Friends of Fulbright Finland Alumni Council

Kelly Day is a dedicated educator with over 11 years of classroom experience, currently teaching 7th grade mathematics at Creekside Middle School in Carmel, Indiana. She previously served as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow in Washington, D.C., where she contributed to national STEM initiatives at the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, helped manage the National Science Bowl, and supported development of the Federal STEM Education 5-Year Strategic Plan for OSTP under the Biden Administration. 

A 2015 Fulbright Finland Distinguished Award in Teaching recipient, Kelly now serves on the Friends of Fulbright Finland Alumni Council, advancing international exchange and collaboration. With travels to more than 50 countries, she brings a global perspective into her classroom, inspiring students to see math as a gateway to the wider world.

Recognized as the Indiana state finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST), Kelly is known for her creative, theme-based lessons that spark curiosity, build confidence, and foster strong classroom communities. She believes deeply in the power of education to open doors, inspire futures, and connect learners across cultures.

David Cupolo is an educational leader, researcher, and learning-space advocate with more than 20 years of experience in educational leadership, driven by one question: What makes learning thrilling? His work explores how evidence-informed teaching, purposeful learning environments, clarity, and student agency create deeper engagement and collective efficacy.

David holds graduate degrees in Special Education and School Administration from North Carolina State University, along with an Educational Specialist degree and Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Coastal Carolina University. His doctoral research examined the conditions that transform learning from compliance into genuine curiosity, engagement, investment creating learning thrill.

Influenced by John Hattie’s Visible Learning research, David focuses on making learning visible, purposeful, and actionable while designing spaces that foster collaboration, agency, and collective efficacy in that teachers and students can accomplish more together. He is an EdMarket Certified Learning Places Specialist and member of the EdMarket Education Innovation Council.

As a Fulbright alumnus and member of the Friends of Fulbright Alumni Council, David is passionate about connecting educators across cultures and exploring ideas that expand what is possible in education. He welcomes conversations about learning thrill, Visible Learning, learning spaces, student agency, and educational innovation.

Jens Jacobsen is an educator and educational leader whose career has centered on strengthening teaching, learning, and educational opportunities in rural communities. He currently serves as a Community Education Coordinator and District Instructional Coach with Cook County Schools in Grand Marais, Minnesota, while also teaching and supervising future educators at The College of St. Scholastica. Throughout his career, Jens has served in a variety of K–12 leadership and teaching roles, including as a school administrator, curriculum and grant director, instructional coach, and mathematics and science educator in rural communities in Minnesota and Alaska.

Jens is completing his Ed.D. in Educational Leadership at The College of St. Scholastica, where his research focuses on teacher-driven formative feedback and how schools can create feedback systems that strengthen teacher agency, reflection, and professional growth. His broader professional interests include instructional coaching, educational leadership, rural education, community-based learning, and developing systems that place relationships and trust at the center of improvement.

As a participant in the 2024 Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad program in Finland, Jens had the opportunity to study Finnish education, culture, and society alongside educators from across the United States. The experience profoundly influenced his thinking about educational leadership, particularly the importance of trust, teacher professionalism, collaboration, and allowing educators the autonomy to respond to the needs of their students and communities.

Jens continues to draw upon his Finland experience in his work with educators and future teachers and is passionate about creating opportunities for educators to learn across cultures. As a member of the Friends of Fulbright Finland Alumni Council, he hopes to strengthen connections among Fulbright Finland alumni, celebrate the lasting impact of international educational exchange, and help more educators experience the professional and personal growth that can come from learning beyond their own communities.

After completing his Ph.D. at the Ohio State University in 1975, Dr. Loovis joined the faculty of the College of Applied Life Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where he was an assistant professor from 1975 to 1978. He relocated to Cleveland State University in 1978 and retired in 2013 as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Health and Human Performance. In 2016 he returned to his former department and served as the interim chairperson retiring for the second time in 2022.  He was a Fulbright Scholar in 2011, teaching and collaborating on a research project with colleagues at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. 

Dr. Loovis’ primary area of research is the development of fundamental motor skills and patterns in children who are typically developing as well as children with intellectual disabilities. For the past 10 years he has collaborated with a team from the Department of Physical Therapy at Wichita State University in Kansas documenting the development of motor proficiency/competence and postural control in children and youth with intellectual disabilities. He is the author/co-author of more than 70 published articles/book chapters. He has delivered over 100 national and international presentations.  

Dr. Maureen Francis Mascha is an associate professor of accounting at Purdue Northwest in Indiana. She earned her Ph.D., from the University of Kentucky, and her M.B.A. and Bachelors degrees from DePaul University in Chicago and is also a Certified Public Accountant., Dr. Mascha was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Vaasa, Finland where she began three research projects, all of which continue. 

Dr. Mascha's research interests include sustainability, uncertainty in decision making, reporting under U.S. and EU regulation and capital market reaction, and risk identification. 

