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Tara Cadenhead serves as the Instructor of the Practice in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, where she is also the Director of the Center for Innovative & Entrepreneurial Leadership (CIEL). A Gustavus alumna herself, Tara brings a unique blend of high-level corporate strategy and "maker" entrepreneurship to the Hill, providing students with a practical roadmap for turning creative ideas into sustainable ventures.

Tara’s teaching is informed by nearly two decades of leadership in the corporate sector. During her tenure at FICO, a leading provider of analytics and CRM software, she led talent management and organizational change initiatives, specializing in aligning human capital with strategic business goals. Later, at Target Corporation, she served as a key advisor to Supply Chain leadership, and then played a strategic communication and change leadership role in launching a new enterprise-wide talent system and related processes for a workforce of more than 70,000 users.

In addition to her corporate background, Tara is the founder of Marquess Studios, a creative venture based in Stillwater, Minnesota, that emphasizes intentional design and community-focused commerce. Experience as a small business owner allows her to mentor students with authentic insights into brand storytelling, lean product development, and the resilience required to launch a startup.

In the classroom, Tara emphasizes experiential learning and vocational discovery. She views entrepreneurship as a multidisciplinary mindset relevant to every major, from the fine arts to the hard sciences. Her courses function as laboratories where students are encouraged to iterate, take calculated risks, and solve complex problems through "failing forward."

As the Director of CIEL, Tara spearheads initiatives that foster a culture of innovation across the entire campus. She oversees the Gustie Cup, the college’s premier entrepreneurship competition which offers significant seed money prizes across "Scalable" and "Sustainable" categories. In this role, she mentors student founders through intensive Start-Up Labs and 1:1 consulting sessions, while engaging alumni and industry experts to enhance the viability of students' plans. Gustie Cup winners have advanced as semi-finalists in the statewide Minnesota Cup. Her service extends to the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem, where she builds bridges between Gustavus and Minnesota’s business leaders, alumni mentors, and economic organizations, and recently represented Gustavus on an International Economic Development trip to Ireland.

Outside of her work at the College, Tara is deeply committed to community-driven service and regional development. She is most interested in exploring public-private partnerships to maximize social and economic impact. Tara is a founding Board member for Connect Lake Elmo, where she helps guide initiatives that enhance local connectivity and economic vitality. Her dedication to service is further highlighted by her previous involvement with Rotary International, various non-profit organizations, and was recently nominated as "Volunteer of the Year" by the Stillwater Area Chamber of Commerce. When not mentoring the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs, she enjoys traveling, cooking, gardening, and spending time with her family.  

Ernest Briggs is a professor of Theater and teaching Performance 1 and Performance 2, Improv, Directing and World Theater Analysis. He has recently directed The Secret in the Wings, Transforming and previously directed The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at Gustavus. Briggs has been a Warner Bros Discovery Early Access Early Career Bootcamp Fellow, Guthrie Theater Theater Management Fellow, and Park Square Directing Fellow. 

Ernest Briggs has been an actor, director, producer and teaching artist for more than 15 years. He has been seen on the stages at Guthrie Theater, Mixed Blood Theatre, Park Square Theater, South Coast Repertory, Pangea World Theatre, Children's Theatre and in films such as Unholy Communion, Ode for Leviticus, and Sold Out. 

K. Angelique Dwyer is an Associate Professor of Spanish and the Program Director of Latin American, Latinx and Caribbean Studies (LALACS). She specializes in Mexico/U.S. Intercultural Studies and teaches courses on film, border studies, Latina/x/o literature, Spanish language, and Latin American culture. Dwyer is an engaged scholar who created the student organization "Language Buddies" that works in partnership with the St. Peter Public Schools, Free Clinic, and Food Pantry. Her courses co-embed service-learning and community engagement with the goal of broadening student's intercultural skills. She has published in the fields of Chicana/Latina Studies, creative nonfiction, and pedagogy. She is particularly interested in Latin@/Latin American pop culture through the lens of Performance Theory. She has a podcast called “Gringos Mexicanos,” which broadens the dialogue on Mexican American identity that features her short stories written in Spanglish. She has a forthcoming article on the assessment of intercultural skills gained by students via community engagement learning. Dwyer also enjoys dancing, trying new foods, and photography.

Kathy Lund Dean holds the Board of Trustees Distinguished Chair in Leadership and Ethics, a position uniquely designed to engage external stakeholders with students, faculty, and program opportunities. This role supports three main strategic focus areas:

1. Increase Gustavus’ national and international footprint through scholarship and high profile recognitions
2. Increase and broaden career readiness through alumni engagement
3. Increase and deepen opportunities for experiential learning for students across campus

Kathy explores experiential education’s impacts on students, learning outcomes, and teaching practice, especially links between student mental health and experiential learning. In managerial practice, she examines remote work and why managers and executives resist remote work so strongly. Last, her partnership with the City of St. Peter and City Council allows her research insights into how municipal leaders prioritize very different constituent issues and resolve serious conflict.

