Speaker Bios

Rebecca St. George

Rebecca St. George is the staff attorney for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, a small tribe in Northeastern Minnesota. While she was in law school, Rebecca coordinated the Racial Justice Improvement Project (RJIP) for St. Louis County, a team of county criminal justice practitioners committed to reducing racial disparities in the state's criminal justice system, particularly in the Sixth Judicial District. Prior to becoming a lawyer, she worked for ten years with Mending the Sacred Hoop, an organization out of Duluth, Minnesota, that "works from a social change perspective to end violence against Native women and children while restoring the safety, sovereignty, and sacredness of Native women in their tribal communities providing domestic violence help." (www.mshoop.org) In her role there, Rebecca trained practitioners in tribal justice systems around the country, worked within the St. Louis County criminal justice system, and worked with victims and perpetrators of crime both on and off the reservation. She has also been involved with numerous non-profit organizations over her years in Duluth, serving on the board of directors for the YWCA, American Indian Community Housing Organization, the Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assualt, the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition, and CHUM (a homeless shelter and food shelf).

Luke Moravec

When not running amok with the after school KEY Zone students at Myers-Wilkins Elementary, Luke can be found jumping in Lake Superior, riding the many local mountain bike trails, writing chapter books for young readers, and performing various acts on stage which include Nerd Nite presentations, theatrical productions, and a one-man rock outfit called “Zeb or Zeke and the Run Away Screamings.” Things Luke loves include (in no particular order): his cat, Legos, Scooby-Doo, Duluth, pistachio muffins, and his wife.

Patty Paquette

Patty is a Duluthian who lives with two of her children, her husband and her dog. Her oldest child also lives in Duluth. Although she moved to New Jersey for a small stint in the 90's and has visited many states throughout the years, she has always been drawn to Lake Superior; as long as she is near it, she feels like she's home. Education is a field that is very important to her and one she has always desired working in. She strongly believes in education for all and that everyone can learn. Although challenging, working in the Office of Education Equity of the Duluth Public Schools has allowed Patty to have a positive impact and influence as we work toward the success of all students in our district. Even though she didn't expect to experience such growth personally and professionally through her work, that has been an added bonus! She is grateful for all she has experienced and learned along the way. As a district, we still have a long way to go in reaching success for all students, but Patty accepts the challenge and wants to be part of the solutions. Some activities she enjoys outside of her work include spending time with her family and friends, supporting her children in their interests and activities, reading, going for long walks, and cooking.

Bob King

Bob King has enjoyed the night sky and astronomy since childhood, but chose photojournalism as his vocation and made stars his lifetime hobby. He grew up in Illinois and received a teaching degree in German from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Because photography was another early passion, he worked as a photographer at a newspaper in Champaign before moving to Duluth to work at the News Tribune, where he has been the photo editor since 1990.

He writes a regular astronomy blog called Astro Bob and teaches community education astronomy classes at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Bob also writes for the online astronomy websites Universe Today and Sky & Telescope. His book, Night Sky with the Naked Eye, published last November is an activity based book aimed at both beginning and amateur astronomers. In it, he guides readers to all the wonderful things visible in the night sky with no special equipment. It covers satellites, the aurora, the brighter constellations, nighttime clouds and halo phenomena, planets, the moon, meteor showers and much more.

Bob lives in Duluth with his wife, Linda and has two children, Katie and Maria.

Kateri Little

Kateri Little was born and raised on the Connecticut coast in Old Saybrook, where she learned the "domestic arts" at her grandmother's knee, but the sciences were the inscrutable craft, for where there's chemistry in baking, there's geometry in sewing. An English major in college with a focus on pedagogy and rhetoric, Kateri employed critical reading skills to continue to learn and develop her hidden talent for mathematics and analytical reasoning, and has been using those skills ever since for Duluth Public Schools, initially for the head start program, and currently as MARSS coordinator. Before moving to Duluth, she lived the good life in sunny Miami, Florida, where she taught English as a second language (when she wasn't at the beach), and then spent thirteen wonderful years in the village (aka the People's Republic) of Chapel Hill, NC. In her spare time, Kateri enjoys all manner of arts and crafts, gardening, reading literature and poetry, and taking long walks with her husband on the shores of Lake Superior.

Paul Manoppo

Paul is a technology teacher at Lincoln Park Middle School in Duluth, MN. Prior to this he was part of Duluth Public School's Innovation team and spent time as an International Baccalaureate teacher in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is currently working with the College of St. Scholastica to promote STEM opportunities for kids at Lincoln Park. He attended UMD and stayed in Duluth for the outdoors and extraordinary community. Self- taught in electronics repair, Paul loves to tinker and find ways he can use new technology within his classroom. He is always excited to learn something new and share his experiences with others.

Edye Howes

Edye Howes is an Ojibwe kwe from the Leech Lake Nation, but has resided in Duluth for most of her life. She is the mother of three and has a wonderful husband who supports her in all life's endeavors. She enjoys spending time with family, running in the woods, lifting weights and traveling. Professionally, Edye is the coordinator of the Indian Education Department for the Duluth Public Schools and one of the founders and program director for Misaabekong Ojibwe Immersion program at Lowell Elementary.

Daniel Oyinloye

Daniel Oluwaseyi Oyinloye is a Nigerian - born artist, storyteller and community organizer. He arrived in the United States in 2002 with his mother and sister, and, after a few years endeavoring to become an engineer in college, discovered his niche for art and performing. His first break as a musician came when he joined as a rapper in the band 2one8, and since then, he's performed under the aliases DSP, TommyDan, and Goody Goody, respectively.

Few people in this day and age lead lives so inextricably intertwined with their core values as Daniel. He draws inspiration from his faith, which has been an integral part of his development, not only as an artist, but as an individual. It was in 2013 that his faith was tested to the extent at which he fully submitted, quitting his steady job as a program coordinator at UMD and embarking on a journey to the west coast to explore what it meant to be a filmmaker. He often makes reference to this time as being a "dark" period in his life, though not by any conventional means; it was a time in which he was immersed in sporadic joys and sorrows. However, it would be his struggle during this period, which followed a breakup, the passing of his father and the struggles of personal desires that brought about his "awakening."

In making the effort to emerge from a chaotic stupor, Daniel's passion and talent for storytelling quickly became a catalyst for healing. Since then, it has vibrantly materialized in virtually every community he has taken the time to share his gifts with. Daniel has acted as the notoriously high-energy team leader for various fundraisers, campaigns, and performance events and is a spirited advocate for social transformation.

In recent years , he has worked as the founder and director of A Goody Night, a mobile, artistic storytelling event based out of Minnesota. The event platforms musical and visual artists, providing them with the opportunity to develop their portfolios, interact one-on-one with their communities, and, most importantly, explore the experience of telling their own stories. During the show itself, artists, musicians and special guests alike partake in topical dialogues with audience participation and are featured in high quality, short documentary films.

Daniel graduated from the UMD in 2009 as a Studio Arts major with an emphasis in Digital Arts Photography. Since then, he has actively worked as an independent filmmaker and musician and is in the process of completing his fifth solo album, Uni-Verse, which will serve as yet another creative milestone on his life's journey -- the path of storytelling.