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.
Dr. Barbara Bridges
Professor
Dr. Bridges received her Doctorate in Curricululum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota. She is the designer and past-director of the distributed online learning fastrack Program and FasTrack Initiative. Dr. Bridges is also a designer, developer, and coordinator - 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. She was 1998 Minnesota Art Higher Educator of the Year 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, an in Minnesota. Dr. Bridges is also a sculptor who uses themes of rootlessness, lack of identity, solitude and social fragmentation to create historiograhic, record keeping, community building artworks.
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.