Our School Community

LWGMS Faculty

Patricia Hearn
Head of School
MA, Education, Antioch University
BA, English, Rutgers University

In the spring of 1998 the board of Lake Washington Girls Middle School hired Patti as its first Head Teacher. She worked with the parent board to plan the opening of the school and wrote and taught the humanities, math, and enrichment curricula for all three grades.

As the school grew and changed, so did its administrative structure. In 2005, the LWGMS Board appointed Patti Head of School.

Before joining LWGMS, Patti developed all academic curricula and taught girls in grades five to ten at Chabad School. She started a drama program in 1994 and greatly enjoyed working with the students to grow the program from its first year, a small one-act play, to its fifth, a full-length musical production. She continues this theater experience at LWGMS, where she directs the eighth grade play each year.

Kirsten Rooks
Science Teacher
MA in Teaching, Columbia University
BA Psychology, Williams College

Kirsten taught many subjects in a variety of academic settings before reaching the "perfect teaching job" at LWGMS. Her first teaching job was eighth through twelfth grade Spanish at the Sant Bani School in New Hampshire for one semester. She then traveled to Kenya with the World Teach program where she taught Biology and English at Samitsi Secondary School. Upon returning to the US, she lived in Washington, DC, helping to create and implement education and health programs for developing countries at USAID's Office of Education and then with one of their contracting firms.

After a few years, the education bug bit again and she attended Columbia University Teachers College in New York to get her MA in Teaching Secondary Social Studies. Kirsten then moved back to Washington, DC and taught for five years at Paul Junior High, three years as an English teacher and two as a Geography teacher. Though she liked social studies, she realized that her passion was in science education, and she started supplementing her education with courses in astronomy, anatomy, geology, and environmental science.

Prior to moving to Seattle, Kirsten lived in Philadelphia where she taught seventh and eighth grade science at Ivy Leaf School, a small private African-American K-8 school.

Kirsten joined LWGMS in September 2000. She now teaches all core science and science-related electives classes and is the yearbook advisor.

Karin Kallander
Spanish Teacher, Director of Student Support
Masters in Clinical Psychology, Antioch University
BA, Psychology, University of Oregon

Karin has spent a lot of time traveling in Mexico, Spain and Central America, and has studied Spanish in various locations. She has been teaching Spanish at LWGMS since May 2000. She has spent time in Mexico studying Spanish and has worked in Seattle area public schools and clinics as a mental health therapist. In 1990, while working as the Intervention Specialist at Whitman Middle School, Karin chaperoned the Spanish Club on a weeklong trip to Mexico. Karin also ran a program for the Student Conservation Association in Mexico and Texas during the summers. The program gave youth from the U.S. and Mexico the chance to work together on environmental projects and to learn about one another's cultures.

Karin previously worked for the University of Washington/Harborview as the Assistant Director and Mental Health Specialist for the HERS program (Help Each Other Reach the Sky), a program that works with Cambodian teenage girls.

Lindsey Mutschler
Art
BA, P-12 Art Education, Western Washington University

Lindsey received her bachelor of arts from Western Washington University in Art Education with a minor in music. Prior to coming on board at LWGMS in 2007, she taught art and music at Willowbrook Center for the Development of Human Potential and served as a Learning & Writing Assistant for four years at Western Washington University. She also volunteered as a guest art specialist in schools in Bellingham, WA, and worked as a gallery attendant at the Whatcom Museum of History and Art. An avid artist and activist in the art community, she left Bellingham as a member of the Bellingham Waterfront Art Collective.

LWGMS is the ideal teaching enviornment for Lindsey, and she is delighted to have landed here. LWGMS' focus on integrating curriculum allows her to put into practice her belief that art is not detached from everyday life but is best understood when studied within history, culture, language, and all aspects of education.

Martha Straley
Math
M. Ed., Curriculum and Instruction, Secondary Mathematics, University of Washington
Mathematics coursework, The Evergreen State College
B.A, History, University of California, San Diego

Martha developed math curricula and taught math to middle-school and high-school students at the Northwest School and Seattle Academy when those schools first opened in Seattle. While raising her two children, she left full-time teaching but continued to tutor students in middle and high-school level math and SAT preparation. In addition, she became a technical editor and writer for software companies in town, translating engineering language for technical audiences, all the while saying that she would some day return to teaching. She is delighted that the perfect math teaching job finally came along at LWGMS.

Nancy Rawles
Social Studies
B.S.J., Northwestern University

Nancy was born in Philadelphia, grew up in Los Angeles, and went to college at Northwestern, where she graduated with a degree in Journalism and a major in African American History. She worked as a journalist for The Chicago Reporter, an investigative monthly covering issues of economics and race, as well as for WBBM-AM CBS radio news in Chicago. After her brief career in journalism, Nancy became a resident playwright at theaters in Chicago and Minneapolis. She began teaching writing to students of all ages, a role she has enjoyed for twenty years. In 2000, Nancy was given a Leading Voices Award from the Starbucks Foundation for her work teaching writing in Seattle, most notably with Seattle Arts & Lectures and Powerful Schools. Nancy has received numerous awards for her writing. Her novel My Jim was recently honored with an Alex Award from the American Library Foundation.

