Staff
Kandy Giles
S.T.E.A.M Specialist
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Kandy Giles is a Naturalist Teaching Artist with an art and science integration focus, using biotic & sustaining methods which support ecosystems.
BA Ed. certified K-12, Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri
BFA Visual Art, Atlanta College of Art
Kandy connects studio and field projects with academic curriculum and S.T.E.A.M. to support students, teachers & community. With experience in outdoor education and practical applications in place-based learning, Kandy facilitates creative projects and field work that builds communit
She first taught at the Friends School of Atlanta, coming from the High Museum of Art and the Atlanta College of Art. Raising children, homesteading, building, owning an art store, painting murals and community art workshops in her hometown in Missouri formed the realization that community and living lightly on the land must be the mission!
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Kandy has taught in public and private schools; therapeutic and traditional; including Grand Center Arts Academy, Logos School and Juvenile Detention schools in the St. Louis area. She came to us via Parkdale, where she taught Art Integrated Science at New Vision School.
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During the last several years, she has lead many outdoor school programs, summer camps and eco-educational events while living happily on the land of the Little White Salmon Biodiversity Reserve.
Megan Collins
Director of Operations
Raised by educators, I have been taught to appreciate life as the ultimate gift of lifelong learning. I went to college on a D1 volleyball scholarship to Utah State and then graduated summa cum laude from Portland State University with a BS in Arts and Letter. I am always trying to seek out opportunities that challenge and encourage me to dig a little deeper and break free from what I already know, to what might be. To me, the power to wonder is one of the greatest educational catalysts we can employ in learning. I love meeting new people, traveling, and imbibing diverse cultures, perspectives, and experiences that speak to my heart and spirit. I lived in a prefecture outside of Tokyo, Japan for four years, where I founded a small English school and consider that experience one of the highlights of my life.
I live with my family of five on sixteen acres in Stevenson Washington with eleven chickens, two mini (but mighty) schnauzers, and big dreams. I am happiest near bodies of water, love playing and exploring outside, and feel incredibly grateful to live in, what I consider to be, one of the most beautiful places on earth (The Columbia Gorge). I come to Wildwood Academy after working for several years in the Public School sphere as a Technology Specialist/Instructor where I taught students computer skills as well as how to have positive, safe, and meaningful interactions online.
Lisa Kosglow
Head of Cultural and Outdoor Excursions
Lisa Kosglow will be leading our Outdoor Adventure Program for 2021/22.
Lisa is the Director of Let’s Get Out Adventures, LLC a Columbia Gorge based outdoor education program. An entrepreneur at heart, she is the co-author of Kidding Around the Gorge-The Hood River Area’s Ultimate Guide to Family Fun, and co-author of Let the Kid Guide: Putting Nature Back Into Our Lives. She’s a two-time Olympian and avid outdoors person. Lisa specializes in fostering a sense of wonder in children with a focus on nature based connection. For 20+ years she has instructed children and adults both across the US and internationally in both snowboarding and outdoor programming. Lisa is passionate about land stewardship, outdoor adventure, and creating deep and lasting connections between people and the land. She is also trained as a NOLS Wilderness First Responder to help manage risks while kids play in the woods. When she isn’t out on her bike, snowboarding or surfing you can find her exploring the Columbia Gorge with her family.
Caleb Peretz
Math and Outdoor Science
I recently moved to White Salmon from my home place of Sonoma County, California. I graduated from the University of California Davis with a BA in Science and am passionate about all facets of science with a comprehensive understanding of biology, chemistry, physics, ecology,anatomy and physiology. I also love math and finding ways to creatively teach it to students.
Being an educator comes readily to me; I love explaining the natural world to inquisitive minds and find joy in being a role model for curious students. Over the years, I have taught at The Redwood Adventist Academy and The Farm School in an immersive setting that allowed students a very place-based education of learning science along with forestry management, ecology, energy sustainability, organic farming, physics, sustainability, and ecosystems. At The Farm School, we took in over 25,000 students each year (many from the inner-city) and immersed them in science and hands-on sustainability. I was instrumental in designing curriculum, classroom and behavioral management, and assessment.
I believe that the scholastic system is in need of major reforms, and that the youth must be supported in a much more holistic way. I am so glad to be at Wildwood Academy to take part in this transformation. I am excited to guide the students into a love of learning and a thirst for real life experiences, led by natural curiosity through a scientific lens.
Deborah Currier, PhD
Theatrical Arts Director
I’m Deb Currier and I am passionate about immersive arts education, experiential learning, all things theatre, dogs, and good cheese. I grew up in Southern California and arrived in the PNW for graduate school (Go Ducks) and never left. I spent the past 20 years as a theatre education and outreach, history, acting and improv professor at Western Washington University, and absolutely love making community service-learning connections through creative outreach projects.
Throughout my life and in between earning letters after my name, I have worked as a professional actor, director, choreographer, stage manager, youth theatre playwright, and designer/builder (props, sound, sets, costumes… but, sadly, everyone would be in the dark if I had to design the lighting). I love collaborating with youth of all ages to make theatre that is fun, engaging and ultimately meaningful for them as co-creators. While in Whatcom County, WA, my creative work focused on outreach in the Nooksack and Skagit Valley communities, and a favorite recent project was designing an all-school, immersive theatre workshop at Beach School on Lummi Island, where we spent the morning at the shore exploring and learning about the Bellingham Bay natural environment, and the afternoon making a theatre piece engaging with and honoring the indigenous Lummi and Coastal Salish legend of Komo Kulshan and the creation of the Salish Sea.
I have had the immense privilege of designing and leading multiple experiential theatre history and culture trips with students to Greece, Italy, Turkey, and the U.K. and hope to create those opportunities again with young learners. I have traveled and taught internationally, and some of my favorite memories include walking students through Greek history in the Theatre of Dionysus on the Acropolis in Athens, performing a spontaneous improv show with students in the Roman ruins of Ostia Antica, teaching character movement techniques with youth in the Doorstep Arts, U.K. program, and a semester in Italy teaching commedia dell’arte and devised theatre in the ballroom of a 15th century palazzo.
I am excited to share my knowledge with Wildwood Academy students, but for me it is equally important to learn from my students. There is always more to discover.
