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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.

Lisa Heldke teaches in the philosophy department and the gender, women and sexuality studies program, of which she was a founding faculty member. Among her favorite courses to teach are modern philosophy (which, believe it or not, focuses on the eighteenth century); aesthetics; and gender, knowledge and reality. But her real passion is the philosophy of food, which she holds in the teaching kitchen of the Nobel Hall of Science, where students can cook together each week.

The philosophy of food is not only a teaching passion, it has also been a focus of much of her service work on campus. She is the co-founder of the Kitchen Cabinet, an advisory committee to the Gustavus Dining Service that works to enhance the ways it serves the mission of the College. The committee includes representation from all the campus constituencies, including students.

Food is also the focus of Heldke’s scholarly research; she is one of the first contemporary philosophers to treat food as a serious philosophical topic. She is the author or editor of a number of books in the field, including Philosophers at Table: On Food and Being Human; Exotic Appetites: Ruminations of a Food Adventurer; Cooking, Eating Thinking: Transformative Philosophies of Food; and (most recently) Parasitic Personhood and the Ontology of Eating. Her research has led to her being invited to teach each year in a master’s program at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, a kind of “liberal arts college of food” founded by the Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini. Her scholarly work has also garnered her awards from the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society and the John Dewey Society.

For ten years, she served as director of Gustavus’s Nobel Conference, a role she described as being the “chief learner” for this science-and-ethics extravaganza which is a highlight of the Gustavus academic year, and has brought more than 100 Nobel laureates to campus.

Her newest book project bears the working title “Yurtitude is Experience”; it’s a philosophical exploration of her summertime life in a yurt on the coast of Maine where she lives (mostly) off the grid with her Siberian husky, writing, baking bread in a wood-fired brick oven, and kayaking and sailing in Eggemoggin Reach. Winter finds her and her husky skijoring in the Gustavus Arboretum whenever the snow cover allows. 
 

Daniel C. Moos (PhD) is a professor of Education where he teaches courses in developmental and educational psychology, educational technology, and the supervision of student teachers. His work centers on understanding how students learn, particularly through the lenses of motivation, metacognition, and self-regulated learning, and how these processes can be intentionally supported through instruction and assessment.

Dr. Moos’s scholarship focuses on self-regulated learning in classroom and technology-rich environments. His research examines how learners plan, monitor, and evaluate their thinking, and how instructional design, feedback, and classroom technology can foster deeper learning. He has published extensively in leading journals and edited volumes in educational psychology, learning sciences, and educational technology, and he has collaborated frequently with undergraduate students as research co-authors. His work is nationally and internationally recognized, including invited keynote and symposium presentations and service in leadership roles within professional organizations focused on self-regulated learning.

At Gustavus, he is deeply committed to teacher preparation and evidence-based teaching. He works closely with pre-service teachers as they learn to design instruction, integrate technology meaningfully, and use assessment to support student learning. His teaching philosophy emphasizes helping future educators become reflective practitioners who understand how students learn and who can adapt instruction to meet diverse learner needs. He is particularly interested in bridging theory and practice, ensuring that research on learning, motivation, and assessment is accessible and useful for teachers in real classrooms.

In addition to his teaching and research, Dr. Moos has held several institution-wide leadership and service roles at Gustavus. These include serving as department chair, college assessment director, faculty associate for teaching excellence, and assessment coordinator for the Education Department. Through this work, he has supported faculty development, program assessment, accreditation efforts, and conversations about effective teaching and learning across the college.

Dr. Moos also contributes extensively to the broader field of education through editorial board service, grant advisory work, external reviews, and mentoring early-career scholars. He is regularly involved in reviewing research for major journals and supporting national initiatives related to self-regulated learning and teacher education. Before entering higher education, Dr. Moos was an elementary and middle school teacher, an experience that continues to shape his teaching, research, and commitment to teacher education. Outside of Gustavus, he enjoys staying active, following youth and collegiate athletics, and spending time with his family. He values the close-knit academic community at Gustavus and especially enjoys working with students as they develop into thoughtful educators and lifelong learners.
 

Heidi M. Meyer is Associate Professor of Nursing and currently serves as the Chief Nursing Administrator for the Department of Nursing. A proud Gustavus alumna, she brings to her work a deep commitment to the College’s liberal arts mission and to preparing graduates who have strong clinical reasoning abilities, are intellectually curious, and grounded in compassionate care. She teaches across the nursing curriculum and at times contributes to interdisciplinary offerings, including the Public Health minor. Recent courses include Public Health Nursing, Transitions to Professional Practice, Capstone Clinical, Research and Ethics, and a May study-away course, Health Across Borders: Exploring Social Determinants of Health in Sweden and the U.S.

