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       Entering a new world

       A new place

       Wow,

       A new kind of me

       Stronger, smarter, better

       Live to learn

       Love to learn

       To be a scholar, me.

             --LJA Student

Laura Jeffrey Academy Start-up team

As with any new organization, the ability to succeed is often predicated on the people starting it – in this case, on its board of directors, founder, and project leadership team. Following are brief profiles of the individuals involved in starting LJA.

Founder

Cindy Reuther – Executive Director

Cindy has spent much of her adult life working to better the lives of women and girls in organizations and community.  LJA brings together two of Cindy's passions. The first is to provide urban girls access to educational opportunities currently available to those with financial means. Second, she is interested in developing an organization with infrastructures that support excellent learning, financial sustainability and organizational resilience. Her long-term plan includes documenting the process and replicating the model across the country and internationally. Laura Jeffrey Academy has been a dream in the making for over a decade.

Kai Michels - Co-Founder

Kai’s work was crucial in obtaining LJA’s charter and start up funding. A former elementary school teacher, she remains dedicated to the concept that education can change the world. She created the LJA tagline ‘Asking questions, Making choices to express the teaching and learning philosophy of LJA. As an Organizational Development and Financial Management consultant, Kai specialized in work process redesign, providing both the vision and methodology for process reforms. Kai provided project and financial management consultation for Fortune 500 business divisions across a broad array of industries. Her previous experience includes Account Manager, Dun & Bradstreet Software; Director of Budgets and Forecasts, and Manager of Accounting, Itel Corporation.

Laura Jeffrey Academy's Board of Directors

Debra Pridgen - Co Chair

Debra has worked with the Girl Scout Council for 11 years, and is currently the Director of Community Partnerships. She is well-seasoned at developing partnerships, capacity building, and networking. Debra was board chair of East Metro Women’s Council and she was a convener for the African American Teen Pregnancy Prevention Collaborative. Debra is the mother of four daughters and one son.

Devavani Chatterjea - Co Chair

Devavani is a professor of biology at Macalester College and the associate director of the college's interdepartmental concentration in Community and Global Health.  Her passion for girls' and women's education stems from personal experience in an all-girls elementary and junior high school in India and at Mount Holyoke College in Massachussetts – a leading liberal arts college for women.  Devavani has worked with Expanding Your Horizons – a science and math enrichment program for middle-school girls in the San Francisco Bay Area.  She is the mother of one daughter.

Rebecca Brandt-Fontaine

Rebecca has a Master of Urban and Regional Planning. She has been an advisor on the adaptive reuse of commercial and industrial properties and prepared demographic profiles and analysis for urban development trends. Rebecca is a small business owner, her work includes construction projects, conservation development consulting and real estate. Rebecca is the mother of two daughters.

Lizzie Forshee – Science Teacher

Lizzie Forshee comes to Laura Jeffrey Academy with a bachelor's degree in Science from the University of Minnesota and a Grades 5-12 Life Science Licensure from the College of St. Catherine. Lizzie has worked with students of diverse backgrounds and various communities. During her undergraduate work, Lizzie taught for Mad Science, an after-school science program. Lizzie is was most recently a Science Educator for the Science Museum of MN, and a teacher within the Minneapolis School District. Lizzie is coming to Laura Jeffrey Academy to promote hands on learning through a safe and responsive environment for young learners. Lizzie’s passion is to engage girls in science learning and promote critical thinking in their everyday lives. Lizzie’s passion for inspiring girls in the field of science is transparent through her energy and commitment to the classroom and her students.

Allison Stapley - Math Teacher

Allison Stapley comes to Laura Jeffrey Academy with eight years of teaching experience in Houston, TX. All of her experience has been in schools of choice, including seven years at engineering magnet schools and one year at in International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Education, with a minor in physics from Gustavus Adolphus College, and a Masters of Education from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX. Allison has worked as a science teacher, campus science specialist, engineering teacher, and math teacher. Throughout her experience she has worked with students in several programs including; Future City Competition, Botball, Young Astronauts Club, and Young Inventors Club. She has also provided professional development for teachers in the area of engineering and curriculum development. Allison has assisted schools in writing winning award and grant proposals, including both state and national magnet awards. 

Marcella de la Torre

Marcella de la Torre is a Manager of performance improvement at the Health Partners Institute for Medical Education. She has eight years of experience in health care, where she has held several leadership positions at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota and most recently at Health Partners. Prior to health care Marcella managed a language school, inlingua where she personally trained many clients on language and intercultural issues. She has always been involved in education and has held adjunct faculty position at Macalester College and the University of St. Thomas where she taught undergraduate Intermediate-level Spanish language, culture and business classes. Marcella holds a Certificate of Executive Management from Harvard University, a Bachelors of Arts in International Relations & French as well as a Masters of Arts in Nonprofit Management from Hamline University in St. Paul. Marcella has a passion for education and making sure students develop to their full potential. She wanted to study physics when she was a little girl but that was a field only recommended to boys. She makes trips to NASA as frequently as she can and encourage girls to explore and love science… “My dream is to see someone I have personally mentored make it to NASA one day.”

Marcella is on the board of El Fondo de Nuestra Comunidad with the The St. Paul Foundation and is an advisor to the emergent Minnesota Latina Association.

Carolyn Westra

Jill Gaulding

Sponsor

Laura Jeffrey Academy is one of nine schools sponsored by the Audubon Center of the Northwoods. The center is located on 800 acres of woods, water, and fields near Sandstone, Minnesota, approximately 90 miles north of St. Paul.

All LJA students will have the opportunity to attend a residential environmental education experience at Audubon Center of the North Woods.