Educators

Sherry Boyce (Cloquet) is an Extension educator in northeast Minnesota. She has more than 30 years of youth work experience. Her current interests and expertise focus on program quality and community systems that impact youth.
Contact: (218) 726-6468 e-mail: sboyce@umn.edu

Cece Gran (TC campus) is associate program director for the Youth Work Institute’s work to build strong professionals. She provides leadership for new training initiatives around practice dilemmas as well as for Minnesota’s role on a national collaboration to establish career pathways for the youth work field.
Contact: (612) 624-9117 e-mail: granx008@umn.edu

Margo Herman (Rochester) is an Extension educator in southeast Minnesota. She has more than 25 years of experience in networking community organizations together to best serve the needs of children and families. She has done curriculum development and facilitated a community-based collaborative leadership program focused on complex community issues.
Contact: (507)-280-2981e-mail: mherman@umn.edu

Josey Landrieu (Andover) is an Extension educator in the Farmington and Metro areas. She has extensive experience working with immigrant youth communities in Minnesota. She is co-author of the Culturally Responsive Youth Work curriculum and is an active member of the Latino Youth Development Collaborative in the Metro area.
Contact: 651-480-7705 e-mail: spall003@umn.edu

Deborah Moore (TC campus) is operations director for the Youth Work Institute with a current emphasis on program quality at the point of service. She has more than 20 years of experience working in youth development and has expertise in training/technical assistance on youth program quality and design, community networks and collaborations, and youth program measurement and evaluation.
Contact: (612) 625-7813 e-mail: ddm2@umn.edu

Melissa Peick, (TC campus) is a program events coordinator who is responsible for communication, marketing and promotion of all educational events and workshops for the Youth Work Institute.
(612)624-7139 e-mail: mpeick@umn.edu

Marika Pfefferkorn (TC campus) is a community program manager who works in and with communities to develop and deliver relevant learning opportunities for youth workers. Marika has been immersed in community work focusing on supporting youth for the past 15 years by volunteering, mentoring, and coordinating youth development opportunities for youth and staff alike.
Contact: (612) 625-3633 e-mail: marikap@umn.edu

Kari Robideau (Moorhead) is an Extension educator working in positive youth development in Moorhead and northwestern Minnesota communities. Kari has experience working with children, youth, and families as a youth worker, parent educator, and college instructor.
Contact: (218) 236-2013 e-mail: robideau@umn.edu

Beki Saito (TC campus) is a senior research associate who has focused her passion and work over the past 25 years on deepening our understanding of programs and strategies that impact the wellbeing of youth. Her current work centers on youth engagement, formal and informal mentoring, youth as community resources, and program evaluation which she advances through community-based research, teaching, learning, and program development.
Contact: (612) 624-2116 e-mail: saito015@umn.edu

Eric Vogel (St.Cloud) is an Extension educator working in St. Cloud and central Minnesota communities where he has worked with youth and adults both professionally and as a volunteer in his community. Eric has taught classes on the effects of divorce on children and on parenting teens, and he developed conflict resolution programs in schools.
Contact: (320) 203-6105 e-mail: vogel007@umn.edu

Joyce Walker (TC campus) is the director of the Youth Work Institute and assistant director of the Extension Center for Youth Development. Joyce’s work at the University of Minnesota has been divided between education and curriculum development with community-based youth programs and teaching in youth work, non-formal education, and adult education.
Contact:(612) 624-8449 e-mail: walke007@umn.edu

Ann Walter (Albert Lea) is an Extension educator working in southwestern and south central Minnesota. Her 21 years of experience in the planning and delivery of youth programs and in training adults who work with youth make her a natural leader for the Youth Work Institute’s work in creating culturally responsive youth programs. Ann has provided training for hundreds of youth workers across the state and shares her insights at regional and national conferences.
Contact: (507) 379-3527 e-mail: walte015@umn.edu

Kate Walker is a research associate with significant expertise in youth development research and evaluation methods. Prior to joining the Youth Work Institute this year, she served as project director for The Youth Development Experience (TYDE) study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Contact: (612) 624-7988 email: kcwalker@umn.edu