Twenty-one North Dakota judges and court staff completed a three-day faculty development program, Designing & Delivering Effective Presentations, held October 27–29, 2026, at the North Dakota State Capitol in Bismarck.
The program prepares judges and court employees to design and teach courses for judicial branch education, staff training and public outreach. Many of the court system’s education programs are taught by its own judges and staff, and this course helps them teach with more skill and confidence.
The workshop followed a “learning by doing” model grounded in how adults learn. Over three days, participants:
- Applied principles of adult and experiential learning to course design
- Wrote learning objectives, the foundation of an effective course
- Structured content for clarity, engagement and retention
- Practiced slide design and built audience-focused PowerPoint slides and handouts
- Planned learning activities that keep learners engaged, moving beyond the long lecture
- Worked on delivery skills, managing speech anxiety and handling “teachable moments”
The program ended with each participant delivering a mini-presentation to the group and receiving oral and written feedback from faculty and peers.
Nationally recognized faculty
The course was taught by two longtime faculty members of the National Judicial College, both recipients of the College’s Payant Award for Faculty Excellence:
- The Honorable David Suntag served 25 years as a Vermont Superior Court trial judge, presiding over criminal, family and civil dockets. He helped create and preside over Vermont’s first integrated domestic violence docket. He has taught judges nationally and internationally for 30 years and received the Payant Award in 2020.
- Professor Kelly Tait is a communication consultant who has specialized in justice system education for more than 22 years. A past president of the National Association of State Judicial Educators, she has taught communication for 24 years at the University of Nevada, Reno. She received the Payant Award in 2022.
Court education staff Lee Ann Barnhardt and Bryan Pechtl assisted the faculty throughout the program.
Above (L to R), the Honorable David Suntag and Prof. Kelly Tait present program objectives to court attendees.
Attendees discuss learning activities that they can use when presenting to court staff.
