Our Staff

Sally Carless:
   The founder and executive director of Global Village School, Sally has more than twenty years' experience in alternative education including administration, teaching, curriculum development, American Indian Education, outdoor education, and program development. Sally has a Master's Degree in Education (Curriculum and Instruction), a B.A. in Wilderness Recreation, and a California Teaching Credential. She also completed a year's graduate study in Depth Psychology and studies dream tending at Pacifica Graduate Institute.
    Passionately committed to a vision of a more just and peaceful world, Sally believes that education is a key component of progressive social change. Her deep concerns about intolerance, violence and inequality in the world led to the creation of Global Village School in 1999.
    Sally has given presentations on peace education, learning styles, and homeschooling at various locations in the U.S. as well as in Thailand and India. Also a musician and writer, Sally’s articles have been published on Commondreams.org and in Paths of Learning and Hopedance.

Tanya MacGumerait:
    Tanya graduated with a degree in Political Science and History from Drake University in Des Moines, Iow where she was involved in the political science, history, and sociology honor societies.  At around age four Tanya could be found on the couch reading Webster's Dictionary as often as playing outside with the neighborhood kids.  Ms. MacGumerait has developed a wide variety of interests as the result of experience and study.  During her high school years Tanya gave presentations on gay/lesbian/bisexual rights and highlighted the experiences of multicultural youth.  An enthusiastic researcher of different types of culture, spirituality, and political systems, Ms. MacGumerait has also professionally pursued her interest in technology while serving as the Director of IT for a distance-learning school. 
   Joining Global Village in 2002 meant coming back to her primary interest - academia.  Tanya delights in the opportunity to create, teach and learn from material that inspires inquiry, encourages communication, and fosters cooperation - things that support the development of thoughtful, compassionate and aware human beings.  Tanya has worn a variety of hats during her time at Global Village including Administrator, Technical Advisor, Outreach Coordinator, Curriculum Writer, and teacher. Tanya lives in southern California with her wife and four kitties who possess a stunning array of super powers.  Her hobbies include: reading, writing, listening to many different kinds of music, surfing the web, creating and supervising online communities, engaging in role-playing games, and imagining new worlds.

Gretchen Buck:
   Growing up in Berkeley in the late 60's and early 70's made Gretchen a social activist at heart, and in high school she began a lifelong love-hate relationship with computers, which has provided more financial support than her B.A. in Sociology from UCLA. She believes that these powerful tools can and should be used to help people simplify the complex and often tedious tasks of our information-driven society. Her activism lay dormant for many years, until joining the Unitarian Universalist church. Its emphasis on tolerance, diversity, social justice and personal growth led to a renewed desire to put her skills to work in furtherance of those ends.
    Serendipity, karma, or something brought those dreams and the growing needs of Global Village School together, where Gretchen is happy to be doing work in support of something she truly believes in. She is active in her church, especially the Religious Education program, and in her spare time enjoys crocheting and other crafts and reading fantasy and science fiction. She lives in a rural section of the beautiful Ojai Valley with her husband, daughter and 4 cats.
   Gretchen serves as the Administrative Assistant for GVS.

Mary K. Blackmon:
   Mary Kay attended first and second grades in rural New Mexico in a small two-room school for grades 1-7. She attributes her success in school and her interest in special education to this experience. After earning a BA in Special Education from University of Denver, she taught special education at the elementary level. These two experiences influenced her appreciation for alternative and individualized education. Mary Kay also taught at the elementary level in the Peace Corps in Philippines and Eritrea. Later, participating in a parent toddler group with her daughter led Mary Kay into the field of early childhood education. She has over 20 years of experience working as a teacher and administrator in early childhood education. She earned an MA in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, California. Her Master’s Project, Toward Equal Rights for Lesbian Mothers, resulted in a resource pamphlet to accompany a film on the subject.
    Travel and cross cultural experiences also contributed valuable educational opportunities. Mary Kay traveled from the Philippines to Japan, and from Eritrea to Ethiopia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. More recently she benefited from another cross cultural experience while studying Chinese medicine with Chinese teachers in Santa Cruz, California. Mary Kay is a Licensed Acupuncturist in the State of California.
   Mary Kay enjoys walking, reading, listening to music, and spending time with friends and family. She recently moved to Ojai Valley in southern California, to live closer to her children and 3 young grandchildren. She is a student of Chinese Medicine, Zen meditation and Non Violent Communication (AKA: Compassionate Communication). Mary Kay works with GVS as a teacher and administrator.

