Designs for Learning is in the process of creating a consortium of consultants for needs our clients may have that extend beyond our own areas of service. We feel that this is another benefit we can offer to meet our clients' needs and further enhance your professional and staff development.
While we are in the process of posting this information for your use, please feel free to contact us about the consultant services offered. Areas of expertise include:
- Education Consulting
- Intercultural Sensitivity Training
- Life Coach
- Psychology
...among others. We hope that you are able to take advantage of these services and the opportunities for development personally and professionally.
Project consultants who have worked with Designs for Learning in the past and may be available to assist with selected projects include:
Karen Anderson, School Psychologist
Karen brings 21 years experience as a school psychologist to Designs for Learning. After beginning her career in a rural Minnesota Special Education Cooperative she moved to the Twin Cities to work as an itinerant school psy-chologist in the Anoka-Hennepin School District. Karen has also worked in the St. Anthony – New Brighton School District at the middle school/high school level. Karen’s experiences include coordinating and conducting assessments for children ages birth to 21, providing consultation to school staff and parents, conducting support groups for children within the schools and working with stu-dents and families with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In addition to her work with charter schools through Designs for Learning, Karen provides school psychological services to an elementary school in Brooklyn Center, MN. Karen earned her Master of Science Degree from Minnesota State University-Moorhead.
Jean Bentley, Teacher of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing
Jean has been working with Designs for Learning as an independent contractor since the 2007-2008 school year. She has provided professional contracting services as a consultant for students identified as Deaf or Hard of Hearing and consultation needs related to language and language processing. Jean admin-isters and interprets academic, audiological, functional and transition assess-ments and evaluations as they relate to identified special education students. She is prepared to advise school staff on methods to enhance student success or refer students and their families to appropriate community agencies for medical, vocational and social services. Jean is licensed by the Minnesota Department of Education in the areas of Deaf or Hard of Hearing and Secon-dary Remedial Reading.
Cheryl A. Carlson, Marketing Development Professional
Cheryl Carlson is a results oriented marketing professional with a proven track record for the successful creation and implementation of marketing programs and research to drive strategic growth. She possesses excellent interpersonal communication skills. Cheryl draws from her strengths and experiences as a 12-year professional in the global pharmaceutical market industry where she excelled in market data research and analysis. Cheryl comes with extensive experience at program and process management and strategic planning. She is recognized as an effective and motivated leader with a proven track record in driving results. Cheryl’s background includes several years in market develop-ment at 3M, as well as numerous marketing positions throughout her career. Cheryl graduated from Cardinal Stritch University with a Master of Business Administration-Finance Specialization, and holds a B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, with a Minor in Biology.
Mary Engen, Speech/Language Pathologist
Mary Engen is a speech/language pathologist at Aurora Charter School in Min-neapolis. Mary worked for 32 years as a speech/language clinician for the Min-neapolis Public Schools before retiring in 2007. During that time she worked primarily with kindergarten through 8th grade students in regular public schools. Some of her caseloads also included special programs for students with devel-opmental delays, special learning disabilities, emotional and behavior disor-ders, and autism spectrum disorders. Mary received her master’s degree in Communication Disorders/Speech/language Pathology from the University of Minnesota in 1975. Prior to that time she worked as a speech/language clini-cian for the Sisseton Public Schools in Sisseton, South Dakota for 2 years. She received her B.S. in elementary education and speech correction from Northern State Teachers College in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
Rosemary Graham, Early Childhood Special Education Consultant
Rosemary is licensed by the Minnesota Department of Education in Special Education in Early Childhood Special Education and Pre-Kindergarten. Rosemary is currently serving as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Min-nesota.
Kathy Haug, Speech/Language Pathologist
Kathy Haug holds a current license from the State of Minnesota Department of Education as a Speech/Language Pathologist (grades pre K-12) and as a Teacher of Life Sciences (grades 7-12). Her experience in public education in-cludes over twenty years as a Speech/Language Pathologist in the Minneapolis Public Schools (including many parochial and private schools), and five years as a seventh grade Life Science Teacher in Minnesota and Nebraska. Kathy graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from the University of Minnesota and a M.A. in Communication Disorders also from the University of Minnesota.
During her tenure with the Minneapolis Public Schools, Kathy worked with many immigrant students and families, primarily those with Hmong and His-panic heritage, and has worked extensively with students with autism. She also supervised new speech/language pathologists while they acquired their Certifi-cates of Clinical Competence from ASHA (American Speech and Hearing As-sociation) for several years.
Tracy Hoffman, Technology Support Manager
As an associate Technology Support Manager, Tracy provides a vision for us-ing technology to advance education. Tracy brings excellent credentials to this job -- she is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Certified Cisco Net-work Associate! Ms. Hoffman has previously worked as a LAN manager and specialist for the Minnesota Department of Labor & Industry and the Minnesota Community College System. She has also worked as a technology consultant and trainer for the past 12 years.
