Yinghua Academy Board of Directors


Cindy Moeller, Chair of the Board
Cindy has many years of experience in both education and business. After earning an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, Cindy pursued a career in business for 20 years. During her business career Cindy worked at General Mills for more than 11 years in a number of senior-level human resource positions, including Director of Human Resource Development and HR Director, International. Cindy has been the top HR executive at Baldwin Piano Company and Promega Corporation, a biotech company in Wisconsin, where she also served as the president of the board of Woods Hollow, a daycare center sponsored by Promega. In 2003 Cindy decided to pursue her interest in improving public education and accepted the opportunity to be a Fellow with New Leaders for New Schools, an intensive program designed to prepare people to be urban school principals. She served as the Principal Resident at Stowe Fine and Performing Arts Academy, a Chicago Public School. In spring 2005 Cindy returned to Minnesota to be the director of a new charter school, Harriet Bishop Academy. Later that spring the Harriet Bishop Academy Board and Cindy decided, given low enrollment and challenges in finding an appropriate facility, to defer the opening of the school until the fall of 2006. After exploring several options, the Harriet Bishop Academy Board and Cindy decided to adopt a focus on Chinese language and culture for the school. In less than a year Cindy and many other people took the foundation that had been created by the Harriet Bishop Academy board (including the charter to open a public school, a Federal Charter Schools Program grant, and a grant from the Walton Family Foundation) and created Yinghua Academy. In the last several years Cindy has worked as Program Director at the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota and as the Interim Executive Director of Charter School Partners. She currently works as the Director of Professional Development and Member Services at the Minnesota Council on Foundations and serves as a board member and the volunteer program manager for the Generators, General Mills' retiree organization. In addition to her MBA from Kellogg, Cindy has a BA from Northwestern University and an MSW from Western Michigan University.
(e-mail: cindy@yinghuaacademy.org)

MaryAnn Choy
MaryAnn lived in Hawaii for 17 years and was the Director of Management Engineering for a major health care system in Honolulu. Like an internal consultant, she provided the data analysis to solve problems. As a project team leader, she worked with hospital physicians and staff to define the problem, design and implement new systems. She has practical experience in work redesign, process improvement, implementing computer systems and organizational development. MaryAnn also served 6 years on the Queen's Credit Union Loan Committee. She graduated from Penn State University with a B.S. degree in Health Administration and a Masters degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California. MaryAnn, now lives in Eagan with her husband Steve and three children: Garret and Diana who are in high school; and Maya, who will be a second-grader at Yinghua Academy.

Taoyuan Li
Taoyuan is a member of, and certified by, the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA). She is also a licensed K-12 speech-language pathologist from Minnesota Board of Teaching. Taoyuan has been serving students in the St. Paul district for the past 11 years. Her practice has focused on the evaluation and intervention of childhood speech sound disorders and language disorders associated with a variety of developmental disabilities. She started servicing students at Yinghua Academy in 2006. Yinghua has offered a natural environment for her to provide bilingual evaluation and treatment services for the students in two languages. In addition to her work as a practitioner in Speech Language Pathology, she also has an interest in research in this field. In 2000, she earned her Ph.D. in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences from the University of Minnesota while working part-time as a speech pathologist at St. Paul Public Schools. In 2002, Taoyuan was awarded a grant from ASHA with the full proposed budget amount to build a bilingual website on speech, language and hearing resources. The website was launched in 2003 and to this date, she continues to receive emails from professionals and parents and answer their questions about speech-language evaluation and treatment in bilingual children.

Luyi Lien
Dr. Luyi Lien received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Minnesota, with a major in Family Education, in addition to a Master’s degree in Applied Psychology from Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taiwan. Her undergraduate degree from Fu-Jen Catholic University consisted of a double major in Chinese Language and Literature and Applied Psychology. Prior to coming to the United States to pursue her degree, Dr. Lien worked as an elementary Chinese literature teacher for five years in many enrichment programs in Taiwan, including Language Center of Mandarin Daily News, a prestigious center for Mandarin education. As a curriculum writer, she was part of the team that designed and rewrote the curriculum for the composition textbooks for 2nd through 8th grade students. The textbooks were published and used by Language Center of Mandarin Daily News. In addition to the curriculum writing, Luyi also published a book and wrote many articles for newspapers and magazines in Taiwan. She also served as a youth counselor and was been trained as an individual counselor and group facilitator for Counseling Center in Taiwan for many years. After coming to the United States, Luyi was a volunteer teacher for children learning Mandarin and Chinese culture in community. In her professional studies Luyi worked closely with University professors and participated in many research activities. One of her research interests is related to the alternative curriculum perspectives that can potentially give a great impact for teachers’ curriculum development. Her public presentations include topics such as Multicultural Worldview and Confucianism, Education, and Family: The View from Asia. Luyi currently serves as Curriculum Coordinator at Yinghua Academy. She and her husband and children reside in Little Canada. Their two daughters, Fisher and Ashley, attend Yinghua Academy.

