This winter we began a comprehensive search process to fill four important openings at TGS for the Director of Admissions and Financial Aid and Marketing Director, Business Manager, Director of Facilities, and the Assistant Head of School and Academic Dean. I am excited to announce that all four searches have yielded excellent results and we have found talented educators to join our team at TGS. A short bio of each new employee is included below, and we look forward to welcoming them to TGS in July. Conducting four searches that attracted hundreds of candidates from all over the nation was a time consuming task. I am deeply appreciative of the faculty's work, which contributed to the searches throughout the process and helped us secure these strong individuals who understand and support the mission of TGS. We remain thankful for all that the departing employees have done for TGS during their tenures. We are excited for what these future colleagues will add to our school; please join me in welcoming them to our community.

Assistant Head of School and Academic Dean
Apple Gifford
Apple's educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in Religious Studies from Yale University, as well as a Masters of Education and an Advanced Professional Certificate in Counseling Psychology for Educators, both from Lesley University. She has been an academic tutor in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a Sixth Grade teacher and Directing Teacher at Shady Hill School in Cambridge, and a Lead Instructor for Outward Bound. Currently Apple serves as the K-8 Program Director and Curriculum Director at Oak Meadow. She resides in Newfane, Vermont with her family and enjoys knitting, quilting, and canoeing. Her two children attend TGS and her husband, David Hull, is Technology Coordinator at the school.

Director of Facilities
Kurt Lynch
Kurt graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, and has extensive experience as both a teacher and a carpenter. He worked as a living history instructor dramatizing 18th century life, building reproduction furniture, and offering education programming to school groups and the public at the Old Salem Museum and Gardens in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He spent a year as an Island Instate Fellow in Vinalhaven, Maine, leading 20 high school students in renovating a 30-foot boat, which then carried the students on a 6-week school at sea voyage. Kurt has worked as a professional boat builder on shipyard crews in Maine, New York, and Washington State, and has been a carpenter for the Bread Loaf Corporation and Jonathan Jesup, former TGS Board Chair and Parent '07, '10. He currently works as a self-employed general contractor. In addition to the facilities position, Kurt would be interested in offering an after school program in woodworking at TGS. He enjoys playing music and spending time with his family at their home in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Business Manager
Michael Svensson
Michael's academic degrees include a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Princeton University, an Assistant Treasurer/MBA from Chase Manhattan Bank, and a Master of Science in Materials Science from Columbia University. He has worked as a senior level business controller for IBM, AT&T, and Credit Suisse, and as Vice President of Technology Services he managed an organization of 57 people with a budget of $6.5 million. Most recently, he has taught science and math at the New Canaan Country School. Michael is fascinated with the invention and innovation process. He has a patent for a high precision indexing mechanism for cylinder transport and indexing, and a patent pending for a hand held chording keyboard/controller for computers, tablets, and smartphones. In his new position at TGS, Michael is excited to use his skills in financial management, teaching, and creativity. Michael and his family are relocating from Connecticut to Saxtons River, Vermont, and one of his three children will attend TGS next year.

Director of Admissions and Financial Aid
Marketing Director
Michael Brown  
Michael received a Bachelor of Arts in English and Spanish from Southern Methodist University and a Doctor of Philosophy in English from Indiana University. For fifteen years he worked as an educator of teenagers and young adults in environments as diverse as learning clinics in Monterrey, Mexico, lecture halls at Indiana University, villages in Guatemala, and the classrooms and forests of Western North Carolina. Michael currently is the Head of the Semester School at the Outdoor Academy in Pisgah Forest, North Carolina. His philosophy of education is grounded in community, and his teaching has focused on active and experiential processes with the goal of helping students discover their own abilities to be both creative and analytical thinkers and writers. Michael and his wife will move to the Brattleboro area this summer.

Sincerely,