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Carol Lagergren is a Visiting Instructor in the Education Department. After working 32 years in K-12 education as a classroom teacher and administrator, she moved to Gustavus and taught for several years focusing on Middle and Secondary School Education courses. She currently supervises and supports student teachers in the Education Program. 

Dr. Lucas Rapisarda is a visiting professor of biology. As an environmental social scientist, his research interests sit at the nexus of environment and society, specifically how physical and sociocultural access to the environment impacts the sense of place and natural resource use of historically marginalized communities in the outdoors. At Gustavus, Dr. Rapisarda teaches introductory and organismal biology, as well as an upper-level ornithology course. 

Dr. Claire Woebke began teaching at Gustavus in 2022 as a visiting instructor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science. In 2024, she became an assistant professor and the research coordinator for the Master of Athletic Training Program. She teaches courses on medical and behavioral health conditions, athletic training leadership, and functional return-to-play, as well as the entirety of the Master of Athletic Training Program research sequence. Her own research focuses on embedding cultural humility training and experiences into healthcare education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Lynnea H. Myers, PhD, PhD MSN, RN is a dual PhD-trained nurse and researcher specializing in pediatrics, child development, asthma, and digital health. She currently serves as the faculty mentor for the Gustavus team for the Innovation Scholars Program. She most recently worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden and a Visiting Research Fellow at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Prior to those roles, she was an Associate Professor of Nursing at Gustavus Adolphus College. Her research interests focus on leveraging artificial intelligence and remote monitoring devices to improve pediatric asthma management.

Dr. Jeff Ford has been a visiting assistant professor of mathematics at Gustavus since 2016. He has taught almost every mathematics course offered at Gustavus. His research is in topology, dynamical systems, and mathematics education. Dr. Ford has supervised three honors theses, two interdisciplinary research projects, and six independent studies. He has co-authored two books in dynamical systems and one in linear algebra. He is committed to providing open access educational materials to students and encouraging teachers to use active and inclusive pedagogy. To that end, he has presented more than 20 times at conferences on active learning and alternative grading. 

A Minnesota native, Steve Mellema received his undergraduate degree (with majors in physics and mathematics) from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1972. Following his graduation, he spent six years in Malaysia as a teacher and trainer with the United States Peace Corps. He subsequently attended graduate school at Ohio University, receiving a Ph.D. in experimental nuclear physics in 1983. 

Following postdoctoral positions at Ohio University and the University of Wisconsin, he joined the faculty at Gustavus in 1986. He taught in the physics department through 40 years of graduating classes, and also served three terms as chair of the department. 

As an active member of the American Association of Physics Teachers, Steve incorporated the results of physics-education research into his own teaching of physics for more than three decades, including peer instruction, cooperative-group problem solving, computer simulations, and studio methods. Steve was fortunate to receive two Fulbright Scholar appointments to Malaysia, and used them to bring some of those advancements in physics pedagogy to his adopted "second home'", teaching at the School of Physics at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang. 

Over the years, he has also led four study-abroad courses taking Gustavus students to visit and study Malaysia. Steve retired from active teaching in 2025, and is currently a Research Professor of Physics. 

Dr. Andrew Kendall serves as Associate Director of Choral Activities as well as Conductor of the Lucia Singers and the Choir of Christ Chapel. In addition to conducting his ensembles, he teaches courses in music education methods and conducting. Prior to his appointment at Gustavus, he served as Visiting Instructor and Conductor of The Gustavus Choir during the Spring 2023 semester. He earned his DMA in choral conducting at The University of Iowa, his MM in choral conducting at Louisiana State University, and his BA in music education from Gustavus Adolphus College. He has served as conductor of The Gustavus Choir, the LSU Chamber Singers, The University of Iowa Voxman Chorale, The University of Iowa University Choir, Musicorum, The St. John's Boys' Choir, and has held church music positions in Minnesota, Louisiana, and Iowa. He is a frequent choral clinician, guest conductor, and adjudicator.

Andrew Evenson ’09 has been a Professor in the Business and Economics Department at Gustavus since January 2025. After many years of practicing law and working in public accounting (International Tax – Transfer Pricing), Andrew made the transition to higher education and finds great satisfaction in returning to his alma mater and helping students prepare for careers and life. 

Since Fall 2023, Andrew (“Big E” to his team) has been an assistant coach with the Gustavus Men’s Golf Team. Andrew was a member of the team when he was a student at Gustavus and is so thrilled to be back with the program and supporting student-athletes. His focus in supporting the team is to get to know each player, highlight their strengths, and encourage each player to take satisfaction in making improvement over time.

