Core Faculty and Staff

Amy Thornton-Kelly – Founder, Outreach Director, The Arts
    The foundation and inspiration that led Amy to starting Pacem Learning Community comes from her parents, both artists who were passionate about art and social justice. In addition, her profound educational experience and the awareness of the impact of both war and peace she gained at her progressive Quaker elementary school, vigorously intellectual and open-minded high school and from her mentor, Dennis Dalton at Barnard College, Columbia University moved her to create a similar educational experience for high school students in Central Vermont. Amy received her BA from Columbia in 1985, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. 

Amy stayed in New York City and worked her way up through the ranks of ABC News World News Tonight with Peter Jennings eventually producing award-winning one hour educational videodisc documentaries for ABC News Interactive. While working as a freelance producer in Connecticut, she received her certificate to teach high school social studies in Connecticut through the intensive Alternate Route to Certification program at Sacred Heart University.

After her first child, Amy started her own children's black and white photography business and showed her photographic work at many galleries throughout Southern Connecticut receiving honors at juried shows and positive press for her more avant-garde work. Subsequent to her birth to twins two and a half years later, she decided to focus on her children and become a stay-at-home mom. During this time she taught her own hands-on art history program in her children's schools and served on the board of The Learning Community Day School.

Amy started to homeschool her three children in the fall of 2002 predominantly because she wanted to spend more time with them. In 2003 Amy was asked to present her "project approach" method of home schooling on a home school panel in Westport, CT. In the fall of 2003, Amy and her family moved to their Vermont farmhouse in Roxbury, where they happily lived closer to the land and spent many, many hours deep in dirt, mud or snow depending on the season.

Amy’s biggest service project to date is founding and working for Pacem, as all of her time thus far has been volunteered. Her other volunteer service includes working for the American Friends Service Committee building a potable water system for a tiny village in Bermudez, Mexico, creating and teaching a free after-school and summer art program in Roxbury, Vermont, working backstage at Contemporary Dance and Fitness performances, and most recently organizing mindfulness hiking and service retreats. Amy is an avid outdoor and peace enthusiast. She also has a passion for cities, pedestrian-and-eco-friendly community development, and the arts.  To stay connected to the art world, she visits museums and attends theater, music and dance performances in New York City and elsewhere as frequently as possible.  She remains committed to educating herself and others about sustainability, the word and work of the arts, and peace on a personal and global scale.

Jaime Cipperly – Operations Manager, Science
Jaime Cipperly was born and raised in Saratoga Springs, New York. From the age of six to twenty Jaime passionately trained as a ballet dancer, building her foundation of discipline, strength, and flexibility, as well as her love of art. However, as an undergraduate at the University of New Hampshire Jaime found another calling in environmental science. She graduated in 1999 with a BS in Environmental Conservation and a minor in Dance. She continued her studies at the Antioch New England Graduate School where, in the spring of 2006, she received her MS in Environmental Studies and a grade 5-9 general science teaching certification. Jaime started working at Lotus Lake Discovery Center in 2000, an experiential and environmental education center, and has been the program director since 2004. During this time her love of winter sports, including snowboarding, cross-counrty skiing, and dogsledding, has blossomed. Her passion for kids, the environment, and adventure are woven into the fabric of her teaching style, where she believes that kids should be engaged with their whole being when learning. Jaime is a wilderness first responder and CPR certified.

Rebecca Yahm – Educational Director, Peace Studies, Project
Rebecca’s long-standing commitment to alternative education began at Swarthmore College, where she developed a passion for environmental education and progressive educational philosophy.  During her college years, she was involved in consensus-building and group facilitation programs, was trained to do community mediation, and received a grant to do a semester-long service project in Adirondack environmental education.  She also worked as a counselor at the Farm and Wilderness Summer Camps in Plymouth, VT.  Rebecca graduated with distinction in 1994 and has been living in Vermont since 1995. 

Rebecca continued to pursue her professional interests at Antioch New England Graduate School, receiving a M.Ed. with a focus on integrated curriculum and environmental education. She taught for five years in public and private schools, where she focused on group-building and conflict resolution in the classroom and was known for her creative curriculum ideas. 

In the summer of 2003, Rebecca began Open Path Homeschooling Resources to bring her commitment to educational alternatives to the homeschool community.  Since then, she has designed and taught varied programs for children and teens, including innovative thematic and project-based classes.  Rebecca has worked with more than 100 homeschool families, providing individualized tutoring and curriculum consulting as well as her classes and workshops.  She is well respected in the Montpelier and Burlington areas for the support and resources she provides.  Rebecca helped start a homeschool group for families in her community and has been involved with a mentoring program for girls. 

Rebecca’s other interests include hiking, backcountry skiing, weaving, organic gardening, and reading fiction.  She sees education, particularly place-based and project-based learning, as the best way for her to use her strengths to help create a more peaceful, just, and sustainable culture.

Laura Williams McCaffrey – Writing
Laura is a full-time writer and writing teacher. Her third novel, which will be released by Clarion Books, is a dystopic fantasy for teens. She’s the author of two children's fantasy novels, Water Shaper (Clarion Books, 2006) and Alia Waking (Clarion Books, 2003). Water Shaper was selected for the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age 2007 list. Alia Waking was named an International Reading Association Notable Book. It was also a nominee for the annual Teens’ Top Ten Books list and for Vermont's Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award.
 
