A True Scholar-Practitioner Bridges the Urban-Rural Divide
Teresa Spaeth, Ph.D. currently serves as the Veden Chair of Rural Engagement and Director of Strategic Initiatives at the University of Minnesota – Crookston. Dr. Spaeth catalyzes engaged scholarship campus-wide and off-campus, developing robust relationships with business and community partners. Previously, Dr. Spaeth has held executive director positions at the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute and the Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa and has served as interim dean at White Earth Tribal and Community College. She has over 20 years of experience catalyzing rural economic development, spearheading communities of practice in value-added agriculture, renewable energy, conservation and experiential learning.
Dr. Spaeth also serves on the advisory board of Lead for Minnesota, an AmeriCorps program focusing on rural opportunity development as well as the Charities Review Council program committee. Dr. Spaeth’s areas of interest include transformation in rural higher education, rural community development and catalyzing rural prosperity.
In this episode…
Dr. Teresa Spaeth rose to the rank of executive director quite early in her career. As executive director of a large research institute, Future Dr. Spaeth found herself to be a stranger in the strange of Ph.D.s. In order to continue to fully connect with researchers on the teams that she led, she had to become one of them.
In this episode of An Unconventional Life, Dr. Theresa Spaeth will reveal how, as a self-avowed MBA, she accidentally became a Ph.D. Her journey was fraught when the usual challenges of family, career, confusion, and frustration. But time, a few hundred square feet of Post-It Notes, and enough frequent-flyer miles to circle the globe became the irresistible forces to overcome those immovable obstacles. When Dr. Spaeth emerged from her dissertation journey, she was elated that she was able to make the transition from corporate director to academic administrator faster than she had imagined possible, so that she could help more people in her rural community and rural communities throughout the country to bridge the urban-rural divide.
Don't miss this fantastic story of the incredible opportunities a doctoral degree almost magically summons.