Yinghua Academy 2023-24 School Board
Nathan Bode – nathan.bode@yinghuaacademy.org
Board Secretary
Nathan Bode is a Yinghua parent and a resident of Northeast Minneapolis and works as an IT Applications Manager at Cargill. He is interested in working with the School Board to evaluate and set long-term financial strategies for the school. His undergraduate degree in finance and accounting and his MBA are from the University of Minnesota. He also has served on the Eastside Meals on Wheels board as treasurer.
Ye Cheng – ye.cheng@yinghuaacademy.org
Cheng Laoshi was born and raised in Guangzhou, China, and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Master’s of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology – School Counseling K-12 in 2013. She has been with Yinghua for the past eight years. She taught second grade for the first four years. Currently, she is the 3C homeroom teacher and third-grade team lead. Since 2016, she has been involved in several leadership roles at Yinghua, including leading second and third-grade teams, mentoring new teachers and serving in the Academic Support Team. In 2018, she completed a Master’s of Education degree in Dual and Immersion Language Education K-6, again from the UMN. She is licensed to teach grades K-6 in Minnesota. As a licensed Chinese immersion teacher at Yinghua, she is at the YA School Board in order to be directly involved in strategic planning and in many important decisions that impact the interest of all students and the school community. Particularly, she is interested in working with the Board to develop a community of students who are kind and caring, whose learning potential is maximized, and who have an international perspective and a sense of responsibility to the school and local communities.
Colleen Ebinger – colleen.ebinger@yinghuaacademy.org
Colleen Ebinger is a strategy and business consultant who specializes in housing, real estate, public health, and climate resilience with clients spanning the public, private and nonprofit sectors. She holds a B.A. from the College of Saint Benedict and a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University. Fluent in Spanish, Colleen has lived in Spain, Honduras, and Nicaragua and especially appreciates immersion education for its impact on raising multilingual, multicultural citizens. Colleen is a parent to three current Yinghua students and a Yinghua alum. She has served as a classroom coordinator for multiple grades, contributed to two separate strategic planning processes, and is in her third season coaching the school’s cross country team. Go Dragons!
John Ella – john.ella@yinghuaacademy.org
Governance Committee Chair
V. John Ella and his wife Natasha are parents of a Yinghua seventh-grader. John is an attorney practicing employment law at the law firm Trepanier MacGillis Battina P.A. He has represented clients in the field of education ranging from pre-schools to charter schools and universities. He has served on the Yinghua governance council since 2020. He previously served on the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice.
Paul Haller – paul.haller@yinghuaacademy.org
Board Chair, Personnel Committee Chair
When Yinghua parent Paul Haller was in high school, his mother served on the school board of their rural Minnesota community. Her enthusiasm for education propelled him to Moorhead State University where he earned a degree in psychology. Subsequently he graduated from the University Of Minnesota Medical School. He then began teaching medical students and residents while working in the emergency room at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. More recently, he has been practicing at community hospitals in Stillwater and Hudson, Wisconsin. Over the years, he has had the privilege of practicing medicine abroad at sites in New Zealand, Tanzania, Cameroon, and Haiti. He has served on the board of directors for the YMCA of Shoreview and on the Ramsey County public health advisory committee.
Barbara Knott – barbara.knott@yinghuaacademy.org
Barbara Knott is a parent to a current 7th grader and a former student who completed K-4 at Yinghua Academy. Barbara has spent her career in the software technology space with Oracle Corporation and Workday building and leading sales teams. More recently, she works directly with large financial services organizations who are looking to modernize their finance function. She has previously served on the board of Mayflower Early Childhood Center/Mayflower Montessori in Minneapolis, now known as Creekside Montessori. Barbara earned a BA from Smith College, Northampton, MA, in chemistry and mathematics. She joined the Yinghua Academy governance committee and the strategic planning committee in 2022, and officially joined the board in 2023.
Andrew Lawton – andrew.lawton@yinghuaacademy.org
After working in Seattle, WA as a graphic designer, Yinghua parent Andrew Lawton returned to the Midwest. Graduating Summa Cum Laud from Minnesota State University, Mankato he began his teaching career at a project-based learning charter school. Lawton’s 21 years as an art educator has been almost entirely at charter schools. Recently Lawton obtained a Master’s of Science in Educational Leadership with a focus on Arts in Education and Project-Based Learning. Lawton brings a passion for student-centered learning and entrepreneurial thinking.
Cindy Moeller – cindy.moeller@yinghuaacademy.org
Development Committee Chair
Yinghua community member Cindy Moeller is now retired after a varied and interesting career. After earning a BA from Northwestern and an MSW from Western Michigan University, she served for four years as as school social worker in Battle Creek, MI. She then pursued an MBA at Northwestern followed by 20 years of work in various human resource leadership positions, including more than eleven years at General Mills. Her work at General Mills included serving as the Director of Human Resource Development and as an Innovation Leader. In 2003 she pursued her long-time interest in having an impact in public education. After participating in the year-long New Leaders for New Schools program in Chicago, she returned to Minnesota to direct a new charter school. Though that school was not able to attract enough students to open, she had the opportunity to take what those school founders had achieved (a charter, an authorizer, and a federal grant) to create Yinghua Academy. She served as Yinghua board chair for the first five years of the school’s existence and has helped in various ways over the years.
Charles Robinson – charles.robinson@yinghuaacademy.org
Board Treasurer, Finance Committee Chair
Yinghua parent Charlie Robinson has lived within five miles of the University of Minnesota since receiving his Civil Engineering degree there. He has been a Structural Engineer at BKV Group in Minneapolis for most of his career, working on multi-family housing projects in Minneapolis and St. Paul. In the summertime, you can find him either bass fishing or boating at the cabin, with non-summer months packed full of ice fishing with the family and attending Gopher activities.
Amanda Schneider – amanda.schneider@yinghuaacademy.org
Yinghua parent Amanda Schneider has more than 18 years experience working in the financial services industry and is currently the Chief of Staff for the CFO of Ameriprise Financial. She also leads the Financial Leadership Development Program at Ameriprise Financial for recent college graduates, has oversight of summer interns, and manages the Ameriprise work study program in partnership with Cristo Rey High School in Minneapolis. Amanda has an MBA from Carlson School of Management as well as a Master of Arts degree from Concordia University. She joined the Finance committee in 2015 and has served as a Classroom Coordinator.
Yinglu Zeglin – yinglu.zeglin@yinghuaacademy.org
Yinglu Zeglin earned an M.A. majoring in education administration and minoring in teaching second language and cultures, from the University of Minnesota in 2011. Yinglu has been teaching Chinese in an immersion setting since 2010 at multiple different schools. She also has been leading a middle school Chinese immersion program since 2014. In the Summer, Yinglu has been the dean of Sēn Lín Hú, a Concordia Language Village Summer Camp, serving in this role since 2016. Starting the 2021 academic year, she serves as Associate Principal and Teacher-On-Special-Assignment for the Hopkins Online Royal Academy. Yinglu is passionate about inclusion and equity. She is committed to helping Yinghua Academy to be a welcoming school for everyone to feel that they belong.
You may contact all board members by emailing board@yinghuaacademy.org.