director of the School of Environmental Science and Management at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB). For several years he has had major responsibility for IUB's "Live-in-Field Experience", which sends urban-based students into the rural villages and urban settlements to impress upon them the socio-economic realities faced by the majority of Bangladeshis. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and author of the definitive geographical text on Bangladesh, Rashid has graduate degrees in geography and development economics and is the founder of a private voluntary national development organization,Bangladesh POUSH, whose primary objective is to enable small-holder and landless families to generate more income for themselves from environmentally sound projects and programs.

Verne A. ("Van") Dusenbery, co-director of the Bangladesh 2009 J-term program, "Development & Community in Bangladesh," is a Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Global Studies Program in the College of Liberal Arts at Hamline University. While serving on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of HECUA, he helped develop this program in Bangladesh as HECUA's first Asia offering. In 2000, he and Professor Haroun Er Rashid piloted the course, which has gone on to win the IIE Heiskell Award for Best Practices in International Education. His interests include South Asian cultures, development models, and transnationalism.

Martha Moscoso Carvallo, program director for all Ecuador programs, is a sociologist and historian, with an advanced degree in Sociology of Development from the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, and her Master degree in Andean History from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO), Quito. Beyond leading the Ecuador program site for HECUA, she is a professor on the Human Sciences faculty at Quito's Catholic University and has extensive research in women's and gender and in indigenous communities' history. Martha has participated in numerous academic events and has published numerous articles in history in Ecuadorian and Latin American books and magazines. Recently she has done a research on education in Ecuador, sponsored by the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and the International Bureau of Education - UNESCO (IBE). This research was conducted within the framework of an international program for the construction of the political dialogue in the field of the education. Martha is member of the Institute of Ecuadorian Studies (IEE), a non profit organization that works in the area of local development and citizen formation. She participates actively in a citizen Assembly whose objective is the formation and the active participation of the local population looking for the change of the society. She is also member of the Atelier of Historical Studies (TEHIS).

Nigel Glenny, the program director for “Northern Ireland: Democracy and Social Change” program, is a graduate of Stranmillis University College (Queens University Belfast) with a First Class Honours degree in Education (Religious Studies, History). He began his career as a history teacher, then moved into local government as an education officer, where he designed and taught a wide range of experiential learning programs for schools, colleges, youth and community groups. Much of this work used elements of Irish cultural traditions to foster cross-community contact between Protestant and Catholic groups from divided communities within Northern Ireland. Nigel most recently worked several years at a leading non-governmental organization engaged in peace and capacity-building initiatives throughout the island of Ireland. At that organization, he developed an international Citizenship Action Project that reached across communities in Northern Ireland, across the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and across the Atlantic to the United States. He created materials for learning about peace and reconciliation, led programs in how to facilitate student engagement, and trained teachers and youth workers throughout Ireland and the United States.

Timothy Szlachetko, program director, Scandinavian site of activity, holds advanced degrees in political science from the University of Melbourne in Australia where he specialised in European integration theory, European Union social policy and Scandinavian welfare state policy. His latest research has involved conducting a comparative analysis of Australian and Scandinavian education and training systems, with a focus on the transition from school to further education and working life. Timothy has taught undergraduate courses in European Union and Western European politics at the University of Melbourne and has been Guest Researcher at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, the Danish Institute of Social Research in Copenhagen and the University of Oslo. Timothy has also held a number of senior social policy positions with Government in Australia, most recently as senior adviser to the Victorian Premier (State of Victoria, Australia) on early childhood and education and training policy.

Jeffrey Lugowe, program teaching assistant for the Scandinavian semester programs, just wrapped up a year as a Fulbright student grantee in Oslo, where he conducted interviews as part of a study Norway's fast-growing Polish community. Jeff's interest in migration and the persistent gaps between Europe's East and West grew out of coursework at Brown University, where he graduated with a B.A. in Slavic Studies, and three semesters he spent studying abroad at Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland) and Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic). Jeff has taught an unusual set of languages - Polish, German, Czech and English - in settings as diverse as rural Germany, Oslo, and Providence, Rhode Island. His work experience also includes interning with an NGO in Warsaw advocating for LGBT Poles, live interpreting and translating a book. Jeff is excited to be extending his tour of duty in Oslo and to help his SUST and DSE students constructively engage the diversifying Norwegian capital city.

