14 Millennium - A Marquis Who’s Who Magazine ACADEMIA, EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL SERVICES JAMES STEENSMA DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION Allen County Juvenile Center Fort Wayne, IN James Steensma has made an indelible mark on the academic sector since commencing his teaching career over 10 years ago. Since 2024, he has served as the director of education for the Allen County Juvenile Center (ACJC) in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a detention facility that also acts as an alternative public school for at-risk youth. Mr. Steensma was also the center’s assistant director of education between 2023 and 2024. During this tenure, he developed and implemented educational strategies specifically tailored to the unique needs of each student. Having joined the center in 2016 as a lead teacher in the Allen County Learning Academy (ACLA), where he taught English and business courses, his classes provided students with opportunities to complete coursework in a structured yet restorative environment. Mr. Steensma began his education career in 2013, teaching English at Huntington North High School, where he joined the project-based learning environment Viking New Tech, an innovative program that emphasized solutions as outcomes. His wife Maggie, a high school special education teacher, also taught with Viking New Tech and felt that his passion for education would be best realized in this school-within-a-school. Over the course of his extensive professional career, he has exhibited significant expertise in the areas of team collaboration, training and leadership, values he leveraged when transitioning to a career in academia. Those same skills helped him to receive multiple awards in his 25-plus years in sales and business ownership. During his time at ACLA, Mr. Steensma has been instrumental in improving student lives through rehabilitative and restorative justice, allowing students to begin new phases of their lives with social, personal and academic improvements. In addition to his vocational pursuits, he has dedicated himself to various civic, arts and business-minded initiatives, such as the STARTedUP Foundation Inc., an Indianabased organization that fosters entrepreneurial spirits in high school students. He served on committees at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and spearheaded initiatives for affiliate chapters of the American Red
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