Tracy brings further school technology experience to us with her role in tech support for her daughter’s private school. Tracy is currently working toward a Bachelor of Arts degree in MIS from Metro State University.
Mary Hunn, Director of School Nutrition Services
Mary brings to the DL team over 15 years of experience in the administration and operations of child nutrition programs and services. She has comprehen-sive knowledge and expertise in all areas of government programs administra-tion, including agreements, reimbursements, training, compliance, policies, and legislation. In addition, Mary has extensive project management experience us-ing business-oriented, customer-driven approaches to developing improved nu-trition programs processes and systems. Her work experience includes a wide range of leadership, management, supervision, and specialist roles with the Minnesota Department of Education.
Mary has a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from the University of Minnesota. She is also a Registered Dietitian and has held a variety of community and clinical positions.
The extensive experience that Mary brings to DL will provide clients with school food service consulting services including school nutrition programs administra-tion, systems development and implementation, training and technical assis-tance, compliance review/audit coordination, new requirements and/or initia-tives coordination, and funding opportunities research and development.
Linda Johnson, Speech/Language Pathologist
Linda has provided speech/language therapy services to Designs for Learning clients for the past five years. Linda also provides the full range of speech/language services from pre-school-high school and meets a wide range of student speech and language needs in the St. Anthony-New Brighton School District, where she is currently in her 15th year. She holds a degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology from St. Cloud University and a teaching license from the State of Minnesota Department of Education in the areas of Speech- Lan-guage Pathology.
Sheila Johnson, Speech Pathologist and Audiologist
Sheila is a speech/language pathologist with over 25 years experience working with students in the Moundsview and Roseville School Districts. She has been providing speech/language services to Designs for Learning clients for the past four years. In addition to working with K-12 students with a range of speech, language, and autism needs, an area of continuing interest for her is second language acquisition. Sheila has set up programs for helping adult immigrants with accent reduction and tutored adults and children in improving English skills. Three years ago she worked in China with Global Volunteers teaching conversational English in a village in Shanxi Province. Sheila received her B. A. and M. A. from the University of Minnesota in Communication Disorders.
Sharon Lovegren, Special Education Teacher DCD Licensure
Sharon is a special education teacher with a licensure in Developmentally Cognitively Delayed (MS/MM) and a Masters of Education. She works for De-sign for Learning as a consultant for teachers in charter schools who case manage students with DCD. She also has been teaching in the St. Anthony-New Brighton School District for the past 28 years. She has taught special education at both middle school and elementary school settings. Sharon devel-oped and taught in a Setting III program for elementary students with DCD for 15 years. Since then, she has taught in a multi-categorical service model, where she gained experience in teaching students with learning disabilities, other health disabilities, emotional /behavior disorders, and autism. Sharon will earn her Autism Certificate this year.
Maya Maloney, Speech/Language Pathologist
Maya has worked with elementary to high school age students with a variety of speech and language needs since 2004. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with an M.A. in Speech Language Pathology and holds a Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech Pathology from the American Speech & Hearing Association. Currently, in addition to providing speech and language therapy to Design for Learning clients, she also works with students in the Saint Paul Public Schools.
Caroline Matterson: Physical/Health Disabilities Teacher
In 2008 after 23 years as an itinerant Physical/Health Disabilities (P/HD) teacher, Caroline Matterson retired from Intermediate District #287. She had spent 17 years consulting in the Bloomington Schools and the remaining 7 years in the St Louis Park schools with additional assignments in schools in the Twin City west metro area, Northfield, Faribault, Hutchinson, and Glencoe. The students with whom she has worked range in age from preschool to post high school and college, and have had diagnoses that range from mild to severe and profound. She has served students in school programs that have been in con-tained and mainstream classrooms, transitional, vocational, and hospital set-tings, and on college campuses. Caroline has worked and consulted with stu-dents and their families, classroom and special education teachers, teams of educational/hospital professionals, paraprofessionals, community agencies, and administrators; she has also tutored students directly, co taught in class-rooms, and presented inservices to students, staff, and parents.
Caroline has a BS in history and political science from Iowa State University, an MA from the University of Minnesota in English history, special education certi-fication from St Cloud University, and POHI certification from the University of Minnesota. In 1980 her position as a School Social Worker led her to Michael Dowling School in the Minneapolis Public Schools and introduced her to stu-dents with physical and health disabilities; those students quickly came to de-fine her future professional interests and commitment.
Carol Mecklenburg PhD, LP, School Psychologist
Carol is a licensed school psychologist with over 25 years experience working with schools to maximize student growth and development. Her areas of ex-pertise include psycho educational evaluation; child, adolescent and family mental health; consultation to educators and families; behavior management; conflict resolution and systemic problem solving; program development and team building.