Phillip Sandro (tel: 651-287-3314 / Email), Metro Urban Studies Term program director, has taught experiential urban studies programs for over 15 years. He also provides faculty development workshops through HECUA. Sandro has an impressive record of involvement in urban public policy including a policy making position for the City of Chicago under reform mayor Harold Washington. He has also served on numerous boards of community development corporations and has been active in educational reform issues. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research with emphasis on urban and regional economics, political economy and economic history. Besides teaching, Sandro is currently doing research in conjunction with the Carnegie Foundation for Teaching and Learning’s “Political Engagement Program.”

Tiffany Enriquez (tel: 651-287-3318 / Email), MUST teaching assistant, joined HECUA in July, 2006, and is an alum of HECUA's City Arts program. Tiffany graduated from the University of MN, Twin Cities, with a major in Art and Social Justice. For three years prior to working with HECUA Tiffany taught art and coordinated community-based arts education at a public Title 1 elementary school in Phoenix, AZ. At HECUA Tiffany assists with various aspects of the MUST program, including curriculum development, community connections, day-to-day class organization, and general student support.

William Reichard (tel: 651-287-3304 / Email), City Arts and Writing for Social Change program director, holds an MA in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in Contemporary American Poetry from the University of Minnesota. A long time member of the Twin Cities arts community, Reichard has worked with artists from a wide variety of disciplines creating collaborative projects that push the boundaries of individual genres. He is the author of three collections of poetry: An Alchemy in the Bones (1999), To Be Quietly Spoken (2001), and How To (2004), and the editor of The Evening Crowd at Kirmser’s: A Gay Life in the 1940’s (2001).

Molly Van Avery (tel: 651-287-3302 / Email), City Arts program teaching assistant, came to HECUA in December 2007 and identifies as a performance artist, emerging filmmaker, and underground poet who is most interested in art that asks unanswerable questions. She is co-founder of a new performance company, Bright Eye Productions whose mission is to bring together the power of performance and political imagination to inspire audience members to become active leaders in their communities. Molly is also the Program Administrator for Naked Stages, a program that offers emerging performance artists the opportunity to develop their unique perspective. Naked Stages is funded by the Jerome Foundation and administered through Intermedia Arts. As an artist, Molly has performed original work in venues throughout the Twin Cities including the Cedar Cultural Center, the Bedlam Theatre, the Flaming Film Festival, and the Walker Art Center. Molly received her B.A. in Social Ecology from Goddard college where she was able to design her own studies focusing on community organizing and the arts.

Julia Frost Nerbonne (tel: 651-287-3308 / Email), Environmental Sustainability program director, (B.A. Vassar College; M.S., and Ph.D. in Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) Julia has taught numerous courses in both natural and social science focusing on aquatic ecology, conflict management of natural resources, and environmental ethics. She has extensive experience in community education, field research, and community organizing. When she is not at HECUA she is conducting research on the role of scientific knowledge on citizen empowerment, teaching in the department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota, and serving on the board of directors of the Dispute Resolution Center in St. Paul.

Eleonore Wesserle (Email) Environmental Sustainability program teaching assistant and research coordinator, graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.S. in Conservation Biology in 2003.  After graduation she spent several years working in lab and field ecological studies. In late 2004, her career turned towards employing her people skills as an Admissions Counselor for the College of Natural Resources at the U of M. In 2006, after spending a summer with the Minnesota Conservation Corps, Eleonore joined the ES program, where she earned graduate credit through the Natural Resource and Environmental Education program at Hamline. In 2007 Eleonore will be taking a lead role in creating the field methods curriculum.

