Salmonberry’s Faculty

Paul Freedman is the lead elementary teacher in the intermediate grades and Salmonberry’s program director.  He has taught at Salmonberry since its inception.  Paul started his career 18 years ago in public school in California and Oregon.  He began his journey to holistic education after moving to Orcas Island in 2001.  Paul is a nationally recognized advocate and passionate proponent of educational alternatives.  He is a widely published author in the field of education and is currently a contributing editor of Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, the country’s leading holistic education journal. He currently serves on the faculty of the Self Design Graduate Institute.

Jamie Mulligan-Smith is the lead teacher in the elementary program’s primary grades classroom and brings a passion for environmental education and the arts.  Jamie began teaching in San Francisco public schools.  She has taught at the Kona Pacific Waldorf School and has led programs for homeschooled students on Lopez and Orcas Islands.   Jamie has worked as an outdoor educator and has taught and studied extensively in the field of Permaculture.  Jamie has volunteered, studied, and given instruction in permaculture at sites in the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Hawaii, and Nova Scotia.  Each summer she leads a youth camp at the Bullock Permaculture Homestead on Orcas Island.  Also a seasoned performance artist, Jamie brings a passion for the performing art to her teaching.

Linda Ellswoth is Salmonberry’s lead early childhood teacher. She has 25 years of teaching experience and is a dedicated advocate of child-centered education. She came to Sal­mon­berry in 2009 from the Phinny Ridge Co-op School in Seat­tle where she taught for 16 years.  She is a mem­ber of the North American Reg­gio Emilia Alliance.  Linda has a pas­sion for peace edu­ca­tion and bring­ing tolerance into the class­room.

Kelley Diamond joined the Salmonberry staff in 2010 and is currently the assistant teacher in the elementary program’s intermediate classroom. She studied elementary education and sociology in her home state of Maryland, then expanded her educational horizons through environmental outreach in the Maryland Conservation Corps, work in special education in Hawaii, and as a reading and math program teacher in Baltimore City.  Kelley journeyed to the Northwest in 2009 where she worked at a tutoring center in Bellingham, awaiting her golden opportunity to embrace alternative and holistic education on Orcas Island.  She is grateful to learn and grow along with her students and coworkers, and is happy to share wonderful island life with her dog, Bruno, and fiancé, Matt.

Riana Hensel is the assistant teacher in the primary grades classroom and the Spanish language instructor for all grades.  She is originally from California’s Bay Area, Riana has spent the last 7 years studying and teaching in Washington. She graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a degree in Spanish Literary Studies and a focus in Cultural Anthropology. She recently moved to Orcas from Seattle where she biked, swam, cooked, danced and lived in a house called Bob with 10 other people! Most recently she worked at Hilltop Children’s Center, a Reggio-Emilia inspired preschool in Seattle where she taught for two years in a lively child-centered, emergent curriculum classroom. Prior to that she did a one year internship at Puget Sound Community School, an independent Middle and High School, where she taught everything from Spanish to Cultural Geography to P.E. Riana had her first passport at 6 months old and has been exploring the earth since then, this past month she spent a month in the Middle East rebuilding a home in the West Bank and exploring Jordan and Israel. She is excited to be here and find out what Island life is all about.

Andrea Cohen teaches art in Salmonberry’s elementary classrooms.  She has a masters degree in art and is a licensed art therapist. She has taught in a multiplicity of settings and incorporates a wide variety of media.  Andrea has traveled extensively and spent several years living in Africa where she worked as an art instructor.