Love Yourself and Where You Teach: Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque hosts 2025 Rural Teacher Summit

Approaching the 2025-26 school year, more than 80 teachers gathered at Innovate 120 and the Maquoketa Art Experience in Maquoketa, Iowa, for the third annual Rural Teacher Summit, hosted by the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque (CFGD). Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, which anchors RSC’s Iowa Hub, brings these rural educators together each year for a day of inspiration, celebration, and shared learning.

CFGD believes it is important to host the event within the rural communities they support. Josie Manternach, CFGD Program Officer and RSC Iowa Hub lead, shared how being embedded in place meets CFGD’s mission: “We believe that hosting the event locally strengthens our connection with residents and educators. When we show up in a community, we bring together teachers, local businesses, and community leaders to create an impactful and meaningful day. This presence not only supports rural educators but also builds trust and reinforces the foundation’s role as a true partner in supporting education across our rural communities.”

Meeting teachers where they are at is not just a physical necessity, but a social and emotional priority as well. In listening to area educators, Josie and the CFGD team heard that topics like burnout, reinvigoration, and connection were of paramount importance to their Rural Teacher Corps members. Josie shared that “we listened closely to feedback from attendees, who made it clear that they wanted more support for their own well-being. Burnout prevention was a common theme we saw. In response, we shaped this year’s summit around topics that directly support the mental, emotional, and physical health of educators. Sessions on nature-play encouraged stress relief and reconnection with the outdoors, mental health discussions addressed the growing pressures educators face, and social-emotional learning offered tools for advocating. These topics reflect what our educators told us they needed most.”

The opening keynote address, led by Aaron Thomas of Parkersburg (IA) School District, offered motivational messaging around supporting each other within rural communities, fueled by his family’s story of overcoming heartbreak and rebuilding a town and school through the power of relationships. Similarly, the breakout sessions focused on three core themes, all built around resilience and meeting the emotional needs of teachers: Social Emotional Learning Advocacy, Your Brain on Burnout, and People, Place, and Play. Participants attended two of the three sessions, each led by regional experts in their fields.

In People, Place, and Play, teachers heard from Jared McGovern, Director of The Wanderwood Gardens in Dubuque. The Wanderwood Gardens, which opens in 2026, is a nature-play space open to the public, including school groups. Jared describes The Wanderwood Gardens as “an inspirational place for all children and their households to discover their own unique positive connections with nature and to experience joy through child-directed imaginative play in the gardens. It is paramount that all children have access to play in nature and to receive the positive health and developmental benefits as well as developing a sense of belonging that this access can provide.”

Sharing this message to teachers was especially attractive to Jared, a native of rural northeast Iowa, whose career in environmental education has taught him the transformative impact that experiencing nature can have on students and teachers alike: “Teachers are champions, and in rural communities especially, they are advocates, friends, and neighbors. Rural schools play a foundational role in creating and nurturing a sense of place in the regions they serve, and as such rural schools, in many ways they lead the direction of their communities.” Moreover, when thinking about burnout prevention and supporting the emotional well-being of educators, joyful time spent in natural spaces can uplift educators alongside children.

After lunch amidst the exhibits at Maquoketa Art Experience and the second round of breakout sessions, Tara Madden of Talent Development Secondary (TDS) led a large-group session focused on strong supportive relationships in rural schools. Like RSC, TDS is a founding member of the GRAD Partnership, a national initiative that aims to grow and develop student success systems in school buildings nationwide. Student success systems focus on relationships, actionable data, and evidence-based practices to help educators and communities build a sense of belonging and school connection among students, address school-wide achievement patterns, and meet individual student needs. The Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque recently joined the GRAD Partnership, making Tara’s session timely and relevant as this work begins in NE Iowa.

“As the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque brings GRAD Partnership to our region, we are emphasizing the importance of school cultures where every student feels valued and every educator feels connected to their mission and their colleagues. Tara's message helped spread awareness of the work CFGD is doing with GRAD Partnership. We are actively recruiting schools to join us in this important work,” described Josie. With an audience composed largely of teachers, Tara focused her session on how strong, positive adult-adult relationships within school buildings can have spreading power to strengthen and brighten the social fabric of school communities.

To close out the day, CFGD staff shared upcoming grant opportunities and more about the GRAD Partnership, offering future connection points for area teachers. In particular, Josie was excited to share about a new grant available, the Thom Determan Classroom Grants. “The grant opportunity supports funding classroom projects, curriculum, professional development, or training for teachers that focuses on building a kind and respectful classroom, connecting with the local community, exploring the wider world, encouraging active citizenship, teaching conflict resolution, and celebrating diversity. Teachers can apply for up to a $1,000 grant,” shared Josie.

Whether through grants, inspiring speakers, or fresh ideas, CFGD’s support made a clear impact on those in attendance. Clancy Junk, a 7th and 8th grade math teacher at Anamosa Middle School, walked away from the day thinking about “the value of relationships and how important it is to make students feel seen and valued– that's even more important than the curriculum that you teach.” After the Rural Teacher Summit, relationships between teachers, schools, and community were strengthened and nurtured, further building a thriving educational ecosystem in northeastern Iowa.

Rural Schools Collaborative would like to thank Josie Manternach, Jason Neises, Shirley Horstman, and all of the CFGD staff for their support of RSC and the continuous opportunities to collaborate that they offer. We would like to extend additional acknowledgements to Nancy Van Milligan, CFGD President and CEO and RSC Board Member, for her leadership in supporting rural education and bringing the GRAD Partnership to Iowa.