Lynn Brice, Education, CEHSP
Lynn Brice taught middle school following graduation from UW-Superior in 1982 with degrees in history, theater, music, and certification in secondary education. Brice went on to Illinois State University to earn an M.A. in communication studies in 1993 and a Ph.D. in curriculum, instruction, and policy from Michigan State University in 1998. In addition to teaching and research assistantships, Brice was awarded a University Dissertation Fellowship. Brice then joined the faculty in education at Western Michigan University, where she was recognized with the Building Community Connections Award. Brice also taught in the Graduate Overseas Master’s Program – Thailand for Michigan State University and in the Education Leadership Academy for the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. In 2007, Brice joined the faculty of education at UMD where she taught curriculum theory and research methodology in graduate programs, as well as social studies elementary and secondary methods, and museum education. Brice received the UMD's Outstanding Graduate Teacher/Advisor Award.
H. Mitzi Doane, Applied Human Sciences, CEHSP
H. Mitzi Doane came to UMD after completing her doctorate at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in 1978. During her tenure, she has been a professor in both psychology and public health, a department head, and a dean. In 1990, she became the dean of the College of Education and Human Service Professions and served in that capacity for six years. Working in concert with the College of Education at the UMTC, she initiated the Ed.D. program. She also assisted in securing the funds for the Ruth Myers Chair for American Indian Education. She wrote one of the first books dealing with the treatment of eating disorders, Famine at the Feast, and helped create the Eating Disorders Recovery Center at St. Luke’s Hospital. As a licensed psychologist, she specializes in eating disorders, sexual issues, and grief. Her latest interest is providing counseling to people dealing with terminal Illnesses. Upon retirement, she will become a death doula, providing care and comfort to the dying. To honor students who have shown dedication to service, she created the Dr. Mitzi Scholarship.
Lake Dziengel, Social Work, CEHSP
Lake Dziengel joined UMD in 2012 as faculty and curriculum director for a Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) Behavioral Health Workforce Training Grant in the Department of Social Work. Dziengel assumed PI responsibilities in 2014, receiving additional funding awards of nearly $1,000,000 for MSW student stipends. Dziengel taught graduate mental health and advanced practice courses, adding Healthcare and Grief, Loss and Coping electives. Dziengel was the director of Graduate Studies/MSW Programs from 2016-2020 and served on University and National level LGBTQIA+ academic commissions. Previously at the University of St. Thomas School of Social Work and St. Cloud State, Dziengel is concluding 26 years in academia after a lengthy social work career in mental health and healthcare.
Loren Erickson, Accounting, LSBE
Loren Erickson earned his B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and MBA from Golden Gate University in San Francisco and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant. He arrived at UMD Fall semester 2007 to teach fundamental financial and managerial accounting courses to undergraduate business and economics students of the Labovitz School of Business and Economics (LSBE). Notably, Loren was voted LSBE's favorite instructor by UMD student-athletes from 2015 to 2020. Prior to UMD, he was a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Superior and a counselor/marketing outreach specialist with the Small Business Development Center in Superior, Wisconsin.
Roxanne Gould, Education, CEHSP
Roxanne Gould has been an educator for 40 years working 16 years in K-12 American Indian Education while also creating an Ojibwe and Dakota language immersion K-3 charter school. She also taught 24 years in higher education, concluding the last nine years as associate professor at UMD where she taught both Indigenous and environmental education undergraduate and graduate courses for the Education and Environmental and Outdoor Education Departments. Gould’s work includes projects and research throughout the Indigenous world with a focus on critical Indigenous education, reparative justice, land and water pedagogy and food sovereignty. Her work has helped to bring in $1.4 million for research with Indigenous communities on land and water justice.
Tom Isbell, Theatre, CAHSS
Tom Isbell came to UMD's Department of Theatre in 1994 after receiving his MFA from the Yale School of Drama and spending ten years as an actor in New York and Los Angeles. While at UMD, he has been honored with the Albert Tezla Scholar/Teacher of the Year (twice), the Jean G. Blehart Distinguished Teaching Award, the Outstanding Faculty Award, and as a Horace T. Morse Distinguished Teacher. He has taken two productions to the Kennedy Center as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) and five other productions to regional festivals. On four occasions, he was named one of the top college directors in the country for his productions of Dear Finder, Richard III, One River, and An Enemy of the People, and was awarded the Gold Medallion from KCACTF for his “contributions to undergraduate education.” He is the author of The Prey, The Capture, and The Release, a Young Adult trilogy published by HarperCollins.