Her scholarship encompasses more than 100 journal articles, book chapters, and books. Books include “The Ethical Professor: A Practical Guide to Research, Teaching and Professional Life” (published both in English and Chinese); "Course Design and Assessment" (2022, Edward Elgar) and "How to Become an Effective Journal Editor in Business and Management A Guide to Developing Authors" (2024, Edward Elgar).

Getting Gustavus' brand recognized outside the United States is a key focus. She won a Fulbright Specialist role to assist institutions under-represented in academic scholarship, an editorial role she will be continuing with the Journal of Management Inquiry. She has worked with business school colleagues at Rikkyo University supported by a Fulbright award, creating an exchange agreement between Rikkyo College of Business and Gustavus. Kathy holds joint appointments at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Kathy is passionate about engaging students in learning about investing and markets. She advises student members on the Board of Trustees Investment Committee as well as the E. Terry Skone Investment Club on campus, where students work with large endowments and portfolios and make important decisions. The Skone Club won a Magnuson Leadership & Service Award for its long-term positive impact on learning, outreach, and philanthropy, donating more than $135,000 in scholarship money back to the College. 

Her conflict resolution practice takes many forms. As a certified mediator, a Minnesota Rule 114 qualified neutral, and faculty Ombuds, she helps others talk through and resolve complex issues from an impartial and non-judgmental perspective. At the Academy of Management, Kathy supports ethical practice and manages difficult situations as a member of the Ethics Adjudication Committee and the Ethics Education Committee. 

She is a Chicago native and has lived in seven U.S. states and two countries. Prior to joining the Gustavus faculty, Kathy was Professor of Management at Idaho State University for ten years. 
 

Jon Grinnell is the Francis Morey Uhler Chair in Biology. He spent his youth roaming the hills of coastal California watching the hawks and admiring alligator lizards and rattlesnakes. From the time of his first borrowed binoculars he has been fascinated with wild creatures and places, and now is excited to share those with students. 

As an undergraduate he worked with the last wild California Condors before they were taken into captive breeding programs, and as a graduate student he studied the social and communication behavior of African lions in Tanzania. For years, he worked on lions in South Africa before transitioning to American bison in South Dakota. In each of these projects he eagerly involved research students, as one of his great loves is taking students out into the field to get hands-on experience with animals and ecosystems. 

Recently his attention has shifted to the plight of shallow marine habitats and regularly takes students to study the Mesoamerican coral reef in Belize. Jon feels privileged to have the chance to teach animal behavior, aquatic biology, vertebrate zoology, and other field-based courses at Gustavus, as well as the many travel courses he has led throughout South and Central America and the Caribbean.

Jon is an avid cyclist, scuba diver, hiker, animal watcher, and bow hunter. 

Rebecca Taylor Fremo (Professor of English) earned her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition at Ohio State University after completing her BA and MA in English at Virginia Tech. In the nearly three decades she’s spent at Gustavus, she’s served as English department chair, English co-chair, Director of Writing Across the Curriculum, and Director of the Writing Center. But Fremo’s real passion is teaching writing, and she’s been awarded the Edgar M. Carlson Award and the Swenson and Bunn Award for this work. Fremo likes nothing better than rolling up her sleeves and sitting side by side with student writers as they work through the challenges of sharing their stories. Fremo has published a variety of scholarly essays about teaching writing, but she’s most excited about her work as a creative writer. She recently completed a memoir titled Controlled Burn, which applies her observations as a gardener to her experiences raising three neurodivergent sons. Her poems and essays appear in journals including Mud Season Review, Mankato Magazine, Full Grown People, Paper Darts, and Water~Stone Review. She is also the author of one collection of poetry, Moving This Body, and a chapbook of poems titled Chasing Northern Lights. When she’s not at work, she’s probably in her garden or daydreaming about her next visit to the North Shore. She’s originally from Richmond, Virginia and still dreads the Minnesota winters–but the summers are worth it! 
 

Elizabeth Kubek is a Professor of English, specializing in Literary Theory; Interdisciplinary and Gender Studies; Medical Humanities; and new/emerging media, including the early novel and graphic narrative (comics). While attending the University of Rochester she was the inaugural Susan B. Anthony Fellow for Women’s Studies. Originally tenured at Benedictine University, in 2019 she was hired to serve at Gustavus as Associate Provost, Dean of Arts and Humanities, and Director of General Education, also with tenure.  With two decades of experience in academic administration, she serves as Faculty Director for Student Academic Success and Director of Summer Term. Dr. Kubek is also a founding member of the President’s Council on Indigenous Relations, and serves as an ombudsman and a Kendall Center AI Fellow.  

