High School Faculty/Staff

Born in Brooklyn, raised in San Antonio, I am very excited about returning to Texas after more than two decades on the East Coast. I firmly believe that it’s of the utmost importance to learn at least one new thing every day. To that end, I have been in either a university or school settings for the past 23 years. I earned my B.A. in English and Spanish at Emory University in Atlanta, GA (go Eagles!) and my Masters in Spanish: Latin America Studies at American University (go Eagles, again!). I began my teaching journey three months after completing my Master’s degree and have been teaching Spanish ever since.

Along the way, I have not only had the pleasure of deepening my love for the Spanish language—and the many ways in which Spanish is spoken throughout the world—but also learned how essential love and passion are to both teaching and learning. Learning how to encourage the spark of curiosity within students—with kindness, patience, mastery of subject and humor—became increasingly important to me the longer I taught. In order to learn more about my craft and to help others to do the same I returned to school. I earned my PhD in Education, with specializations in policy and teacher education, in 2018 from George Mason University. This course of study allowed me to more fully grasp how we, as human beings, learn and the crucial role that teachers play in creating an environment that is thoughtful, scaffolded, and, necessarily, kind.

My life as an administrator started soon after I began teaching. After my second year in the classroom I was asked to become the Dean of the Ninth Grade. Simultaneously, this experience gave me my first taste of what it was like to lead faculty and to create experiential programs for students. It deepened my capacity for engaging with parents, and gave me first- hand experience creating programs to help them to better understand the challenges that their children were facing.

As School Registrar, I gained a healthy respect for the mental agility and organizational capacity necessary to fill such an important role. As Director of Professional Development, I helped my fellow colleagues to craft courses of study that allowed them to deepen their understanding of the art of teaching and enrich their classroom environments by encouraging them to apply the same standards of research and academic rigor to their development as they requested from their students. As Dean of Faculty, I engaged in assessments of my colleagues' teaching practices and provided them with feedback to help better their and their students' classroom environments. I also led schoolwide professional development related to teachers’ professional practices and enhancing our school-wide culture.

All of these roles led me to fall even more deeply in love with the life of the complex organism that is a school. However, school is not my only love! My family— my husband Will and our daughter Ellis— reading and writing, listening to and creating music, gardening, and nurturing growing things fall squarely into my most-loved camp.

I was born and raised in Connecticut, with a move to Washington, D.C. for college, where I graduated from George Washington with degrees in Literature and Religion. I also spent time out west doing a semester long outdoor leadership program with NOLS.  After GW, I began my nomadic life, working and traveling in the States and abroad for two years before landing at the University of Colorado in Boulder for a Master’s in Religion. I focused on African-Diaspora traditions, and was fortunate enough to spend significant time in Cuba doing field research for my Master’s thesis. Somewhere between that thesis and more time in Cuba, I decided to not pursue my Ph.D. Instead, I pursued a teacher’s certification in Secondary Education: English 6-12, first in Colorado and then in California. 
 

After a seminal start to my teaching in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, California, I moved abroad to begin a career in international education, particularly IB and Experiential education. My wife and I lived in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and then returned to the States for one year, where I was an education coordinator for an Outward Bound program for adjudicated youth. Then it was off to Vienna, Austria and then Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We returned to the states to live in Charleston, South Carolina, and then most recently in Boca Raton, Florida, where I was the IB Coordinator and English Department chair for a private school there.

I have taught every level and type of English from grades 6-12; courses in Humanities, Religion, and World Cultures; as well as leading faculty in curriculum, literacy, and accreditation work. I have also led school outdoor and experiential programs, with a highlight being the outdoor program in Tanzania.

My wife, Keely, and I have been happy to end our nomadic lifestyle with a long-term commitment to Headwaters and Austin. Our son, Cord, is a Swift on the Creek Campus and our daughter, Cleo, is a Bluebird on the Springs Campus. Keely is an assistant guide for the Phoenix classroom and  has a fascinating background in raptor conservation, both internationally and here in the States. If you ask, I will tell you repeatedly how cool she is.

I am excited to be joining the Headwaters' community as the River Campus Manager. I have a bachelor of science degree in Architecture Studies from the University of Texas. I had a home remodeling and design business for many years, which comes in handy managing the old buildings on the River Campus. I also have managed several popular restaurants in Austin.

 

I live close to downtown with my husband, two teenage children, and my mom. I grew up in the Northwest Florida panhandle on a small farm. I have brought the small farm mentality to the city. I have chickens, cats, dogs, and grow a lot of my vegetables. I enjoy reading, cooking, and running; in fact, I am running my first half marathon in January 2020. 

