Meet the Teachers
Harry Weekes
Head of School
8/9 Team
Human ecology
Lead
12th Team
Human Ecology
Chris McAvoy
Assistant Head of School & Admissions
6/7 Team
Human Ecology
Lead
12th Team
Human Ecology
Kristal Georgiades
Office Manager & Front Desk Wrangler
Matt Leidecker
Head of Facilities
BIO
Though not technically a native, Matt Leidecker grew up in the Wood River Valley exploring the nooks and crannies of the valley bottom and snowy slopes of Bald Mountain. His perspective of central Idaho expanded exponentially when he began guiding on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. From 1991 – 2003 Matt worked full-time (summers) on the Middle Fork. He filled off-seasons with a 4-year stint at Middlebury College to study Geology, Environment Science, Theater (work-study) and Rock Climbing in Adirondack State Park; Travels to Belize and Chile for kayaking and climbing adventures; Working as a backcountry ski guide for Sun Valley Heli Ski; and freelance photography and writing projects. As he transitioned away from full-time Middle Fork guiding, Matt created a unique niche that included nine years as the Academic Director with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) and researching, writing, and publishing guidebooks to the rivers and mountains of central Idaho. Matt’s award-winning guides provide a comprehensive perspective on the landscape, mixing trail descriptions with history, geology, and local wildflower information. Matt looks forward to sharing with and learning from the SAGE community. He is supported on this new adventure by his wife Christine and children Sarah and Max.
Jenna Resko
HEAD OF FINANCE
Liza Weekes
Kitchen Program Manager
BIO
Liza has called the Wood River Valley home for over 50 years. Her family moved here on a snowy New Year’s Eve and created a home that valued getting dirty, causing a respectable amount of trouble and sharing experiences with as many four-leggeds and curious souls as possible. After almost 20 years working in kitchens up and down Highway 75 she had an inspirational conversation with her son Parker, age 5 at the time, that led to her second career in Montessori education. After 25 years of finding a parking place at Pioneer Montessori School in Ketchum, Liza is embarking on her next great adventure. She finds herself overwhelmed with the potential of adolescents and believes the kitchen will be a place to uncover hidden talents, taste the unexpectedly delicious and share the process, the exploration and the collaboration with our greater community. Get ready for sampling!
The Otters
Otter teachers are mentors and coaches who help students balance their need for support with their need for independent exploration. The foundation of teaching the Otters is forming open, candid, and playful relationships. 6/7 teachers enjoy this stage of adolescence and the process of showing students the joys, struggles, and responsibilities that come with entering the world of adolescence.
Chris McAvoy
6/7 Team
Human Ecology & Lead
12th Team
Human Ecology, Assistant Head of School
Chris has been teaching for over 20 years in independent and charter schools. He worked to develop a brand-new charter school, a Montessori middle school, and an Expeditionary Learning curriculum and is most proud of his work co-founding The Sage School. Chris worked with Harry for 5 years before starting The Sage School. Long hours of conversations inspired the two to go further into developing an educational system for adolescents. Chris’s formal education took place at the University of Vermont, where he earned his undergraduate degree in psychology (with minors in sociology and political science), and at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he earned his master’s degree in education. His informal education took place throughout the years he spent leading kids in the backcountry or just rambling about in the woods as a kid. He owes a great deal of debt to a former teacher, Mrs. Zeller, who inspired him to think creatively and critically as a young tyke. He loves being outdoors with his family when he isn’t cheering his two kids on in hockey or soccer or…
Kaleb Greenwood
6/7 Team
Human Ecology & Mathematics
Originally from Colorado, Kaleb’s wandering foot and passion for chasing rivers brought him to central Idaho where he spent the 4 seasons guiding on the Main and Middle Fork of the Salmon River. His passion for water and sense of adventure has led him to many places. After earning a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado he ventured to Laos with Engineers Without Borders to build a gravity fed water distribution system. He is always excited to share his knowledge of the natural world with students, and has flourished in an array of non-traditional outdoor classrooms. His curiosity is endless and contagious. Developing genuine unique relationships with each student is at the core of his teaching philosophy. When not in the classroom he can be found mountain biking, snowboarding, or floating the river.
Sarah Mansfield
6/7 Team
Human Ecology & Writing
Sarah was born and raised along the coastlines of Massachusetts where she developed a deep appreciation for the natural world. Some of her earliest memories involve tagging along on her mother’s ecological adventures, including wading in the Cape Cod marshes, tracking spotted turtles, and staying up at night to see the annual salamander crawl. Sarah was eager to see the world outside of New England and attended the University of Mississippi where she studied Marketing and English. Her studies in the humanities sparked a desire for her to learn more about the world and its people and systems, which led to her involvement in mindfulness centers, cultural movements, and intentional living communities. After visiting the Intermountain West in 2018, Sarah knew that one day she would call this place home. She made the leap in 2020 and has been living and working in the Wood River Valley ever since. She’s excited to bring her love of writing and reading to students and the incredible Sage community!
