Page 7 - CEHD Commencement Graduate Program

Biographical Information
Michael C. Rodriguez
Michael C. Rodriguez, PhD, is dean of the College of Education and Human Development and a professor of educational measurement and assessment.
He holds the Campbell Leadership Chair with a focus on education equity and is a member of the University’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers. He directs the MN Youth Development Research Group that explores the role of the social
and cultural contexts of learning and positive youth development through the measurement of social and emotional learning. He currently chairs the
Technical Advisory Group of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards and is a member of the Design and Analysis Committee of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
He is the recipient of the Albert J. Harris Research Award from the International Literacy Association. Perhaps most importantly, he is a fifth-generation Minnesotan and a first-generation college graduate.
Mike O. Kenyanya
Mike Kenyanya serves as a consulting analyst for Accenture PLC in Minneapolis. Kenyanya was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and immigrated to Minnesota in 2002. As a student at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), Kenyanya served two terms
as student body president and served on many committees and task forces. He
also held roles including resident advisor and student representative to the Board of Regents. In 2019, Kenyanya received the Sieur du Lhut Award, the highest
award given to a UMD student for service to the campus and community. Kenyanya received a bachelor of business administration in management information systems from the Labovitz School of Business and Economics in 2019.
John Leonard
John Leonard joined the University of Minnesota band faculty in the fall of 2021 after completing his DMA in wind conducting at the University of Kansas. In
2018 he was the interim assistant director of bands, and director of the Bronco Marching Band at Western Michigan University. Previously, Leonard was the assistant director of bands at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and worked as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst teaching music arranging techniques as well as leading the UMass “Hoop” Band and assisting with the Minuteman Marching Band. A prolific arranger, Leonard writes music for many university marching bands, as well as working on new arrangements and transcriptions for wind band. In the summers, he teaches at the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy where he is both a lead clinician as well as the staff manager for the company.
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