Loida Robles - Discoverers and spanish teacher

Loida fills two roles at Swan School. She is both a Discoverers’ Pre-school Teacher and our Spanish Teacher. Loida received her bachelors of science from the State University of New York in Bilingual/Bicultural Elementary and Early Childhood Education. She taught for the Agency of Child Development of the City of New York for eight years. During those years she was head teacher for preschool and kindergarten children where she developed a bilingual curriculum. She then went on to teach in the New York City public school system for the next five years. While there, she taught English as a second language to newly arrived students from South and Central America. She is also experienced teaching third, fourth and sixth grade.

Loida moved to Montana in the early 90’s where she opened her own preschool and provided additional services to the community by introducing John Bradshaw’s “Homecoming” series and giving a 10-week workshop on “Alternative Methods of Parenting”. Loida also took a journey across the U.S. on horseback (from New York City, to Fort Laramie, WY) with her husband and four horses. They studied and followed the “Oregon Trail”. The adventure lasted three years. She has been at Swan School since September 2003.

Vikki Fennell - explorers Teacher

Vikki Fennell grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and discovered her passion for education when she spent her summers as a junior sailing instructor. During college, Vikki volunteered as a teaching aid in a third grade classroom and at Oakland Children's hospital school program.

Vikki went on to get her California Teaching Credential and taught for over a decade as a K-1 Teacher and as a Director of an Early Childhood Program.

In 2017, Vikki, her Partner Rowan, their two children and their geriatric cat, moved on to their sailboat and spent three years sailing the Pacific Coast of Central America. The pandemic changed their plans to sail to the South Pacific and created the opportunity to move closer to Vikki's parents who live on the Peninsula and set down some roots in beautiful Port Townsend.

Emily Gohn - Head of School

After having grown up in Chimacum, she moved to New York where she attended Sarah Lawrence College, earning a BA in Humanities and a MS Ed in elementary education with a minor in child development. After college she became a founding member of Bronx Little School followed by 10 years of teaching preschool through 4th grade in the South Bronx and in East Harlem. Next Emily worked as an educational director for children of incarcerated women in the New York prison system, then later as a daycare and after school director with the NYC foster care system.

After her son was born she became Director of the Early Childhood Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, primarily serving the children of international post-doctoral research fellows – it was an amazing cultural opportunity which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Her heart undeniably lies with early childhood and nothing is as exciting to her as working with a class full of engaged and excited young people. She particularly loves working with families as full partners in education and strives to use as many different strategies as possible to meet each child’s and each family’s unique needs and goals. She started at Swan School in 2017.

Kate bessey - NAVIGATORS teacher

Originally from Quilcene, Kate is delighted to be returning to Jefferson County after many years studying, teaching, traveling and raising a family quite far from home. She is eager to begin working with Swan School as she feels most engaged when helping learners access and develop the infinite potential of their creativity and curiosity. Kate received her BA degree from Sarah Lawrence College, focusing equally on creative writing, performing arts and social sciences. While completing her undergraduate degree she began working in the New York City public elementary schools teaching theatre and arts-based learning programs. Following her time in New York, Kate relocated to Córdoba, Argentina, where she continued to hone her craft as an arts educator working as an ESL and drama instructor in elementary and secondary schools. While in Argentina, Kate began developing Drama in Education programs for local schools, helping teachers develop arts-based, interdisciplinary projects for their students. Kate also co-founded and served as artistic director for Storyworks_cba, an educational theatre company which generates immersive, theatre-based, learning experiences for students of all ages.

Kate's work in Argentina led her to pursue graduate studies in Applied Theatre at the University of Victoria, Canada. Applied Theatre is an interdisciplinary field concerned with all aspects of the theatre-making event in non-traditional and non-commercial performance contexts with a particular concern for how theatre intersects with education, community building, and social justice.

Kate's MA research and thesis focused on drama-based pedagogy as a method for designing and facilitating engaging learning opportunities in varied contexts which promote critical thinking on the interconnectedness between personal experience and larger systemic issues.

Kate's doctoral research and dissertation focused on traditions of independent theatre practice in South America, particularly theatre for young audiences in Argentina, as an exemplary intergenerational community arts practice.

KEELY PETERS - ADVENTURERS teacher

After obtaining her BA in creative writing from Western Washington University, Keely spent time adventuring and dabbling in a variety of jobs including assistant teaching at a cooperative pre-school and an outdoor school in Seattle. Keely has also provided many years of private childcare for little ones. Keely returned to her hometown of Port Townsend to reconnect with the community and hand-build her own home in the woods.

Keely’s work with young people led to her aspirations of becoming a career-educator. In 2020, she decided to realize these aspirations of becoming a certificated teacher and gained a Master of Arts in Teaching Elementary Education from Western Governors University.

Keely enjoys spending free time doing house projects, working in her garden, exploring with her two dogs, Reggie and Nim and doing amateur metalsmithing. She is happiest when she is engaged in a hands-on project and is excited to share and foster that enjoyment and engagement in the classroom.

Keely is thrilled to be a part of the Swan Community and seeks to understand her students where they are and guide them in their social, emotional, and academic growth. Keely feels that learning is a dynamic, democratic and student-centered process. She is a dedicated learner and is excited to grow alongside her students and maintain a collaborative, current, open and growth mindset in her practice. Keely sees that each student enters the classroom with the potential for social, emotional and academic success and is honored to have the job of nurturing and honing these achievements.

aliina lahti - Movement teacher

Aliina is so excited to work with the young folks at Swan School because they exhibit such wholehearted, eagerness to learn. What an honorable position a teacher has - to set a positive, accessible stage to build lifelong learners and stewards of humankind! Aliina focuses on knowing each student in mind, body, and spirit and finds this is quintessential to meeting them in their current understanding of the world.

