The Lowell Whiteman School

Walt Daub is in his 12^th year of overseeing the Whiteman Experience as Head of School; he is also presently serving as interim Director of Admissions. A Hamilton College graduate elected to class honoraries DT, Was Los and Pentagon, he also holds a Master’s degree in English from the University of Delaware. Mr. Daub has taught junior and AP English at LWS and often participates as a guide on outdoor experiential learning trips, such as backpacking, mountain biking and kayaking. Kayaking is, in fact, one of his passions: having picked up the sport in his thirties, he was 21^st in the U.S. Nationals slalom competition at the age of 35. Prior to his tenure as Head of School, Mr. Daub served as Academic Dean, Dean of the Faculty and Dean of Students at two other independent schools. He has coached both boys’ and girls’ varsity basketball and soccer teams. In 1985 he was selected as one of 50 teachers nationwide to be honored at the White House for mentoring a Presidential Scholar. He currently sits on the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club Board of Directors and is a past President and Secretary for ACIS (Association of Independent Schools). Pictured at left with wife, Jaynie, and friends.

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.

Joe Roberts is the Lowell Whiteman School’s longest employed faculty member with more than four decades of teaching at the school to his credit. During his time here, he has served as past Academic Dean and Dean of Students, and has taught Chemistry, Biology and math.  Alums say that Mr. Roberts made math fun and memorable for them;  current students agree.  He is famous for tapping hidden math talent in even the most reluctant student with his  years of experience and sense of humor. Though his classes have a reputation for being hard, alums continue to visit him decade after decade.  As Director of Alumni Relations, he can tell you exactly where all of our alums live,  and what they do in life.  He knows every individual from 43 years of graduating classes and is the keeper of our LWS history. Mr. Roberts raised his family on the Lowell Whiteman campus, and two of his children are LWS graduates.    He is an avid canoer and outdoorsman.  In the early 80's, Mr. Roberts initiated the school’s annual Desert Week canoe trip and it continues to run every year much as he first designed it.  He has led an astonishing number of foreign trips for LWS and you could say, he is very, very well traveled!  He loves back country skiing, hiking and he ranches part-time.  Baking pies is another of his specialties, all the better if there is a contest involved. Mr. Roberts is a very talented cartoonist, with his works published in the Steamboat Pilot and Today.

Dean of Students and film teacher Mitch Globe remains active in the arts: he had a screenplay optioned in Hollywood; he was one of two nationally recognized winners in the Hemispheres Magazine William Faulkner writing contest, and he is an award winning filmmaker. 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. As Dean of Students he supervises all aspects of Student Life, including the Residential Program, student council,  andthe disciplinary system. Sometimes he can even be found underneath a school van filling in for a mechanic. After twenty years at LWS Mr. Globe is committed to sustaining what he likes to call the Lowell Whiteman School “family.” 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.

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.

The focus of Lane Malone’s personal interests and professional commitments lies in three areas: youth, environment, and education. Mrs. Malone has an M.A. in Education Curriculum Instruction. Prior to joining LWS in 2007, Mrs. Malone worked for the Steamboat Springs School District, serving as Grant Writer for the three Routt County school districts. She is also the past Executive Director of Partners in Routt County, Director of Keystone Science School in Summit County, an alumna of El Pomar Foundation’s Non-profit Executive Leadership Program, and a graduate of Leadership Steamboat 2004-2005. Pursuing graduate studies in water resources and glaciology, Mrs. Malone was a member of the Juneau Ice Field Research Program team 1996 in British Columbia and Alaska. She led summer wilderness trips with high school students for eight years. She is a former middle school math and science teacher, whitewater river guide ,and member of the Snowmass ski patrol. When she was in high school, Mrs. Malone was a Junior Olympic alpine ski racer struggling to juggle classwork, training and travel for competitions. She says she dreamed of a place like the Lowell Whiteman School. She enjoys mountain and road biking, telemark skiing, reading, good food and music, all with her husband Michael and young son Sal.

A graduate of history and Latin American Studies from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, James Bleshman loves sharing his passion for history with his LWS students, especially U.S. foreign policy, Latin American politics, and the Cold War era. Though he hails from urban New York, the outdoors is a passion for Mr. Bleshman, particularly backpacking and canoeing. As a Wilderness First Responder, he has spent many summers leading wilderness canoe trips in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. His Latin American studies furthered his enthusiasm for the culture’s food, language, and regional history, as well as the opportunities it affords in connecting with others both in the United States and abroad. Mr. Bleshman has traveled in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile ,Ecuador and Peru. Outside of the classroom, playing the guitar or mandolin is among his favorite activities; or you may find him skiing, playing basketball, or cooking up an Asian meal.

