Lutheran Education Podcast

Donna Lucas, Principal at Abiding Savior Lutheran School in Lake Forest, CA, is the recipient of the 2026 Charles A. Winterstein Administrator of the Year. She joins the podcast to discuss the various stops across the country that she’s made throughout her career. Through those roles she’s embraced diversity and has learned that people from all corners of the country are still all pretty much the...

Justin Fierro, Principal, and Brooke Weise, Director of Student Services at Immanuel Lutheran School in Giddings, TX, join Dr. Tracie Salgado to talk about their school’s partnership with LSEM and their unique approach to supporting their students with learning differences.

Brian Broderick, Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Non-Public schools and President/CEO of LSEM, Stacy McGhee, talk about education across the state of Michigan and MANS involvement with legislative matters in regards to being able to participate in funding and aid to non-public schools. In this conversation, Broderick, McGhee and Richard Schumacher talk about the wide range of eff...

Travis Grulke, the district education executive at the Michigan District LCMS and assistant to the president, makes another appearance on the podcast. Travis and Richard talk about some important topics and current events in Lutheran education as well as happenings in education across the country and within the political climate. They also chat about slowing down some of technology and AI that stu...

Richard Schumacher,  Senior Director of Operations at Lutheran Special Education Ministries, hosts a solo podcast about LSEM – including stories from the beginnings back in 1873 when it was founded as the Lutheran School for the Deaf to where it is today serving students with various learning disabilities within their own Christian schools across the country. Schumacher talks about the value and b...

Mindy English, LSEM’s Director of Programs and Services, joins the podcast to talk about hands-on, multi-sensory learning. English spent most of her career in education in early childhood education, specifically with children from ages 0-3 through kindergarten.

Dr. Linda Hensel, professor of education and department chair for special education at Concordia Wisconsin, and Dr. Kara Bratton, assistant professor in the School of Education Doctoral Program at Concordia University Irvine, join the podcast to talk about social emotional learning in our classrooms. They talk about their passion in working with children on these skills in a Christian setting rath...

Glenn Rollins, is a manager with the Set Apart to Service initiative at the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. In that role he’s responsible for finding those who are set apart to serve in the church. A pastor at his Lutheran grade school encouraged him to consider a career in church work and from there he attended Concordia University, Seward, NE. He taught at various levels of Lutheran education th...

Dr. Thomas Wrege, a frequent guest and the new Executive Director of the Lutheran Education Association, revisits the podcast and talks about obtaining his role with LEA after being a consultant in Lutheran education the last several years. He talks about his predecessor, Dr. Jonathan Laabs, and the impact he had on LEA for the past 29 years. Wrege was LSEM’s first Charles A. Winterstein Administr...

Dr. Tracie Salgado and Richard Schumacher welcome Dr. Alan Freeman, Director of LCMS School Ministry to the podcast. Freeman talks about his background in Lutheran education and how it prepared him to be able to do what he’s doing today. The three talk in depth about the latest trends and topics in Lutheran education.

Dr. Kim Marxhausen, a long-time friend of the podcast, joins us for another conversation about Lutheran education. In the second part of their conversation about the anxious generation, Dr. Kim Marxhausen explores the influence that adult technology usage has on children. She emphasizes the importance of mindful technology habits among adults, especially when children are present.

Dr. Kim Marxhausen, a long-time friend of the podcast, joins us for another conversation about Lutheran education. In this first of two parts, this conversation is around anxiety in our students and the “great re-wiring of childhood” and how that is contributing to mental illness. Dr. Marxhausen spent 25 years teaching in Lutheran schools before going back to graduate school to earn her PhD in edu...

Dr. Drew Gerdes, Assistant Professor of Education, Director of Undergraduate Early Childhood Education and Director of Student Teaching at Concordia University, Nebraska, once again joins the podcast to revisit last year’s discussion about students with heightened levels of anxiety. He also discusses the values of the late Fred Rogers and how is show, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, stands the test of t...

Ronda Spalding, one of our LSEM teachers, talks about diagnosing and the definition of dyslexia. Tested for dyslexia when she was nine, Ronda heard a lot of “you can’ts” and turned them into “you cans”.  Ronda wanted to offer that opportunity to her students. In this episode Ronda talks about the various types of dyslexia and her passion in helping her students and their unique needs.

Stacy McGhee, President and CEO of LSEM, joins the podcast and talks about how the group of educators, support staff, parents, pastors and administrators should join together in celebrating the students in our classrooms and resource rooms so they feel supported, loved and safe in a positive way. By providing structure in the classroom there’s comfort and trust so students can thrive. Stacy also t...

Mindy English, Lutheran Special Education Ministries’ new Director of Programs and Services, joins the podcast to talk about her new role and her background in special education. A Lutheran educator for over 30 years, Mindy spent a great majority of them as a resource room teacher at LSEM. 

Richard Schumacher, Senior Director of Operations at Lutheran Special Education Ministries, kicks off the 8th season of the Lutheran Education Podcast. In the season opener, he talks about school communications and how it’s changed over the years from printed newsletters to today’s preferred electronic methods like email and apps. Rich also talks about do and don’ts of parent teacher conferences.

Richard Schumacher and President and CEO, Stacy McGhee, are joined by LSEM Programs & Services Consultant, Kathy Krause, to talk about her career in Lutheran special education. Kathy has served numerous roles throughout her years of ministry with LSEM and now looks forward to her upcoming retirement. The three also talk about some of their fun hijinks along the way. Join us in congratulating K...

Angela Swazey, the 2025  Charles A Winterstein Administrator of the Year award recipient and principal at St. Michael Lutheran in Wayne, MI, joins the podcast to share her feelings on being nominated and winning the award. She talks about her philosophy behind the special needs program at her school and the benefits that her families and students gain from having LSEM in their school. She also has...

Chris Singer, president and CEO of Lutheran Church Charities Canine Comfort Dogs program, joins the podcast to talk about the importance and role of comfort dogs in their ministry. They’ll help in the wake of a disaster or emergencies and get an opportunity to respond and help people deal with trauma and tragedy. They currently have 128 teams in 30 states. 

A teacher for over 28 years, Larry Sand joins the podcast to talk about teacher unions and government’s involvement in education. Sand, who writes about education issues, founded the California Teacher Empowerment Network in 2006 to help teachers get information that they may not be able to obtain from their unions and districts. 

Trip Rodgers, Education Executive for the Central Iliinois District returns to the podcast to talk about the latest research on trauma as well as some of the residual effects as we look back on the Covid pandemic.

In this episode Dr. Lisa Joyner, from Veritas Baptist College, and Dr. Bunnie Claxton, founder and CEO of Dissertation Research Specialists, talk about individualized education plans in private school settings.

Patti Bartsch, PhD.,, founder of Naturally Unbridled Wellness, a holistic therapy center in Onalaska, WI, and Tori Yocum, a Biophotonic and Brainergy Specialist with Naturally Unbridled Wellness talk about nutrition and food choices in our schools and how they affect learning and brain development in our students. 

Pastor Todd Bentz, pastor at Emanuel Lutheran Church in Hamburg, MN, and Pastor Rich Steensma, senior pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Jefferson City, MO, join the podcast to talk about how they each made a significant change in ministry and what went into those decisions. Both pastors shifted from education to a pastoral role and chat about how God pressed this change upon their hearts.