December 20, 2011 Dear Yinghua Teachers, Staff, Families, and Community Members: It is my great pleasure to announce that

the new CEO/Executive Director of Yinghua Academy is Ms. Susan (Sue) Berg, and that her first day is Tuesday, January 3rd! Sue is a team builder, an astute listener, a lifelong learner, and a thoughtful decision-maker. She is comfortable with high expectations, and she is willing to help forge ways to work together to meet them. Sue has the educational and organizational background to be the internal leader of Yinghua and the political and public relations experience to also be the external leader of Yinghua. Although she does not speak Mandarin, she has been connected to Chinese language and culture since 2006, and has spent much of her career working with an international community of students, families, and colleagues. Sue brings to Yinghua 35 years of teaching and leadership experiences in traditional public schools, charter schools, and private schools. At her core, she is an elementary teacher, having taught grades K-6 in public schools for 15 years in the Moorhead/Fargo area. She is also a seasoned educational leader and pioneer, with 20 years of progressive leadership work at SABIS Educational Systems, a network of schools offering international best practices in private, public, and charter school formats. Locally, SABIS operates the private International School of Minnesota in Eden Prairie, a college preparatory school for Preschool-Grade 12. Sue taught for one year at ISM before moving into administration, coincidentally, also in that schools 6th year of operation. As Head of Lower School at ISM, Sue was responsible for curriculum design and delivery, assessment, teacher training and performance, school community relations, and students academic success. She next worked as Assistant Regional Director for SABIS, responsible for the start-up and continuing operation of charter schools in Cincinnati, OH, and Phoenix, AZ. Most recently, she worked for eight years as Director of ISM, where she was responsible for the academic success of all students, led the growth of music, drama, sports, art, robotics, and debate programs as well as student life and community service programs, improved operational systems and effectiveness, and grew ISMs external visibility and stature. While in this role, she also saw and embraced the potential of Mandarin as a critical language. In 2006, when the College Board and Hanban announced the launch of their cooperative Chinese Guest Language Teacher Program, ISM was selected as one of 36 schools across the US to participate. In July 2007, she was selected to be a member of the Chinese Bridge Delegation, a group of teachers and administrators from across the US, who toured China. Sue advocated for the addition of Mandarin to the mix of daily language classes at ISM, which at that time was only offering French and Spanish. Her family has hosted several Chinese students who are pursuing their high school education in the US, and traveled to China to meet the families of those children.

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Many of you met Sue at a staff or parent forum, but she is looking forward to meeting you individually, and plans to know everyones name. You can greet her at the First Friday Coffee on January 6, sponsored by YACA, at SIP Coffeebar; at the next Board Meeting on Monday, January 9; and at the January Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, January 19. Please join me in welcoming Sue to our community! I would like to thank Abigail Pribbenow, former board chair, for setting the vision for this search; Anne Rizzo, Recruiting Strategies for Nonprofit, for leading the recruitment; the members of the search committee, for spending nearly 50 hours in extra meetings during a very busy season: Ruth Hansen, Scott Jax, Rosemary Lawrence, Taoyuan Li; the families of those committee members for their patience through the condensed timeline; the administrative team for spending time meeting and providing tours to all finalists: Luyi Lien, Audrey Buss, Phyllis Saltzman; all the staff and parents who attended the forums and asked great questions; everyone who helped manage the parent forum: Doug Parish, Karen Lu, and Lou Bender, Becky Hoffmann and Coley Murphy for refreshments, Gretchen Bierbaum at SIP Coffeebar for donating coffee, Dave Waldoch and Chemin Chu for facilities and technical support; and Jennifer Olsen and Deb Peterson who helped with overall scheduling and logistics. Lastly, I would like to thank Dr. Luyi Lien for serving as Acting Director this fall, in addition to her duties as Academic Director. We are so grateful to Dr. Lien for her commitment to Yinghua and for all she does, tirelessly, to ensure the continued success of the school. Please join me in wishing her an especially restful holiday break. Three cheers for Yinghua, as we have reached this momentous occasion! Yours truly, Jen Shadowens Chair of the Board, Search Committee Chair 612-865-4115 jen.shadowens@yinghuaacademy.org

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