Miss Casper had her own world music radio show for 4 years in college. She has lived on a kibbutz in the desert in Israel and has worked on farms in Patagonia and Argentina. Her extensive travel throughout the Americas, Spain and Israel, coupled with her degree in Spanish from Colby College, provides her advanced level Spanish students with a measure of practical experience. During her travels abroad, Ms. Casper has taught English in both Argentina and Nicaragua. She has also taught Spanish in Maine. Her senior thesis research grant enabled her to spend a month in Israel where, through a series of interviews, Ms. Casper argued that Zionism was a main factor in the Aliyah of Argentinians following the economic crisis in Argentina. Miss Casper assists with the LWS climbing program and leads camping trips that specialize in climbing, in summer as well as winter. She loves to bake, make jewelry, hike and ski.

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.

A Denver native, Mr. Hall attended Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT, for high school. He graduated from Middlebury, where he majored in Spanish and spent time studying at the CV Starr Middlebury School in Madrid. He minored in Environmental Studies.  Mr. Hall also studied abroad in Australia. He is a certified ski instructor, loves to surf, mountain bike, and explore. He loves the outdoors with students and is one of our most enthusiastic and popular outdoor educators. Mr. Hall is known for his quick wit and unique perspective, and he loves nothing more than to challenge students to be open-minded and to stretch themselves both in academics and in the great outdoors. He has led trips for LWS to Argentina and Peru. He has his own band, plays the harmonica, and is known to be the luckiest human we know: he wins everything from football pools to door prizes at our staff meetings and parents association get-togethers. His best friend is a small dog named Riva that he adopted from the local pound.

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.

Sarah Hoffman teaches English, speaks French, Spanish and Portuguese and dreams of someday becoming a Broadway musical star. Until then the English Teaching Fellow wakes up daily at 5 a.m. to run five miles before teaching and plans for future advanced degrees in English and psychology. A Broadway aficionado, Ms. Hoffman claims she has seen the Sound of Music 300 times, Mary Poppins 200 and performed in one or two shows herself. Her English degree from Northwestern focused on American Literature and she particularly enjoys the work of Alfred Hitchcock, children’s literature and murder mysteries. Miss Hoffman is an avid athlete who has extensive experience in physical training, skills she shares with her dorm students.

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.

John was an avid Alpine competitive skier in his youth, and after college, he  spent years coaching in Wyoming and Colorado. He continues to coach his two children, one of whom (Anna, class of 2010) is on the US Ski Team.  John continues to volunteer his time to Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club (SSWSC.)   He has many years experience in computer programming and software design with a specialty is Java Script and ASP.  He challenges his Computer 1 class with a variety projects from database design to movie editing.  He is always looking for a student who might be willing to take beginning computer skills to the next level – Computer Programming.  John still loves to ski and longboard with LWS students.  He is a foreign travel leader and also loves biking, camping and any sport that challenges him.

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. 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Business and Facilities Manager Heidi Nunnikhoven is a member of the Golden Key Honor Society at the University of New Mexico, where she received her degree in Exercise Physiology and was Assistant Coach for the Alpine Ski Team.  She is a ten-year veteran on the U.S. Ski Team, from 1979-89, and she competed in World Cup, Europa Cup and World Championship events.  Today, Mrs. Nunnikhoven dedicates her free time to coaching Steamboat’s youth at the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club (SSWSC). Before joining LWS, Mrs. Nunnikhoven worked as a program manager for the Yampa Valley Housing Authority. She loves to ski, hike, and do ceramics with her husband, two children, two horses, and two dogs.

After graduating from Boston College, Julia Oxenhandler stepped into the world of public service for a year and a half as a volunteer for AmeriCorps.   For the next five years, she worked in the news department of a non-profit radio station in Nome, Alaska.  She then continued her work in broadcasting for local radio in Steamboat. Today, Mrs. Oxenhandler is the assistant to Head of School Walt Daub and LWS Office Manager. She also manages the school’s databases and functions as a conduit of information among all departments. The parent liaison, Mrs. Oxenhandler also supports Dr. Lasko in Academics and Mr. Roberts in Alumni Relations. The students say Julia “runs the place,” and we agree.