Patricia Lutke:
   Patricia Lutke is a California credentialed special education teacher with a BA in Psychology and an MA in education. She has taught all grade levels K ­ 12 and has particular expertise in the area of struggling readers and spellers. She has been an intervention specialist in Oakland, California as well as a Resource Specialist in the public school setting. Patricia has also worked with adults as a Certified Personal Coach, trained by The Coaches Training Institute (CTI), and as the Manager of Staff Training and Development for a large global non-profit. Patricia has traveled abroad extensively and has lived in India for over 7 years, where she studied eastern spirituality, yoga and meditation in addition to working for a charitable organization. She currently lives in the Ojai valley where her love of nature and the environment can be nourished. Patricia assists in the Global Village office.

Wendelin Wagner:
   Raised in true hippy surroundings, and fortunate to have attended an alternative public elementary school and a small, progressive independent high school, Wendelin appreciates the value of freedom and fun in learning. Drawn to study biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, it was there that Wendelin's passion for neuroscience, and curiosity about the nature of mind was ignited. Since dissection of the brains of live young people was still illegal in California, Wendelin decided to study the minds of students by becoming a science teacher at the Santa Barbara Middle School. For 11 years she explored with students the mysteries of nature and the natural laws by launching rockets, combining chemicals, building machines and catching creatures.
    In 2002, Wendelin moved to New Zealand and co-founded the School Down Under, a study abroad high school bringing together travel, study, self-introspection and service. After 3 adventurous years in NZ Wendelin moved back to the U.S. and now lives in Natural Bridge Virginia with her husband Francis. They also reside several months a year in France.
   Wendelin is a long time student of Tibetan Buddhism and in addition to her daily meditation practice, she spends some months a year in retreat. She is still trying to figure out how the mind works, but now analyzes her own mental activity and has renounced the idea of using students as experimental subjects (as long as they do their homework).
   Aside from a love for: all creatures fuzzy and slimy, scrambling across wild lands and swift waters, climbing trees, laughing and eating ice cream (on the cone!) Wendelin is rather uninteresting—but regarded as friendly enough to keep around. She assists Global Village School in administrative and teaching capacities.

    Our teachers and writers are highly qualified; they are chosen for their commitment to our vision of promoting peace, understanding, and respect for all  and for their flexibility, caring, compassion, and commitment to academic excellence. All are experienced in distance education, and know how to make participating in Global Village School a personally satisfying and deeply rewarding experience for each student.
 

Michelle Blumberg:
    Michele has been an educator for close to two decades. She has both her BA and MA in education, as well as Montessori certification. Her strong interest in alternative types of education has led her to train and work in both Montessori and Waldorf schools, to previously direct her own small school, and to work as an educator in a social service agency. Currently, along with her work with Global Village School, she has several tutoring and homeschool students and works with teachers seeking their Masters degree in education at Naropa University. Michele also has four adult children and two grandchildren. She spends her time keeping up with her large family, traveling, reading, and pursuing her interest in meditation and philosophy.
   

Mary Kate Considine:
    Mary Kate has been active in the field of education since her own children were small. She has taught in the classroom and as an independent study teacher for 7-12 grade students. She has coached seniors for Academic Decathlon Competition and Knowledge Bowl. Mary Kate has written curriculum for several online English and history courses and has almost finished studies for a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction. She has served as a parent representative for site-based management teams at the elementary level. She has served on a review committee to pick worthy students for college scholarships. A strong believer in a humanistic approach to education, Mary Kate spends a great deal of time adjusting, personalizing, and rewriting courses so that they can fit all of her students' needs as well as meeting course standards and requirements. Aware of the great impact that the Internet has had on education, Mary Kate's goal is to provide the best curriculum at the highest standards for all levels of students.