Dr. Meyer’s scholarly expertise centers on emotional intelligence, clinical reasoning, and innovative teaching strategies in nursing education. Her doctoral work examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and clinical reasoning in senior nursing students, and she is certified in the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international conferences, including the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the Midwest Nursing Research Society (MNRS), and the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL). She has also contributed to multisite studies focused on simulation debriefing and the development of clinical judgment in baccalaureate nursing education.

A strong advocate for active, experiential learning, Dr. Meyer has been recognized with competitive grants and scholarships that have advanced simulation-based education and strengthened the integration of clinical reasoning across the curriculum. Her teaching is informed by a belief that learning is relational and reflective; she challenges students to move beyond memorization toward deep understanding, emotional awareness, and sound professional judgment. She is particularly passionate about helping students integrate the science of nursing with the human experience of care.

At Gustavus, Dr. Meyer has served in numerous leadership roles, including Department Chair/Chief Nursing Administrator and Faculty Senate representative. She contributes to college-wide initiatives related to academic affairs, strategic planning, accreditation, and wellbeing. She is an internal facilitator for the Nursing National Advisory Board and serves on the Public Health Minor Advisory Board. Beyond campus, she is active in the Minnesota Association of Colleges of Nursing, currently serving in a leadership capacity, and has completed Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) evaluator training. 

Dr. Meyer’s favorite aspect of her work is mentoring students and faculty—whether guiding independent student research, supporting future nurse educators as a graduate preceptor, or walking alongside seniors as they transition into professional practice. She values the close-knit Gustavus community and the opportunity to know students not only as learners, but as whole people with unique goals and gifts.

As a Professor in the Department of Environment, Geography, and Earth Sciences (EGE), Julie K. Bartley teaches courses in the Geology and Environmental Studies programs. With a background in chemistry and geology, Professor Bartley brings an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of the Earth’s past and present. As a teacher, she strives to know her students as individuals and to inspire interest in the Earth’s past and care for its future. She has also held significant leadership roles at Gustavus, including serving as chair of EGE, as the project director for the Inclusive Excellence Project, and as Associate Provost and Dean of Sciences and Education.

Professor Bartley’s expertise lies in interpreting ancient environments, with a particular focus on the Precambrian. Her research explores how microbial communities shaped and were shaped by the environments in which they lived. She and her students study the fossil record and the chemical signatures left by life hundreds of millions or even billions of years ago. At Gustavus, she actively involves students in this discovery process, supervising numerous undergraduate research projects that range from evaluating stromatolites in Minnesota to analyzing the Martian surface signs of habitability.

Students who collaborate with Professor Bartley might conduct fieldwork, perform laboratory analyses, analyze imagery, work with databases, or some combination of these. In the classroom, Professor Bartley teaches a wide array of courses taken by students across campus. Her teaching philosophy is characterized by a commitment to effective and inclusive instruction and a firm belief that every student is equipped to succeed. Whether a geology major, a general education student, or a first-semester Gustie, students can expect to take an active role in class, have many opportunities for hands-on experiences, and be challenged to grow as they learn. 

Beyond her teaching and research, Professor Bartley serves Gustavus and the broader scientific community in many ways. She recently served as the Faculty Shepherd for the Nobel Hall of Science renovation and addition project and has co-chaired the Nobel Conference. She is a trained facilitator for two national programs: the ADVANCEGeo Partnership, which aims to improve workplace climate in the geosciences, and the Traveling Workshop Program, whose workshops help strengthen geoscience departments.

As the curator of the Chester Johnson Geology Museum, Professor Bartley regularly shares her passion for geology with K-12 students and the public. Whether leading fossil collecting field trips or presenting to local community organizations, she enjoys helping others see the landscape as a "time machine." Her dedication to service was recently honored with the Gustavus Faculty Service Award.

Outside of her professional life, she has served as the chair of a local charter school board and remains an active member of several professional societies, including the Geological Society of America, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, and the Association of Women Geoscientists.

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. 
 

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.  

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.

Jessica Helget, MS, RN, PHN is Senior Continuing Faculty in the Department of Nursing, where she serves as Simulation Faculty and teaches across the undergraduate nursing curriculum. She earned her Master of Science in Nursing Education from Saint Catherine University and her Bachelor of Arts in Nursing from Gustavus Adolphus College.

At Gustavus, Jessica leads the design, integration, and evaluation of simulation-based education across all levels of the program. Her expertise centers on high-quality clinical simulation aligned with the AACN Essentials and the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) Standards of Best Practice. She has developed a comprehensive simulation curriculum map that scaffolds student learning from foundational skills to complex clinical judgment, ensuring students graduate practice-ready and confident. In addition to simulation, she teaches medical-surgical nursing, and pre-health professions courses, blending didactic and experiential learning.