Nathan Kolar
6/7 Spanish
Nathan joined the Sage faculty in 2011 and is best known around campus as “Nazario,” a nickname he acquired from his host brother while living in Seville, Spain during the 2003-04 school year. His time in Spain was a crucial chapter in his Spanish language training, which also included big chunks of time traveling in Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Prior to coming to the Sage School, Nathan earned a B.A. in English from Williams College, taught History at Hopkins School in New Haven, CT, and earned an M.A. in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Nathan lives in old Hailey with his wife, Tenaya, and their three children, son Dash and daughters Sadie & Hazel. When not at school, Nathan pursues his other interests: reading, gardening, cooking, making music, and being in the beautiful outdoors for swimming, hiking, biking, and camping.
Maggie Blatz
All Bands Mathematics
Maggie, a Colorado native, grew up with a love for outdoor adventures and for all things science and math. After studying physics, French, and math at the University of Colorado, she moved to Jackson, Wyoming, and worked for two years as an optical engineer. Eager to be a student again, she attended Stanford University and earned a master’s in environmental earth system science. After graduating, she found her way to the Wood River Valley and The Sage School to share her love for math with students. When she’s not teaching math, Maggie can be found skiing, biking or climbing with her husband Nick.
Koko Furlong
6/7 Team
Human Ecology
Koko was born and raised in Sun Valley, Idaho, and feels lucky to have grown up surrounded by mountains and unlimited access to the great outdoors. As a recent graduate of The University of Redlands in California, where Koko received her BA in Studio Art, she is thrilled to return to the valley and be back in her element. As a Sage School alumnus, Koko is excited to dive into teaching alongside people who were crucial in developing her love for learning. She attended the Sage School from 6th through 12th grade, where she embraced nature’s teachings through school camping and river trips, Human Ecology classes held outside on sunny days, and backpacking through the mountains of Idaho. Koko loves the creative freedom Sage offers and the empowerment that comes with the ability to turn ideas into reality. Her travels have led her to various places around the world, more recently Antigua, Guatemala where she caught the teaching bug from spending her time as a teacher’s assistant at a K-6th grade school. Koko looks forward to re-rooting herself into the Sun Valley and the Sage School community and returning to the slopes where she enjoys skiing, hiking, and biking.
Lucy Griswold
Mathematics
All Bands
Lucy grew up in the Wood River Valley and is excited to be coming home after a whirlwind year teaching abroad. She graduated early from Carleton College in 2022 with a degree in physics and incorporates her love of science and passion for adventure into everything she does. She enjoys hiking, playing music, and whistling with her bird Merlin.
The Wolves
Teachers of “The Wolves” seek to emulate the best that we see in our group of students—to be energetic, to be playfully productive, to be curious about the world around us, and above all to work together as a team. The 8/9 teaching team, below, has a combined 22 years of experience teaching here at Sage and teaching the full suite of courses—Human Ecology, Spanish, Writing, and Math—as well as playing hard at Wellness, contributing to Community Action, and teaching Creativity Workshop classes.
Harry Weekes
8/9 Team
Human Ecology, Head of School
Raised on the East Coast until the ripe age of three, Harry moved to Idaho in 1972. He studied Environmental Science, Biology, and Studio Art at Middlebury College, and earned his graduate degree in Life Science from the University of Maryland in College Park. After 25 years of teaching and researching topics ranging from how the built environment enhances learning to brain development, he continues his work as an aspiring adolescent anthropologist. Harry founded The Sage School in an effort to fully explore the ideas, methods, and philosophies embodied by the school, and because he believes that including adolescents is essential in creating real and positive change. He is curious about and interested in many things: writing, sketching, Biology, Ecology, watercolor, and agriculture. Harry has a wonderful wife, three children, two dogs, and a smattering of chickens and houseplants.
Julie Zimmerman
8/9 Team
Human Ecology & Writing
A former documentary photographer and journalist, Julie began her career in independent school education when son number one entered a two-day preschool. With both sons, Cyrus and Starke, now happily ensconced at her alma mater, the University of Richmond, Julie is transitioning from Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay region to central Idaho. She first fell in love with experiential education during her early years as a preschool teacher- where learning is joyful, creative, expressive, and a full engagement of the mind and body. Taking her love for collaboration, communication, and critical thinking to middle school, she’s taught writing, geography, and global relations for the past four years and has led service-learning trips to New Orleans, Savannah, and Stanley as well as yearly ecology trips to the Florida Bay estuary. Julie believes wholeheartedly that when learning is connected to life, students are capable of incredible creativity and achievement, and is delighted to join a school community with a philosophy so intentionally embedded in transformational experiences for its students. No stranger to central Idaho, Julie took six road trips over ten years to explore the west’s various ranges before purchasing an acre in Stanley, where she built a one-room cabin with backdoor access to the Sawtooth Wilderness in 2002. Her only regret in coming west is that she’s not sure where she’ll be able to practice her finely honed skills as a historic tall ship sailor.
