Board of Visitors

Norman L. Berven

Norman L. Berven received B.S. and M.A. degrees from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. from UW−Madison in Behavioral Disabilities-Rehabilitation Psychology. He has served on the faculty of the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education at UW−Madison since 1976 and is currently professor and chair of the Rehabilitation Psychology Program Area.

Dr. Berven previously held positions as a rehabilitation counselor in the San Mateo County Mental Health Service in California, a research associate at the ICD Rehabilitation and Research Center in New York City, and an assistant professor at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. He and his wife, Stella, live in Madison and are avid Badger fans, with season tickets in football and men’s and women’s basketball.

Mary A. “Buff” Brennan

Mary Alice "Buff" Brennan is an emerita professor of dance and three-time chair of the UW−Madison Dance Program.  Her research articles on creativity in dance and the movement analysis of dance style have appeared in numerous scholarly and dance publications, and she recently co-edited the book, Margaret H’Doubler: The Legacy of America’s Dance Education Pioneer (2007).  She was a 1985 National Dance Association Scholar and a 1989 and 1995 Fulbright Scholar to India. At the UW she has received a Vilas Associates Award, Virginia Horne-Henry grants and a School of Education Distinguished Achievement Award. 

Dr. Brennan has a long history of service to her profession, having chaired or served on the boards of many professional organizations.  During 1993−1995, she was a member of the National Dance Task Force that developed the national standards for dance in education.  She is currently a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Dance Education, and she serves on the boards of the Wisconsin Dance Council and the Hancock Center for Movement Arts, among others.

Susan Cellmer

A graduate of UW−Madison with a bachelor’s degree in education, Susan Cellmer has held positions as an editor, advertising copywriter, and public-relations account executive.  During her career in public relations, her primary client was the Chicago White Sox.  Her volunteer activities include 10 years on the Board of Directors of the Geneva Lake Sailing School, serving for two years as its president.  She is in her eleventh year as a member of the Woman’s Board of the Winnetka Community House.  She also is a member of the UW Foundation.

Ms. Cellmer and her husband, Jeff Neal, reside in Winnetka, Illinois, and have three children: Kevin, Brian, and Lauren.  An avid golfer, gardener, and tennis player, Ms. Cellmer also devotes a fair amount of time to training her two golden retrievers.  She and her family spend summers in their Fontana, Wisconsin home, on the shores of Geneva Lake.

Richard Hartl

Dick Hartl received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from UW−Madison and an M.B.A. from American International College.  He retired from Calmar Inc., a major global manufacturing company, as chairman, president and CEO.  Before Calmar, he was executive vice president of Avery Dennison and a general manager of General Electric.  He now consults with small start-up businesses and is active in venture capital and angel financing.

Mr. Hartl is a member of the Bascom Hill Society and attends most of its functions. Mr. Hartl has served on the California Charter School Association Board, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Board, and the Pasadena Symphony Board.  His hobbies include photography, golf, and travel.  He and his wife, Joan, live in San Juan Capistrano, California. He is also an avid Badger and Packer fan, having attended almost all of their events on the West Coast.

Marlene Hartzman

Marlene Hartzman is currently an education management consultant with school districts in Washington, D.C. and Maryland.  In addition, she is a program analyst for the National Association of Secondary School Principals’ Breakthrough Schools project.  Previously, she was a secondary school principal and the Director of Educational Accountability for the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools.  Her expertise includes high school reform, testing and assessment, research and program evaluation, and federal and state compliance.  She loves to travel and volunteers for the National Marrow Donor Program as a transplant courier.

Dr. Hartzman has a B.S. in English and Oral Communication (1970) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an Ed.D. from Virginia Tech (1986).  Over the years, she has actively participated in WAA’s Cabinet 99 and is a member of the University of Wisconsin Foundation’s Women’s Philanthropy Council.  She is the proud mother of a UW-Madison senior.

Noel Hefty

Noel Hefty received her dance education degree from UW−Madison and her accounting degree from Stephens College.  This combination has enabled her to work in the creative and administrative sides of many organizations. While living in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, she was a founding member of the Steamboat Dance Theatre.  For 10 years she served as the producer/artistic director as well as choreographed for the annual concerts.  She has served as staff member and/or board member for numerous organizations.  Ms. Hefty’s background in accounting has been instrumental in the development of comprehensive financial management systems for non-profit arts organizations in Colorado.  Additionally, she has served on the panel for the Colorado Council on the Arts - Grants to Artists & Organizations, Westaff Grants panel and as the representative for northwest Colorado Arts Councils to the Colorado Council of the Arts. She also served on the advisory board of the Departments of Theatre and Dance at the University of Colorado-Boulder and was a past president of the UW−Madison School of Education Board of Visitors.

