2024-2025 ISEEN Online - Facilitator Bios

BIPOC Experiential Educators

Ané Ebie-Mouton teaches Middle School Speech and Debate, and Highschool Creative Writing and IB Literature and Performance at The Awty International School. Ané works with her learners to cultivate a beloved classroom community, foregrounding curricular decolonization and learning about one's authentic self in relationship with the society in which they live. This work is catalyzed through the transdisciplinary confluence of the Arts and Humanities. Ané looks forward to facilitating conversations through this framework with resources that prompt conversations that equip, empower, activate!

Being and Knowing in Nature: A Discussion Series

Drea Gallaga is the Director of the Live+Serve Lab and an upper school teacher at North Shore Country Day School outside of Chicago. Drea works with her colleagues to shape curricula around service, community partnerships, design thinking, and problem-solving; she also currently teaches comparative religion, gender and sexuality studies, entrepreneurship, and an interdisciplinary class about food. Drea has had a lifelong and deep interest in the power of community, an interest furthered by being an educator, making music with others (especially singing!), and immersion in both Quakerism and Buddhism. She aspires to participate in and contribute to communities that are authentic, accountable, and hopeful.

Leading School Change

Derek Kanarek is the Interim Upper School Head this year at the Catlin Gabel School (Portland, OR) after six years as Upper School Academic Dean. Derek is all about the promise of competency-based learning + experiential learning to transform education for students. He sees school change efforts primarily as challenges of learning that call on us to meet each educator where they are to help them learn and grow. Derek completed his PhD in Education Leadership at Teachers College in 2020 with Dr. Ellie Drago-Severson; his research focused on how teacher leaders learned and used learning-oriented leadership. He also trained as a coach with the Columbia University Executive Coaching Program. Derek and his partner and three boys are happiest when exploring the Pacific Northwest’s beaches, forests, and rivers.

Lauren Kelley is the Upper School Head at Cascades Academy in Bend, Oregon. In addition to serving as a classroom teacher for nearly twenty years, Lauren has directed diverse experiential programs at a number of independent schools including global scholars, outdoor leadership, community engagement, and deep-dive immersives. She builds programs that disrupt traditional education models and thereby empower teachers and students alike to rediscover themselves and their world, cultivating purpose and impact.

Elizabeth (Beth) Pillsbury is a historian, teacher, and ceramic artist. Beth is currently the School Director of Maybeck High School, a small high school in Berkeley, California founded in the principles of experiential education. Before coming to Maybeck, Beth was the Director of Experiential Education and Summer Programs and History Teacher at Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, NY. Beth is committed to helping build educational experiences that offer meaningful and inclusive approaches to learning and attend to all students’ backgrounds and needs. Beth serves as the Chair of the Inclusion Committee on the Independent School Experiential Education Network (ISEEN) board and sits on the board of Living City Project, a small non-profit organization that engages students and teachers in hands-on experiential education in workshops, gap year programs and in-school professional development

Environmental Leadership

Olivia Tandon is an upper school science teacher and the Assistant Director of Experiential Education for Sustainability at the Pingry School in New Jersey. She has worked at Pingry for eight years, helping to bring a rotating drum composter, a flock of chickens and a large vegetable production garden to the school. She also collaborates with teachers to create experiential, place-based lessons on sustainability, farm to table agriculture and outdoor education. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Biology, an M.A. in Earth Science Education and an M.Ed. in Private School Leadership. In her free time, she enjoys hiking with her dogs, training for and competing in triathlons, and cooking home-grown meals with her fiancée Kaylee.

Heidi Maloy is an Upper School science faculty member, beginning her 22nd year, at Cary Academy in Cary, NC. She completed a fellowship in Indigeneity this past year focusing on land and land use from an Indigenous perspective. She teaches advanced environmental science and alternates teaching advanced environmental policy and a farming class through our Center for Community Engagement. This year she is embarking on teaching ecosystem biology as the science component of an interdisciplinary course under the topic, “what sustains us,” with teachers of cultural geography, English and data science. She received her BA in environmental studies from Lake Forest College and her MS in biology focusing on ecosystem ecology from the University of New Mexico. Before coming to Cary Academy, she taught science at Albuquerque Academy. For relaxation, she enjoys playing with her dog, Kody, and gardening to support pollinators both at school and at home.

Community Engagement for Social Justice

Sarah McLean is the Head of Global Stewardship at St. George's School in Vancouver, Canada. Sarah is passionate about experiential education both inside and outside of the classroom. She is particularly interested in exploring the connection between purposeful integration of DEIJ and reconciliation into program design, and authentic community engagement experiences. Sarah is involved with student leadership programs, faculty education and coaching. Outside of school, she enjoys taking her two little kids on hiking trips in the forest, long distance running and baking (and eating) delicious cakes.

Transformational Teaching & Learning

Jeremy Goldstein, Vice President of Programs at the Trust for the National Mall, leads Volunteer and Education Programs. With over 25 years in teaching, strategic program leadership, and curriculum design, he has pioneered innovative, learner-centered initiatives in both public and independent schools. Formerly an educator and founding Executive Director of the McCain-Ravenel Center at Episcopal High School, Jeremy remains active in education, serves on boards, and is passionate about bicycle advocacy.

Student Leadership

Meg Anderson-Johnston (she/her) is currently serving as the Assistant Director of Upper School at University Prep in Seattle, WA. In her sixteen years in education, Meg has worked as an instructional aide, classroom teacher, advisor, dean, and coach. In her current role, Meg is focused on helping students become compassionate, equity-minded student leaders and facilitators. She is excited to connect with others working with students to build leadership skills.

Jennifer Tory is the Student Life and Leadership Coordinator at Selwyn House School in Montreal. She also helps facilitate DEI work at the school and coaches soccer. She is passionate about inquiry-based learning and acting as a facilitator and coach for students along their learning journey in whatever the subject area might be. Previously, she has worked as an instructional coach, English teacher, and experiential cohort leader, giving her experience working with curricular and non-curricular elements of school life. Outside of work, you can find Jennifer running, biking, hiking, paddling and anything else that gets her out into nature whenever possible.

Experiential Global Education

Gillian Johnson is the Assistant Director of Experiential Education (Global Engagement) and an Upper School Spanish teacher at the Pingry School in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Gillian holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Spanish literature from the University of Virginia, where she also taught undergraduate-level Spanish classes before teaching at Hilton Head Preparatory School in South Carolina. Now at Pingry, Gillian enjoys working with her colleagues to develop a wide range of Global Programs that challenge students to go outside of their comfort zone and grapple with real-life issues facing our world today. In her free time, Gillian enjoys trying out every local playground with her two kids, long distance running, and going to shows with her husband.

Outdoor Education

Greta Block runs the outdoor program at Lakeside School in Seattle, Washington. She started at Lakeside in 2013 and has served in various roles at the school in global education, service learning, and outdoor education. Previous to Lakeside she worked at two other independent schools and received her masters degree in experiential education from IslandWood and the University of Washington. In her free time she loves to explore the woods with her husband and daughter, bake delicious desserts, and complete jigsaw puzzles.