Cary McRae
Director of Admissions/Business Manager
MBA, Finance & Human Resource Management, University of Washington
BS, Mathematics, Wellesley College

Cary worked for eight years as a Pension Actuary (member of the American Society of Pension Actuaries) and taught Death and Dying, Grief and Loss and "other really depressing subjects" for two years at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Department of Medical Humanities. Cary's½s first daughter, Sydney, graduated from LWGMS in 2004. Now, Cary keeps the office and the admissions process running smoothly.

Jenny Zavatsky
Language Arts, Mock Trial
BA, University of Washington
JD, University of Washington School of Law
MA, Seattle University

After attending Garfield High School and The Bush School in Seattle, Washington, Jenny moved to New York City to study art, including two years at New York University’s Film School. From 1981-1983, Jenny worked for a small, independent film company as well as CBS News before returning to Seattle and attending the University of Washington, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in philosophy. In 1988, Jenny graduated with honors from the University of Washington School of Law. She worked in civil rights litigation before leaving her legal career for one in teaching. At Seattle University School of law, Jenny was a professor of legal writing, reasoning, oral advocacy from 1992-1997. During this time, Jenny developed a passion for teaching, and she earned a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction while teaching full-time. Through her studies in Seattle University’s master’s program, Jenny discovered that she had a keen interest in teaching younger students; she left the law school for Seattle Academy, and from 1997-2006 Jenny coached several sports, taught classes from grades 6-12, and developed the school’s Mock Trial Program. In 2006, Jenny led the Mock Trial Team to a Washington State Championship. At LWGMS, Jenny brings 15 years of teaching experience, a passion for working with young people, and the new LWGMS Youth and Government and Mock Trial programs. 

Toni Hughes
BA, Fisk University
Cooperative Study Club Teacher

Toni Hughes is originally from Seattle and she was educated in the Seattle Public Schools. After high school graduation, she traveled south to attend college in Nashville, TN., and then to Spain as an exchange student. She lived and worked in Washington, D.C. before returning to Seattle to marry and start a family. She worked as administrator and Program Coordinator for YWCA of Seattle King/Snohomish County. She is a devoted member of her church family, and she enjoys using her talents and efforts in volunteer service and several charitable causes. In addition to her work at LWGMS, she works with Northwest Student Exchange, a non-profit organization placing international high school-age students in American host families in the Seattle area. Toni is excited about learning with and about the girls at LWGMS through the after school program.

Conne McGlynn Bruce
Director of Advancement
BS, Business Administration, University of San Francisco

As a member of the third generation of women in her family to attend Holy Names Academy, Conne is a proud product and supporter of girls' education. Both her grandmother and her mother attended the Immaculate Conception School and Conne is thrilled to work at LWGMS in the same building that housed their school. Conne returned to her home city of Seattle after graduating from the University of San Francisco with a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration. She went to work for REI and spent several years in the finance division. In 2000, she left REI to stay at home with her young children. In the past ten years, she found joy in her work for several schools and organizations in the field of Development.

Conne brings to Lake Washington Girls Middle School her experience in assisting in the creation of a $1 million Endowment fund for St. Louise School, the knowledge she gained as the President of the Holy Names Alumnae Board, and the skills she learned in building the Northwest Alumni Counsel for the University of San Francisco, which included a year as the Event Coordinator. She brings her passion for girls’ education to the Development Office at LWGMS.

Guest Faculty

LWGMS benefits from a multitude of guest instructors who teach one-day or short-term classes as part of the curriculum. Some of our long-term guest instructors join us from:

The Austin Foundation

Martial Arts in the Public Interest

The Rainier Valley Youth Theatre

Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center

Arts Corps

Sports

LWGMS students enjoy a wide range of athletic choices, including league soccer, basketball and tennis teams. All the girls are encouraged to participate, and everyone plays!

• R&R Groups. Every student is a member of an R&R Group, which stands for “Respect and Responsibility”. These groups are a great way for the “big sisters” of the group to interact and act as role-models for the “little sisters” in the group. Each group identifies goals that will improve their school environment, both physically and socially. Goals might include eating lunch with a different group of people every day, offering homework or computer help to someone, painting murals in the restroom stalls, or maintaining a section of the garden. R&R groups eat lunch together once a week to discuss issues and get to know each other better. Every student signs a “Respect and Responsibility Agreement”, where they agree to be respectful of each other and help out anyone who is being excluded or disrespected in any way.
  
  
• Student Council. LWGMS has a nine-member student council that comprises three members from each grade. Student council is responsible for running all-school meetings and coordinating various activities throughout the year. Representatives from the student council attend Board of Trustee meetings, where they share ideas and concerns of students and report minutes from the Board meeting to their fellow students. The student council has one voting representative on the Board of Trustees, and thus the students’ voices are part of the governance of the school.
  
  
• Mock Trial. Now in its second year, the LWGMS Mock Trial team has proven to be a successful middle school program.
  
  
• Clubs at LWMGS include Music Club, Math Club, Youth and Government, Environmental Service Club, and Yearbook. Clubs meet every Friday before lunch and after school as needed.