After graduating from St. Olaf in 2008 with a degree in Art and Education, Sarah was thrilled to find work in Northfield area schools. She spent the first decade of her career as a Middle School Advisor and Art Teacher at Arcadia Charter School (with a bit of quality time spent teaching K-8 Art at the Cannon River Stem School). At Arcadia, Sarah had many great students, friends, and mentors and fell in love with Project Based Learning. In 2016, she returned to school to earn her MA in Special Education and shortly after (2018) joined the Avalon staff. Sarah has been a full-time Special Education Teacher ever since. Sarah is passionate about reading and writing instruction and is currently persuing her Orton Gillingham Certification.

Sarah loves art, words (spoken and written), fractions, dogs and cats equally, green olives, long walks, and frequent trips to DQ.

Kevin Ward is an advisor at Avalon School. He joined Avalon in 2002 and feels lucky to be here. A graduate of Oberlin College with a BA in English, Kevin has also attended Northwestern University (MS in Secondary English Instruction) and University of Wisconsin-Madison (MA in English Literature). He lives in the Hamline Midway neighborhood of St. Paul with his wife Jess and two kids Murray and Olive. Kevin likes reading and working with students, so the whole thing is a pretty good deal for him.

In 2005, Avalon School was introduced to Regina Goldner. She was enthusiastic about math, thought the co-op model was a great fit for her, and was ready share her love of project-based learning with everyone. Regina moved from Seattle, WA to Minnesota back in 2000, ready to make the world a better place; little did she know that teaching was going to be the way she would change the world. She had just graduated from Fairhaven College with a concentration in Environmental and Social Justice and didn’t even think she liked the youth of America. Now, years later, she is proud of her Masters in Education from the University of Minnesota and knows that teaching is the job of her dreams and Avalon the school which she loves.

Maggie comes to Avalon with experience teaching or tutoring each level of high school math. She is ready to work through the battles that come with teaching one of the least loved subjects. She hopes her energy, knowledge, and love of the subject encourage students to "take chances, make mistakes, and get messy." - Mrs. Frizzle Outside of school Maggie can be found trying to run/jog but mostly playing with her one-year-old, Liam, and enjoying life through his eyes.

Tracy Hilke is the Integration Manager at the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation serving and supporting the mental, physical and chemical health needs of individuals and families. Her role is to assist families by getting them connected to internal services as well as collaborating closely with community partners and resources. Tracy provides trauma sensitive training and consultation to various schools and other organizations, and facilitates the Amherst H. Wilder Foundations internal Trauma Informed Organizational Work Group (TIO) and she is also a certified Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Interface presenter. Additionally, Tracy is an Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Qualified Administer, diversity ally and champion and a member of the Inclusion Action Team within the organization.

Tracy has experience developing and achieving core and strategic goals and priorities. Her areas of strength include managing logistics and day to day operations as well as coordinating program systems and the successful expansion of services and supports Tracy is also charged with creating an infrastructure and managing service delivery while maintaining regulatory systems, best practice standards and evaluation outcomes.

I currently run the non-profit that I founded to assist youth of color in healing from trauma. Our organization began its work in walking alongside of youth coming out of the foster care system. We have expanded our focus to all youth of color as many face various forms of trauma daily. In my previous work I was the Director of College and Career Readiness for Saint Paul Public Schools. In this position, I supervised the Counseling, Gifted and Talented, AVID, Out for Equity, and Career and Technical Education Departments. I would bring the knowledge I gained in working in these areas to the board.

Tim started at Avalon School in the winter of the 2007-2008 school year. Attending Hamline’s Master's in Teaching program during the evenings to earn his teaching credentials, Tim began at Avalon as an Educational Assistant. After two and a half enjoyable years as an EA, Tim was hired as a full time advisor in the high school, and has been there ever since. Tim is licensed in the Language Arts. Tim also loves math, technology, and terrible jokes.

Esteban Castillo is a 2020 High school graduate of Avalon School and the Entrepreneur Fellowship Director. He is a social entrepreneur, organizer, and artist. His father was born in Mexico and mother was born in Colombia. His parents' very different lives and backgrounds have allowed him to connect with all walks of life.

Our family has been at Avalon since our son was in 6th grade. He is in the High School now and I am eager to be more involved in supporting the school’s overall sustainability and deepening commitment to equity and anti-racism, and leadership in education, especially in this moment of deep change in the world.

I have worked with youth of all ages and in the education world for over twenty years with an explicit focus on centering and empowering young people’s wellbeing as well as their voices and contributions to their families, communities and the world. I have extensive experience in holistic health, youth, family and community mentoring and life coaching, and mind-body wellbeing for youth, especially youth of color and Native youth. I also have extensive experience in nonprofit and education sectors and with community engagement between institutions and BIPOC communities.

For more about my work, check out my website: www.rebeka.org