Faculty & Staff

Ms. Mary Brueske

Program Manager

Ms. Mary Brueske is the program manager of the DLiTE K-8 Program and the FasTrack Secondary Initiative. Ms. Brueske's experience with the Minnesota State Colleges & Universities system (MnSCU) expands over 17 years and includes community college, technical college, and state university settings.  Mary joined Bemidji State University in 2003. Along with the admissions and program details, Mary currently designs and generates the marketing materials for the DLiTE and FasTrack programs and serves as the website editor.  Ms. Brueske's previous accomplishments include design consulting with new home construction and Real Estate.

Contact Info

Dr. Barbara Bridges

Professor

Dr. Bridges earned her Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota.  She designed the DLiTE and FasTrack programs and served as past-director of both programs.  Barbara also collaborates as a designer, developer and coordinator for ArtsNet Minnesota -an interdisciplinary website for the Walker Art Center, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Frederick R. Weisman Museum, and The Minnesota Museum of American Art.  Dr. Bridges was awarded Minnesota Art Higher Educator of the Year in 1998 and 2008, and Art Educator of the Year in 2008 by the Art Educators of Minnesota.  Barbara's relationship with teachers, students and schools began in Maine where she started teaching art in 1976. She has worked with teachers, artists and students since that time in Maine, Mexico, the Caribbean, and in Minnesota.  Dr. Bridges is also a sculptor who uses themes of rootlessness, lack of identity, solitude and social fragmentation to create historiographic, record keeping, community building artworks.

Contact Info

Dr. Siri Anderson

Assistant Professor / Advisor

Dr. Siri Anderson is an assistant professor for the DLiTE Program and FasTrack Initiative as well as the academic advisor for the DLiTE Program students.  Siri received her degree in Critical Pedagogy studying media literacy at the University of St. Thomas. She has taught English as a Second Language in Japan, elementary education to students who were wards of the state in Boston, and Social Studies in the Hopkins School District. Dr. Anderson is particularly interested in research based strategies that work with low-income and marginalized populations. In that arena she has worked as a Research Associate for an economic think tank, Growth and Justice; as Director of Curriculum and Instruction for a charter school serving East Africans in Minneapolis, MN; and, as Director of Get Connected, a successful digital divide crossing program for low-income students in the Hopkins School District.

Contact Info

Dr. Roxanne Walker Pickle

Assistant Professor

Dr. Roxanne Pickle is an assistant professor for the DLiTE Program and FasTrack Initiative. Roxanne received her Doctorate in Education at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota.She holds an M.S. degree in Special Education with an emphasis in Learning Disabilities and Emotional Behavior Disorders. Dr. Pickle served for several years as a classroom teacher and principal in both urban and rural settings. Over the past nine years, Roxanne has coordinated and taught in teacher preparatory programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level.Her research interests include collaboration between general education and special education as related to Response to Intervention, creating online communities for optimal learning and investigating the mathematical thinking of elementary school students.

 Contact Info

Ms. Sally Gibson

Adjunct Professor, Art

Ms. Sally Gibson earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Education from St. Mary's, her thesis on "Why Art?" earned the "Outstanding Paper of the Year" award. Ms. Gibson teaches in the Mounds View School District and is the Visual Arts Curriculum Coordinator. In addition, Ms. Gibson works with the Perpich Center for Arts Education as a member of the Arts Quality Teacher Network. In 2004, Ms. Gibson was named "Outstanding Minnesota Art Educator".

Mr. Robert Griggs

Associate Vice President

Contact Info

Mr. Michael Hiatt

Adjunct Professor, Music

Contact Info

Dr. Lisa Krall

Adjunct Professor

Dr. Lisa Krall is an adjunct professor for the FasTrack Initiative and the DLiTE Program. Ms. Krall earned her B.S. in Elementary Education and her M.Ed. in Elementary Education at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities. She recently earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on literacy at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities. Professor Krall worked as a public school teacher for twelve years.

Contact Info

Dr. Karl Salscheider

Professor, Health

Dr. Karl Salscheider, professor of health has been part of the BSU family since 1981. He holds a PhD in health education from the University of Utah (1988) and has been active in both community health and health education in the Bemidji area. As a key player in the B-TEAM (Beltrami Tobacco Education Awareness Movement), Dr. Salscheider conducted research in Beltrami County that was the foundational data set for the approval a smoke-free ordinance, only the second county in Minnesota to do so. The interventions of Dr. Salscheider's community health students in Beltrami County 5th grade classrooms have contributed significantly in the drop of Bemidji middle school smoking rates from 18% to 8% in just five years. Dr. Salscheider was the 1999 recipient of MAHPERD's "Carl Knutson Award" as the outstanding college professor in Minnesota focusing on service and contributions to health education.

Contact Info