Christina Covelli:
    Christina is a state-certified teacher with an M.A. in Waldorf education earned while residing in a Franciscan friary. She is also a certified ‘Creating Your Life’ instructor in a program developed by Robert Fritz. Christina has nearly two decades’ experience in alternative education, including teaching, administration, and curriculum development. Christina enjoys coaching learners to shape their educational and life experiences around their values, aspirations, talents, and goals. She is drawn to subjects with spiritual and social content, and works in an atmosphere of freedom, creativity, and love. Christina loves flowers – in nature, beeswax candles, healing essences, and drawings and paintings. She also loves animals and is currently enrolled in programs leading to practitioner certification in Bach flower essences for people and animals. Christina is fond of drama (which, she says, comes naturally to an American-Italian), classic films (mostly in black and white), music (she plays piano and organ), and crafts (she hand-dips beeswax candles). She also enjoys cultural festivals, yoga, cycling, sailing, hiking, and volleyball.
    Christina is in training to become a priest and plans to move to Italy after her ordination. She currently resides in a rural area of Belgium close to the French border, where she is learning French and Italian, and writing experiential courses on The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
 

Phil Diskin:
    Born and raised in New York City, Phil is an animal lover, an avid follower of current events, and a fan of challenging crossword puzzles.  After studying Biology in college, he planned to become an ornithologist. But when he discovered that he would have to work far from civilization in order to study birds, he decided to pursue a career closer to urban life.  During the Vietnam War, he served as a medical technologist in the Army and then worked in the ladies' knit goods business.  But he never lost his love for science and earned a B.S. in Zoology with a minor in Chemistry from the University of Arizona, in Tucson. Phil lives with his wife and two children in a ninety-year-old house in Los Angeles.  He has done a lot of restoration, remodeling, and refurbishing (of the house, not the family.)  He really enjoys fishing with his son and, when the fishing gods occasionally smile down on them, actually catching some trout!  Although they don't play very well, he and his son also like to go golfing together.  Phil and his family like to see plays and attend classical music concerts.  A former home schooling dad, Phil is an experienced independent studies high school math and science teacher, and is happy to be part of the Global Village School family.

Meg Easling:
    Meg lives in Ojai with her kitty, Paco. Her daughter has a masters degree in Forensics and lives in Oakland, but they get together as often as they can. Meg has major interests in ecology, history, art and teaching. She also loves to garden organically and grow herbs and orchids. She is a jewelry designer and gemologist. She has a masters degree in art and loves to sculpt and paint. Meg can't imagine life without music. Folk music (especially Celtic and Peruvian), jazz, reggae, blues, boogie woogie and soft rock are her favorites.
Meg loves to travel, meet people and learn about different cultures; it is one of her greatest joys. She feels we are always learning from and about the world and the people around us. One of Meg’s favorite trips was eleven days on a fishing boat, whale watching in Baja California. She also really likes snorkeling, exploring jungles in Central America and visiting the fascinating, ancient places of Ireland. Meg has been to many countries, including Belize, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Scandinavia and Russia, most of Europe, Turkey and Iran.

 Ann Gelsheimer:
    Ann has an Honors B.Sc. specializing in psychology and majoring in religious studies, a Masters Degree in Education in the area of Applied Psychology, and has partially completed her Masters of Divinity degree. She is also a licensed Interfaith Minister, and is President of the Board at Gaden Choling Mahayana Buddhist Centre in Toronto. Ann is a faculty member at Seneca College in Toronto, where she developed and coordinates a transition program for students with physical disabilities. Lately she has been teaching introductory psychology, English, and career development at Seneca, and is responsible for developing her own curriculum for the courses. She also developed curriculum and taught courses in wellness and sexuality, creativity and spirituality, contemporary issues, study skills, etc. Ann has also taught and developed Web-based courses for high school students as well as serving as principal at a Jewish private school for students with special needs.

Victoria Kindle Hodson:
   Victoria Kindle Hodson was born and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. She attended Western Washington University and holds a Masters degree in Psychology and a Bachelors degree in Education. She is an educational consultant and has taught, developed educational programs, and conducted workshops for parents and teachers for more than 25 years.
   Victoria has worked in many diverse educational settings that have provided experience with the needs of widely different kinds of learners. She has trained in special education, parenting, communication skills development, and Montessori education. Over the last 30 years she has been developing an alternative way of viewing children as learners. The learning techniques and strategies she encourages are based on her research, insight, and experience in psychology and education.
   Victoria has worked with and spoken to thousands of children and parents as well as homeschooling families and classroom teachers, assessing learning styles, diagnosing school problems, designing customized curriculum plans, and teaching techniques and strategies that help children learn. She has written several books for parents and teachers. With Mariaemma she co-authored and published A Self-Portrait^TM Learning Style System and Discover Your Child's Learning Style.
   Victoria currently lives in Ventura with her husband, Stan. She enjoys reading, cooking, yoga and walking at the ocean.
 