Andrew has a passion for finding effective ways to explain the principles and processes of accounting so that students can explore the rewarding careers available to them. Through training staff, informing clients, and assisting student-athletes in his various prior roles; he discovered that different methods work for different audiences, but when you find the right mix of instruction, it is very satisfying to open doors for greater exploration, communication, and progress.

Andrew’s accounting career got started as a 2009 accounting major (History minor) graduate from Gustavus. While at Gustavus, he learned fundamental concepts and applied them through modeling and team projects. His professors were very helpful in one-on-one meetings helping him when he felt stuck or guiding his team when they were running into issues. He appreciates that the professors presented varied challenges and held him to high standards because that process gave him the confidence and skills to tackle the difficult tasks and projects of his career.

After graduating from Gustavus, Andrew attended William Mitchell College of Law (now known as Mitchell Hamline School of Law) in St. Paul, MN and received his Juris Doctor degree from there in the spring of 2012. The experience expanded his research, investigation, and learning skills while also giving him the opportunity to work with professors, visiting professionals, and fellow students who provided him with a network of support and wisdom.

Andrew’s teaching methods present concepts in various ways so that students with different learning styles can be reached and to increase the chances that students can recall those concepts and apply those concepts with adaptability (i.e., regular interactive Q&A, stories and examples to bring concepts to life, and projects where the students get to practice applying the concepts and communicating with a team). He also administers examinations with problems that present various levels of difficulty so that students can show what they’ve learned, be proud when they succeed, and learn lessons when they don’t know the full or best answer.

Matt Panciera is an associate professor of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies. He truly enjoys teaching the languages - all levels of Greek and Latin - in addition to a wide range of classical studies courses; everything from Greek tragedy to Roman history. His research focuses on the incredible treasure trove of information found in the Pompeian graffiti scratched into the walls of the ancient city by its beautifully ordinary inhabitants before it was buried under the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. He is extremely grateful to have been awarded on three occasions a NEH Summer Seminar for K-12 teachers where they, together with a team of distinguished scholars, explored the topic of of Roman daily life as seen in the Roman novelist Petronius and the archaeological and epigraphical remains of Pompeii. He has also worked on Roman funerary inscriptions including the epitaph of the unforgettable freedwoman, Allia Potestas.

Matt feels fortunate to have been hired on four different occasions by the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome and he is a passionate advocate for teaching and learning on site. He always finds himself experiencing ideas, making connections, and asking questions that would never occur to him without the inspiration of standing in the place where the ancient Greeks and Romans once lived their lives. He is happy to teach a class where the students "nerd out" and dive deep into the Greeks and Romans for their own sake. But ultimately he believes, both for himself and his students, the greatest benefit of spending time with the Greeks and Romans is how much we learn about ourselves and what we want to make of our own world.  

If pressed, on most days he would say his favorite classical authors to read in the original language are Homer and Ovid. He recognizes the beauty of Greek and the genius of so much that came to fruition in Athens in the 5th century BCE—the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides, the birth of western philosophy, tragedy (Sophocles is his favorite)—but he is more at home in Latin and loves the way that reading Petronius and Pompeian graffiti feels like looking through a window directly at the ancient Romans. His favorite classical building is the Pantheon in Rome and his favorite site is Segesta in Sicily.

Outside of work he loves to cook for his family, visit the Boundary Waters, root for all the Boston teams (but also the Vikings), play golf, and exercise.
  

Chris Nolting has been a Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics at Gustavus since 2023. In his classes, he focuses on including many worked example problems and opportunities for hands on learning in groups, and as many physics demonstrations as possible. As a computational astrophysicist, he enjoys showcasing examples related to astronomy whenever possible. His research focuses on the study of galaxy cluster environments and powerful jets from active galactic nuclei, supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies that accrete matter and power some of the brightest objects in the universe. This work is mainly done through numerical simulations on compute clusters and supercomputers using up to tens of thousands of processors simultaneously. Gustavus students working on research with Chris learn coding languages and data visualization techniques, and even 3D print some of the structures they simulate.

Chris is the faculty advisor to the Society of Physics Students and the Gustavus Engineering Club.

Outside of Gustavus, Chris a self-identifying nerd. He is a lover of board games, magic the gathering, Marvel movies, anime, and going on walks with his dog.
 

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!