Get to know NHCC's English instructors.
Brian Baumgart
Bio
Professor Brian Baumgart (he/him) is the author of the poetry collection Rules for Loving Right (Sweet, 2017), and his poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have appeared in a number of journals, including South Dakota Review, Big Muddy, Spillway, Whale Road Review, and Signal Mountain Review, among others, as well as in the anthology Rewilding: Poems for the Environment. His poetry has been nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net awards. Brian served as the Director of Creative Writing at North Hennepin Community College from 2012-2022, and was 2018 Artist-in-Residence at University of Minnesota's Cedar Creek Ecological Science Reserve. In addition, he's on the Board of Directors for Northern Starz Center for the Performing Arts. At North Hennepin, he’s been honored with a Faculty of Excellence Award, Phi Theta Kappa Above & Beyond Award, and Diversity & Equity Award (for co-advising the Realities publication). Brian is currently at work on a novel, two poetry manuscripts, a collection of lyric essays, and a play for the stage. For more visit his website.
Courses taught at NHCC:
- College Writing I
- College Writing II
- Writing Stories
- Writing Poetry
- Writing Creative Nonfiction & Memoir
- Magazine Workshop
- Nature and Literature
- Creative Writing Capstone Project
- Humor Writing (Honors Program)
Education
- BS, Winona State University
- MFA, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Brigid Bechtold
Bio
Taught high school English in Japan and Minnesota to start my professional journey.
Taught MBA courses in Organization Theory, Organization Behavior, Consulting Skills, and Leadership.
Internally, I consulted in and managed Intercultural & Language Training, Management Development, Organization Development, and Total Quality departments. I also wrote for the company newspaper and wrote speeches for executives that had the right messages in words that "fit their mouths" (Jon Hassler phrase).
Have had a consulting practice focusing on strategy development, company culture, change initiatives, and cross-cultural competence since 1995.
Founded and chaired the board of a non-profit that sponsored educational initiatives for girls in El Salvador.
Courses taught at NHCC:
- College Writing
- Human Relations
- Japanese Culture
Education
- BA, College Of Saint Benedict
- MA, St. Cloud State University
- MA, Fielding Graduate University
- PHD, Fielding Graduate University
Ruth Crego
Bio
Ruth has been teaching at North Hennepin Community College since 2006. Her literary interests include social protest poetry and literature, dystopian and utopian literature, and women’s literature. Ruth is interested in helping students develop confidence as writers and is passionate about helping students receive the mental health care they need. When she’s not teaching, she enjoys traveling, cross stitching, and spending time with her spouse, children, and cats.
Courses taught at NHCC:
- Gateway Composition
- Gateway College Writing
- College Writing I
- College Writing II
- Women in Literature
- Writing: From Structure to Style
Education
- BA, University Of Minnesota-Morris
- MA, Washington State University
Heidi Farrah
Bio
Originally from Chicago, Heidi is a former figure skater and skating coach, a current (recreational) ballet dancer, a poet, and an ever aspirational yogi. She currently lives near George Floyd Square, on the south side of Minneapolis, with her husband, the second-generation Lebanese artist and poet George J. Farrah. They have two lovely (grown!) children and a fabulous dog named Zena.
As a theatre, English, and philosophy major in college, Heidi discovered her love for reading and writing poetry a bit late, just before her senior year, in classes and amazing summer workshops taught by the writer Bill Meissner at St. Cloud State University.
[Note: Heidi is eternally grateful to have had open-minded parents who never judged her educational choices, never complaining when she changed her major multiple times, not once questioning whether theatre or poetry would be valuable roads to walk.]
As an undergraduate, Heidi also discovered an outlet for her deep passion for social justice, becoming an early member of Women for Social Justice, a powerful group who won the state of Minnesota's first Human Rights Award for their work on sexual and domestic violence in 1989. At the same time, she studied issues of structural inequities in her college coursework, minoring in human relations and focusing her studies on social change, racial justice, and marxist/feminist theory.
As a theatre major, she also enjoyed working in stage management and, especially, acting. Highlights: semi-professional summer stock at Theatre L'Homme Dieu, including playing Ado Annie in Oklahoma -- with all Actors Equity leads -- and playing The Good Witch Glinda in a production of the Wizard of Oz that toured colleges and universities across the People's Republic of China in 1987, just two years before the Tiananmen Square massacre.To this day, she is unsure of how many students she met, especially in Beijing, who may have perished in that violence, but she thinks about their extreme bravery in the face of guns and tanks and soldiers every day.
