My name is Heidi, and I’m the Kindergarten Crew Lead. I’m originally from Latrobe, PA, which is a small-town east of Pittsburgh. Fun fact: Latrobe is the hometown of Mr. Rogers! Growing up in rural area meant that I spent a lot of time building forts in the winter, running around barefoot in the summer, and creating my own fun and homegrown expeditions. I started my teaching career in Plano, Tx and taught for four years in the 1^st and 4^th grades. In 2009 I moved to New York City to begin a graduate program in International Education Development, with a focus in Peace & Human Rights Education. It was during this time that I learned of Expeditionary Learning (now EL Education). Believing that a high-quality education is a fundamental human right for all children, EL’s emphasis on educational equity and social justice resonated deeply. In 2011 I applied to EL schools across the country and landed at Capital City Public Charter School, an EL Mentor school in Washington, DC. I spent three years teaching in the 6th and 1st grades and then most recently served as the Reading Intervention Specialist in grades 1-4. This is my 11th year teaching, and I am so thrilled to be joining the Odyssey Crew alongside its youngest learners who are not afraid to ask big questions and work creatively to explore the answers. Outside of teaching I enjoy practicing yoga, training for triathlons, exploring new trails, and sending snail-mail to friends and family.

Alisha Black-Mallon was first introduced to Expeditionary Learning at the age of eleven, when she attended the first EL school opened here in Denver. She fell in love with the constructivist, hands-on, whole child philosophy, and has now been teaching in EL Schools for the past eleven years. Alisha's passions are reading, writing & language, which is what drove her to study Literature, Arabic & Peace and Conflict Studies at CU Boulder. She holds a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology, intentionally weaving social emotional intelligence curriculum into her classroom culture. In her free time, Alisha loves to dance, ride her bike, and tinker, is part of a Women's building collective, and is excited to become a mother some day soon.

Billy was born in Rhode Island and grew up in Virginia.  After graduating from Virginia Tech (Go Hokies!) with a degree in music, he moved to Denver (where his father and grandparents spent much of their lives) to enjoy all that this wonderful city and its surroundings have to offer.  In 2005, Billy began working at the Odyssey School of Denver as a teaching assistant.  After returning to the role of student at UC Denver and earning his Master's degree in education, Billy gratefully accepted his current role as a lead teacher of second and third grade in 2010.  He is thrilled and proud to be a part of this committed, driven, adventurous, and compassionate crew of staff members.  Some of Billy's favorite ways to pass the time outside of school include playing, listening to, and dancing to live music, and perhaps above all, skiing through heaps of powder with dear friends (many of whom are also Odyssey staffers)!

Growing up in OH-IO as the youngest of six siblings I spent a lot of time trying to keep up with my brothers and sisters on all of their adventures.  After graduating from Ohio University I spent several years teaching in the classroom, as well as guiding and directing various outdoor programs.  As the Director of Adventure Programming at Odyssey I get the unique opportunity to combine my passions for adventure and education.  At Odyssey, "together, students and adults discover they can do more than they thought possible and find aspects of themselves that they didn't know were there."

I was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, but growing up I spent my summers on a sandbar in Lake Erie and my winters on a snowboard in Keystone. When I was 9 my family moved to Warsaw, Poland, for 3 years, and the international community left a lasting impact on my love for new experiences and appreciation for perspectives different from my own.

“One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.” I grew up on the east coast in Massachusetts. When I was 16 I had a life-changing experience rafting the deep canyons of the west and I was inspired to discover the world outside my front door. At 18 I moved to the western United States and I graduated from Colorado State University achieving a degree in Wildlife Biology with minors in Fisheries and Rangeland Ecology, which led to my passion for teaching in an outdoor environment through recreation and stewardship. I lived in Western United States for 5 years until seeking experience internationally working and living in Australia for 3 years. I have been an active outdoor professional for the last 13 years. I began guiding rafting trips on the Arkansas River, which led to more intense wilderness-based expeditions with Outward Bound, Collegiate Universities, and Commercial Guiding Outfitters throughout the United States. I have worked and traveled throughout the world to broaden my knowledge and experience to construct high quality adventure-based programs for groups of all ages.  I am a new resident to Denver and I own two active dogs. I have been a Volunteer Ski Patroller and a teacher of CPR. I also teach wilderness medicine for the Longleaf Wilderness Medicine Company because I believe in the positive impact that it can have on a person’s life by empowering people to respond in both front and back country settings. I am incredibly excited to be working within the Odyssey community as the new Director of Adventure Programming. It will be an amazing opportunity to work with students and their families to help support and accomplish the mission of the Odyssey School of Denver.

