Full Biography

Mark Gudgel is a lifelong educator who spent eighteen years teaching English, Humanities, World Religions, and Genocide Studies in Nebraska’s public schools, the first ten in Lincoln at Southwest High School and the final eight at Omaha North High Magnet School. Gudgel spent much of his career serving as an adjunct instructor at Southeast Community College where he taught English and Literature of the Holocaust, and at Nebraska Wesleyan University where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in education. In 2022, he accepted a full-time position as an assistant professor of education at the College of Saint Mary, where he teaches Education Leadership in the Ed.D. program as well as an undergraduate history course title The Holocaust Through Literature and Film.

Gudgel graduated from Valentine Rural High School in 1999 and earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with an endorsement in coaching in 2004. He went on to earn a Master’s degree in theology from Grace University in 2009, and completed a Master’s Module in Holocaust Education at the University of London in 2010. In 2015, Gudgel earned his Ed.D. from Regent University in Character Education; his dissertation focused on the way American secondary teachers use film to teach about the Holocaust. In 2019, Gudgel spent a week at Harvard University studying pedagogy and world religions.

On the way to completing his degrees, Gudgel became a fellow of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. and the Imperial War Museum in London, England, both focusing on Holocaust education. In 2013, Gudgel was awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching, and conducted research at the University of London (today the University College of London) Institute of Education. Much of Gudgel’s research centers around the Holocaust and human rights and how these things are taught in the classroom.

Gudgel co-founded the Educators’ Institute for Human Rights where he served as a board member and executive director until 2015. Gudgel also helped to found and co-direct the teacher fellowship program at the National World War I Museum, and worked for six years for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a member of the Regional Education Corps. His passion for working with and training teachers has led to a lengthy career in workshops and public speaking. Gudgel regularly presents on a variety of topics at teacher training institutes, museums, universities, and conferences around the world. He cherishes the opportunity to speak with primary and secondary-aged students who are studying the Holocaust.

The author of four full-length books, Gudgel is an avid writer. His first book, no/sixteenths, is a book of poetry that wrestles with issues of race and social justice. His second is a guide for teachers on addressing the genocide in Darfur. Gudgel’s book on teaching about the Holocaust, Think Higher Feel Deeper: Holocaust education in the secondary classroom, was released from Teachers College Press in 2021 and is widely-utilized by American secondary teachers for teaching about the Holocaust. The Rise of Napa Valley Wineries: How the Judgment of Paris put California wine on the map was published in 2023, has won numerous awards and honorable mentions, and focuses on the wine industry in Napa and issues that surround it. Gudgel is also the author of countless essays, articles, poems, and book chapters that have been published in myriad places. Presently he is working on two books, one about the historic Oakville AVA in the Napa Valley, and another about how the Holocaust and genocide are taught in the United States today. His fifth book, Don’t Forget Your Cape: Inspiring Advice for Aspiring Teachers (working title), will be released in 2025.

Presently, Gudgel’s research centers around documenting and preserving Sarajevo Roses, primary resources from the Siege of Sarajevo, and he is also involved in a collaborative project with Bosnian professors to provide primary sources for scholars and educators. Gudgel continues to study the ways in which teachers approach matters of human rights and genocide. Gudgel completed a follow-up study to his 2015 dissertation in 2019, and again in 2023, broadening the scope to include literature and twelve distinct acts of genocide, and collecting responses from more than five hundred American educators. He has also recently begun researching, writing, and speaking about innovative and impactful ways in which the wine industry in the Napa Valley is fighting global climate change. He intends to write a book about the topic once he finishes his current work in Oakville.

In addition to teaching at the College of Saint Mary, Gudgel has contributes to the campus in a variety of other ways. In 2023, he helped spearhead efforts to transplant a European Horse Chestnut tree taken from the one that Anne Frank wrote about which grew behind the Secret Annex onto campus; the sapling was planted in May of 2024. Gudgel also led a group of students, faculty, and staff to visit Amsterdam on a trip focused on studying the Holocaust, and has helped orchestrate numerous workshops and public presentations for educators as well as the community at large. In April of 2023, Gudgel was instrumental in CSM hosting the first Women of Wine symposium in the Midwest, and in June he welcomed fifty teachers to campus in collaboration with other universities and community partners. Gudgel also gives an annual lecture as part of the university sustainability month about how the Napa Valley is fighting climate change, and sits on various committees as part of his service to the school.

In addition to his professional life, Gudgel is known to many for his philanthropic efforts and involvement in the Omaha community. Gudgel is the President of the Board of Directors of the vinNEBRASKA Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1989 that puts on an annual event to raise money for Nebraska charities. Under Gudgel’s leadership, vinNEBRASKA has begun offering scholarships to local wine industry professionals and those in the culinary arts. Gudgel serves as Second Vice President for the Presenters Circle Board of Directors for Omaha Performing Arts, helps with the annual Pinot Pigs and Pours event, and volunteers his time and talent to help serve and support a variety of important causes, locally and on a larger scale. He has a personal goal of helping to raise more than a million dollars for charity annually, and has easily cleared that mark every year since 2021.

An avid marathon runner, Gudgel gives back to his sport in a variety of ways. He loves to pace marathons and half marathons, helping fellow runners achieve their goals. Recently, he has begun guiding blind runners, and raising money to support Achilles International. Gudgel is currently completing the Fifty State Challenge, and has run a marathon in eighteen states so far. In 2023, he was one of only ten runners to complete full marathons in the Quad Keyah, a race held on the Navajo Reservation in which four marathons are run in four states over four consecutive days. Gudgel has completed one Master, the Chicago Marathon, in 2008, and is training to run his second Master, the New York Marathon, in 2024.

Gudgel holds credentials as a sommelier, having passed his level one and two exams through the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET), and is certified as a barbeque judge through the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS). Gudgel released a wine under his personal label, Gudgel Ranch, in 2022, and future vintages are in the works. He also enjoys cooking, but has admittedly limited abilities in that arena.

Family is the most important aspect of Gudgel’s life. Originally from Valentine, Nebraska, where his parents still live, he met his wife, Sonja, in 2012, while he was living in Lincoln. They were married the following year, and after a short time living in London as a Fulbright Scholar, Gudgel moved to Omaha upon his return. Shortly thereafter, he and Sonja sold their home in west Omaha and moved into the city’s historic Field Club neighborhood in the spring of 2015. Gudgel retired from coaching basketball after the 2015-2016 season, citing the birth of his son, Titus, as the primary reason, having coached for eighteen seasons at the middle school, high school, and collegiate level. His daughter, Zooey, was born in 2017.