Dr. S. Michael Putman serves as the Associate Provost for Academic Programs and Space at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Previously, Dr. Putman held positions as Chair of the Department of Reading and Elementary Education and as an interim associate dean in the Cato College of Education. 

While serving in these roles, he led the development of the Graduate Certificate in Instructional Coaching and Teacher Assistant to Teacher programs and the Charlotte Teachers Early College program — a partnership with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools that offers high school students the chance to earn college credits in education. 

Dr. Putman’s research focuses on the development of teacher self-efficacy and the impact of practicum experiences, including those in international contexts, on preservice teachers’ knowledge, skills and dispositional attributes. He has also conducted research that examined the impact of affective variables within online inquiry processes. In sum, his list of publications includes 7 books and 57 book chapters and journal articles, and he has secured more than $3 million in funding. 

In 2022-2023, Dr. Putman was privileged to serve as a Fulbright Global Scholar and conducted research on the impact of the pandemic on practicum experiences at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland), Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and Ludwigsburg University of Education (Germany).  
 

Professor Emerita Sharon K. Sandeen is a prolific scholar and recognized expert on U.S. and international trade secret law. In 2019-2020, she served as the Fulbright-Hanken Distinguished Chair in Economics and has since continued her relationship with Hanken School of Economics and other Finnish universities by collaborating on scholarly projects and serving as a reviewer of various PhD projects. Recently, Professor Sandeen retired from Mitchell Hamline School of Law after a 24-year career as a law professor and a 17-year career as a practicing attorney. While in Finland for her Fulbright, Professor Sandeen traced her maternal family’s roots and found numerous Finnish cousins, including her randomly assigned Fulbright Buddy.

Edward Sivak received his undergraduate degree in Biology from Gannon University and his Doctor of Medicine degree from Hahnemann (now Drexel-Hahnemann) Medical College.  His professional career has spanned more than 50 years. He is a Vietnam Veteran receiving Bronze Star for Service after which he received specialty and subspecialty training at the Cleveland Clinic and University of Oklahoma. 

Prior to his current position, he was the director of the medical intensive care unit at the Cleveland Clinic, Director of Critical Care at Meridia Huron Hospital and Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at SUNY, Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York.   He has authored and co-authored 73 scientific abstracts and publications, written numerous text book chapters and edited a critical care text, The High-Risk Patient: Management of the Critically Ill. 

Doctor Sivak is currently a staff physician at MetroHealth Medical Center and Professor at CWRU, School of Medicine.  He received a Fulbright Flex Grant to Finland (2015-2016)  and returned to Aalto University as visiting professor to continue research in cost of health care.  His outreach activities advocate for collaborative exchanges between Finland and the United States emphasizing the importance of supporting the scholars visiting the United States.  He is recently appointed to the Fulbright Specialist Roster by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and World Learning.

Brad is a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management where he studies entrepreneurship, economic development, and how people and organizations use stories to achieve their goals. Before pursuing his doctorate, he worked in regional macroeconomic forecasting and financial research and reporting at Moody's Analytics and Bridgewater Associates, respectively. He holds a M.A. in sociology from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in economics from Syracuse University. 

Brad spent his formative Fulbright year at the University of Helsinki exploring topics in the philosophy of social science—topics that continue to influence his work today. 
 

Dr. Teresa Turner is Director of Magnet and Choice Programming and BLAST Project Director for Richland School District One in Columbia, South Carolina, where she is leading a $15 million federal grant as Project Director for the nation’s first K-12 Aerospace magnet program. She previously served as principal of three magnet schools featuring International Baccalaureate, Montessori, and Language Immersion (Chinese and Spanish) programs. Dr. Turner is also Chief Innovation Officer and educational consultant at Dynasty Management Group. 

A 2026 Fulbright Leaders for Global Schools fellow to Finland, she is the debut author of Rekindled: One Leader, One Fellowship, One Fire Relit, a memoir chronicling her Fulbright journey to Helsinki and Turku and what Finland taught her about leading with her whole self. She holds an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and lives in Blythewood, South Carolina, with her husband.

Dr. Mujde Yuksel is Chair and Professor of Marketing at Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School in Boston, where she also directs the X Lab. A consumer behavior researcher, her work focuses on consumer well-being, digital consumption, and sports and entertainment marketing. Her teaching emphasizes experiential, project-based learning and the application of consumer insights to marketing strategy in the domains of customer experience, sports marketing, and neuromarketing.

As a 2023–24 Fulbright-University of Vaasa Scholar, Mujde studied how accountability within communities can encourage physical activity and sustainable consumption. The experience deepened her commitment to international exchange and cross-cultural research collaboration.

Beyond the university, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Merrimack Valley YMCA and on the Andover Green Advisory Board. She also participates in Wasserman’s Collective Think Tank, which advances the visibility and inclusion of women in sports, entertainment, and culture. Before entering academia, she worked as sponsorship coordinator for the 2010 FIBA World Championship and played professional basketball, including for the Turkish National Team.