The Lowell Whiteman School

On July1, 2010, Chris Taylor arrived with his wife, Ginger, and their dog, Hildy, as the Head of School for the Lowell Whiteman School.   Chris is the product of independent school education as a graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon School.   He has earned degrees from the University of Rochester, Wesleyan University, and Harvard University.   In addition to studying at  Edinburgh University in Scotland, Chris had the honor of being a Visiting Fellow at the Klingenstein Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.

 During his seventeen years as a headmaster, Chris has lived in Colorado, England, Louisiana, and Kansas.   His career has been as a leader in strategic planning, faculty development, enrollment growth, fundraising, and campus expansion.   Along with his teaching and administrative career, Chris also was the national director of youth services for Sierra Club in San Francisco, California.

Chris and Ginger have two grown sons and live on campus in the Whittum House.  As a fly fishing enthusiast, biker, hiker, and skier, Chris is looking forward to living in wonderful Steamboat Springs.   

When not teaching or tending to her duties as LWS Academic Dean, Joanne “Doc” Lasko loves to play the piano and to compose music.  Her AP English students will readily attest to her claim to being a ‘Shakespeare freak.’  She is passionate about the English language, and few leave her class without developing a passion for it as well. Doc spent childhood time living abroad in Germany and Lebanon. She attended Duke University and earned her undergraduate degree in English from Pomona College in California and ultimately her Ph.D. in Literary Studies, with the interdisciplinary field of Music, from the American University in Washington, D.C. Prior to coming to LWS, she taught at the American University and at The Madeira School in Greenway, Virginia. “Doc” has been with LWS for more than two-and-a-half decades, and she is dedicated to education, education, education.  With Doc, students learn there are no shortcuts, only hard work, and she teaches this philosophy with a rare sense of humor and an understanding of every student’s challenges.  She is patient, she is calm in a crisis, and she is tireless in her guidance of the LWS academic program. She is also an experienced foreign travel leader.  She loves skiing, horses, and camping and is apt to head off to a hunting cabin on a snowmobile to reread Hamlet, which she admits to having read more times than any other sane human – and she still loves it.

We call her “Margi,” as she considers  “Mrs. Missling-Root” too formal for her job description. Margi has 23 years of experience in outdoor education, and her specialty is educating high school students about the natural world. She has been a back country instructor and guide and since 1988, and she has led a foreign trip for LWS almost every year. There are few continents Margi has not traveled thoroughly. The programs she manages include outdoor activities of all kinds, camping, and foreign travel. Margi feels the tops of mountains and the shores of foreign locales feed the souls of our students.  Having a keen interest in plants, she is also the school’s landscape designer as well as the school’s acreage manager. Margi is also a firm believer in the mind body connection; she studies natural healing and meditation. Margi functions as the school’s nurse and counselor, and her cozy office is where students love to go when they don’t feel well or if they need a lift. She raised her son, Bridger (class of 2007) on campus, and she tells the story of an LWS foreign trip on which  Russian nomads offered her multiple camels for baby Bridger,  considered a very good price! She loves to sing, play the guitar, meditate, garden, garden, garden, back-country ski, snowshoe, and take walks with her very smart dog, Diamond.

After serving at a boarding school in California for 10 years, Derek and his family have returned to their small mountain town roots.  Originally from Whitefish, Montana, Derek and Martina are life-long skiers, and also spend a great deal of time on the backs of horses.  With their seven-year old son Elias, they are enjoying all the new things Steamboat Springs and Lowell Whiteman have to offer, such as the ditch trail that runs right behind Roberts House, the Svennungsens' home

The path that led Erin Gilbertson Davis to the French classroom of LWS might have been a bicycle trail.  Her work as a biking guide along the Tour de France, her experience living abroad, and her college degree in French language and literature from Whitman College firmly established her as LWS’s  specialiste francaise.  Mrs. Davis has traveled the globe extensively in Europe, the Americas and Asia, many times chaperoning LWS Foreign Travel trips.  She has been to Canada, Mexico, France, England, Spain, the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, India, Senegal, Honduras, Guatemala, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Costa Rica. The former collegiate alpine ski racer has coached local SSWSC youth for 10 years,  and is an avid mountain bike rider.  When she’s not teaching, coaching or riding her bike, Mrs. Davis prefers to be in the kitchen pursuing her baking passion, playing her cello, practicing yoga and African dance.  Other past-times are her baby paraphernalia company (Baby BonBon) and the children’s books she has written and hopes one day to publish.