Lena Jones (M.A., Political Science; Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Political Science, University of Minnesota) directs HECUA’s summer Civil Rights Movement: History and Consequences program and is a full-time political science faculty member at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, where she has been teaching since 2002. Lena is active in several civic engagement initiatives and is part of a core team that received a 2006 Minnesota Campus Compact/Minnesota Office of Higher Education grant to create a Center for Civic Engagement at MCTC. In 2004, Lena received a fellowship from the University of Minnesota's Human Rights Center to support a residency with the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) where she participated in IDASA's efforts to institute civic engagement projects in the Gauteng province. While in South Africa, she also took part in grassroots democracy-building efforts aimed at gaining access to water and fighting xenophobia and discrimination. In addition to her interest in and experience teaching about civil rights and social change in the US context, Lena has also participated in research projects exploring racism, immigration, and social movements in Western Europe. Lena's PhD thesis, which she expects to complete in 2009, focuses on immigration, nation-building and security in post-apartheid South Africa.

Jenny Keyser (tel: 651-287-3315 / Email), executive director, brings 28 years of teaching, program development, and nonprofit leadership to HECUA. With a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.A. in English from Hanover College, she began her career by teaching literature at colleges in Louisiana and Minnesota, and subsequently left teaching to direct programs and provided leadership to educational and community-based nonprofit organizations, including the Minnesota Literacy Council, Minnesota Humanities Commission, and the Children, Youth & Family Consortium.

Patrick Mulvihill (tel: 651-287-3306 / Email), director of operations, brings with him 10 years of experience in nonprofit management and international programming. Prior to HECUA, he worked with Global Volunteers, serving first as the organization’s director of European programs and subsequently as the chief operating officer. Earlier in his career, he taught English and American studies for the Central European Teaching Program in Nyìregyhàza, Hungary. He also co-founded a program for overseas graduate internships at the University of Minnesota. Pat holds a B.A. in history from St. Olaf College and an M.A. in international economic development from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute.

Sarah Pradt (tel: 651-287-3307 / Email), director of programs, formerly on the faculties of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and Macalester College, has eleven years of experience in undergraduate teaching, academic administration, grant-writing, graduate advising, and cross-cultural and interdisciplinary program development. While a faculty member at Macalester College from 1998 to 2005, Sarah created and led an Asian Studies program, expanded the Japanese language program, worked with Macalester and the University of Minnesota to coordinate offerings in Chinese language, and helped to write and later administered a $1.77 million foundation grant to support the study of China. Sarah holds a Ph.D. in East Asian Literature, M.A. in East Asian Studies, and B.A. in English from Cornell University, and was a Fulbright researcher at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto in 2002-03.

Stephanie Clausen (tel: 651-287-3301 / Email), office manager, joined HECUA in 2000 and brings over ten years of experience in database and office management. At HECUA, Stephanie coordinates the office systems, manages the database, and is the go-to person for equipment and other office trouble-shooting. Previously, Stephanie had worked for the Radisson Hotels in Saint Paul, as well as Global Language Institute, a non-profit that provides intensive English language training to non-native speakers. Stephanie holds a degree from St. Norbert College (De Pere, WI) in International Business and French Language Area Studies.

Kirsten Moffett (tel: 651-287-3303 / Email), office and program assistant, joins HECUA after finishing a year of service with AmeriCorps VISTA as a Service-Learning Project Coordinator at Creighton University and Clarkson College in Omaha, NE. She graduated from Concordia College, Moorhead, where she majored in Communication Studies with an emphasis in Advertising & Public Relations and a minor in Studio Art. Kirsten also studied at Oxford University, toured other European countries, and taught English in Japan for a year. She is currently working towards her Masters of Public and Nonprofit Administration at Metropolitan State University. As HECUA’s office assistant Kirsten provides administrative and program support to staff.

Vernon Sowell (tel: 651-287-3309 / Email), bookkeeper, joined HECUA in April of 2008 and brings with him a vast amount of nonprofit financial accounting experience, with such local organizations as Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, Project For Pride In Living, African Health Action Corporation, Account Ability Minnesota and Northern Voices. He has a genuine love for “crunching the numbers” and is drawn to nonprofit organizations by the invaluable services that they provide to the diverse communities that they serve. He graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL with a BBA in Accounting and an MBA in Finance.

