Meet the Newest SMS Teachers!

We introduced Mr. Hurrell in the spring of last school year but we’d like to introduce him to our new families.  Tommy Hurrell joins the St. Mary’s School team with an invigorating admiration for the natural world and a cultivated belief that all students can flourish through outdoor exploration and adventure. Tommy’s affinity for the natural world started with his family’s camping and canoeing trips in the North Woods near Lake Superior. He has been fortunate enough to experience the advantages of a Catholic education, attending the Benedictine high school, Marmion Academy in Aurora, Illinois, and then completing his first bachelor’s degree at Marquette University. His studies in international affairs at Marquette instilled a deep appreciation for holistic learning in the Jesuit spirit of “cura personalis.” After extensive international travel and years spent as a camp counselor in Colorado, he returned to university to pursue his life’s calling by earning a second bachelor’s degree in education at Northern Illinois University. Following his educator training and licensing, Tommy started his work as an educator with Denver Public Schools, where he served the community through his role as an outdoor educator and naturalist at their outdoor education campus, Balarat. Tommy then sought to expand his horizons and take on training and work as a NOLS instructor, facilitating canoe, rafting, and kayaking expeditions throughout the Western United States. Then he met Julianna Fultineer, a St. Mary’s alum he is now lucky enough to call his wife. She encouraged Tommy to integrate commercial river guiding with ROW Adventures into his life as an outdoor professional, which brought him to the Rogue Valley. Experiencing the beauty and potential for adventure that this region offers, he sought to make this gorgeous place his home. His investment in the outdoor community in the Rogue Valley includes serving as a ski patroller for Mt. Ashland. As a recent graduate of SOU’s Master’s of outdoor adventure and expedition leadership, Tommy hopes to engender the inter and intrapersonal growth of students through adventure and reflection in the remarkable natural spaces of Southern Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.

Sean Kipling Robisch (Kip) discovered his love of teaching right after high school when he took a job giving drum lessons in a retail music store to 33 students between the ages of seven and 68. After traveling with a theater company, working as a paste-up artist, and washing dishes in a retirement center, he went to college and stayed there for the next 20 years. He has a master's degree in fiction writing and a PhD in American Literature. His book, Wolves and the Wolf Myth in American Literature, examines how we write about wolves versus how they live in the world. His research included a winter of field work in Yellowstone National Park and five months in New Mexico. As an English professor at Purdue University, he taught in the Study Abroad program at Oxford's Oriel College, worked with civil engineers to create an Ecological Engineering minor, built a nine-course interdisciplinary curriculum, and earned 17 teaching awards. He left college academia and taught English and philosophy at University High School of Indiana. Kip has published fiction, essays, and scholarship and is writing a novel. He's a pet person, and his corruptions are golf and sandbox video games. In the late 1990s he fell in love with the Rogue River Valley and couldn't get it out of his mind. A quarter century later, St. Mary's School lit his way back.

Tita Martin grew up in Southern Oregon and is so happy to have returned to the area after many years in Southern California. Tita received her BS in Biology and her Masters degree in Science Education from Oregon State University. During her studies she also enjoyed spending time studying in Manoa, Hawaii and Oviedo, Spain and working with the America Reads Program in kindergarten classrooms to promote reading and literacy.  After graduation, she relocated to San Diego where she was so lucky to teach middle school science and high school biology and spend the weekends playing beach volleyball. Since returning to Southern Oregon she has been working as a mentor to new teachers at various schools throughout the valley.  When not in the classroom, Tita can be found spending time outdoors, biking, running, paddle boarding, playing volleyball, and camping with her husband and three daughters.  She is so excited to be joining St. Mary's. 

Monica Kochlacs is excited to join the St. Mary’s team as a fifth-grade teacher.  She also looks forward to helping to coach mock trial.  Monica grew up alpine ski racing in a small resort town in western Colorado.  Her love of hiking and backpacking drew her to the University of Montana where she majored in Political Science. She went on to attend law school at Lewis and Clark. She was a trial attorney at the Southern Oregon Public Defender’s office for seven years, ultimately handling a major felony caseload. While taking time off to raise a family she volunteered in her sons’ classrooms at Hoover Elementary, helped coach the St. Mary’s School mock trial team for ten years, and earned her Masters of Art in teaching from SOU. Monica joined the Hoover faculty and taught fourth grade for seven years, priding herself on facilitating measurable academic growth with her students while providing project-based learning experiences such as hatching chicks, making bread and butter, and learning to sew while studying the Oregon Trail. Building relationships with students and families is at the heart of Monica’s teaching practice. This year it was time for a change, and to say Monica is thrilled to join the St. Mary’s community is an understatement. Monica is married, has one son enrolled as a freshman at UO and another who is a junior in high school. She also has three Labrador retrievers that run the household.

