Jun-Li Wang

Jun-Li Wang is a connector of people, places and ideas. As Associate Director, Wang leads strategy and programs at Springboard for the Arts with a focus on partnership development and community building. Wang has extensive experience in asset-based community development, community organizing, neighborhood leadership, workshop curriculum design and implementation, and training. For the past 10 years, she created and led Springboard’s Community Development program, including Irrigate, a nationally-recognized creative placemaking program designed to train and support local artists to address community challenges. In recent years, Wang has served on the Saint Paul Planning Commission, the Metropolitan Council Livable Communities Advisory Committee, and the board of Urban Boatbuilders, a metro non-profit serving at-risk youth. Wang holds a BA from Vassar College and MPS in International Development from Cornell University.

Karissa Stotts

Karissa Stotts is an 10-year educator, community organizer and activist with Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar (TCC4J) and Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, a free-lance journalist with Unicorn Riot and Lavendar Magazine, and a queer, cis white woman working to make anti-racism become a more permanent state in her body.

Kathleen Clark

Dr. Katie Clark is the Executive Director of the Augsburg Health Commons, where she oversees multiple locations and partnerships in the community to make these health-focused drop-in centers serving marginalized populations happen. Dr. Clark serves as Associate Professor of Nursing at Augsburg University, where she teaches courses primarily focused on social justice, health equity, and inclusiveness in health care in the graduate program. Before coming to Augsburg, Katie worked as a bedside nurse in-patient in oncology-hematology and the intensive care unit.

Keri Clifton, MA

Keri Clifton, MA (Program Director, Reell Office of Seeing Things Whole)

Keri is passionate about helping individuals and organizations thrive through effective programming, ongoing engagement, and continuous development. She has extensive experience in non-profit program development, management, and fundraising. Keri designs and leads Seeing Things Whole programming, which includes roundtable dialogues, continuing education opportunities, and organizational consulting. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master of Arts in Leadership from Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN.

Kyle E. Smith

Kyle Smith joined Reell Precision Manufacturing in 2006 as President and was appointed CEO in 2009 and Co-CEO in 2023. Kyle attended the University of Missouri at Columbia on a music scholarship and graduated with a BS in Chemistry. From 1985 – 1988 Kyle attended Brown University in Providence, RI and received a Ph.D. in Solid State Chemistry. Former roles include 14 years at Eastman Kodak focused on medical imaging R&D where he worked with laboratories in France, Italy and Japan and manufacturing facilities in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, France and China. In 2002 Kyle accepted a position at Hill-Rom in Batesville, IN and over the next three years, Kyle held positions that included: Executive Director of Strategic Marketing, VP of Research and Development and Acting General Manager for the Care Division.

Mallory Alekna

Mallory Alekna (she/they) is an educator and artist dedicated to reimagining music education through justice and creative inquiry. Mallory currently serves as Assistant Professor at Augsburg University, where she and the students collaboratively explore equity in and through music learning and teaching. With experience across communities from Illinois to Arizona and Minnesota to Oklahoma, Mallory works alongside pre-service and practicing teachers to challenge traditional models and foster approaches that promote student agency and actively mitigate power imbalances.

Mallory's work explores contemporary curricular inquiry, creative placemaking, and Critical Response Process—approaches grounded in collaborative problem-solving, reflective thinking, and embodied values. As a researcher and presenter at regional, national, and international conferences, Mallory is dedicated to empowering educators to live out humane teaching practices, cultivating places where both students and educators grow through reflection, dialogue, and transformative change.

Najeeba Syeed

Prior to her work at Augsburg, Najeeba Syeed was a professor and expert practitioner in the fields of conflict resolution, mediation, and interfaith studies. An award-winning educator, she has taught extensively on interreligious education and published articles on faith and community-based conflict resolution, restorative justice, and interfaith just peacemaking. She previously served for 10 years as an associate professor at the Claremont School of Theology. She also held faculty positions at Starr King School for the Ministry and Chicago Theological Seminary, where she was most recently associate professor of Muslim and interreligious studies. She holds a law degree from the Indiana University School of Law and a bachelor of science degree from Guilford College. 

Nancy Hellander Pung

Nancy Hellander Pung, MAEd, CFLC, is a Transformational Leadership and Academic Coach with 34 years of experience, and is passionate about teaching, learning, and coaching. She has trained and coached hundreds of educators, caregivers, and students in Transformational Leadership and Academic Coaching Skills across Minneapolis Public Schools, Hopkins, Eden Prairie, Robbinsdale, Wisconsin, and in both Oakland, California, as well as internationally with Global Citizen Year in Senegal, Brazil, India, and Ecuador. Currently, she is a Teacher on Special Assignment and the Instructional Specialist and Coaching Lead for Minneapolis Public Schools, recognized as a Semi-finalist for MN Teacher of the Year in 2004. Nancy collaborates with associate superintendents, principals, district, and teacher leaders to support teacher observations and increase coaching skills district-wide to increase educational and social-emotional outcomes for all students.

Paula O'Loughlin

Dr. Paula O’Loughlin is Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs at Augsburg University. Before coming to Augsburg, she served as provost and dean of the faculty at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa since 2016 and also served the institution as interim dean of students and Title IX coordinator. She has held leadership positions at Gustavus Adolphus College and the University of Minnesota–Morris. Throughout her career, she has been recognized for excellence in teaching, advising, leadership, service, and scholarship.

Phil Stoesz

Phil Stoesz (he/him) is a process designer, facilitator and artist. Phil's leadership in process design with groups has looked many ways: guiding conversations about purpose, untangling a years-old challenge, synthesizing and organizing large amounts of information, facilitating a team through co-designing something, and countless others moments of growth, change, or development groups of people go through. He has worked with people from Blue Origin, Google, USA Today, the Jane Goodall Institute, the University of Rwanda, Mayo Clinic, the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Endless Network, and all sorts of other people across academic, private and non-profit sectors.

He is a Certified Critical Response Process (CRP) Facilitator and Trainer and co-directs the CRP certification program where he trained under MacArthur Genius Liz Lerman. Phil has facilitated hundreds of critique circles that are focused on curiosity, integrity and generative meaning-making. Nearly everything Phil does is the result of knowledge that has been passed on to him through the practices of his ancestry, the world of theatre-making, and the mentors and collaborators who continue to grace his life.