Aliina has a Bachelors in Science, a dual degree in Sculpture Art/Art History & Biology — wha? yep, they go quite well together actually. She recently completed a social justice based Masters in Teaching Program at Western Washington University AND had a beautiful baby boy all in the same year!! She is also a movement enthusiast, a high school soccer coach, a yoga teacher, an artist, and an avid cyclist — hoping to help the planet one pedal at a time.

Her professional background is filled with a variety of non-profit and government work ranging from wildlife biology, habitat restoration, botany, teaching big kids and little kids about all the above, while squeezing in visual art creation. She settled in lovely Port Townsend in 2010, but grew up in Wyoming. When she isn't teaching at Swan School, she is running after her baby boy and making art.

Dana Weir - Art teacher

Dana’s formal education reflects her diverse interests and passions. She completed her BA in Art at Pacific University in 1997, and obtained a master’s degree from Marylhurst University in 2005. Her Master’s degree was interdisciplinary, focusing on Spiritual Traditions and Ethics. Dana is fascinated by the way in which artists from various cultures represent spiritual experience.

Dana moved to Port Townsend with her husband, Brian, in August of 2010 and began working with students at Swan School that same year. Prior to teaching at Swan, Dana spent nine years in Portland, Oregon, working as a nanny, preschool teacher, and art instructor. She taught a wide variety of art classes and camps for preschool and K-6 students at the Multnomah Art Center. She also taught preschool at The Marylhurst School, a highly regarded early childhood center that emphasizes experiential learning, artistic self-expression, and emotional intelligence.

When she is not teaching or creating art, Dana loves to explore the Pacific Northwest, in both urban and wild environments. Dana and Brian can often be found hiking around the peninsula, or making a pilgrimage to the Seattle Art Museum.

Dana is thrilled to be learning from and contributing to the creative community at Swan School.

MARCY STEWART - Explorer music teacher

Music has always been a huge part of Marcy’s life, from dancing and singing as a toddler to participating in breathtaking and transcendent symphonic performances as an adult.  Music is a language that taps feelings and understandings that can be expressed or communicated in no other way;  it adds priceless dimension and meaning to our lives.  Marcy’s goal as a music teacher is to foster a love of music in each student, whether it’s as a listener, musician, dancer or future creative genius.

Marcy began studying violin at the age of 9 and joined the San Gabriel Valley Junior Symphony Orchestra at age 10. She has fond memories of summers at Arrowbear Music Camp as a teen, by which time she had taken up the viola and the recorder, which she studied with Hans Bender. She played violin, viola and recorder in orchestras and ensembles throughout college and graduate school where she took courses in music history, theory, and performance. She later participated in state-wide chamber music workshops during her time as a fisher-woman and children’s librarian in Southeast Alaska. 

After moving to Port Townsend, Marcy played with the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra for 20 years and with the Port Townsend Community Orchestra for the past 15 + years. She was also part of the late Turtle Bluff Orchestra and has been the Lincoln Beach Quartet’s violist for over 20 years. She is a member of the Ladies’ Chamber Orchestra and Benevolent Society, an early music group which presents benefit concerts supporting local charitable organizations and causes.

Marcy has spent many years teaching violin and viola privately, using a modified Suzuki method based in part on pedagogy learned as a participant in annual workshops at the Northwest Suzuki Institute at the University of Oregon. She uses her experiences as a classroom teacher, musician and music student to create fun, interactive and inspiring musical activities for students of all ages.

Katey Dwyer - Explorers & Discoverers co-teacher

Katey grew up in the mountains of Anchorage, Alaska in a neighborhood called Bear Valley – with lions and tigers, too, oh my! In 2000, Katey and her family crossed the country arriving in upstate New York where they started a family band. After four years, the West Coast beckoned them home, and they settled into Port Townsend, WA.

After Katey finished the high school Running Start program, she attended Evergreen State College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis in Creative Writing. She then moved to Portland, OR to become an after-school kindergarten teacher. Katey loved her students and felt honored to bring art and music to children that were not afforded electives in their daily curriculum. She spent several years in the Portland school system, taught Portland summer camps and was happy for the opportunity to return to Alaska to teach fiddle at the music camp she attended as a kid.

In 2017, Katey became a mom and was drawn back to Port Townsend. Katey is currently pursuing her Masters degree in Teaching at Western Governors University.

Bonnie White - Business Manager

Bonnie has a unique connection to Swan School as both a founding parent and, more recently, as staff. She began work at Swan School in 2011 as Assistant Head of School. With an extensive background in non-profit finance and social services, Bonnie is responsible for daily operations and business management of the school.

In 1982, as a parent of preschoolers, Bonnie joined a study group to learn more about contemporary educational philosophies. Understanding that finding the best fit for her Kindergartner was essential to a successful start to school, she was excited to specifically learn more about classrooms where learning is balanced between academics and the arts, yet inspired through a child’s innate curiosity.

Discovering that there were no alternatives to a public-school classroom available at that time, Bonnie and other parents in the study group undertook the steps necessary to develop Swan School. She considers it is a great honor to now be on staff and to serve the community that was so integral to her own family.

Bonnie likes to work on her old house with her husband Dana, volunteer, and travel (especially to visit her granddaughters and family in New England).

She holds a BA from Evergreen State College and studied at University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies.

KATIE ARBUCKLE - office Manager

Katie recently joined Swan School as the office manager. Her other big job is mom to a Navigator.

Katie has numerous years of experience in Government with administrative work. This makes her particularly valuable in her administrative role, as well as Secretary for the Board. Katie sees solutions and organization opportunities among the systems used in almost any setting.

Katie finds the nurturing, independent, growth mindset education presented at Swan School to be critical for well rounded students and she is thrilled to support that mission and help it continue for years to come.