As an adventurer, athlete and outdoorswoman, I needed to be active to learn. In college, I found my academic home in the Earth sciences, studying geomorphology, glaciology, and paleoclimatology, performing fieldwork in Alaska and the high Canadian Arctic. I spent time in the Colorado Rockies as well, studying plants, rockslides, snow, glaciers, forests and weather. I met my amazing husband Barnabas in Vermont after I graduated and settled down a bit to start a family, but knew I’d return to Colorado as soon as I could. Passionate about sharing what I learn, after moving to Arizona in 1993, I began teaching college geology part time while working for engineers as their staff geologist. After receiving my teaching certificate at Prescott College, I started teaching middle school science in 1999, and other than a few years teaching high school science and two years as an instructional coach, I have been doing that ever since. Many of these years have been at EL schools, allowing me the deep work I hold in such high regard. My interest in the Polar Regions resurfaced in 2006 when I was selected to participate as a PolarTREC teacher in Svalbard, Norway studying climate change near the North Pole. I then earned my Master of Science at Montana State University in Science Education in 2010.  I was honored last year to participate in a month long research project airborne over Antarctica with NASA’s Operation IceBridge, collecting airborne data on land and sea ice thickness and extent. Always excited to network with scientists and share our broader impacts, I often present at professional conferences such as National Science Teacher Association and American Geophysical Union. Getting to teach at Odyssey’s middle school is a wonderful opportunity for me, and I am excited to work with your students and families, sharing my passion for science.

I grew up on the east coast, in a town just north of Boston, where my family still calls home.  I visit them often and when I do, I love spending time boating, swimming and playing in the ocean.  Although I love Colorado’s mountains, and have been here for 15 years, I’m definitely an ocean girl at heart.

As for my teaching path, I started teaching at Odyssey in 2000, when I was an intern teacher in a 3^rd& 4^th grade classroom.  I then taught 5^th & 6^th grade at Odyssey for the next 4 years at both the Elm St., and Stapleton locations.  After a stint teaching 6^th grade at an EL school in California, and 5 great years teaching 4^th & 5^th grade at RMSEL (Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning) in Denver, I found my way back to Odyssey in 2011.  In addition to teaching, I’ve held other roles in the schools in which I have worked.  I served on the Odyssey board, the RMSEL leadership team, and I’ve been a mentor teacher to three intern teachers.  Currently, I am on Odyssey’s instructional leadership team.   All in all, I’m enthusiastic about teaching and learning and I feel lucky to be part of such a strong and vibrant educational community here at Odyssey.  It’s an honor and a gift to teach alongside such talented and driven educators.

Outside of my teaching life, I ride my bike as much as I can, I love to ski, I read a lot, I enjoy playing Scrabble and all sorts of games, I try to sew and knit and be somewhat crafty, I cook when I’m not too tired, and I practice a lot of yoga during the school year.  This summer my wife and I spent a few weeks camping in our VW van, exploring our favorite places in Colorado, like Crested Butte, while also adventuring to new spots, like Silverton as well.

Originally from “The Mitten”, Katie realized her passion for teaching at a young age volunteering in her mom’s classroom. However, it took an undergraduate degree in English and Brain Science at the University of Michigan before she officially pursued her calling.

Katie joins Odyssey after five years serving as an upper elementary teacher at Capital City PCS in Washington, DC, where she received her Masters in Teaching and met her husband (a Centennial, Colorado native). Katie is thrilled to find her home away from home at Odyssey.

Katie is a lover of the outdoors, creative writing, gardening, fitness, and baking. On the weekends, she can often be found reading books her students recommend, cooing at every animal that passes by, and pretending she’s on HGTV, taking on home improvement projects that usually end horribly.