 

What has drawn me to Headwaters is the community. I began substituting across the campuses and was impressed by the commitment of staff and administrators to help the students think and speak up for themselves. I believe those are valuable lessons to teach our kids today, and I am proud to be part of a community that cultivates values.

I received my BA in Communications from Temple University in Philadelphia. I’ve worked in education in many different forms since then; as a residential tutor for socioeconomically disadvantaged youth in the Philadelphia suburbs, as a carpentry teacher for an elementary after-school program and a job coach for developmentally disabled adults in Northern California, as a building trades teacher for at-risk teen boys in Vermont, and as a public high school math teacher in Austin.

I’m thrilled to have landed here at Headwaters as a teacher and a coach. Two of my three children attend the Headwaters Middle School program; as a parent I have seen firsthand how special this community can be and how skilled our faculty are at inspiring enthusiasm for learning in our students. I look forward to bringing out the same joy in learning in the students in my math classes.

During my high school years I struggled to find meaning between the bells. My pivotal moment in education came when I enrolled in a semester-long NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) course at the age of eighteen. Finally, education was an experience and every experience was an education. This passion for a progressive education led me to Prescott College where I received a BA in English Language Arts and Letters and Education. In subsequent years, an insatiable academic curiosity led me to pursue a Master’s Degree in English through Sam Houston State University, which I received in July of 2008.

In more than a decade of teaching, I have taught in public school arenas including a Juvenile Detention Center, a resource center for the disabled, and Dual Credit/ACC on-campus classes. In 2009, I began teaching the English section of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme at Stony Point High School in Round Rock and it felt like a return to my core principles. IB emphasizes the growth of the individual while maintaining a social contract with the community. For me, joining the Headwaters community at this momentous point in time (as it adopts IB) has a sense of homecoming and I feel genuinely inspired to pursue a purposeful pedagogy. I am here to offer my students discovery, and my sole desire is to share in their experiences.

I come from a pretty long line of teachers, so I always had a feeling that I would end up in the classroom. Over the past several years, I have had the great opportunity to teach students of nearly all ages, and it has brought me so much joy. In my mind, there is nothing more satisfying than playing a role in students’ successes, guiding others to pursue their passions in life, or having a captive audience for my many bad jokes. I am excited and honored to do so this year as a Spanish teacher at Headwaters School.

I received my teaching license and BA in Spanish from Luther College in 2007, taught elementary and middle school Spanish back in my Wisconsin hometown, and then changed things up by teaching math at an American school in Querétaro, Mexico, for one year. Since 2009, I have been pursuing my PhD in Hispanic Studies at Texas A&M University, where I have taught Spanish and Film Studies courses. In my free time, you can find me exploring the outdoors, catching a live music or comedy act, cheering for Minnesota sports teams, and searching for my next cup of espresso.

I come from a long line of teachers, but it wasn’t until I moved to New York City that I became one myself. I taught Humanities, Spanish, and Music Appreciation at high school in Manhattan. I got my Master’s in Social Studies Education from New York University, and became an affiliate of the School Reform Initiative. Since moving to Austin several years ago I have been an instructional coach, a tutor, and a volunteer.  I return to NYU each summer to teach a Facilitative Leadership Seminar for school administrators and teacher leaders.

My brain changed when I became an educator, and now I can’t stop thinking (and talking) about teaching and learning! My experiences living in Brazil, Spain, and Egypt attuned me to the challenges of language learners. My years in project management help me think about lesson planning, data, and outcomes. I am constantly looking for creative ways to make teaching more effective and efficient, and to make learning engaging and equitable for all kinds of students. As the parent of dyslexic children, I am especially attuned to the needs of those who may not succeed in a traditional classroom–I even became trained in Dyslexia Therapy at the Rawson Saunders Institute to better understand and support their learning. As a graduate of an International Baccalaureate program myself, I felt a connection to the Headwaters School. I am so happy to be the Learning Specialist at the River Campus, collaborating with thoughtful teachers in ways to meet the needs of our diverse students.

When I’m not talking about education, you can find me reading, cooking, leading a robotics team, or on the greenbelt with my husband, our two children, and our energetic dogs. Please stop and say hi!

I am a writer and educator who lives in Marfa and Austin, TX. I hold a BA in English from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA in Creative Writing from CalArts in Los Angeles. My career began in 2005, when I was hired to teach humanities courses at Headwaters. I reveled in the freedom afforded the staff to create original curriculum, and led classes on everything from Dante's Inferno, to Mexican literature, the Beats, Civil Rights literature, Dostoevsky, western philosophy, Bob Dylan, and much more. I was eventually promoted to administration, and helped usher the school through accreditation as the Director of Curriculum. 

