HERC Fellowship Program

George Dalbo is a high school social studies teacher in rural south-central Wisconsin. Previously, George has taught social studies in every grade from 5th-12th in public, charter, and private schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as two years at a bilingual international school in Vienna, Austria. George developed and teaches a semester-long Genocide and Human Rights elective course for high school juniors and seniors through UW Green Bay’s College Credit in High School program.  

George completed his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and Social Studies Education at the University of Minnesota. Broadly, George’s research interests include Holocaust, genocide, and human rights education in PreK-12 curricula and classrooms. Situated within the burgeoning field of settler colonial studies, his research examines settlerness in genocide education in the United States and Canada.  

In addition to HERC, George has worked with Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction to implement Act 30, the state’s Holocaust and genocide education mandate. George also co-authored Minnesota’s genocide education legislation, the first Holocaust and genocide mandate in the country to center local and regional cases of Indigenous genocide. George is a research fellow at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota, where he continues to research and write about genocide education in settler colonial nation-states. 

Marisa Piper is a thirty-year veteran teacher with a Master of Science in Curriculum and Instruction with a social studies and adolescent emphasis from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (2006), as well as a Master’s in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2019). Marisa currently teaches AP United States History, Unisted States History, Current Events, and World Cultures at Kettle Moraine High School. Marisa has been a leader and innovator in the classroom serving as a Department Head of Social Studies, leading social studies professional learning community, a Teacher Mentor, a Cooperating Teacher, an AP grader, and a member of the Teacher Advisory group for HERC. Additionally, Marisa has worked with DPI on the Forward Exam Item Review for Social Studies and the setting of Standards. She enjoys the collaborative process working with students and staff to improve learning, curriculum opportunities, and policy. 

Justin Glodowski is in his thirteenth-year teaching high school social studies.  He currently teaches AP US Government and Politics, AP Comparative Government and Politics, and Genocide and Human Rights for Marshfield High School.  He has served in the Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies as a board member, Vice President, and, more recently, as President.  Justin has also worked with the National Constitution Center and the RetroReport on teacher advisory committees.  Lastly, he has been honored with awards in teaching Civil Liberties and Civil Rights and was recently named the 2023 Wisconsin History Teacher of the Year.  Outside of teaching, he enjoys spending time with his family, traveling to National Parks, cheering on the Philadelphia Eagles, and reading fantasy novels. 

Jess Monson-Donnerbauer was raised in rural northwest Wisconsin and holds a BA in history from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.  While studying there she had the privilege of being a student under the late Dr. Stephen Feinstein who founded the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the U of M.  He inspired her to further her studies in Holocaust education.  After earning her secondary education teaching degree from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls, she began her career in the classroom and in 2010 enrolled in Seton Hill University’s certificate program in Genocide and Holocaust studies.  SHU’s National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education led her to a three-week institute for educators at Yad Vashem.  In 2016, she earned her MA in Holocaust & Genocide Studies from Gratz College and has been teaching middle and high school social studies in and around the Twin Cities metropolitan area since 2006