Linnea Susan Hauge, age 46, passed away peacefully on Dec 25, 2010 at her home in Ann Arbor, MI after a courageous battle with breast cancer.

She was born in the fall of 1964 in Madison, WI to Roger and Bonnie Hauge and grew up on their family farm in the Fall River area. She graduated from Fall River High School. She enjoyed participating in band, playing the French horn and keyboard in the Rock Band. She was on their state championship gymnastics team. She continued her love for gymnastics by coaching and judging, which helped to pay her way through college. She attended UWEC where she played her French horn in the band and majored in music education. She spent her summers as a counselor at Camp-We-Ha-Kee in Northern Wisconsin. After completing her BME degree she moved to Chicago and in the fall of 1989 she married Tom Barber.

She attended DePaul University and the University of Illinois and earned her MS in Kinesiology with emphasis in Sports Psychology. Linnea completed her PhD at the University of Utah in Exercise and Sport Science in 1997 and taught briefly in Physical Education before finding her true calling as an Education Specialist in the Department of Surgery at Rush University in Chicago. She served as the Interim Director of the Center of Medical Education and Research at Rush until she moved to the University of Michigan. Linnea was a tireless advocate for learners at all levels, a friend and guide for struggling learners, a national leader in many education organizations, and a mentor to many interested in education research.

While Education Specialist in the Department of Surgery at the University of Michigan, she was closely involved in the redesign of the open and laparoscopic skills curricula, the mock oral exams and trauma team training. She was also involved in course design of the M4 Surgery Bootcamp from its inception. Linnea gave highly acclaimed lecture series on skills acquisition for the Graduate Medical Education Scholars Program and was the course director for an M4 elective: Residents as Teachers. She served in national leadership positions in several organizations including the Association for Surgical Education, AAMC Research in Medical Education (RIME) and the Central Group on Education Affairs. Through this time she continued her research in surgical skills acquisition and communication. At the time of her passing, Linnea was the PI or CO-PI on three externally-funded education research projects. Linnea received the prestigious Stemmler Award from the National Board of Medical Examiners which funded her work assessing medical student performance during phone consultations with nurses. This has been accepted for oral presentation at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Association for Surgical Education.

Although Linnea was diagnosed with breast cancer, she did not let it derail her determination to improve surgical education. She worked through and around chemotherapy and radiation throughout her illness and was published as recently as the December 2010 issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Numerous education organizations are honoring her contributions. The education lecture series in the Rush University Department of Surgery is named in her honor, and the Promising Education Scholar Award of the Association for Surgical Education will also be named for Linnea.

She is survived by her husband, parents and three sisters, Rochelle Hauge (Steve Stroessner) and their sons, Elijah and Evan of Scarsdale, NY, Tya Hauge-Hill (Dan Hill) and their children, Lucas, Brooklyn and Jackson of Beaver Dam, WI, Gretchen Hauge (Brian Delaney) and their daughter Rowan of Congers NY. She was preceded in death by her grandparents Albert and Florence Hollnagel and her grandparents Olaus and Gladys Hauge.

Linnea and Tom travelled extensively together and also enjoyed spending time at their lake house. Linnea loved golfing, gardening, playing Texas hold 'em and appreciated a good tag sale. She treasured time with family, especially her nieces and nephews. She will always be remembered for her love, humor, spirit and courage. We will miss her every day.

There will be an informal Memorial Service on Jan 8, 2011 from 2-4 p.m., with remembrances at 3:00 p.m., at the Cornerstone Funeral & Cremation Services, 135 Keller Blvd. in Beaver Dam, WI. Directions and an extended obituary can be viewed at their website: www.cstonefs.com.

Memorials for Linnea can be directed to livestrong.org.


In her book Flipped, W. V. Draanen wrote about people's personalities:

"Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, and some in gloss, but every once in a while you find someone who's iridescent. When you do, nothing will ever compare."

That's Linnea.

Cornerstone Funeral & Cremation Services in Beaver Dam is honored to be serving the family.