Her research on the effects of logging in Routt National Forest as a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder may have spurred Miss Durkan’s interest in Steamboat Springs and its alpine ecosystem.  As the Environmental Science and Chemistry teacher, Nicholette Durkan’s diverse field experience also spans beyond the woods to waters. She worked previously as a naturalist for the Pacific Whale Foundation, becoming an expert on reef ecology, local marine mammals such as the Humpback Whale, the geology of the Hawaiian Islands ,and local green sea turtles. Following a coral reef ecology course with field experience diving in Cozumel, she received her SCUBA certification and also learned to free-dive up to 40+ feet for extended periods of time. Ms. Durkan studied abroad in Italy and has traveled throughout Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and France. The Advanced Placement Environmental Science class can be found all over campus, collecting water and soil samples, planting seedlings to prevent erosion,or monitoring wetlands. She maintains the school library as a comfortable center for study and research. She also assists with the LWS Horse Program in the fall. She’s an avid skier, whether it’s cross-country, alpine or snowboard and loves to hike and bike in the summertime.

Director of Operations, English and film teacher Mitch Globe remains active in the arts.  He is an award winning filmmaker and had a screenplay optioned in Hollywood and he was one of two nationally recognized winners in the Hemispheres Magazine William Faulkner writing contest.  He teaches Film and his class uses state-of-the-art cameras and editing equipment to produce professional films. Many of his students who have gone on to notable film schools are actively producing films in the industry. Sometimes Mr. Globe can be found in the school gym practicing Judo or the Filipino martial art of Kali, which he has, over the years, offered as a fall activity for students. He has proven he’s no lightweight when it comes to boxing, having taken the local middleweight title ten years ago at the ripe age of forty. A former multi-sport athlete and ski-racing coach, Mr. Globe has recently shifted his athletic endeavors to wake surfing in the summer and fall.   Mr. Globe has led many foreign trips: Italy, Switzerland, Ecuador, Galapagos, Islands, Australia, Maldives, Western Samoa, New Zealand, and Argentina. As well he remains an active participant in the LWS ski and ride program.  He and his wife, Stella, live on campus with their two children and two dogs.  Daughter Avery will graduate from LWS in 2013.

Art teacher and Dorm Parent Lainey Heartz spent five years at the University of Wollongong in Australia, where she completed her Bachelor of Creative Arts, including a semester abroad in Boulder, Colorado. During that time she also exhibited her paintings and photography in galleries in New South Wales.  Mrs. Heartz has 19 years of modern dance experience, including five years of dance coaching.  She  placed 5^th statewide in a competition as a graduate of a performing arts high school in New South Wales. Prior to her time at LWS, the native Australian traveled through Canada, Mexico, Central America, the UK, Western Europe, Fiji, Thailand and Indonesia.  Mrs. Heartz is also the the Elizabeth Hall Dorm Parent.  The girls say she can get them to do almost any chore because her accent makes it seem like something they want to do.   She has an easy-going style based on close, personal relationships.  She is famous for her fun activities in the dorm and one of her specialties is cooking.  Her kitchen is often full of dorm residents making cookies or some experimental dish.  Husband, Cody (Maintenance Director) is the very patient and tireless dorm taste-tester.

Geography, French and math teacher Jim Linville grew up on a ranch and summer camp in Conifer, Colorado. Valedictorian of his high school class, Mr. Linville attended Colorado State University on a Boettcher Foundation Scholarship. After graduation, he spent four years as a volunteer in Kenya, building domestic water systems and supervising road construction. His love of the outdoors began when he worked for the US Forest Service as an engineer of water and reservoir systems. During his college career, he attended the Ecole National Superieur de Mecanique de Nantes and Institut d’etudes Europeens, priming him for his first position at LWS more than 20 years ago as a French teacher. In addition to speaking French fluently, Mr. Linville is also proficient in Swahili. He became interested in back country rescue as a National Ski Patrolman at Powderhorn Ski Area. Currently, he is an EMT, has a Wilderness First Aid certification ,and has been a member of Routt County Search and Rescue for 15 years. He is passionate about geography, foreign culture and the environment. To Mr. Linville, the world is a classroom and he has led more than 15 foreign trips for LWS.

Mr. Meyer is an avid outdoorsman with extensive experience in climbing and back country skiing. He currently has his own guide business along with his position as Climbing Director for The Lowell Whiteman School. He has helped hundreds of people develop their passion for climbing while ensuring they learn to climb safely and with regard for the environment. Mr. Meyer runs climbing activities for LWS through the fall and winter as he has expertise in both rock and ice climbing.  His challenging trips to the Canyonland areas of Utah are very popular with students and many build proficiency in climbing through his fall climbing activity in order to be included on the Desert Week Climbing trip.   Mr. Meyer says that confidence and ability levels are not important; everyone should get a chance to try climbing at least once.  He teaches climbing as a sport and a science.  In his program, students learn self-confidence issues and self esteem can often be much improved by activities like climbing where a challenge is met and fear is overcome.