 

I grew up on the East Coast and attended Mount Holyoke College, an all-women’s institution in Massachusetts, during which time I found my love for science. I was fortunate enough to do research on everything from the mating behavior of fiddler crabs in Kino Bay, Mexico to the celestial navigation patterns of meat ants in Australia, both during and after completing my undergraduate degree. I spent the last four years teaching, coaching, and being a dorm parent at a boarding school in Central New Jersey. I met my significant other while completing my Masters at UT Austin during the last three summers, and soon decided it was time for a change of location. I come to this fabulous city with my fur baby, Miss Nola.

Austin captured my attention, but Headwaters has captured my heart from the moment I stepped on campus. I am so excited to be joining the community this year and to begin working with environmentally conscious partners around the city as an integral part of my science courses. What better way for kids to learn than to serve the bountiful natural beauty that is Austin!

I am an artist and art educator originally from Ireland who has been living and working in Austin for the last 20 years. I have been teaching art for 25 years and this is my 11th year at Headwaters where I teach studio art in the IB program, the high school and middle school.

Teaching art in collaboration with young people at Headwaters School has been my most rewarding and inspiring experience in education.I graduated from the College of Art, Design and Print in Dublin, Ireland with a Fine Art degree, and I also have a degree in art and design education from the Crawford College of Art in Cork, Ireland. As an artist my work has been shown in Ireland, the UK, Germany, and the U.S. I was featured in the 2009 Texas Biennial and was nominated for best artist in the 2009 Austin Visual Arts Association awards. I was a founding member and editor of Cantanker, an art magazine and non-profit art organization and am a regular participant on the East Austin Studio Tour.

I live in east Austin with my wife, Monique, and our two sons, Henry and Cormac, who are students at the Creek Campus.

My passion for history emerged while I was enrolled as a Civil Engineering student at the University of Texas. My degree plan required me to take an American History course, and thanks to the efforts of one inspiring professor, I developed an insatiable thirst for historical knowledge and made up my mind to become an educator. I have taught at Headwaters School since 2007 and am constantly humbled to be surrounded by such a talented staff and so many sharp young minds. I hold a BA in History from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA in History from Texas State University. I also dabble in the musical arts, have played at most Austin music festivals, and my main ensemble, Hard Proof, has won more than one Austin Music Award.

As a 9-year-old, I watched a 6th grader named Dave Coniglio play “Wipeout” on the drums in the school concert, and I was hooked. Dave later became my first teacher, college roommate and best friend. After realizing as a middle schooler that playing shortstop for the New York Mets probably wasn’t in the cards, I focused on music. Growing up an hour north of NYC, I was lucky enough to get to witness and perform a lot of music there. After high school, I decided to further my passion at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where I earned a BA in Music Education in 2005. While in Boston I shoveled a lot of snow, played a lot of music, and met the woman whom I would marry. In Boston, I found my passion for bringing the same excitement and inspiration Dave and other teachers brought to me, by teaching music to students of my own. I was able to work as an outreach teacher for Community Music Center of Boston, co-teach percussion at a Puerto Rican cultural center with one of my professors, work with kids at a Boys and Girls Club, as well as lots of private instruction. I also got the the opportunity to join a great band and tour the country for the better part of two years. After pretending to be a rock star for a bit, my wife and I decided to completely uproot our lives and move to Austin in 2011. The snow literally followed us as far south as Memphis but we finally made it. I had the great honor of joining the amazingly talented staff at Armstrong Community Music School in 2011, and for the last 6 years have taught there, been involved with some of their many outreach programs, and joined the Austin music scene. In October 2015 my wife and I had our first child, Elliot. I will very likely show you pictures of him whether you ask or not.

I am extremely grateful and excited for the opportunity to be a part of the Headwaters community, and can’t wait to share my passion for all things musical with students and teachers alike.

Reading and talking about books is by far my favorite pastime, so I see teaching English as a pleasure and a privilege. I earned a B.A. in Spanish and Communication from Southwest Baptist University and an M.A. in English Literature from Texas State University. I have been a teacher for more than 15 years, having taught middle school, high school, and university students. I have taught Spanish, English, and ESL at the secondary level. Recently, as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at Texas State University, I taught classes in American literature, rhetoric and composition, and teacher preparation. I also worked at Texas State’s innovative Writing Center. I love exploring the spaces in and among language, literature, and culture.

International travel has been an integral part of my life and my approach to the classroom. I have lived in Brazil, Costa Rica, and Spain for extended periods, and I have also been greatly influenced by long stays in Italy, Mexico, and Sweden. The many reasons I am drawn to Headwaters include the IB curriculum and our commitment to creating peaceful global citizens. This hopeful vision of the future is what guided me when I joined the Headwaters family in 2016.