Ms. Hefty is currently serving on the Board of Stories on Stage (a theatrical organization) and is working for Perry Mansfield’s summer intensive in theatre and dance in PR and recruitment.  She was extremely honored to receive the Alumni Achievement Award from the UW School of Education in the spring of 2008.

David Marsh

David D. Marsh is the Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California.  As associate dean, he is responsible for strategic planning, program operation, student services, recruiting and admission, and quality enhancement for all the academic programs in the school.   He also has been professor and the Robert A. Naslund Chair of Curriculum and Instruction in the school.  His books and articles have focused on high school reform, instructional leadership, and curriculum improvement.  He recently served on the U.S. Department of Education task force on high school reform, was co-chair of the statewide task force on the high school graduation exam, and was co-author of the California high school task force report known as Second To None.  He served for three months in India as senior advisor to the Central Ministry of Education on improving secondary schools, and he has visited schools and studied school leadership in 13 countries.  He also was co-director of the International Principal's Institute that was held each summer at USC.

Dr. Marsh grew up in Madison, where his father was a high school principal.  He has three degrees from UW−Madison: an undergraduate degree, an M.A.T. in history-education that led to high school teaching, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction.  He received the Outstanding Alumni Award from the School of Education at UW−Madison.  Dr. Marsh resides in Studio City, California.

Linda L. McIsaac

Linda McIsaac is a former teacher and school superintendent who completed her master’s and Ph.D. degrees at UW−Madison.  She had a unique opportunity to work with Dr. Herbert Klausmeier of the UW Research and Development Center and Individually Guided Education. 

Dr. McIsaac’s passion for education and improvement led to the establishment of a computer training and applications development company that she sold to Inacom in 1998.  Her current company has developed a way to measure the thinking process and predict human behavior.  The applications are many for education (helping students understand their strengths and career paths), as well as for predicting and understanding behaviors for TV viewing habits, marketing, finance, health, corrections, and more. Dr. McIsaac’s hobbies are stamp collecting and supporting her daughter Megan’s Olympic quest in dressage.

Tashia Morgridge

Tashia Frankfurth Morgridge earned her bachelor's degree from the School of Education in 1955 and a master's degree in 1975 from Leslie University in Massachusetts.  Now retired as a special-education teacher, she lives in Portola Valley, California. 

Ms. Morgridge is a supporter of Reading Recovery, a literacy program for at-risk first-grade students.  In addition, she is active in encouraging civic engagement among students at Stanford University and at the University of Wisconsin and is a member of the Board of Directors of Campus Compact. Ms. Morgridge's husband, John, is a 1955 graduate of the University's School of Business and earned his MBA from Stanford University in 1957.  He is a member of the boards of directors of WARF, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, CARE and the Nature Conservancy, and is a Trustee of Stanford University.

Judith V. Ovitt

After receiving a B.S. in English and Speech Secondary Education from UW−Madison in 1961, Judith V. Ovitt taught at high schools in Wisconsin and California.  Later, she worked as an independent travel agent for 22 years.  Always active in community organizations, she has served on numerous boards, including the Angel Charity for Children, which raises $1 million a year for children’s causes in Tucson, and the University of Arizona Children’s Research Center.  She’s also very involved with San Miguel HS, a new concept high school that combines job sharing with full-time classes for a college-bound group of disadvantaged teenagers.

Ms. Ovitt and her husband, Terry, have lived in Tucson since 1974 and have two grown daughters, Debbie and Barbara.  Terry is an academic radiologist and chairman at the University of Arizona Maricopa Hospital.  Ms. Ovitt enjoys playing golf, traveling, reading, and spending time at their home in San Clemente, CA, especially when the grandchildren visit.  While being avid University of Arizona sports enthusiasts, she and Terry also keep close track of the Packers and Badgers.

