Wayne State College welcomed new faculty members in business and
education this semester. Heather Pemberton teacher in the School of Business and Technology and Christian Legler teaches as in the School of Education and Counseling.

Pemberton attended the University of Central Missouri, where she
received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She obtained her CPA license shortly after graduating with her master’s degree. After
college, Pemberton began her career at KPMG, an accounting firm in Kansas City, where she worked for about four years. At this point, Pemberton realized she had a great passion for education.

Pemberton grew up around the Auburn area, so she took advantage of the opportunity to return home.

Pemberton worked at Peru State College for about two-and-a-half years before being persuaded to go back to public accounting. She worked in Lincoln, at BKD before returning to Auburn to be a CPA.

As a business instructor at Wayne State College, Pemberton teaches Survey of Accounting, Accounting I, Accounting II and upper level accounting.

“I absolutely love it here at Wayne State,” Pemberton said. “The students have been phenomenal. There is nothing that an instructor
loves more than for students to ask the question, ‘Why?’, and want to have that deeper understanding of what’s going on. I get that from my
students, and I love it.

“I am looking forward to getting to know the students more and more. Also, getting involved on campus.”

Pemberton is optimistic about continuing the school year as an instructor at WSC.

Christian Legler recently moved to Wayne from Gainesville, Florida. He
just graduated from the University of Florida, where he received his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D.

After college, Legler worked for non-profits for about eight years before he became a teacher. He taught at William M. Raines High School in Jacksonville, Florida, for eight years. While he was a teacher there, he was working on his master’s degree. Legler then
went on the get his Ph.D. while continuing to teach.

He went back to receive his Ph. D. because he knew he wanted to be a teacher educator.

“I knew I wanted to work with college students who were trying to become teachers,” Legler said. “Because I wanted to make a difference, kind of on a bigger scale.”

He spent four years working towards a Ph.D. and finished this summer, and was later hired by Wayne State College.

“I wanted to be able to work with small class sizes and I knew that Wayne State College and the School of Education and Counseling had a big emphasis on insuring that the students are successful and making
connections with students,” Legler said. “Those things are very important to me.”

Along with his teaching curriculum, Legler has a few other ideas about the way a classroom should work.

“One of the things that I do as an instructor, is to really try to develop relationships with my students so that they can be more successful,” Legler said. “To me, making connections with students
helps them with their engagement in the content. They are more likely to be successful if they feel like an instructor cares about them and takes an interest in their education.”

Along with teaching at the college, Legler has made it a priority to get involved in the community of Wayne.

“I just joined a program called Leadership Wayne,” Legler said. “It’s a program through the Wayne Economic Development and University of Nebraska Extension. There are 20 people from a variety of organizations, businesses and institutions that are a part of this program and meet once a month all day to work on improving their leadership skills and becoming more involved in the community.”

Legler said he also joined the Rotary Club in Wayne, and is excited to be part of the club’s service activities.

“I look forward to doing my best to ensure that the students that I work with are prepared to teach in almost any setting,” he said.