Meet the Team
Dr. Jonathan Laabs, Ed.D.
Executive Director
Jon cares deeply about educators in Lutheran ministries! He’s responsible for carrying out the mission of LEA — to link, equip, and affirm educators and workers in ministry for the purpose of building up the body of Christ.
Jon works closely with LEA’s board, crafting the organization’s strategic plan and overseeing its fiscal health. He advocates for educators worldwide, reaching out a hand to any organization with parallel goals to further LEA’s mission.
Edward C. Grube, LL.D.
Director of Communications
Ed Grube oversees all of LEA’s communications and many member services. He writes ten publications for educators every week: a devotional, two issues of LEAnews, and all but two of our Network Tips of the Week. He manages the LEA listservs.
Ed also serves as the editorial director for LEA’s magazine, Shaping the Future and has produced more than 100 webinars for our members.
Denise Rice
Director of Educational Resources
Denise’s motto is, “What can I do for you?” She creates resources for LEA’s educators and manages the resources side of our content platform, LEAconnects. Denise also oversees LEA’s social media, the Lutheran Junior Honor Association, our series Teachers to Teachers, and our weekly encouragement video Words on Wednesday.
She’s also a crucial member of our event planning team, working on all of our conferences, including our triennial convocation.
Sharon Stadtwald
Office Coordinator
Sharon keeps LEA on-target, on-task, and running smoothly. She wears multiple hats, acting as our office manager, bookkeeper, copy editor, membership coordinator, and head of HR.
Sharon also serves on the editorial team at Shaping the Future magazine.
Paul Piel
Technology Project Coordinator
Paul’s talents make him well-suited to be LEA’s technology project coordinator. His duties include the production of webinars, WOW videos, and other technology related matters. Paul is passionate about this ministry because it assists teachers and their ministries. Paul has also been serving other LEA team members with their tasks.
Paul’s undergraduate degree is from Concordia Teacher’s College River Forest, now known as Concordia University Chicago. He earned elementary and secondary teaching degrees specializing in history and political science. He then earned a Master’s from Concordia University Chicago in administration and supervision.
Board of Directors
Bob Ziegler, Chair
Education Executive
Nebraska District LCMS
Seward, Neb.
Drew Gerdes, Vice Chair
Early Childhood Principal
Concordia International School Shanghai
Shanghai, China
Christy Wood, Secretary
Principal
St. John's Lutheran School
Napa, Calif.
Gretchen M. Jameson
Chief Learning Officer
Kacmarcik Enterprises, Inc.
Grafton, Wis.
Barbra Kozisek
St. Paul Lutheran School
Prior Lake, Minn.
Kelly Lamkin
Leadership Team
Good Shepherd Lutheran High School
Elk River, Minn.
Mike Schiemann
Principal
Bethany Lutheran School
Parma, Ohio
Angela Schiller
Principal
Yuma Lutheran School
Yuma, Ariz.
Thomas Wrege
Principal
Zion Lutheran School
Georgetown, Tex.