About Me

Dr. Valerie Nyberg was a Washington state trained high school ELA teacher and is also an Iowa certified school administrator. She’s been both an associate principal and principal at high schools in Iowa. She was the first African American female to hold the lead principal position in a leading district in Iowa.  In 2019, she earned the School Administrator’s of Iowa, Secondary Associate Principal of the Year (APOY).  While she was the SAI APOY, Dr. Nyberg wrote guest blogs for the National Association of Secondary School Principals under their AP Expert of the Week.   

In January 2022 Dr. Nyberg launched her education consulting business, Liminal Education Consultant.  Liminal offers professional development services to support client goals ranging from awareness-building to promoting organizational trauma-informed, restorative, diversity-related results. This work is based on a shared vision with the client based on theories of adult learning strategies, distributed practice, learning styles, and staff development.  The emphasis of this work is to provide the mindset, and support for the adults who work directly with K-12 students.

Dr. Nyberg is originally from California and after 30 years, she moved back in March 2022.  Currently, Dr. Nyberg works part time as an adjunct professor for Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa as well as for Alder Graduate School of Education located in Redwood City, California.  She teachers courses on Identity, Teaching Diverse Students in Diverse Settings, and about Child and Adolescent Learning Theory.  

Dr. Nyberg holds a Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning and administrator certification (Education Leadership MA)  from the University of Iowa, as well as a MA in English and B.Ed. in English and Communication from Western Washington University. After high school she joined the Navy to see the world, which is how she ended up in Washington state.  As a survivor of numerous traumatic experiences throughout her childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, Dr. Nyberg is foremost concerned with breaking the patterns and cycles of abuse and providing educators and students with hope and a positive outlook for the future.   She is a lifelong learner and enjoys engaging with others who are looking to improve themselves and the world around us.  She is the proud mother of three grown children ages 26, 23, and 21, all boys, who she raised as a single-parent.