People

The Guild is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors whose members exemplify a deep commitment to educational excellence and represent expertise from multiple sectors, including expertise in charter school authorization principles and practices, best practices in teacher professional development and education, and organizational systems, compliance monitoring, metrics, management and strategic planning.

Marcia Averbook – Retired school teacher and former President of the Bloomington Federation of Teachers.  Marcia served on the Executive Council of the Minnesota Federation of Teachers and the NCATE Board of Examiners.

Deborah Jiang-Stein – Founder of the unPrison Project, a nonprofit working to empower and inspire incarcerated women and girls with mentoring, tools for life after prison, and hope. Deborah is author of the memoir, Prison Baby. Deborah is on the Minnesota Opera Board. Most recently, she has adapted her memoir for stage, and the unPrison Podcast is in development and will air as a two-part series. Deborah received a L’Oréal Woman of Worth award, a McKnight S/Hero Award, and is also a graduate of The Women’s Media Center Progressive Women’s Voices, the nation’s premier media and leadership training program for women.

Deirdre Kramer – President at DBK Consulting and Associate Professor at Hamline University.  Previously, Deirdre served as the Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Hamline University.

Lynn Nordgren – Lynn served for 40 years in Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) as an Elementary teacher in Special Ed, General Ed, and Gifted Education. She holds a B.S in Teaching and Masters degree in Experiential Education/Professional Development. During her time in MPS, she also became a Teacher on Special Assignment to help create and coordinate the implementation of a peer assistance and review/peer coaching process, the Achievement of Tenure process, and Standards of Effective Instruction. She facilitated an alternative compensation program for teachers centered on in-depth, peer reviewed classroom action research to improve professional practice while embedding peer coaching in the process. Lynn has provided numerous professional development trainings across the District, State, and country while also serving on many District and Union committees – both locally and nationally. In the last eight years of her career, Lynn was voted in as the Minneapolis Teachers Union President and negotiated progressive contracts for students and teachers. Student success has always been and continues to be at the heart of everything she does in education. In her spare time, Lynn has been a lifelong volunteer to support and lift the underserved and oppressed within the community especially in an effort to undo the embedded racism, sexism, and classism embedded within our society.