Only the most qualified
Faculty
Traveling School faculty create magic in and out of the classroom! More than just educators, they are mentors, role models and guides along the journey of a Traveling School semester. Our faculty are passion-driven, and go above and beyond to ensure students have the support and resources they need to thrive.
Jenna Mulligan
Logistics Coordinator & Academic Teacher
Base Camp: San Diego, CA
South America Spring 2024
Jenna was raised in Southwest Colorado by a family that celebrated skiing, travel, and magazines – idols of her life to this day. She took these passions forward into her undergraduate education at Gonzaga University, where she studied Journalism and Spanish. Her experience studying abroad in South America and Western Europe during her high school and college years ignited growth in cultural curiosity, appreciation for language exchange, and self-trust. Mobility became a gateway to identity, later inspiring a Masters degree in Development Studies and Migration.
Jenna’s career Teaching English as a Second Language has led her through Vietnam, Greece, Chile, and Serbia as well as San Diego, CA. She has taught in public and private school classrooms as well as migrant and refugee-organized support centers. In every one of these spaces, she is motivated by the way students support and collaborate with one another and each student’s building ability to communicate and exchange stories.
Her career, never linear, has also joyfully included community radio, hospitality, immigration legal support, ski coaching, and logistical support to wilderness expeditions.
Meredith Nass
Program Coordinator & Academic Teacher
Base Camp: Durango, Colorado
South America Spring 2024
3rd semester with TTS
Graduated with her Master’s in Education from University of Colorado, Boulder with a focus on Ethnic Studies and Educational Policy, Meredith has spent her career tackling critical questions related to justice work, with an emphasis on reimagining the roles of transformative educators. A dedicated mentor, Meredith finds inspiration working with young people and specifically in utilizing liberatory pedagogies in experiential settings. She previously worked as Assistant Director of Camp Glenbrook in New Hampshire, and for Gap at Glenbrook, facilitating programming on a rural farm with graduated high schoolers taking a gap year. In the spring of 2022, she taught for The Traveling School’s Western US semester. She adores her previous students and looks forward to teaching for The Traveling School in the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024. When she’s not teaching, Meredith loves to dance, do yoga, bike, ski, practice Spanish, garden, cook, read, and spend time with friends and family in the mountains and desert landscape of her home-base in the Southwest.
Arden Simone
Faculty Mentor & Academic Teacher
Base Camp: Bay Area, California
South America Spring 2024
3rd semester with TTS
Arden Simone’s educational journey began in Pennsylvania, where she attended an all-girls school from 3rd through 12th grade. She later graduated from Davidson College with a degree in Psychology. Her most recent role at Khan Lab School (KLS) in the Bay Area involved teaching Humanities and co-leading the department. While at Khan, Arden also founded and directed KLS Outdoors, an expeditionary learning program that provides outdoor experiences to the student body, fostering a deeper connection to nature and experiential learning.
Prior to KLS, Arden taught in diverse educational settings across twelve countries, guiding U.S. high school students through Southeast Asia, Europe, Western Africa, and the United States. At The School for Field Studies, a study-abroad program for U.S. college students in Cambodia, she spent a year overseeing risk management, student well-being, and field research. She also taught in northern India and at a Friends School in the United States. In fall of 2019, she served as Program Coordinator and Lead Academic Teacher for The Traveling School’s Southern Africa Semester, where her passion for transformative international education deepened further, and she returned to TTS as Program Coordinator and Lead Teacher for this past fall’s Southern Africa Semester as well.
In addition to her educational pursuits, Arden loves traveling (of course!), backpacking, skiing, mountain biking, cooking, going out for dim sum, and chatting with friends around a campfire. She is thrilled to rejoin The Traveling School, recognizing it as an extraordinarily powerful, joyful, and transformative opportunity for students.
Mabel Gardner
Academic Teacher
Base Camp: Missoula, MT
South America Spring 2024
Born in Missoula, Montana, Mabel was raised to appreciate her natural surroundings and seek out opportunities for adventure and thrill. In the historic lake Missoula valley, she developed a passion for skiing, mountain biking, running, backpacking, and most other activities that allow her to explore the outdoors. In high school she also learned to pole vault, which propelled her into an athletic career in track and field at Colorado College. There she majored in both romance languages and political science with a focus in Spanish and US politics.
Mabel was introduced to Spanish at the age of two when she attended a small Spanish-immersion school. Although English is her first language, this school taught her how to read and write in Spanish before ever taking a class in English. In fact, it wasn’t until Middle School when her math and science classes eventually switched to English from Spanish. This foundation ignited her passion for languages and supported her continued education in the subject throughout high school and college. As a romance language major, she picked up French and a taste of Italian, broadening her understanding of linguistic fundamentals and enlightening her to the difficult process of learning a language as an adult.
Upon graduating from Colorado College in 2022, Mabel worked as the middle school Spanish teacher at Watershed School in Boulder, Colorado. Watershed is a small independent school for middle and high school aged students. They focus on experiential and outdoor based pedagogy. She believes experiential learning is one of the most powerful tools when learning a language and is excited for the possibilities that the Traveling School structure will enable in this regard.
Mabel approaches the world around her with an open mind, empathy, and fierce curiosity. Her previous work and academic interests are deeply intertwined with human rights and immigration affairs and she seeks ways to imbed these discussions into lesson plans. Her worldview has been heavily influenced by her travels abroad and she cannot wait for the semester ahead with the Traveling School in South America.
You should know that The Traveling School did a masterful job of finding superlative instructors – ones so good that they will, without question, rank among the best of the best of [our daughter’s] entire K-12 (and probably beyond) educational experience.
Past Faculty
Morgan Comey
Leslie Sandefur
Madeleine Colvin
Malia Bertelsen
Biz Osborne-Schwartz
Becky Fitzpatrick
Meredith Bannon
Beth Billington
Ali Brooks
Dawn Card Maltarollo
Victoria Cavanaugh
Lander Cooney
Autumn DeMet
Heather Foran
Anna Graves
Megan Hardy
Gennifre Hartman
Founder & Former Executive Director
Jen Sarna Herdina
Drew Higgins
Claire Hirschmann
Abigail Hunter
Bekah Hykan
Shannon Jakes
Maddie Johnson
Rachel Johnson
Savannah Johnson
Brenna Kelleher
Leah Knickerbocker
Cara Kropp
Whitney Lonsdale
Allie Mack
Liz MacNeil
Clara Maeder
Eileen Mahler
Laurel Major
Emily Mallory
Board of Directors – Former President
Quinn Mawhinney
Rhea Maze
Jenae McCarroll
Board of Directors – Former Director
Phoebe McGuire
Kate McMahon
Maria McMorrow
Lauren Miranda
Ariane Mohr-Felsen
Chrissie Monaghan
Board of Directors – Former President
Samantha Mora
Mary Reid Munford
Academic Dean
Caroline Goodman
Shannon Ongaro
Heather Politi
Julia Reich
Linnaea Renz
Danika Robison
Cara Rosingana
Jennifer Royall
Executive Director
Katelin Ryan
Erin Schaberg
Sarah Schuh
Melissa Seehausen
Sylvia Segar
Leah Shorb
Allegra Fisher
Thea Sittler
Tory Smith
Gaby Stablein
Kate Steckmest
Anna Taft
Aunge Thomas
Head of School