Diego Duran-Medina joins St. Mary's from United World College, in New Mexico, where he created the Querencia program, a service and exchange program based on the Spanish language, community and connection to home for students from 90 different countries. Mr. Duran-Medina studied Spanish Language and Literature at Colgate University and studied abroad in Madrid as an undergraduate. He went on to complete his first Master's Degree from New York University in Cross-Cultural Education with a focus on Spanish speakers, and a second Master's Degree from Columbia University-Teachers College in Independent School Leadership. Diego has worked in service-learning for 15 years, creating learning partnerships within the classroom. He has taught courses on poetry, civics, and service-learning and has taught and tutored in Spanish since 2002 and loves traveling to Spanish speaking countries, having spent time across Spain and Latin America. Mr. Duran-Medina is a native Spanish speaker, having been born and raised in Venezuela. He is thrilled to be joining the St. Mary's community, exploring the Rogue Valley, and finding ways to make Spanish fun, interactive, and practical for his students. 

Jared Doshier is joining St. Mary’s having worked in public education in many capacities since 2006.  He has taught multiple grades and subjects from first grade to how to colonize Mars, but his true love has always been the social sciences.  Jared has multiple years of experience teaching history and often employs creative approaches like performances and digital technology.  When studying society and its history, it has never ceased to amaze Jared how deeply young people can connect to what they are learning.  He loves that he gets to spend his day talking with students about the way humans have interacted with each other and the beautiful earth on which we all live.  Students in Jared’s class think deeply about real topics and have important conversations about the intricacies of our shared world.  He spends a lot of time thinking about what students need and then creates lessons and projects that are tailored to those needs. Jared loves to spend time with his forever sweetheart and two amazing children.  He enjoys hiding with a book, hitting students with dodgeballs, and spending time on the coast.  Jared attended Crater High School and Southern Oregon University and has a Master‘s degree in education with an endorsement in Special Education.  During and after high school, Jared performed in many plays and musicals, including a Broadway revue performed at the Craterian Theater. He most fondly remembers the life lessons he learned while spending a few years in Eastern Europe learning about the culture and serving the people who live in that beautiful part of the world.  More than anything, Jared can't wait to get to know your students and help them build independent motivation for their future.

Becka Kem graduated from Crater High School and went on to study abroad before completing her bachelor's and master's degrees in Science Education at Oregon State University. Her passion for teaching was evident from the start of her career, where she dedicated herself to fostering a love for science in her students. After six years in the classroom, Becka chose to take time away from full-time teaching to start her family, prioritizing this important chapter in her life. Despite stepping back from a full-time role, Becka remained deeply connected to the field of education. She coached cross country at St. Mary's School and developed an outdoor education program, that included summer camps in Jacksonville, OR. Additionally, she worked as a substitute teacher, which allowed her to stay engaged with students and continue her teaching journey in a flexible capacity. This period was also marked by her ongoing commitment to professional development, as she pursued further coursework in mathematics education and teaching math at a local middle school.  Becka’s enthusiasm for education extends beyond the classroom, as she enjoys activities such as hiking, reading, traveling, watercolor painting, and spending time with her family.

Tracey Parks has been passionate about the Spanish Language since the 8th grade when she began memorizing words from a Spanish dictionary in order to befriend her Spanish-speaking neighbor.  She loves to teach and combining that love with Spanish has been a source of much fulfillment. At Brigham Young University she studied Spanish teaching and did a three-month study abroad in Mexico where her Spanish took flight! She also served an LDS mission speaking Spanish in Boston, MA among people from a dozen countries and then taught at the language training center for missionaries which was a great learning experience.  She recently traveled to Argentina, her 11th Spanish speaking country!  She taught high school Spanish for three years and has taught and tutored privately.  Working among Spanish speaking people in varying capacities has given her a broader worldview.  She has a desire to inspire positive character attributes and open the minds of students as they acquire a second language. She enjoys the outdoors, exercise, reading, playing games and cooking.  She has been a CASA for eight years and regularly seeks opportunities to do service at other local community organizations.  She is the mother of five children and will be a grandma in January.  She loves living in the Rogue Valley and is excited to be a part of St. Mary's this year.