Lisa Kalechstein:
    At heart Lisa is a community builder and youth advocate who wants to bring back the joy of learning into young people's experience of school. She holds California Teaching Credentials in Single Subject Biology and Multiple Subjects. For Lisa, the beauty of teaching science lies in the combination of hands-on lab work with inquiry style lessons, which encourages students' own critical thinking and curiosity, and lends itself to a more engaging andinteractive learning experience.

Michelle Muntz:
    Michelle Muntz is a Southern California native. This genuine pioneer of alternative education was instrumental in developing a now nationally recognized homeschooling network. Although Michelle’s educational background is in psychology and early childhood education, her 20 plus years as an educator runs the gamut from homeschooling mother to preschool classroom teacher to a K-12 independent study instructor. Michelle is also a Master Learning-Success Coach, one of a select group of people certified by the Learning-Success Institute to customize curriculum based on individual Learning Styles. Michelle has worked with hundreds of families, often with complex educational needs, to help provide meaningful, enriching learning experiences that address both the academic and emotional needs of their children. Michelle coaches adults as well, focusing on goal setting, personal motivation, and understanding their unique Learning Style profile. Her hope for all of her students is that they find their passion in life and become lifelong learners. In her spare time Michelle enjoys reading nonfiction, spending time with her four children and two grandchildren, and hiking in the Chatsworth hills.

Sunita Palekar:
    Sunita Palekar graduated from Wellesley College with a major in peace and justice studies and a minor in psychology in May of 2003. She received her Master of Public Administration in International Public Policy with a concentration in gender and conflict from New York University's Wagner School of Public Service in May 2006. Her work as a policy and research associate at Care International in New York took her to their office in Sudan from July to October of 2006, where she worked on a project to combat gender-based violence.  
    Sunita's other experience includes work on Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) for the Council on Health Research for Development and field research in Mozambique for Africare on food security programs. She has interned at the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in New York and IDC: Mobilizing Generations for Development in Washington, DC.
   Sunita is currently working in Sudan for a humanitarian relief organization.

Mariaemma Pelullo-Willis:
    Mariaemma Pelullo-Willis, M.S. is an educational consultant and Learning-Success^TM Coach. She holds a Masters Degree in Education and California Life Teaching Credentials for Regular and Special Education. She has been teaching, developing educational programs, and conducting workshops for parents and teachers for more than 20 years.
    Mariaemma helps homeschooling families customize the curriculum to fit students' individual needs and interests. She has worked with thousands of children and parents, as well as home schooling families and classroom teachers, assessing Learning Styles, diagnosing school problems, designing customized curriculum plans, and teaching techniques and strategies that help children learn. She is the author of What To Do When They Don't Get It and Homeschooling the Child With "Learning Problems"; co-author of A Self-Portrait^TM Learning Style System and Discover YourChild's Learning Style; and co-founder of the Learning-Success^TM Institute.   

Mark Franco:
    Mark Franco, Winnemem Wintu, is the Keeper of Ceremony for the Winnemem people. Married to Caleen Sisk, he is the father of two children, Mike (23) and Marine (15). Mark is deeply involved in assisting his life partner in maintaining the Winnemem Wintu culture and ceremonies and acts as the government liaison for the Winnemem's tribal recognition efforts.
 

Caleen Sisk-Franco:
    An educator for over 25 years, Caleen Sisk-Franco, Winnemem Wintu, is the great-niece and appointed successor of Florence Jones, Spiritual Doctor and Leader of the Winnemem Wintu tribe. Married to Mark Franco, she is the mother of two children, Mike (18) and Marine (10). Caleen is deeply involved in maintaining the Winnemem Wintu culture and ceremonies and is the focal point for the Winnemem's tribal recognition efforts.
Caleen concentrates her time on managing the task of resolving the recognition issue for the Winnemem Wintu as well as directing the Winnemem's charter school, "Lubeles Academy." She is also now carrying forward the spiritual obligations of her role as leader of the Winnemem Wintu. Caleen is deeply rooted in her spirituality, her family, and her devotion to her tribal people.