Taek M. Kwon, Electrical Engineering, SCSE
Taek Kwon received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1985 and 1988, respectively. He joined the Department of Electrical Engineering at UMD in 1988, where he taught courses in computer networks, neural networks, computer architectures, and multiprocessors. He was a founding member of the Northland Advanced Transportation Systems Research Laboratories (NATSRL), which provided funding and research opportunities in intelligent transportation systems at UMD. He also served as associate editor of the International Journal on Intelligent Automation and Soft Computing. His research focused on neural networks, weigh-in-motion sensors, statistical estimation with missing transportation data, and data mining.
David McCarthy, Education, CEHSP
David McCarthy has retired after teaching 30 different courses in his 40 years with the U of M system. David received his Ph.D. at Iowa State University while teaching there full-time in the Engineering College. He came to the U of M system at the U of M Waseca in 1981 where he taught for 11 years prior to his arrival in the Department of Education at UMD. David received numerous state and national teaching awards over his career, including a national teaching award offered through the University of Texas. An image of McCarthy teaching students to use computers was used as the cover photo of the 1995-97 UMW university bulletin. At UMD, he created the University of Minnesota Certificate in Educational Computing and Technology in 1994 and taught those courses while serving as the technology coordinator for the Department of Education until his retirement. His primary research focused on the utilization of technology for K-12 classrooms.
Helen Mongan-Rallis, Education, CEHSP
Helen Mongan-Rallis came to UMD in 1989 after receiving a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Penn State University as well as geography degrees from Rhodes University, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) and the University of Miami (FL). Mongan-Rallis’s areas of expertise are in culturally responsive education and educational technology. She taught a wide range of education courses in undergraduate teacher education, as well as the M.Ed. and Ed.D. programs. Her extensive service focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion and also on educational technology. She taught in UMD study abroad programs in England and Sweden and was a director of the Study in England Programme in Worcester. She received the University of Minnesota Horace T. Morse Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education in 1995 and the UMD Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2018.
Howard Mooers, Earth & Environmental Sciences, SCSE
Howard Mooers received a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay in 1979 and completed his Ph.D. in Geology at the U of M Twin Cities in 1988. Howard left a tenure-track position at the University of Iowa and began at UMD in 1991. His teaching and research have focused on glacial geology, hydrogeology, mineral resources, and air quality. Mooers taught courses across the earth science curriculum, he supervised 40 M.S. and Ph.D. students and 37 UROPs. Mooers received the University of Minnesota’s Horace T. Morse Distinguished Teacher Award in 2004 and the Sabra and Dennis Anderson Teacher/Scholar Award from SCSE in 2008.
Desineni Subbaram Naidu, Electrical Engineering, SCSE
Desineni “Subbaram” Naidu joined UMD in 2014 as Minnesota Power Jack Rowe Endowed Chair and professor in Electrical Engineering. He received M.Tech and Ph.D. degrees from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Kharagpur). Naidu conducted research at IIT; NASA Langley Research Center; Idaho State University; U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory; and universities in Norway, Switzerland, Australia, China, Russia, and India. He received several awards, including the prestigious Fellow of the IEEE and has over 200 publications, including six books. In 2016 Naidu presented a TED Talk, “3-D Printed Prosthetic Hand for the World.”
Paul Siders, Chemistry and Biochemistry, SCSE
Paul Siders has a B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin Whitewater. He earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1983. After postdoctoral research at the Notre Dame Radiation Lab and teaching at Florida Atlantic University, he joined UMD as an assistant professor of chemistry in 1986. At UMD, Siders taught chemistry, especially physical chemistry. He enjoyed doing research with students and studying problems in theoretical and computational chemistry.
Additional Retirees
Loren Erickson, Accounting, LSBE