Staff
Raina Megert, Research Coordinator of Finance and Operations
Raina Megert collaborates with faculty, staff, and school districts to plan and implement research-oriented events and activities. She assists with easyCBM Deluxe Edition customer service, and manages its financial arrangements.
Raina also serves as the management and organizational component of BRT. Raina earned her B.S. in General Science, Exercise and Movement Science, and Accounting from the University of Oregon.
J
oshua Hudlow, easyCBM Product Specialist and Marketing
Tributes
Dr. Stanley L. Deno
To the Leader of the Band…
It is a truism that scientists do not work in isolation. Our work builds upon the work of others, and it is possible to trace the lineage of a line of research as clearly as one might trace one’s genealogy through laboratory results.
All of us who work at BRT, and many other educational researchers spread throughout the globe, can trace our work to “the father of CBM”, Dr. Stanley L. Deno.
Stan, as he was known to friends, led the work that brought Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM) into common usage, altering forever the ways in which schools monitor the academic progress children, and especially children with disabilities, are making. His work on CBM and data-based decision making set the stagefor Response to Intervention and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support.
During his 40-year tenure at the University of Minnesota, Stan mentored nearly 100 doctoral students and junior researchers. Gerald Tindal, Director of BRT, counts himself quite fortunate to be among that number. The two men worked closely together for years and maintained a strong friendship, despite the many miles that separated them.
Stan passed away in 2016, yet his legacy will continue to live on through the scholars whose lives he touched, and the positive impact his research continues to have on teachers’ practice, and through them, in their students’ lives and academic success.
Thank you, Stan, for sharing your brilliance, your caring, and your passion with so many. All of us here at BRT will carry your work forward into the future with the same integrity and passion that flowed through everything you did.
“The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are
growing old but his blood runs through my instrument
and his song is in my soul. My life has been a poor
attempt to imitate the man. I’m just a living legacy to
the leader of the band.”
— Dan Fogelberg Leader of the Band
Karsten David Tindal
BRT is more than just a university research unit. We are a close-knit family, bound by love and respect for one another. On August 14, 2018, one of our family members lost his life in a tragic car accident. Some people leave indelible impressions upon our lives, Karsten David Tindal was such a person.
Those who were fortunate enough to know him personally will long remember Karsten’s smile, his easy laughter, his capacity for creativity, and his genuine and deep love for his family.
Those of us who have worked for BRT for decades remember his tottering early steps as he learned how to walk and then—seemingly in an instant—to run. We cheered him through his years of playing sports, looked on with pride as he began coaching, and raised a toast to celebrate his admission to the University of Oregon’s Sports Product Management program in Portland. We gratefully accepted his help recording videos and designing promotional brochures for our programs, and we wore with pride the BRT t-shirts he created. Together, we also mourn his passing. Karsten’s light shone brightly, and his joy and positive presence enriched so many people’s lives. Although his life was far, far too brief, it was lived well and fully. Karsten, you are missed. You are mourned. You are loved.
A Tribute to Karsten David Tindal (May 13, 1990 – August 14, 2018)
No parent should have to write the obituary for their child. It is with profound and unremitting grief that we honor the life of Karsten David Tindal, who recently died in a car crash on Dillard Road, a mere half mile from where he grew up. Karsten was born on Mother’s Day (May 13) in 1990 to Linda and Gerald Tindal. He was only 28 when he died on Tuesday August 14, 2018, leaving behind both parents and a sister, Sevrina, with whom he had a special relationship: The two were extremely good friends as well as siblings. He also left behind Madison Martinet, his significant other for the past 8 years. And, of course, we can’t forget his good buddy Murphy, a Bull Terrier that KT and Madison loved.
Karsten cannot be defined by what he did in his short life, but by how he rolled and the way he interacted with everything: people, problems, friends, school, sports, work, and family. Karsten was always a social mixer: positive, perceptive, uplifting. He never got down on anyone. His ability to be the glue that helped define and include others was his gift, even when life threw challenges his way. Early in his life’s commitment to sports, he was able to move in and out of different activities, from soccer to basketball and eventually to football, which became not just a passion but his life. After graduating from South Eugene High School in 2008, he ignored the wishes of his parents to enroll in a good public college and insisted on Whittier, a private liberal arts college in California. The reason: He could be on the starting line in football. Because the school did not award degrees in football, he settled for a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology. After graduating in 2012, he returned to Eugene so he could get a master’s degree from the College of Education at the UO. The reason: Maybe he could get a graduate fellowship and work with the renowned and mighty Ducks football program. After two years of successful schooling and no position with the football team, he graduated and bounced around, first working for EPIC (now Inflexion) for a year and then doing odd jobs while he collected himself. From 2012 through 2017, he was an assistant coach in the South Eugene High School football program. Then, he got the break that he needed: Admission to the UO Master’s program in Sports Product Management (SPM) located in Portland. He began in the fall of 2017 and was just completing his internship this summer (2018) with Richardson Sports in Springfield. He loved it there: the people and the direct connection to an industry in sports, but he particularly clicked with his mentor, Sam Baker. His plan was to finish his degree and then market a golf hat that he and his SPM team had designed. As the summer was transitioning to the hot days of August, he began golfing with his buddies, getting ready
to finish his internship and then his degree so he could be off to his next life somewhere in the sport industry. Instead, after the tragic accident, his next life is Heaven, where he is sure to go.
He and Sevrina were our very best friends but we now must take leave of his wonderful presence and simply lean on memories of him with us. Rest in peace, Karsten. We love you and will always miss you. We will never forget that you made us who we are.
A Celebration of Life will take place on September 9, 2018 at the football field of South Eugene High School. The event will begin at 2 PM and afterwards, we will tailgate with food being catered in KT style.
To keep Karsten in our presence, the family will be working with the Sports Product Management program and the UO to develop a scholarship in his name. In lieu of flowers or other gifts, please make a donation by writing a check to the Karsten Tindal Scholarship Fund and sending it to Oregon Community Credit Union, PO Box 77002, Springfield, OR, 97475 or visit in person and reference account 1226317.A