Dr. Kubek holds multiple certifications in accessible and inclusive course design, with significant experience in online and hybrid course design and delivery, including for non-traditional student populations. Her teaching, advising, and scholarship all revolve around literacy and education as empowerment, with a focus on underrepresented groups, from contemporary non-traditional and non-neurotypical learners in the liberal arts classroom to early modern women writers discovering cities as sites of professional growth and self-invention. 

Recent presentations include sessions for The Grading Conference on asset-based, student-centered assignment design, and on fostering “AI resistance” through intrinsic motivation. Another recent conference paper, for the Pacific and Modern Literature Association, examined the theory that graphic narratives foster empathy by activating non-verbal brain systems involved in facial recognition and emotional “sense making.” Her current writing project, tentatively entitled Paramours, focuses on parasocial relationships and the function of verbal narrative as emotional “training,” from early modern romantic fictions to chatbot/human interactions. This research is also the basis for her AI/Human Relations Challenge Seminar (Spring 2027).

When not teaching she enjoys reading romance novels, watching classic and contemporary films with her family, and disappearing down Reddit rabbit holes.

Anna Hulseberg has more than 20 years of experience teaching Gustavus students information literacy, which the Association of College & Research Libraries defines as “the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning” (Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education). Anna’s teaching ranges from course-integrated library instruction sessions to individual and group research consultations. She works with students in a variety of disciplines over their time at Gustavus, from First Term Seminars to upper level courses in the majors. Anna’s work also includes building a library collection that reflects the range of liberal arts scholarship and supports student research within the College curriculum. Over the years, she has enjoyed helping Gustavus students work to attain their full potential, with a special emphasis on facilitating their dispositions as lifelong learners and ethical consumers and creators of information.

Anna’s areas of research include information literacy, librarians in mentoring and advising, and librarianship as a profession (with an emphasis on electronic resources management). Her research has been published in journals such as College & Undergraduate Libraries, the Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, and College & Research Libraries News, and presented at venues including the American Library Association Annual Conference, Minnesota Library Association Annual Conference, and the Brick & Click Academic Library Conference. Anna is active in library science professional associations, having served on the boards of the Minnesota Library Association and its Academic and Research Libraries Division.

Anna’s involvement in the College has included service on a number of faculty committees, including the Faculty Personnel Committee, Faculty Development Committee (past chair), and Academic Operations Committee (past co-chair). She participates in collegial management of the Library and Archives department as co-Program Assessment Liaison (PAL) and on departmental committees. Anna works to celebrate Gustavus students’ achievements in the liberal arts as a past officer and active member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

Yurie Hong is Professor of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies and affiliated faculty in the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies program. Her teaching and research explore how stories, myths, and social structures from ancient Greece can help us think more deeply about ourselves, our relationships, and the world we live in. She regularly teaches ancient Greek language at all levels, courses on ancient Greek myth, culture, and society, and courses connecting the ancient world to contemporary questions and experiences.

Hong’s research centers on women, gender, and representations of pregnancy and childbirth in ancient Greece—especially the ways ancient people understood reproduction, family relationships, and social roles. Her scholarship examines topics such as the maternal-fetal relationship in ancient medical texts, the use of pregnancy and birth as metaphors for creativity and critical thinking, and the experiences of citizen, immigrant, and enslaved mothers in classical Athens. She has also published and presented widely on inclusive pedagogy, teaching about sensitive subjects such as race and gender violence in antiquity, and the personal and political relevance of classical studies today.

More recently, her work has explored connections between ancient and modern experiences, including reflections on identity, family history, democracy, and civic life. For example, she has written about arranged marriage and the myth of Persephone through the lens of her Korean grandmother’s experience as well as about political structures and crises in both American and Athenian democracy.

Across her scholarship and teaching, Hong encourages students to ask difficult questions: How do narratives shape the ways people understand themselves and others? Which perspectives are included or excluded from the stories societies tell? What can ancient cultures reveal about contemporary communities and institutions? In her classes, students are encouraged to bring their own experiences and perspectives into conversation with the ancient world to cultivate intellectual curiosity, ethical reflection, personal growth, and a deeper sense of connection to their communities and the wider world.

Hong has received the Society for Classical Studies Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Classics at the College Level, the Gustavus Faculty Service Award for work on the Faculty Task Force to revise the academic program, and the Mankato YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for leadership and community engagement. 