In her senior year, realizing that a life in the theatre was perhaps not the most realistic choice, given the difficulty of the field and her relatively meager gifts (especially singing!), and after having a life-changing interaction with a visiting poet at SCSU, Heidi decided to continue her poetic education in graduate school, at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia.
During this period of her studies, Heidi experienced a transformational change, discovering poetry to be so incredibly powerful, much more than she at first realized -- a form of prayer, a nourishing breath, a communion with the seen and unseen, a place to better understand herself and the world she lives in, a place to connect her stories with the stories of others, living and dead. Poetry is compelling, mystical, and even magical, as essential a thread as music and dance and art and theatre to the fabric of human expression.
At George Mason, too, she discovered something else that would shape her future: her love for teaching writing.
Growing up with dyslexia, embarrassed in the "special ed" classes of the 1970s, it is perhaps surprising that Heidi chose to work with the written word for her career. However, dyslexia gives her a different and unusual relationship to language, and embracing being neurodiverse in a discipline like English, Heidi believes, can be a useful and fascinating way to engage with the world of words.
Heidi's advisor and mentor in graduate school, Carolyn Forché, is a poet and activist well known for her human rights work around the world. Studying closely with Forché deeply influenced Heidi's continued commitment to social justice as well as her poetics/aesthetics. (Fun fact: as a former figure skater as well, Carolyn and Heidi also enjoyed several wonderful years of skating together, rekindling Heidi's love of skating after years away from it!)
At George Mason, she also had the opportunity to study with many amazing poets, both on the faculty and visiting, including Susan Tichy, Peter Klappert, Li Young Lee, Rita Dove, Toi Derricotte, Nikki Giovanni, and Jorie Graham. She focused her academic studies on the writing of women, especially LGBTQAI+ and BIPOC poets from the early 1900s to the present. Her own writing was also deeply influenced by her studies in semiotics (especially Saussure) and deconstruction (especially Derrida) and the work of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry movement.
Since finishing her MFA and returning to Minnesota in 1993, Heidi has taught composition, research, creative writing, and literature classes at colleges and universities throughout the Minnesota State system (including incarcerated students through St. Cloud State's Continuing Education program), working at technical, community, and four-year colleges. She has also taught poetry at the Loft Literary Center and first year seminar at St. John's University. She has been in her current position as English faculty at North Hennepin Community College since 2001. (See her vitae for more detail.)
Education
- BES, St. Cloud State University
- MFA, George Mason University
Eugene Gazelka
Bio
Gene Gazelka has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. They received a nomination for a John C. Hodges Excellence in Teaching Award and placed first in the John C. Hodges Graduate Fiction Contest. Their poetry has received Honorable Mentions in the League of Minnesota Poets 37th Annual Contest, and their debut chapbook Tender One is forthcoming. In their free time, they can be found typing tags on their typewriter, listening to records, or planning their next backpacking adventure.
Education
- BA, The University Of West Florida
- MFA, University Of Tennessee-Knoxville
Edward Hahn
Bio
I usually teach a variety of writing courses in the English Department, but this semester finds me working in the Writing Center and serving as co-leader of the Program Review and Learner Outcomes Assessment (PRLOA) team.
Writing can be a lot of things. But whether it's stories or essays, instruction manuals or arguments, I approach writing as a creative art that involves structured practice and intellectual discovery. I believe that everyone can use writing to present sophisticated truths about themselves, their communities, and the world. I also believe that we need to continually create and revise inclusive standards of excellence for writing, and that students play a vital role in this work.
I studied rhetoric at the University of Minnesota, where I received my doctorate degree in 2016. My dissertation used interviews and classroom observations to understand how students’ beliefs about race and racism were shaped by their everyday work in a diverse first-year writing classroom. The results of my research and other projects can be found in the academic journals Rhetoric Review, Composition Forum, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and Composition Studies. For the details, check out my CV.
Outside of work, I enjoy mountain biking at Theodore Wirth, cooking with my wife and daughters, honing my Spanish conversation skills with people from around the world, and re-watching episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."
Education
- PHD, University Of Minnesota Twin Cities
Cynthia Johanek
Bio
Cindy Johanek began her educational journey at a community college and later earned a B.A. in English (Writing Emphasis) and Psychology (Cognitive Emphasis) at St. Cloud State University where she first encountered the joy of working in a writing center. She continued that work while earning an M.A. and Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric at Ball State University. She is the author of Composing Research: A Contextualist Research Paradigm for Rhetoric and Composition, which explored research design and methodology in composition studies and which won the Best Book prize from the Inter/National Writing Centers Association in 2001. Cindy has long been active in writing center communities and currently serves as the 2-year College Representative to the Executive Board of the International Writing Centers Association and as an at-large representative to the Midwest Writing Centers Association. She joined the NHCC faculty in 2007.
