Location:
Holiday Inn & Suites Downtown Waterfront
200 West First Street, Duluth, MN 55802
www.hiduluth.com

Conference Keynote Speakers

Opening Keynote - John Stetson
John Stetson has traveled over 80,000 miles by dog team in the past 20 years, primarily in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Since 1986, Stetson has been highly involved with sled dogs as an educator, explorer/adventurer and as a professional racer. He has been a leader of several world-class expeditions, a team member on numerous others, in addition to being a consultant and dog trainer for many expeditions.

Stetson is a highly regarded and gifted sled dog trainer. His performance sled dogs have secured many top finishes in races across North America, including Championships in the grueling Hudson Bay Quest in Canada and the prestigious John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon.

From 1986 to 1990 Stetson was the training and logistics director for the historic 1990 Trans-Antarctica Expedition. In 1993 Stetson founded Epic Adventures in Duluth, MN. Epic Adventures is an experiential education organization which uses sled dogs to educate and inspire people of all ages and abilities. Epic has provided incredible experiences for thousands. Stetson’s love of the Arctic and in its inhabitants led him to found Hudson Bay Adventures in 1995. Located in Churchill, Manitoba, on the coast of Hudson Bay, Hudson Bay Adventures has educated thousands of people on the use of sled dogs and their historical place in the Arctic.

Stetson is married to his partner and the love of his life Shelly Stetson and they have a wonderful son -- Nelson, age 5.

She was raised in Buffalo, New York and received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in History from the State University of New York at Buffalo. After receiving her doctorate, she accepted a teaching position at the State University of New York at Oswego, on the shores of Lake Ontario. During those years, she met and married Dr. Jack Miller, an economist trained in the study of environmental and regional economic issues.

Halbersleben's motivating interest as a historian has been the study of social reformers -- people who actively try to make their world a better place. She has published a book and several articles on the women who contributed so much to the British antislavery movement. Having spent endless hours in British archives and traveling around that incomparable land every summer, she is a confirmed Anglophile. But her love of great food and brilliant sunshine also drove her to France every year to visit her "French family" and to clear her arteries of too much fish-and-chips.

While at SUNY-Oswego, Halbersleben was asked to make the transition from the classroom into the administrative office, becoming Executive Assistant to the President of that 8,000-student school. Encouraged by the two exemplary presidents she worked with at SUNY-Oswego, she applied for and received a fellowship from the American Council on Education, the premier leadership development program in the United States. She spent her fellowship year learning from the leadership team at the University of Richmond, and traveling to many colleges and universities across the country.

After her fellowship year, Halbersleben accepted the position of Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. While at BV, she led comprehensive reforms of the undergraduate curriculum and faculty personnel policies, participated as BV became the nation's first totally wireless laptop campus, and supervised an extensive off-campus adult education program and a 19-sport NCAA program.

Halbersleben served at Buena Vista University from January 1998 until accepting the Presidency of Northland College, beginning July 1, 2002. She and Jack were attracted by Northland's people, by its mission, and by the location on Lake Superior. Her goals as President are to make Northland a leader in sustainability in every sense, and to help Northland continue toward its goal to be the nation's leading environmental liberal arts college.

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