Emily Seru (tel: 651-287-3313 / Email), is the Manager of Internships and Community Partnerships for HECUA. Her work experience includes social justice grant making and capacity building with the Headwaters Foundation for Justice as well as managing an internship program at the independent literary publisher Milkweed Editions. Since joining HECUA in 2004, Emily has managed the social justice based internships for domestic programs (Metro Urban Studies Term, City Arts, Environmental Sustainability, and Writing for Social Change), the Partners Internship Program, and the Graduate Fellowship on Philanthropy & Human Rights. She also provides leadership for HECUA’s broader community partnership and anti-racism work. Emily holds a BA in English from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon and is a member of the National Society for Experiential Education, the Minnesota Association For Experiential Learning, and is on the board of the Saint Paul District 7 Planning Council in her frogtown neighborhood.

Michael Berhane (tel: 651-287- 3316 / Email) joined the HECUA staff as the Partners Internship Program Assistant in January of 2008 and considers HECUA a "home away from home." He has participated in the City Arts program, the MUST program, and has served on the HECUA scholarship committee for the past two years. During his time as a student with HECUA Michael interned at KFAI radio station in Minneapolis and with the local Eritrea Community Center. Michael comes to HECUA with extensive background in NGO program and governmental administration in his home country of Eritrea where he is well known as an accomplished author, entertainer, public speaker, and community leader. There he also campaigns against female circumcision, and here in the Twin Cities Michael is active in local Eritrean youth associations and the Eritrean-American Soccer Federation in North America. Michael graduated from the University of St. Thomas with a degree in Justice and Peace Studies and is currently pursuing his Masters of Public Affairs at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota.

Mary Delorié (tel: 651-287-3310 / Email), marketing and recruitment manager, joined the HECUA team in 2004 with extensive experience in promoting, supporting, and managing international volunteerism. Mary left Cross-Cultural Solutions, based in New Rochelle, NY, as the Director of Program Management. During her tenure with the organization she was a lead recruiter, led the start-up of new departments, oversaw alumni development projects, and advised marketing efforts. Mary has a BA in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York. She studied abroad during her junior year with the International Honors Program (IHP) which took her to England, India, the Philippines, New Zealand, and Mexico doing comparative study of environmental and social justice issues. At HECUA, she carries out overall management and coordination of recruitment, student services, and marketing activities. She organizes the Scholarship Committee, Application Review Committee, and new Marketing Advisory Committee. She also trains and supports the Recruitment and Student Services Associates.

Amanda Drymiller (tel: 651-287-3317 / Email), recruitment associate, joined HECUA in August of 2007. Amanda works with prospective students on nine of HECUA's member campuses. She received degrees in Political Science and International Studies, as well as a minor in Justice and Peace Studies from the University of St. Thomas. A Metro Urban Studies Term (MUST) alumna, Amanda also studied abroad in Europe in both high school and college. Prior to her position with HECUA, Amanda gave a year of full-time volunteer service to the Catholic Charities' Office for Social Justice in St. Paul where she assisted with the coordination of the AFFIRM Coalition (Alliance for Fair Federal Immigration Reform of Minnesota).

Laurie Moberg (tel: 651-287-3311 / Email), recruitment associate, comes to HECUA motivated by her own quality experiences with off-campus learning.  A 2005 graduate of St. Olaf College, Laurie interned with Hands On Minnesota helping coordinate volunteers for Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.  The following year, Laurie spent a semester studying in Japan, China, Thailand, and Vietnam.  After graduating with a degree in English and Sociology/Anthropology, Laurie returned to Thailand to teach fundamental English at Chiang Mai University.  Laurie transitioned back to Minnesota by working with a locally owned coffeeshop in Northfield.  Joining HECUA in August 2007, Laurie focuses on communicating the incomparable value of HECUA’s experiential learning programs to prospective students, parents, and consortium members.

Phillip Romine (tel: 651-287-3312 / Email), student services associate joined the administrative team in mid-August 2007. Inspired by his exchange experience as a high school student in northern Germany, Phil’s passion for international, hands-on education led him to participate in HECUA’s Northern Ireland program in Spring 2006. As his alma mater, St. Olaf College (class of 2007) was also Phil’s main employer during the summers. Undergraduate research in the German Department, data entry for St. Olaf TRiO/GEAR UP, and sundry physical labor jobs rounded out his collegiate experience. Phil looks forward to meeting and serving HECUA students, and his door is always open.