She has a BA in Psychology and Elementary Education, including Elementary teacher certification, from Macalester College, an MS in School Psychology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a PhD in School Psychology from the University of Minnesota, where she also completed the family therapy training sequence in the department of Family Social Science. Her previous experience includes 18 years living in Europe where she worked as a psychologist in international schools, clinical settings and teaching college courses in psychology, child development and parenting. She helped a Twin Cities area independent school district design and launch a self-contained EBD program for high school students, serving as program coordinator and providing mental health and evaluation services for the students in the program. She also recently spent a year as a clinical post-doc at the University of Minnesota hospital outpatient Psychiatry clinic, where she saw patients in the clinic and worked with an adolescent depression research group. In addition to her cur-rent work as a school psychologist for charter schools through Designs for Learning, she has a private clinical practice doing child, adolescent and family therapy at Maplewood Psychology Associates, and teaches in the graduate program of professional psychology at St. Thomas University.
Barbara Mohr, Minnesota Licensed School Social Worker
Barbara Mohr is licensed in Minnesota as a school social worker (pre K-12) and a clinical social worker (LICSW) and holds a life license in teaching Eng-lish/language arts(Grades 7-12). Her experience in public education includes over 30 years in special education, alternative learning centers and regular education. She also worked as a psychotherapist with teens and their families in a private non-profit agency for two years and as a field instructor supervising students working on their MSW degrees for ten years. Since retiring from full-time school social work in June 2006, she has been substitute teaching, doing volunteer work, taking classes for fun and professional development, enjoying being a grandparent and singing in a diverse women's choir.
Heather Schmidt, Registered Occupational Therapist
Heather offers 10 years of experience working with children with special needs and their families in a variety of capacities, and 6 years of experience as a pe-diatric Occupational Therapist. She has worked in both outpatient clinical set-tings and charter schools providing direct Occupational Therapy services. Ex-perience in these settings include the creation of social skills groups, initiating school wide programming, establishing daily sensory diets, and educating par-ents and teachers regarding their child/student’s needs.
Heather received her Bachelor of Art degree at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in Human Development, and a Master of Science degree at the University of Minnesota in Occupational Therapy. Additional extensive training has been completed on sensory integration, autism, the Incredible 5 point scale, Therapeutic Listening, Craniosacral Therapy, and Interactive Metro-nome. Heather worked closely with and learned from nationally and interna-tionally acclaimed Occupational Therapists at Camp Avanti, a sensory integra-tion based summer camp. In 2007, she presented at the MN Homeschooler’s Alliance Annual Conference on sensory integration.
Heather works as a consultant with our Comprehensive Special Education Ser-vices to provide needed services in Occupational Therapy to our charter school clients.
Gloria J. Thompson, American Agency, Inc.
Gloria is currently a commercial and personal lines sales agent for American Agency, Inc. in St. Louis Park. As the agent for several charter schools she has had the opportunity to examine some of the exposures unique to schools and school leaders. Proper insurance can be purchased when risks are identified, not only by the sales agent, but also by the insurance buyer.
She began her career in the insurance industry 30 years ago working for American Family Insurance and other carriers as an underwriter. In 1984 she obtained her insurance agent's license and began working in an insurance agency. She has received the designation of Certified Insurance Counselor from the National Alliance and continues to update that designation annually.
Gloria also teaches several continuing education classes at local professional schools for insurance agents and has conducted a number of community ser-vice educational meetings regarding insurance topics. She serves the industry and individual clients through education. Currently she serves as President for the Insurance Professionals of Greater Minneapolis, an affiliate of the National Association of Insurance Women.
Katherine Utter, Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker/School Social Worker II
Katherine Utter is a Social Emotional Learning Coordinator for Intermediate District 287. She has a masters degree in Social Work and is licensed in Min-nesota as a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, and is a School Social Worker II. Katherine has over fifteen years of experience in the area of special education, ten of those years as a Dist. 287 Social Worker and six years as an Autism Specialist. She is a charter member of the Dist. 287 Social Emotional Steering Committee and pilot leader for the Hawn Foundation's “MindUp” curriculum. Katherine has reviewed and implemented numerous so-cial emotional learning curricula and is 287's in-house expert regarding the appropriate population—curriculum matches. Katherine is a trainer for the fol-lowing social emotional learning curricula: "MindUP," Second Step, and School Connect. She supports educators to creating and sustain social emotional learning in their school communities. Katherine is also a certified Nurtured Heart Approach practitioner, a strategy used to facilitate success with challenging children.
Debra Yardley, Speech/Language Pathologist
This is Debra's first year providing speech and language services to a charter school. For the past 14 years she has been employed by the Hopkins School District. She worked in one of their elementary schools for 10 years. Starting 4 years ago, she began working in their early childhood special education pro-gram servicing students from 3-5 years of age in a variety of settings. She holds a Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech Pathology from the American Speech & Hearing Association (ASHA) and a teaching license from the State of Minnesota Department of Education in the areas of Speech/Language Pathology (Pre K -12).