Outside the classroom, Hong enjoys finding unexpected ways to connect popular culture and the ancient world. She is known for occasionally developing mini-obsessions with a film, television series, book, or Broadway musical—and then finding creative ways to bring those interests into her teaching.

Dr. Yumiko Oshima-Ryan began teaching at Gustavus in 2004. She enjoys teaching private piano lessons and establishing relationships with her students that focuses on trust and integrity. At her piano studio, students cultivate musical, technical, historical, and theoretical features of piano repertoire which they select to perform for their recital. Students focus on developing piano skills which are vital for artistic self-expression. Dr. Oshima-Ryan values mentoring students as they face their challenges, find new perspectives, and most of all, promote self-belief. All of these things ultimately provide deeper meaning and joy to their performance and creativity.

A native of Japan, Yumiko also teaches keyboard courses to students of all levels, including total beginners. Along with keyboard skills courses for music majors and minors, she offers courses on how to practice and prepare performances, as well as on wellness for musicians.

Dr. Oshima-Ryan believes musical performance is one of the most valuable opportunities students can have, and that it represents a core value in the music department of a liberal arts college. As an instructor, she also values sharing the experience of her own performances with students.

Her recordings, "Piano Works for the Left Hand - Takashi Yoshimatsu" and “From Afar,” are published by the Naxos Records label and available to stream on major digital platforms, including iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon. "Piano Works for the Left Hand" was selected as a special edition in the August 2022 issue of Record Geijutsu, a top music review magazine in Japan. Dr. Oshima-Ryan hopes this album inspires and encourages people rehabilitating after injury or fighting a major illness, such as cancer. The album includes pieces which were written for the composer’s respected friend, Izumi Tateno, who lost the use of his right hand after a cerebral hemorrhage. She wants the listeners to get past the idea of the left hand as the overlooked partner of the dominant right. She wants them to see, instead, that through courage, compassion, and creativity, the limitations of human frailty can be overcome.

Recently, Dr. Oshima-Ryan started collaborating with the Department of Theatre and Dance at Gustavus by creating original music for dance performances. Performances, recordings, and lectures are available online.

Hannah Drea, MS, BSN, PHN is Nursing Faculty, a Clinical Instructor, and the Clinical Coordinator within the Gustavus Nursing Program. She has taught a variety of courses across the nursing curriculum, including Medical–Surgical Clinical, Pre-Health Professions, Public Health, and Public Health Clinical. Through these diverse teaching experiences, she supports students at different stages of their academic and professional development. She is committed to the College’s liberal arts mission, striving to help students reach their full potential, foster a passion for lifelong learning, and prepare them for lives of leadership and service. Her teaching pedagogy emphasizes student-centered and collaborative learning, encouraging students to actively construct knowledge through experiential learning while adapting to diverse learning styles.

In her role as Clinical Coordinator, Hannah facilitates high-quality clinical learning experiences by securing, scheduling, and managing student placements across healthcare settings while ensuring compliance with accreditation and regulatory standards. She serves as a liaison between the nursing program and clinical partners, overseeing site contracts, coordinating student and faculty orientations, and tracking required clinical hours. Her responsibilities include clinical placement management, partnership development with healthcare organizations, and comprehensive compliance and documentation oversight—such as immunizations, CPR certification, background checks, HIPAA training, and adherence to site-specific policies. She also monitors and evaluates the quality and effectiveness of clinical experiences to support continuous improvement and student success.

Hannah brings clinical expertise to her teaching, with a strong background in medical–surgical and endoscopy nursing. Her experience in the Endoscopy Unit includes colonoscopies, esophagogastroduodenoscopies (EGDs), endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCPs), BRAVO placements, dilations, pre-operative EGDs for bariatric surgery, and bronchoscopies. She has also been involved in the implementation of robotic bronchoscopies, reflecting her engagement with advancing clinical technologies.

In her medical–surgical nursing practice, Hannah specialized in the care of patients with gastrointestinal and urinary conditions, hospice and end-of-life needs, cancer-related complications, post-surgical recovery, withdrawal management, and a wide range of other medical and surgical conditions. This breadth of experience informs her ability to connect theory to practice and prepare students for the complexities of clinical care.

In addition to her clinical coordination and teaching responsibilities, Hannah is actively engaged in professional service and collaboration through the Gustavus Nursing Program Local Advisory Board, the Minnesota Nursing Student Internship Consortium, and the MN Academic Networking Group. These collaborative groups provide guidance and direction to support best student outcomes by strengthening the connection between didactic course knowledge and clinical practice.

She actively participates in ongoing continuing education to remain current in nursing practice and education. Her professional memberships include the National League for Nursing and the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, through which she stays connected to best practices in nursing education and clinical coordination, further enriching her work with students and colleagues.