Naomi Mueller
Naomi is a third and fourth grade English and Science/Social Studies teacher at Yinghua. This will be her third year at Yinghua. She has prior experience working as a Title One teacher and also as a resource teacher. Naomi received her master’s degree from Hamline University teaching in May 2008. She has a B.A. in Social Work from Wartburg College. Naomi has worked as a community organizer, in an Early Head Start program and also as a preschool teacher. Through her undergraduate work, Naomi was able to visit Ghana and also China. After her undergraduate degree, she spent time volunteering in Ghana and also traveling throughout Europe. Naomi lives Minneapolis.

Keri Norell
Keri Norell is the sixth grade English and Mandarin teacher at Yinghua Academy. She began teaching at Yinghua Academy when the school opened in 2006. For her first three years at Yinghua, Keri taught kindergarten immersion. Keri has a B.A. in K-8 Elementary Education from Bethel University in St. Paul, MN. Prior to coming to Yinghua Academy, she taught middle school reading and writing for three years in various charter and district schools. Keri also was trained in Applied Behavior Analysis, which she used in working with kindergarten and preschool students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Keri was born and raised in Taiwan, where she attended a bilingual international school from kindergarten through high school. Keri enjoys sharing her love of Chinese language and culture with others. She and her husband live in Arden Hills, MN.

Doug Parish, Treasurer of the Yinghua Academy Board
Doug Parish is a finance professional with more than 20 years of experience, principally in the financial services industry. Presently, he serves as Vice President and General Auditor for Ameriprise Financial, Inc. Prior to joining Ameriprise, Doug held various audit and financial control positions with Ceridian Corporation, Citigroup, Bank One, Boatmen's Bank, and Price Waterhouse. He is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) in Minnesota. Doug graduated cum laude from St. Olaf College with an Economics major with concentrations in Accounting and Asian Studies. At St. Olaf, Doug expanded his interest in China through classroom study and also spent a term in Shanghai in 1986. Doug lives in St. Paul with his wife Jean and daughter Zoe, whom they adopted from China in 2001, and who will be a third-grader at Yinghua Academy in the fall of 2009.

Abigail Pribbenow, Secretary of the Board
Since July 2006 Abigail Crampton Pribbenow has served as Special Assistant to the Board of Directors of Augsburg College, where her husband serves as president. Ms. Pribbenow holds a bachelor of arts degree in Anthropology from the University of Chicago and a master’s of arts administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has included stints at several non-profit arts and education organizations including the Chicago Dance Coalition, the International School of Indiana, and Wabash College. In the past she chaired the board of a local arts council in Illinois and served on the executive committee of an Easter Seals organization. Ms. Pribbenow currently serves on the Call Committee for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Minneapolis and on the boards of Augsburg Associates and Our Saviour’s Outreach Ministries. She is (with Doug Parish) co-chair of the Fundraising Committee, which includes working on the capital campaign and on grant writing. She volunteers in a variety of ways at Yinghua, including weekly recess duty. Both of her children will attend Yinghua in the fall of 2009; Maya will begin kindergarten, and Thomas will be in third grade.

Joe Yang
Joe is an attorney in downtown Minneapolis, practicing almost exclusively in the area of real estate law; but he has over ten years of legal experience which includes insurance law, eminent domain and land use law, and criminal law. Joe began his legal career with the law firm of Kennedy & Graven but left that firm in 2002 to join St. Paul Traveler's Insurance Company's specialty claims group as a Professional Errors and Omissions Attorney. In 2005, Joe and his family moved to Shanghai, China where he started business exporting agro-chemicals from China to Minnesota. He also served as a corporate trainer for Target's local sourcing managers and staff in Shanghai. Returning to Minnesota in January, 2007, Joe rejoined Kennedy & Graven's real estate practice. As part of his real estate practice, Joe has participated on the real estate side of real estate acquisitions for charter schools across the country. Joe graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in history and received his J.D. from William Mitchell College of law. He is a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association, Hennepin County Bar Association (Real Estate Section) and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. Joe lives in Minneapolis with his wife Robin and daughters Sylvie and Louise. Sylvie and Louise are both Yinghua students.