Courses taught at NHCC:
- Gateway Composition and College Writing I
- College Writing II
- Professional Writing
- Technical Writing
Education
- BA, St. Cloud State University
- MA, Ball State University
- PHD, Ball State University
Benjamin Kiely
Bio
I have been teaching at the college level since 2006. My wife and I used to live and work in Tokyo, Japan at Bunkyo Gakuin University. When we returned to the United States, I started working in the MinnState system before landing permanently at North Hennepin in 2010.
I didn't intend to become an English professor when I was in college. I aspired to be a trout bum, running rivers from Alaska to Argentina in pursuit of the next fish. Truthfully, I am an accidental student of English. I avoided English classes, in particular, because I was not a very confident writer. It is pretty amazing how life often has other plans for you, and after some interesting jobs post-college, I backed my way into a graduate English program where I truly learned how to read and to write. I mention this because I know how challenging writing can be. I fully understand the frustrations and anxieties that people carry about writing. In my courses, we will work through all of that cargo. My hope for all of my students is that they learn to approach writing assignments with confidence. If we can accomplish that, then we will be victorious.
Outside of the classroom, you will find me fishing.
Education
- BA, Saint Johns University
- MA, University Of St Thomas
Alyssa Kilbourn
Bio
Alyssa Kilbourn received her Masters in Rhetoric & Writing from St. Cloud State University in 2016. During her time as a student at St. Cloud State University, she worked as a peer tutor within the writing center, where she tutored graduate, undergraduate, and English Language Learner students. Her thesis examined the collectives superhero television shows created in their narratives and how these collectives were examples of post-humanism.
She began teaching first year composition at St. Cloud State in 2017 before moving down to the cities and becoming an English Department instructor with North Hennepin Community College in 2018.
In 2019, she became faculty advisor for Northern Light, NHCC's undergraduate research journal. The journal staff are working on publishing the 2022 issue, which you can read at http://northernlightnhcc.org/
When she's not teaching, she can be found running or playing D&D games, enthusing about Critical Role, and having competitive games of bananagrams.
Education
- BA, St. Cloud State University
- MA, St. Cloud State University
Haley Lasche
Bio
Haley Lasché has been teaching at North Hennepin Community College since fall 2008. She is the founder, designer and editor of Concision Poetry Journal (concisionpoetry.com). Her poems have appeared in such places as Landlocked Magazine, Clade Song and Nice Cage. She has two poetry chapbooks: Where It Leads (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016) and Blood and Survivor (Locofo Chaps, 2017). She co-curates the Talking Image Connection ekphrastic reading series with Luke Pingel.
Courses taught at NHCC:
- College Writing I (Engl 0990/1200/1201)
- College Writing II (Engl 1202)
- Introduction to Creative Writing (Engl 1900)
- Introduction to Literary Studies (Engl 2150)
Education
- BS, University Of Wisconsin-River Falls
- MFA, Hamline University
Kelly Lundquist
Bio
Kelly Lundquist (she/hers) has been teaching at North Hennepin since 2014. Originally from the Mississippi Delta, Kelly taught literature and writing across the United States (Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and California, among other places) before settling in Minnesota. She is a nonfiction writer and is finishing a book-length memoir, Beard. She hopes it will be available in bookstores near you by 2024 (fingers crossed). Her writing has appeared in many places, including Image Journal, Good Letters, Patheos, and The Academy Stories. In 2012, she was awarded a year-long first book fellowship as the Milton Postgraduate Fellow at Seattle Pacific University. In 2005 and 2006, Kelly taught conversational English in Slovakia and was selected for a 2011 Teaching Exchange in Carnoustie, Scotland, and Kigali, Rwanda. While she remains a PhD dropout (because life happens and if you take one of her classes, she’ll probably tell you all about it), she has an MA in English with an emphasis in 17th century British Poetry and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction with an emphasis in fragmented lyric form and tragicomedy. At NHCC, she’s been selected for an Above and Beyond award as well as a Faculty of Excellence Award from TRIO. Kelly has received multiple grants from the Central Minnesota Arts Board and regularly sits on grant panels for them as well as for the Minnesota State Arts Board. In Fall 2022, Kelly will be the new Director of Creative Writing at NHCC. She will also be co-facilitating S.E.E.D. and will be serving as President-Elect for our faculty union. Her recent sabbatical project was focused on decolonizing the teaching of Academic English. When she’s not teaching or writing, Kelly is probably either making food or reading about food or streaming a show about food on her television. It goes without saying that she’s probably also eating food while doing these things, most likely while listening to Broadway showtunes. She lives with her spouse and daughter in Monticello, where she leads weekly Tuesday Night Writers Open Studios at the Monticello Arts Initiative.