Claudia Grams Pogreba

Claudia Pogreba has spent 22 years in education in the Seattle area.  In addition to teaching language arts, physical education, and health education, she has served as a middle school and elementary school principal in two Washington state school districts.  She has been very active with Wisconsin alumni activities in Seattle, serving as president of the area alumni chapter.  In 1985, WAA gave her its Sparkplug Award for outstanding service.  Ms. Pogreba received her bachelor’s degree in physical education from UW−Madison in 1970 and earned a master’s degree in art education and educational administration from Seattle University.  

Since moving to Madison with her husband, Tom, Ms. Pogreba has co-authored and served as content coordinator for the Center on Education and Work’s publication, Making the Connection: Linking Children’s Literature to Career Development Pre-Kindergarten through Middle School.  She currently serves as a Wisconsin Alumni Association representative to the UW Athletic Board of Directors.  She also is on the Board of Directors of Child Development Incorporated, a non-profit early-childhood education program with a 40-year history of serving low socio-economic families in Madison. 

Carolyn Stanford Taylor

Carolyn Stanford Taylor completed two degrees at the University of Wisconsin−Madison: a bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1978 and a master’s degree in educational administration in 1979.  In 1997, she received the School of Education’s Lois Gadd Nemec Distinguished Alumni Award.  Her daughter, Carlettra Stanford, a second-year principal at Gompers Elementary School in Madison, was the 2008 recipient of the same award.

              Ms. Stanford Taylor is currently the assistant state superintendent for the Division for Learning Support: Equity and Advocacy at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (WDPI).  Her areas of responsibility at WDPI include special education, student services, and two state schools, the Wisconsin School for the Deaf in Delavan and the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Janesville.  She previously served as the principal of Lincoln and Marquette Elementary Schools in Madison.  She also taught more than 10 years in the Madison Metropolitan School District, and is involved in numerous community organizations, including the Dane County Human Services Board, FST (Families and Schools Together) local and national boards, and is a commissioner on the Governor’s Juvenile Justice Commission.  Ms. Stanford Taylor and her husband, Larry, reside in Madison.

Ann K. Wallace

Ann Wallace came to Madison in 1959 as a UW−Madison freshman and, except for a year on each coast, she has lived here ever since.  After completing her bachelor’s degree in sociology, she worked in the sociology department on a series of research and training projects until 1980, when she moved to the Dean’s Office in the School of Education.  There she progressed through several administrative titles, retiring as an assistant dean in 2005.  Complementing her job responsibilities relating to academic staff, she was active in academic staff governance on campus from its beginning in the late 1980's. 

Since retirement, Ms. Wallace has been the volunteer executive director of the UW−Madison Retirement Association in a role that she shares with Char Tortorice as of September 2007.  When not working with or for retirees, she enjoys concerts by the Madison Symphony Orchestra and School of Music faculty, organ recitals at Overture Hall, operas downtown and on campus, plays of the Madison Repertory Theatre, and dining out as a way to stay in touch with old friends.

Tina Weintraub

Tina Weintraub received her bachelor’s degree in education from UW−Madison in 1967 and her master’s in special education from Columbia Teachers College in 1969. She lives in New York City where she was a teacher for 31 years, serving as a classroom teacher and later as a teacher trainer and special education coordinator.  Since retirement in 2000 she has continued working on her love of art, as a volunteer in one museum and docent and now head docent in another NYC museum.

Ms. Weintraub's love for writing culminated in the production of two of her plays off-off-Broadway. She is also the co-author of a book on origami for classroom teachers. She enjoys travel and is always trying to improve her French. Tina spends her summers in her second home in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where she shares her knowledge of art and origami by teaching courses for adults and children.

Cathy W. White

Cathy Wemple White is a third generation UW student who graduated as an occupational therapist in 1975.After completing three internships, she worked as an OTR at Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Hospital in Milwaukee for several years.Ms. White and her husband, Michael, have six children who now range in age from 19 to 29.She has volunteered in multiple Milwaukee school systems, both public and private, throughout the last 26 years.Both she and Michael have been very committed to improving Milwaukee’s health care and educational systems. They have also been very involved with Interlochen Arts Academy and Camp, which all of their children have attended. She has served on the board of Penfield Children’s Center for the last 12 years and remains active in various community organizations.

Children and friends of all ages remain Ms. White's greatest love and source of pleasure. She enjoys renovating homes and gardening, as well as reading.Now that the children have grown, she is returning to her frustrated enjoyment of tennis and golf. Fond memories of UW−Madison remain, renewed with the arrival of each football and basketball season.