Helget’s teaching philosophy is deeply student-centered and grounded in experiential learning theory. She intentionally creates space for reflection, critical thinking, and application, often integrating mannequins and real-time clinical decision-making into classroom case studies. Her simulations follow structured pre-briefing and debriefing models such as PEARLS and Debriefing for Meaningful Learning, fostering psychological safety while challenging students to grow. Students frequently describe her courses as engaging, rigorous, and inspiring, reflecting her commitment to excellence and enthusiasm for the profession.

Her scholarly work focuses on simulation effectiveness, debriefing methodology, and NCLEX preparation. She has published in the Journal of Nursing Education and has presented regionally on innovative simulation practices. She currently collaborates with statistics students on research examining the impact of simulation on student outcomes and clinical readiness. She is actively involved in professional organizations including the National League for Nursing and INACSL, and she is pursuing Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator (CHSE) credentialing to further advance simulation scholarship and mentorship at Gustavus.

Within the College, Jessica serves on the Institutional Review Board, Nobel Committee, advises the Gustavus Student Nurses Association, participates in faculty mentoring and search committees, and contributes to campus initiatives such as Wellness as a Community. She is passionate about embedding equity, inclusion, and belonging principles into simulation scenarios, preparing students to provide culturally responsive care and address health disparities.

Beyond Gustavus, Helget continues to practice as a Registered Nurse at Mayo Clinic Health System in a progressive care setting, ensuring her teaching remains grounded in current clinical practice. She is also deeply engaged in community service, including board membership with the St. Peter Free Clinic and youth mentorship through local athletics and church programs.

Jessica believes nursing education is both an art and a science. She is committed to forming compassionate, competent leaders who will serve their communities with integrity, faith, and excellence—hallmarks of a Gustavus education.

Dr. Shu-Ling Wang is an associate professor of Economics. She joined Gustavus in 2016 after a two-year appointment at The College of Wooster. Her teaching interests include Intermediate Macroeconomics, Money and Banking, International Finance, Public Finance, and Principles of Economics. As an active instructor in an interactive and interdisciplinary liberal arts environment, she enjoys developing and experimenting with innovative pedagogies to enrich students’ learning experiences. She also values mentoring undergraduate research that fosters critical and independent thinking. At Wooster, she advised several year-long senior independent studies, and at Gustavus, she offers writing-in-the-discipline courses in economics and mentors class-based research projects. In October 2023, her Money and Banking students’ paper titled “The Asian Crisis of 1997” won third place in the Economic Communication category of the Minnesota Economic Association (MEA) Undergraduate Paper Contest. In 2025, Dr. Wang served as a faculty panelist at the MAYDAY! Peace Conference at Gustavus, participating in the teach-in model addressing issues of peace, human rights, and social justice. More recently, she served on the Nobel Conference '63 Planning Committee (theme: AI and Human Agency).

Dr. Wang’s research focuses on Macroeconomics, Monetary Economics, and International Finance. She studies fiscal and monetary policy issues—such as fiscal stimulus, public debt, tax policy, income distributional effects, and monetary policy, using dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models with representative or heterogeneous agents. Her papers have been published in the Journal of Macroeconomics, Review of International Economics, and Economic Modelling. She received the Mansergh Faculty Scientific Research Award at Gustavus in both 2022 and 2025. Her recent project examines the debt-financed stimulus effects in a high-debt economy without monetary independence, considering different schemes and speeds of debt adjustment in a two-sector New Keynesian model. Future projects will examine the redistribution effects between savers and hand-to-mouth agents of debt-financing policies. She regularly presents her work at the The Midwest Economics Association, Canadian Economics Association, Western Economics Association, and Liberal Arts Macroeconomics conferences.

In addition to her research, Dr. Wang actively contributes to professional service. She serves as a reviewer for the Journal of Macroeconomics, Economic Modelling, Contemporary Economic Policy, Cambridge University Press, and the Bulletin of Economic Research. She has also served on the steering and program committees for the Liberal Arts Macroeconomics Conference and was a member of the Board of the Minnesota Economic Association. In 2025 she served as a mentor and a panelist for junior women economists at the CeMENT workshop sponsored by the AEA at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Beyond academia, Dr. Wang is a mother of three children. She enjoys architecture, art, photography, and music. Her favorite architects include Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, and Zaha Hadid. She is also inspired by the works of Georgia O’Keeffe, Edward Hopper, and Claude Monet. A musician herself, she plays the piano, violin, and pipa (a Chinese lute). Her favorite composer is Johann Sebastian Bach of the Baroque period.