Tell us about yourself!

I started with just a passion towards science.  Upon graduating, I taught in a Yupik Native American district on an island on the Bering Sea in Alaska for 3 years.  Upon returning to Minnesota, I found a small school district where I could really get to know students for more than one year and share my passions with a variety of content.  My EMT background allows me to do many hands on activities with anatomy students including EKG and how to do IV access.  I am a volunteer EMT for our community for the past 16 years and have been Ambulance Board Chair and am a current board member.  I’ve coached varsity volleyball and junior high basketball, National Honors advisor, and involved in many other ways in the area and school.

Who is your favorite NHL® player and why?

Marc-Andre Fleury. He has been with many clubs and always been respected and a class act. He stands up and supports real causes and is just more of an old school hockey player. Nothing fancy. Brown, retro pads, more former style of butterfly defense, and just a great asset to a clubhouse on how to handle yourself in the spot light.

What is your favorite part of the Future Goals™program? How do you see STEM in the game of hockey?

I like the connection to sports and science. Every sport has a huge science portion, from ice thickness and temperature and hardness to flex of a stick to how the chemistry works to freeze the rink from below, many connections to make the content more relevant. The more students can realize that science isn’t a class, it is most aspects of life, the more interest they have. This program allows them to see these connections.

If you played hockey, what position would you play and why?

Defense. They are not flashy, hardly recognized, in the trenches every game. When they don’t play well, everyone notices but when they do their job, they go unnoticed and make the game look simple.