Education:
- BA, Belhaven College
- MA, Mississippi College
- MFA, Seattle Pacific University
Michael McGehee
Bio
I didn’t know I was going to study English when I first went to college. I arrived thinking I was going to major in Computer Science or Political Science, with the idea of someday going to law school. But after taking a sequence of Great Books courses, I knew I’d found what I wanted to study. Fiction, poems, essays, and other literary genres reached a place inside that had always craved and appreciated beauty, subtlety, ambiguity, and complexity. I was not able to get enough of this bounty in college, so after graduating I continued my studies, resulting in a Ph.D. in English from the University of Delaware.
At North Hennepin, I teach composition courses (Engl 1201 and 1202) as well as literature courses including Survey of American Literature I and II (Engl 2450 and 2460), Modern American Literature (Engl 2270), and Introduction to Literary Studies: the American Short Story (Engl 2590). I often merge student discussion of texts with insights from literary theory and criticism to carry lessons in my literature classes. My goal is simple: to guide students closer to a place in themselves where they develop a language describing how literature stirs emotion and shapes vision.
There is discussion in my writing classes as well, where I teach composition as a process involving planning, drafting, revision, editing, and participation in a community of writers exchanging constructive feedback. Every lesson leads back to considerations of audience, purpose, and context. Anchoring the focus on these variables is my aim to guide students toward an adaptability required to compose any document that serves them in college, work, and civic life.
In my free time, I like to read books, write, and be outdoors.
Education
- BA, University Of Minnesota Twin Cities
- MA, University Of Delaware
- PHD, University Of Delaware
Ana Munro
Bio
Ana Munro has a Bachelors in French from Kings College London, a Masters in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and is a graduate of Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s Closing the Achievement Gap Institute. Ana is also currently a student, completing her Doctoral Degree inHigher Educational Leadership at St Cloud State University. Her research focuses on the impact of place-based, immersive educational experiences on students’ academic success and identity. Ana is passionate about collaborating, building community, and creating systemic change in higher education for BIPOC students.
Classes
Ana teaches Creative Writing, Nature and Literature, College Writing I and II, Global Literary Perspectives and Global and Cultural Studies 1970 Environmental Justice and Nature Immersion and GCST 1320 Community Organizing at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
Previously, Ana taught Creative Writing at Bath Spa University in England and English as a Second Language in Christchurch, New Zealand and Lyon, France. Ana also worked as an investigative journalist for many years in the United States and the UK. Her book of poetry Above the Dance of Clouds, was published in 2014, and she is the recipient of the Wisconsin News Association Award for Journalism for her series on the theft and return of Strawberry Island to the Lac du Flambeau Nation, the UK’s Orange Prize for Fiction-Short Story, the James R. Carlson Fellowship from Eckerd College for innovation and creativity in fiction, and the 2017 James Farrell Re(Cognition) Award, which honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions towards advancing sustainability efforts in the Upper Midwest.
Ana co-founded North Hennepin’s Sustainability Committee and American Indian Education and Advisory Groups, and coordinates GCST 1970, a new nature-based immersion program in collaboration with YMCA Camp Northern Lights, the Three Rivers Park District, the DNR, and neighboring school districts, designed to bring college and high school students into the wilderness. She co-created GCST 1490, the l Dave Larsen Annual American Indian Civil Rights Immersion Experience, a five day-immersion tour for American Indian high school and college students to learn about their identity, culture and heritage.
Ana has facilitated multiple sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion trainings, events and workshops, including presenting at AASHE’s (The Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education), AWP’s (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) and ASLE’S (Association for the Study of Literature and Environment) annual conferences, the New Zealand’s Association for Research in Education 2015 and 2018 Emancipation through Education Conferences on Maori Homelands, and the Australian Research in Education Aboriginal Education Conference in Brisbane, Australia in 2019.
Ana loves reading books, looking for frogs, snakes and salamanders with her children in the forest, going for very long walks, traveling to remote places and is happiest outside in the middle of nowhere. Ana is always planning her next adventure - ask her where she is going next!
