Colorado Mountain College Hires New Assistant Dean of Instruction and First Full-Time Faculty Member in Salida

Colorado Mountain College (CMC) has welcomed two new employees to serve in Salida and Poncha Springs. CMC has hired Jamie Kruis as Assistant Dean of Instruction. Michael Schwager will be teaching mathematics as Salida’s first full-time faculty member.

Jamie Kruis, Assistant Dean of Instruction of CMC Salida. Courtesy of Colorado Mountain College.

At the Salida campus, Kruis will hire, support, supervise, and evaluate part-time faculty members. She will work on strategic programming and course scheduling to maximize enrollment and meet degree time.

Kruis received her Bachelor of Arts in anthropology at Purdue University where she then moved to Tartu, Estonia, to complete her Master of Arts in semiotics at the University of Tartu.  There she also taught English and edited academic articles, manuscripts, and dissertations for the university’s publications.

Since 2014, Kruis has been working at Colorado Mountain College where she started in the college-wide Academic Affairs department. She is a former whitewater raft guide and children’s ski instructor.

Schwager will be teaching and advising a broad range of students as a full-time math faculty member. He will also mentor part-time faculty and support college-wide committees and special projects.

Michael Schwager, mathematics teacher at CMC Salida.

Since January 2019, he has worked as an adjunct math instructor at CMC Rifle where he also taught math at Coal Ridge High School in New Castle. In Salida, he will be dividing his time teaching in Salida High School’s concurrent enrollment program and instructing college-only students at CMC.

Schwager completed his bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics at Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman in 2011. He earned a Master of Education in curriculum and instruction at MSU in 2017 and was a 2020 Boettcher finalist for the Boettcher Foundation’s Teacher Recognition award.

College vice president and campus dean for Leadville and Salida, Dr. Rachel Pokrandt said, “I know Jamie and Michael are as thrilled as I am to be a part of establishing CMC Salida’s success.”