• Board Member Announcements •

Chair: Lynnwood Brown, parent

    Lynnwood Brown spent his summers growing up in Blowing Rock but recently returned to the High Country after 25 years living in Northern New Mexico doing community and regional planning and economic development. Lynnwood brings to the board a wide range of experience in planning, organizational development, and fund-raising for community-based organizations, both non-profit and for-profit. He is currently developing collaborative, knowledge-management web-sites for corporate clients and is serving as web-master for Two Rivers. He is thrilled to be apart of a community creating a progressive public-education option for Watauga county and is inspired by what Two Rivers Community School staff and parents have already accomplished in its short history.

Vice-Chair: John Lee, parent

Treasurer: Ginny Morgan Jorgenson, parent

    Ginny Jorgenson has lived in the Boone area for ten years and is thrilled about the opportunities that Two Rivers Community School is bringing to the mountains. She believes that it is important to give children a positive learning experience that is hands-on and applicable to their lives and environment. Ginny is currently an Accounting major at Appalachian State University and will serve as Treasurer for TRCS. She is the wife of Ryan Jorgenson, step-mother of Cassidy (upcoming seventh-grader at TRCS), and mother of four-year-old Hazel Autumn.

Secretary: Alice Krueger: Community Member

    Alice Krueger is the Coordinator of the Beginning Teacher Support Network for the Reich College of Education at Appalachian State University. She and her husband moved to Boone from New Jersey in 2003 so that Alice could enter the doctoral program at ASU. They have recently moved back to Boone after living in Caldwell County for two years. Alice is Nationally Board Certified and has taught in almost all grade levels, Pre-K through college, during her 17 years in education. She received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees at William Paterson University in New Jersey and received her doctoral degree in educational leadership in 2007 from Appalachian State University. Alice believes in the education of the whole child and is excited at the prospect of working with a community that respects students’ individuality and strives to provide a relevant and active learning environment.

June Gilch: Director of TRCS

    June comes to Two Rivers from Massachusetts where she served as Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction for the Attleboro Public Schools. June has many years experience teaching students in elementary, middle, and high school as well as Special Education and Reading. She also served as Curriculum Coordinator on Nantucket Island. Though she is a Massachusetts native, June has lived and worked in several states and in Frankfurt Germany. As a teacher, June was awarded for "Excellence in Teaching" by the John F Kennedy Library and for Sustained Superior Performance by the Department of Defense Dependent Schools. June has been a presenter for national conferences as well as state and local events. June is happy to be in Boone as her children and their families are nearby. Her favorite new quote is "I wasn't born in the mountains, but I got here as soon as I could"! Contact June at jgilch@trcsboone.org.

Cheryl Greene, parent

Ken Jacquot: parent

    Ken is the owner and operator of Blue Ridge Learning Centers (BRLC). Prior to founding BRLC, Ken worked as a Ranger for the National Park Service. During his years there, he researched and developed programs, provided security and emergency medicine, led groups and provided maintenance of the structures on Alcatraz Island as well as the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Later, as Traveling Team Leader with Pecos River Learning Centers, he travelled around the country providing program facilitation, course setups, course repairs and staff training. Ken gained experience leading youth-at-risk expedition programs on the Appalachian Trail for the Morgan School. He also taught experiential based climbing wall programs that engaged students in design, construction and management of their indoor climbing wall, and managed adventure-based programs including canoeing and rock climbing. Ken has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Education from Ohio State University and is involved in various environmental conservation projects including the Todd Community Preservation Organization. Ken lives by a mountain stream in Todd, with his wife, Beth, son, Beckham, and daughter, Mairin. He enjoys cycling and playing with his family.

Vachel Miller, parent

Vachel Miller is an Assistant Professor of Education at Appalachian State University. He and his wife Sarah have three children: Galen, Sidra, and Caspian. Prior to joining the faculty at Appalachian in 2008, Dr. Miller worked as a regional monitoring and evaluation, policy and research specialist for the Academy for Educational Development (AED) on a project focused on child labor and education in East Africa. He holds an Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMASS).

Rachel Pickering Wood (Founding Teacher)

    Rachel Pickering Wood teaches seventh and eighth grade language arts and social studies. Originally she is from outside of Washington D.C., but she grew up mostly in Charlotte. She graduated from Appalachian State in 2004 with a degree in Middle Grades Education. Currently she is working on a Master's degree in Professional School Counseling. She loves being outside, writing for fun, reading biographies, and playing with her 3 dogs. Her goals in life are to see a whale, have a goat farm, to some day travel to each of the seven continents (South America first and Antarctica last!).