Faculty & Staff Profiles

Chris Taylor became Head of School in July 2010.  He lives on campus with his wife, Ginger, and their dog, Hildy.   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 makes the most all the wonderful outdoor options that Steamboat Springs offers.

Sal graduated from Colorado College in 2010 with a BA in English.  Her undergraduate studies focused on education, foreign language, journalism and creative writing.  She spent the past fall as an ESL teacher for a Waldorf school in the suburbs of Madrid, Spain, where she enjoyed practicing her Spanish and immersing herself in European culture.  She then relocated to Aspen, CO, to pursue her love of skiing and the Rocky Mountains.  Although working as a ski instructor for the Aspen Ski Company was a great experience, Sal is excited to return to the field of academics as the American Literature teacher and LWS' College Counselor.  After having served in her college's admission office, she is looking forward to working with high school seniors in their pursuit of higher education, as well as having the opportunity to teach English and live in Elizabeth Hall.

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 Global Immersion Studies 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.  Erin and her husband Tom welcomed son, Henry Beckett Davis into their lives in August of 2010.

Chef Doyne's recipe for life.

1Tbs - Bethlehem, PA  (raised)
1Tbs - Lehigh University (educated)
1 Gal -  Innovator in the pursuit of happiness (always thinking)
1 Gal - Student of the human condition (like billiards, never the same twice)
1 Tsp - Outdoors man (dirt biking, camping, snowboarding, hiking, etc..)
1 Vat - Parent (Haley Clair 13, Tyler 10)
1 Heap O' - Companion (Robyn, soul mate and life Suis chef!)
1 Part - Great Dane Puppy.(There is always something to spill)
1 Dab - Practicing Hedonist. (There is always a better way in a nicer place)
Dash of wanderlust for good food, fine wine and a need for adventurous travel

Combine ingredients @ 800 F, just like the camp fire, and watch the sparks fly.  Add some mojo, that makes for good home style cooking.  Sushi and Thai are the glue that holds them all together.

Personal and Family recipes are always welcome additions to the ever growing list of foods that Bill loves to prepare.  Please feel free to share.

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, Miss 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, and monitoring wetlands. She maintains the school library as a comfortable center for study and research. She’s an avid skier, whether it’s cross-country, alpine, or snowboarding and she loves to hike and bike in the summertime.

After living aboard their sailboat and travelling the east coast from Florida to Newfoundland and Labrador for the last three years husband and wife, Jay Readinger and Mary Lou Gallup, join the school as the business management team.

Jay grew up traveling from coast to coast as the son of a career US Navy submarine sailor, visiting all fifty states. His love of the outdoors began as a Boy Scout in Hawaii and continued through Hurricane Island Outward Bound School and the National Outdoor Leadership School from which he holds instructor certification. Early in his educational career Jay was a boarding school triple threat: teaching, coaching, and living in the dorm. While serving a one of several schools in his career in New England, Jay took on the duties of the business manager and has continued in that career tack since.  His formal education took him to Northeastern University in Boston on a football and track scholarship, and then later to Rhode Island College in Providence, RI where he earned a Masters in Educational Leadership. Readinger worked for the Maine Department of Education as a specialist in educational facilities, and was a superintendent of schools in Maine.

Mary Lou’s background includes private school business management, development of an after-school program, and most recently Program Officer of Maine Power Options, where she coordinated Maine’s largest energy purchasing consortium.  Her work included negotiating the state’s first renewable electricity contracts and arranging energy contracts for all of Maine’s major colleges including Bowdoin, Colby, Bates and the University of Maine.  Mary Lou’s future aspirations include participating in her daughter’s organic farm as farm accountant and cut-flower gardener.

Jay and Mary Lou have four grown children and six grandchildren including the newest one born in July 2011 on the front range. They live on campus and are very happy to be in beautiful Steamboat Springs.

Nuala was born and raised in Southern California and recently moved from the Santa Ynez Valley. Nuala has lived on a boarding school campus for the last twenty-three years and worked as a learning specialist for the last seventeen.  Nuala moved to Colorado with her husband Randy and daughter Hanna this July.  She and her family are enjoying the beautiful Steamboat valley and look forward to partaking in the many sport opportunities the valley and Colorado offer.

When not teaching, 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.

Geography 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 backcountry 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.

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 backcountry 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. She raised her son, Bridger (LWS `07) on campus, and she tells the story of an LWS foreign trip on which  Russian nomads offered her multiple camels (a very high price!!) for baby Bridger. She loves to sing, play the guitar, meditate, garden, garden, garden, backcountry ski, snowshoe, and take walks with her very smart dog, Diamond.

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.

Meg Morse spends her time as the Academic Dean and Algebra II teacher.  Having led the Vietnam/Combodia Global Immersion Studies trip three times,  she is the school’s resident expert on Southeast 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, loves to knit and spend time with her son, Toby.   She served as the school’s Director of College Counseling from 2000 to 2011.  As the Academic Dean, Mrs. Morse also directs the Global Immersion Studies program.

Brittany Pack moved to Steamboat Springs from Traverse City, Michigan where she grew up on the Great Lakes, Michigan football, and down-home cooking.  She started skiing at the age of 8 and began racing her senior year in high school. After doing a year of community college, Brit transferred to the University of Michigan, following in the large footsteps of her three older siblings.  She became involved in many activities there, including University Band, Kappa Kappa Psi--National Honorary Fraternity, and the UM Ski Team.  After graduation, she realized that her passion lied in teaching teenagers, so she returned to the University of Michigan as a graduate student and worked toward her MA in Education and became certified to teach history and English, history being her favorite subject.  A colleague from graduate school randomly sent her a link to the posting for the LWS history position, and the rest is history!  Brit engages in a variety of hobbies and interests, but most of all she loves to spend time with her ever-expanding family back home in Michigan.  She also firmly believes that the New England Patriots are a God-given gift to the world.  Ms. Pack is delighted to be at Whiteman and hopes to share her passion for history and learning on this campus for a long time.

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.

Since moving to Steamboat in the fall of 2008, Abbie Lane has developed an absolute enthusiasm for this community, its history, and its culture.  She is an avid rock climber, marathon runner, backpacker, and  skate skier, and loves to flyfish (despite not catching anything...yet) with her golden retriever pup, Bolo.

Abbie completed her undergraduate degrees in Religious Studies, Journalism, and Business and graduate degree in Religious Studies at CU-Boulder.  Her thesis work focused on American religion and culture and its relationship to the environment in terms of sacred space, particularly concentrating on National Parks as the natural world’s last frontier.

Prior to moving to Steamboat, Abbie spent time in Nicaragua, researching ecotourism and working as a media correspondent for the Peruvian Navy. Abbie spent several years working in Yellowstone National Park as the Lake Yellowstone Hotel Assistant General Manager, bellhop, and R12 Bombardier tour guide.  Most recently, she served as a domestic and criminal law paralegal at a local firm.

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 nine-year old son Elias, they are enjoying all the things Steamboat Springs and Lowell Whiteman have to offer, such as the ditch trail that runs right behind Roberts House, the Svennungsens' home

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.  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.