With his abundant life experience growing up and working on the campuses of private boarding schools, Cameron McVey could write a book – and he has.  He has been with LWS for more than a decade, overseeing residential boarding school life at LWS.  His own roots took similar shape as a young boy raised on a private school campus in Massachusetts, where his father taught for 39 years. Mr. McVey was formerly a dorm parent at a boarding school in western Massachusetts (the subject of his novel).  He began working with high school students in 1991.  A trained Behavior Management Specialist, he has worked in Residential Treatment Centers, therapeutic schools, and psychiatric wards.  He has a long-time interest in meditation, prompted by his desire to cure his epilepsy through alternative methods. Together with his wife LJ (massage therapist and “Dorm Mom”), Mr. McVey has been running the boys Residence Hall, Kakela, since 1998 and moved into the new Boys' Residence Hall in 2010 where he will continue as Dean of Residential Life. He is a frequent traveler with the LWS Foreign Travel program; over the years he has led trips to England, Scotland, China, Mongolia, Peru, India, Vietnam, and Cambodia.  Students also know him as a formidable basketball competitor.

Meg Morse spends her time as the Dean of Day Student Life and guiding college-bound LWS juniors and seniors, as well as teaching English, and SAT preparation classes.  Having led the Vietnam/Combodia foreign trip three times,  she is the school’s resident expert on south-east Asia.   Mrs. Morse received her graduate degree in English from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English, and spent two of her five Breadloaf  summers studying Shakespeare at its Oxford University campus.  A former college lacrosse player, she coached lacrosse at the Westminster School in Connecticut.  She is an accomplished chef, she loves to knit and spend time with her son, Toby.   She has been the school’s Director of College Counseling since 2000 and has taken the school’s program to new heights with the Naviance online admissions program.  She is dedicated to the college application process, as well her students know.

Trenia Sanford graduated with Honors from of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and has had 20 years of experience managing computer networks.  She has been Director of Technology for LWS since 1997, and she also teaches Computer II Graphics and Computer Networking.  She currently manages the LWS web site and has 15 years experience in graphic design publishing.  She produces the LWS yearbook in her Computer II class.  Mrs. Sanford is a fourth-generation Routt County Native and her mother and great uncle also worked for Lowell Whiteman both at the Lowell Whiteman Boys Ranch and the Lowell Whietman School.  She grew up on a local Steamboat horse and cattle ranch just a stone’s throw from her great grandfather’s homestead.  Her knowledge of local lore and horse wrangling made directorship of the LWS horse program and the LWS Horse Desert Week trip a natural part of her job description.    If you wonder how this combines with technology, you are right to do so.   She says sometimes horses and computers are equally stubborn.  She enjoys showing her horse, running the family ranch, horse packing, skiing, participating in 4H with her son, Tucker, singing and playing the guitar.

English teacher John Morse likes to combine his joy for learning in the classroom with an active outdoor lifestyle.  He is part of the reason his students learn to enjoy the combination, as well.   He regularly assists fellow teacher, Jim Linville, with the school’s kayak program, and he is an avid mountain biker and former ski instructor. Prior to joining the LWS faculty, Mr. Morse attended NOLS (the National Outdoor Leadership School) in Patagonia and taught school in rural Alaska. He received the DeWitt-Wallace scholarship to attend Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School of English for his Master’s degree and studied at Oxford.    He enjoys Shakespeare, neuroscience and its connections to education, and Hubble photographs of the universe.

Physics and Calculus teacher Brian Smith is committed to exercising in the LWS classroom the topic of his current Masters of Mathematics research project:  How to help students more efficiently and effectively communicate in mathematics. The graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University joined LWS in 2000 as a teaching/dorm fellow.  He spent five years as a dorm parent in addition to his teaching duties .  He is working on his Master’s degree with an emphasis on teaching, from the University of Northern Colorado.  He launched a school GPS program and has spent summers with a community mapping program.  Mr. Smith leads LWS Foreign trips and has recently traveled with students to Costa Rica, Mongolia, and South Africa. He has also led many outdoor experiential trips for canoeing, mountain biking, whitewater rafting and horseback riding.  A member of the Steamboat Rugby Club, Mr.  Smith played Division III football in college and coached middle and high school wrestling for five years.  He leads an after-school activity called “Manic Workout”, and it is not a program for slouches.  He also directs the LWS Recreational Ski/Ride program.

Gina Wither plays a dual role at LWS as Life Sciences teacher and liaison for the school’s Competitive Ski & Ride Program with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club (SSWSC).  She teaches Biology, and Anatomy and Physiology.  Once the snow flies and the winter competitive season start, Mrs. Wither is busy coordinating academic and competitive schedules for athletes.  She also accompanies students for extended training programs abroad.  The Austria Ski & Study program takes her to Austria for a month in October  with the LWS Alpine Team in conjunction with SSWSC.   Mrs. Wither is active in local theater and a member of the professional juggling troupe We’re Not Clowns.  She lives on campus with her husband Scott, and their young son Owen.  On many mornings, she loves to sled down a rather steep hill to school from the Lockwood Faculty House.   She loves skiing, mountain biking, baking bread, and listening to John Denver.