Education
- BA, University of London Kings College
- MA, Bath Spa University
Kara Olson
Bio
Kara Olson (she/her) is a poet, educator, and SEED (Seeking Educational Equity & Diversity) facilitator. She is a graduate of Warren Wilson’s MFA Program for Writers, a recipient of a Jerome Foundation-supported residency at the Anderson Center, and a member of the Queer Voices writing circles in collaboration with Hennepin County and Quatrefoil Library. Her poem “Last Night” was selected by Donika Kelly as winner of The Sewanee Review's 2020 Poetry Contest. Recent poems appear in The Hyacinth Review, Water~Stone Review and TAYO Literary Magazine. She lives in Minneapolis.
Education
- BA, University Of Minnesota Twin Cities
- MFA, Warren Wilson College
Katharine Rauk
Bio
I’ve taught writing at North Hennepin Community College since 2009, but I’ve been teaching for over two decades now in a wide range of places, from community colleges and universities to local poetry centers and even a school in northeast China. When I was a kid, I dreamed of becoming a detective, a lighthouse keeper, or an Egyptologist. Now I realize all these jobs have something in common with being a good writer: paying attention.
You’ve probably noticed that everyone is trying to tell you what to think—your teachers, your parents, Twitter, your textbooks, your friends. In my classes, you’ll spend lots of time paying attention to how and what you think, as well as why you think that way. One of my favorite ways to figure out what I think is through writing. In my classes, we will discover, practice, and refine both our thinking and writing together.
In my free time, I love being outdoors, especially if a lake or woods are involved. My husband, dog, and I also spend many hours cheering for our kids on the soccer field (but our backyard chickens don’t get to tag along).
I’m a poet, so you can always find me chasing after a new poem and working on my next book.
Education
- BA, Saint Olaf College
- MA, University Of Chicago
- MFA, Bennington College
Jennifer Schmidt
Bio
Jennifer Schmidt has been teaching at North Hennepin since 2018. Before coming to NHCC, she was a senior lecturer at North-West University, where she taught South African literature, British literature survey courses, as well as academic writing. Her overarching pedagogical goal is to help students develop a metacognitive approach to their learning and to recognize unsuspected complexities in what seems like straightforward, even elementary, material. She has published on contemporary South African white writing, gender, and the representation of subjectivity. Her present research concentrates on the nexus of gender, genre and sexuality in post-millennial South African fiction. When she’s not teaching, she enjoys travel, musicals, and the South African soap opera, 7de laan.
Courses taught at NHCC:
- Courses taught at NHCC:
- College Writing I
- College Writing II
- Contemporary South African Fiction (Honors program)
- Introduction to Journalism (Fall 2022)
Education
- BA, College Of Saint Benedict
- MA, Drew University
- PHD, Drew University
Lisa Whalen
Bio
Lisa Whalen is a writer and English professor whose work has appeared in An Introvert in an Extrovert World (Cambridge Scholars); The Simpsons’ Beloved Springfield (McFarland); Adanna; Writing on the Edge; Introvert, Dear; and several blogs. Her book, Stable Weight: A Memoir of Hunger, Horses, and Hope (Hopewell Publications, 2021), was selected 2022 Reserve Champion at the international Equus Film and Arts Festival. Based on her book's success, she has been a featured guest speaker in graduate creative writing programs and on podcasts devoted to writing, horseback riding, and eating disorder recovery.
Whalen's Ph.D. research focused on narratives and empathy. In her spare time, she is an equestrian and animal welfare advocate.
Courses Taught
- ENGL 0990 Gateway Composition
- ENGL 1200 Gateway College Writing
- ENGL 1201 College Writing I
- ENGL 1202 College Writing II
- ENGL 1800 Introduction to Journalism
- ENGL 1900 Introduction to Creative Writing
- ENGL 2010 Writing Creative Nonfiction and Memoir
- ENGL 2150 Introduction to Literary Studies
- ENGL 2330 Hmong American Literature
Education
- BA, College Of Saint Catherine-Minneapolis
- MA, Hamline University
- PHD, Capella University
Benjamin Burgess
Education
- BA, Augsburg College
- MA, University Of California-Davis
- PHD, University Of California-Davis
Emeka Ekemezie
Education
- BA, University Of Nigeria
- MA, University Of Nigeria
- PHD, UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS
- MA, Bethel University
Kaelie Farrah
Education
- BA, Evergreen State College
- MFA, Naropa University
Margaret LaFleur
Education
- BA, University Of Minnesota-Morris
- MFA, University Of San Francisco
Bridget Murphy
Education
- BA, College Of Saint Catherine-Minneapolis
- MA, Georgetown University
Vanessa Ramos
Education
- BS, University Of Wisconsin-River Falls
- MFA, Hamline University
- MED, Hamline University
Leanne Zainer
Education
- BS, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
- MA, University of Wisconsin - Madison
- PHD, University of Wisconsin - Madison