 Laura has mentored many public school students and homeschoolers in writing. When asked in a recent interview for her philosophy on teaching, she said: “Teaching creative writing, valuing artistic experimentation and craftsmanship, can be a kind of activism in a society that so highly values financial status.”

 In addition to Pacem, Laura is on faculty at Solstice, Pine Manor College’s low-residency MFA in Creative Writing program. She is a certified library media specialist and for five years managed the Washington Village School Library in Washington, Vermont. She graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College, Columbia University in 1994 with a BA in history. A native Vermonter, she also is a Stowe High School alumna. She currently lives in East Montpelier with her two daughters and her husband, the regionally acclaimed musician Colin McCaffrey. Her website is: http://www.laurawilliamsmccaffrey.com    

Jacki Harmon – Financial Administrator and Registrar
Jacki is a Pacem parent who joined the Parent Circle in the Spring of 2007, which led to the General Circle for the 2007-2008 year, which somehow led to volunteering to be the Financial Administrator and Registrar in the Spring semester 2008. 

She moved to Vermont from Los Angeles, CA, in 2000 with her husband and daughter. Jacki is now on the 5th or 6th,   possibly 10th, edition of her life.  In Los Angeles, she worked in television for over 15 years editing major network shows.  After marrying her husband, Marc, in 1990, she ended her career in television, and began a new career in dentistry, helping her husband in his holistic dental practice. 
The next career (and the most cherished one) unfolded in 1994, with the birth of her daughter, Laci. 

Giving up life in Los Angeles, and moving to Vermont, meant beginning life anew, living like a 20 year old yet in the mid-life years.   Living in the woods with no plumbing or electricity (nor money) for a couple years was interesting.  In 2004, the Harmon’s settled in Montpelier, and Jacki, turned one of her long time hobbies and talents into a lucrative business – interior color design, painting, and refinishing.  She has beautified several large Victorians in town, designed colors for, and painted homes in Stowe, and Marshfield, also.  Jacki recently refinished floors at Pacem, and has artistically painted a few pieces of furniture for Pacem.

In her spare time, Jacki, does spiritual healing work which she learned initially from her mother, and has been doing most of her life.  Being a constant study and practice, this could be a long bio in itself, so for now, this tidbit will have to suffice.

Being Laci’s Mom, hiking in the mountains, daily walking in Hubbard Park and being in nature, sewing, painting water colors and furniture, creating organic herbal based products that nourish the skin with no harmful ingredients, and constantly working on awareness and being present are some of her loves, and ongoing projects.

Faculty

Ludovic Buret – French
My name is Ludovic Buret. I am thirty years old and French. I am attending the University of Vermont with the goal of becoming a French teacher.

I come from a little town called Chalonne sur Loire, situated in western France, not too far from the Atlantic Ocean. Chalonnes sur Loire has about the same population as Montpelier, Vermont does. Vineyards, the Loire River, hills, farms and the occasional castle can be found in my native scenery.

I am a happy and joyful person who likes to play with children. I have been a camp counselor in France for three summers. I love singing, painting, drawing, acting, cooking, playing chess, ping-pong, scrabble (English and French), and Boggle. I enjoy swimming, gardening and reading. I like having some time to think about life and commitments. In the Montpelier area I sing in the Unitarian Choir, am a leader for a workshop laughter group and a massage therapist.

In my mind, teachers are very important. A teacher is a person who will teach knowledge, truth, and his own perspective of life. Whatever the subject is, the teacher will have the responsibility of guiding students in one way or another.
 “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.” Buddha, (Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.)

Jim Cross – French, Tennis
Jim Cross is returning for Pacem’s third year to continue teaching tennis and beginniner/advanced beginner French. His overflowing sense of fun makes all of his classes highly enjoyable. His passion for and wealth of knowledge about both tennis and the French language are contagious. “You don’t even know you’re learning,” says one Pacem student, “but you learn a lot!”

Katherine Donnard – Math, Chinese
Originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Katherine has been involved with Friends (Quaker) Schools as both a teacher and a student. She graduated cum laude from Millersville University with a BS in Elementary Education, majoring in Elementary Education with a Science Option and a minoring in Women’s Studies.  In 2000, Katherine became a lead kindergarten and first grade teacher at Connecticut Friends School in Wilton, CT. From there she moved to Friends School Haverford, where she was the lead kindergarten teacher, Grade Cluster Coordinator for K-3, Mathematics Curriculum Committee member, and Science Curriculum Committee member.

In August of 2004, Katherine joined a group of volunteers from the American Friends Service Committee (a Quaker organization) to travel to Hunan Province in China where she taught English to middle school students as part of a “summer workcamp” cooperative. During this experience she decided to learn Chinese. With that goal in mind, Katherine moved to Taipei, Taiwan where she enrolled in Chinese classes at the National Taiwan Normal University, and taught English to fourth and fifth graders. Katherine lived in Taipei for two years, where her goal was to become fluent in Chinese.

This past September, Katherine moved to Montpelier. She has been teaching Chinese at Stowe Middle/High School. As a volunteer, she works along side Shan Zhao, a Chinese teacher from GanSu Province China. Katherine writes: “Shan’s perspective as a native Chinese speaker, and her perspective as a second language learner, has really been a great combination for helping students become comfortable with Chinese. It has been a wonderful experience, and has been a way for me to stay connected to the language while living in Vermont.” This summer she will continue her studies at Middlebury College’s Summer Language School for Chinese.