February 2, 2023
Dear MPA Community,
We want to share with you that four of MPA’s longest-serving faculty members have decided to retire at the end of this school year: visual art teacher Lisa Buck, music teacher Mari Espeland, librarian Nancy Lage, and third-grade teacher Renette Stinson. Combined, they have served the MPA community for 140 years, and for that, we are exceedingly grateful!
Lisa Buck came to MPA in 1984 as a Middle School visual arts teacher. She co-created the MPA K-12 visual arts curriculum with founding teacher Karen Rossbach. Over time, they honed the program in depth and breadth, and Ms. Buck designed a multilevel ceramics program in the Upper School. She has taught drawing, painting, sculpture, fibers, design, printmaking, and ceramics.
From 1998-2000, Ms. Buck taught overseas at the American School in Casablanca, Morocco, and then returned to MPA. While teaching, she also built her career as a potter. Ms. Buck shares, “It has been a delicate balance of commitment, hard work, and passion. I have longed for a time when I could be full-time in my own studio, and now, that is exactly what I am going to do.”
She adds, “I have given my whole-hearted self to helping students see their beautiful potential as young artists and helped to build an outstanding program.” I am deeply grateful for the vision, creativity, and passion Lisa has brought to MPA over her long service to the school. Students have benefitted from having a gifted art educator and an accomplished working artist in the same person; she will be very missed.
Mari Espeland came to MPA in 1989 and built the Lower School music program upon the Orff Schulwerk approach. She established the Lower School Art and Music Show with Karen Rossbach and incorporated distinctly American music traditions, such as jazz, and world music through drumming.
Ms. Espeland shares, “This environment has allowed me to grow as a music educator and collaborate with colleagues to benefit students more than I could have ever dreamed possible when I began teaching at MPA in 1989. Music education has been much more than a job or even a career for me. Rather, it has been a calling.”
After 33 years of boundless passion for music and dedicated service to MPA, I have profound respect and deep appreciation for the program she built, the many, many children she has inspired, and the beauty she has brought to their lives and to MPA.
Nancy Lage became MPA’s librarian in 1986 and has served the school for 37 years. She developed the PreK-12 library program and managed an extensive 23,000-volume book collection, 30 academic databases, and a dynamic library website to support a diverse PreK-12 curriculum. She shares, “A joy-filled part of my job at MPA has been matching students and faculty with books and resources that inspire them to think, reflect and grow.” She is well-known for being able to find the perfect next book for readers of all ages. Read More
from Ann Jurewicz, Lower School director
Faculty and Staff Appreciation Week
Do you have room to spare? Space in your heart for another family member? A desire to expand your family’s perspective of the world? MPA is seeking host families for international students for the 2023-24 school year.
from Bill Hudson, head of school
Faculty and Staff Appreciation Week
Allison Leopold ’16: Allison is in her second year of medical school at the University of Minnesota and loves it! She’s planning to pursue a career in addiction medicine and is most excited about her work in harm reduction, health equity, and Medicare for All advocacy. Outside of school, she has been writing/directing a play, singing in a local choir in Minneapolis, dabbling in poetry, tending to houseplants, and rollerblading about town. Allison mentions that she is grateful to be still connected to friends from MPA through traditions like annual gingerbread competitions, Shabbat reading circles, and Friendsgiving celebrations. She looks forward to the continued support from old friends near and far.
Emily Rhodes ’15: After MPA, Emily attended Grinnell College and graduated in 2019 with degrees in History and French. Not long after, she moved to England and completed an MPhil in Early Modern History at the University of Cambridge in 2020. Emily’s Master’s dissertation won the Women’s History Network’s prize for best MA dissertation. She is in the third year of a Ph.D. in early modern history at the University of Cambridge. Currently studying the public and political lives of non-elite women in 17th-century Britain and striving to tell the stories of those often overlooked in history. Emily recently published an academic article exploring how poor women navigated marital breakdowns when they did not have the money to obtain a legal separation. Emily still attributes her love of history to Ms. Conway’s class in Junior year!
After a successful Alumni Meet & Greet event, MPA seniors and alumni mentors submitted their meaningful experiences and connections formed through the MPA Mentorship Program. Community members gathered in the Family Commons and connected based on similar interests, hobbies, career goals, and college choices. 
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and MOST of all, love of what you are doing.” -Pelé
Snowshoe Evening at Seven Vines Vineyard: January 21, 6 PM