ANNE GURNEE: EDUCATION DIRECTOR

Anne has served as the Education Director since January 2008. Anne was an original member of the Board, and played an integral role in developing the early curriculum model for Southwest Charter School. She has been working in the field of science education for nearly 20 years. Most recently she was the Senior Associate at David Heil and Associates, Inc., a science education consulting firm here in Portland. As such, she worked with clients nationwide to create and evaluate science education programs in schools, communities and museums. She has a B.S. in Environmental Planning & Management and an M.Ed. in Program Administration and Evaluation, both from the University of California, Davis. Anne is also mom to two kids at SWCS, and in her spare time, she enjoys running, canoing, camping, hiking, gardening, cooking and sewing.

JODY SWAN: KINDERGARTEN TEACHER

Jody Swan is a native Portlander. She received a B.A. in Religious Studies at Lewis & Clark College. As an undergraduate, she had the opportunity to study abroad in Ecuador. She also ran track and was All-American in the 400m dash. She recently received her Masters in Teaching at Lewis & Clark College. She student-taught in a 5th grade classroom at Sunnyside Environmental School. This is her first year as a Kindergarten teacher at SW Charter School. In her free time, she enjoys running, biking, hiking, yoga, reading and spending time with her daughter.

MIKE MARTIN: 1ST GRADE TEACHER

Mike grew up in Bellingham, Washington and moved to Oregon three years ago. He comes from a family of five and both parents were also elementary teachers. He did not have television growing up, so he spent much of his childhood building forts in blackberry bushes and exploring the forest next to his home. Mike's degree from Western Washington University is in Ceramics and Illustration. He also studied Art History in Greece for a semester. Whenever he had a chance he traveled to see different parts of the world. During his last trip while on a longboat in Laos, his passion for teaching children was rekindled. He then moved to Portland to work for a year as a Teacher's Assistant in the Reynolds School District, finished his Master of Arts in Teaching at Lewis & Clark College and completed a year-long internship at Sunnyside Environmental School which allowed him to develop his philosophy on best practices and place-based education. This is Mike's third year teaching at S.W.C.S.. Mike taught last year as a 2nd/3rd grade teacher. Some of Mike's other passions include playing the fiddle, backpacking, bicycling, sea kayaking, and anything involving the outdoors and nature. Mike believes each child has special and wonderful attributes to bring to the classroom. He is very excited and happy to be a part of S.W. Charter School!

JEN ANDERSON: 2ND/3RD GRADE TEACHER

Jen Anderson has been teaching elementary-aged children in various capacities since 1992. Her professional experiences range from teaching in both public and private schools in urban Phoenix, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Portland, to teaching in a rural charter school in Luckiamute Valley in Pedee, Oregon. Outside of the traditional classroom, she has gardened and camped with inner-city teens, cooked and backpacked with at-risk middle-schoolers, and read and hiked with Nahuat children in the mountains of Mexico. For the past two years she was a garden educator at the Learning Gardens in SE Portland while working towards a Masters in Education at Portland State University. Jen has Midwestern roots and has lived in Oregon for the past nine years. Besides planting and harvesting, she enjoys laughing, baking, exploring, observing, taking pictures and sharing stories with her daughter.

BREANNE AUSTIN: 2ND/3RD GRADE TEACHER

This is Breanne’s (Bre’s) first year at Southwest Charter School. After completing a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Composition & Theory at Whitman College, she pursued other interests for a few years working as a seamstress at Oregon Ballet Theater and at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She also spent some time as a nanny and Ultimate Frisbee coach in the Portland area. She completed her Master of Arts in Teaching at Lewis & Clark in spring 2009 and while there interned in a 1st/2nd grade classroom at Sunnyside Environmental School. In addition to teaching, Bre enjoys competing with her Ultimate Frisbee team, Schwa, as well as skiing, hiking, and gardening.

MONICA VOGEL: 2ND/3RD GRADE TEACHER

Prior to Southwest Charter School, Monica taught a second and third grade blend at Willamette Primary in West Linn. She received my Master of Arts in Teaching at Lewis & Clark College and received a degree in Biology from the University of Portland. Before getting into teaching, she explored other passions. She spent two summers in Alaska, interning for the National Park with their brown bear research team and working as a sea kayak guide. She also had an AmeriCorps position at a local non-profit, Willamette Riverkeeper. Then she landed a "real" job with the Department of Environmental Quality, organizing volunteer groups that collect water quality data. Monica soon realized that though she loved the sciences and environmental stewardship, she was not cut out to work in an office all day. She started to think about those “fun” jobs she had working with kids as a swim instructor, basketball coach, pre-school teacher, and tutor. The light went on and here she is! In addition to teaching, Monica enjoys gardening, biking, baking, kayaking, and visiting with friends.

LISA COLOMBO: 4TH/5TH GRADE TEACHER

Lisa is in her third year of teaching at Southwest Charter School. Prior to teaching at SWCS, she worked with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) where for four years she developed science curriculum and taught students of all ages around the state. Her love of science and exploration began back in Michigan where she and her sister would explore their neighborhood, looking for insects and tinkering in their father's work shed. That interest would take her to study at the University of Michigan where she discovered she had a talent for teaching and received a Bachelor of Arts in Education with High Distinction. She has taught in a variety of educational settings from large group assemblies, which encouraged a love of theater, to small group classrooms, where she can give individualized attention. Her strong science background is accented by a passion for storytelling and folklore/mythology from around the world. Inspired by those tales, she creates visual art, recently joined a jugband as a washboard player, and is learning how to make puppets. Lisa brings her enthusiasm and talents to share and loves discovering and honing the talents and skills of each of her students.

SARAH ANDERSON: 6TH/7TH/8TH GRADE TEACHER

Sarah Anderson was originally lured to Oregon by its waterfalls. She spent most of her childhood exploring rivers and forests near her rural Vermont home- experiences which provided inspiration for a lifelong (so far!) passion for nature and all things wild. After graduating with a degree in American Studies from Bard College in New York, Sarah served as an AmeriCorps volunteer for Metro Parks and Greenspaces in Portland. Since then, she has worked as a crew leader at an educational farm in Vermont, a Teacher Naturalist in the California Redwoods and a Middle School Humanities teacher at The Key School in Annapolis, Maryland. Sarah received a Masters of Education from Antioch New England Graduate School, where she specialized in integrated and place-based education. She is thrilled to call Portland home and is looking forward to staying put! In addition to exploring the local neighborhoods and environs with her zany 6/7/8 graders, Sarah enjoys knitting, hiking, pickling, reading good books, and climbing waterfalls.