Maggie Blatz
Mathematics
All Bands
Maggie, a Colorado native, grew up with a love for outdoor adventures and for all things science and math. After studying physics, French, and math at the University of Colorado, she moved to Jackson, Wyoming, and worked for two years as an optical engineer. Eager to be a student again, she attended Stanford University and earned a master’s in environmental earth system science. After graduating, she found her way to the Wood River Valley and The Sage School to share her love for math with students. When she’s not teaching math, Maggie can be found skiing, biking or climbing with her husband Nick.
Reese Hodges
8/9 Team
Human Ecology & Spanish
Reese, like Idaho’s salmon, grew up in the Snake River basin and spent most of his adult life near and in the Pacific Ocean. His desire to learn how humans and the environment can best thrive together led Reese to earn a BA in Environmental Studies at UC Santa Barbara. With a passion for travel and the Spanish language, Reese spent a year abroad at the University of Chile and on a backcountry field studies program in the Patagonia region. Reese’s love of sharing adventures and inspiring stewardship led him to work in outdoor education and guiding throughout the west and brought him back to Chile’s Patagonia region as a teaching assistant. His extended travels through Latin America inspired him to earn a master’s in International Environmental Policy at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. In his free time, Reese enjoys all types of outdoor adventures, building things, making music, and spending time with his wife Alexandra, their son Emery, and dog Baloo. He is thrilled to join The Sage School community and share his passion for the Spanish language and culture and inspire a global perspective with students.
Wyatt Brown
8/9 Team
Human Ecology
Wyatt Brown is originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Raised by a large family valuing outdoor education, it makes perfect sense that Wyatt was potty trained while rafting down rivers. His love for the environment led to a major in Environmental Science at Western Washington University, and he has been chasing a life filled with adventure ever since. Wyatt’s experience stems from teaching science on sailboats throughout the Pacific Ocean, working for schools overseas in Malaysia, and coordinating education programs across California. His latest adventure was directing an outdoor wilderness youth therapeutics program in the deserts of Utah. Wyatt continues to expand his wealth of knowledge of the natural world and its effect on children. When not in the classroom getting excited about science, you can find Wyatt and his partner, Katherine, scrambling up “trail runs”, pursuing missions on skis, or exploring new mountains and rivers.
Lucy Griswold
Mathematics
All Bands
Lucy grew up in the Wood River Valley and is excited to be coming home after a whirlwind year teaching abroad. She graduated early from Carleton College in 2022 with a degree in physics and incorporates her love of science and passion for adventure into everything she does. She enjoys hiking, playing music, and whistling with her bird Merlin.
The Ravens
Raven teachers serve as mentors and coaches who help students balance their need for support and their need for independence. The foundation of teaching ravens is forming open, candid, and playful relationships. Raven teachers enjoy this stage of adolescence and the process of showing students the joys and responsibilities that come with entering the adult world.
Amy Morrison
10/11 Team
Human Ecology & Spanish
Native to the Southwest, Amy grew up exploring the mountains, deserts, and rivers of Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. After earning a B.A. in Humanities at Fort Lewis College, she spent three years living and working in a small fishing village on the coast of Ecuador. Amy and her husband Brian then spent the next ten years living in Panama where they had their two sons, worked on a coastal conservation project, and were fortunate to have had extraordinary ocean and tropical experiences. Upon returning to the U.S., Amy has combined her love of language and culture with her desire to positively impact the lives of young people through teaching. She is passionate about authentic language acquisition and student-centered classrooms. She believes that strong student-teacher relationships are at the heart of a positive educational experience. Amy enjoys travel, cooking, hiking, dance, theater, wildflowers, and swimming holes. Her greatest joy is her family and her two boys who serve as a constant reminder to stay present and to live every day in gratitude.
Andrew McKean
6/7 Team
Human Ecology
Originally hailing from the Windy City, Andrew moved to the gem state at the age of 10 and never looked back. From then on, the mountains of Idaho provided a perfect playground for him to grow. In 2009 Andrew joined the Sage School, in its first year of existence, for his sophomore year of high school. After graduating in 2012 he spent a year traveling in South America before starting a 5-year journey through Quest University in Squamish British Columbia. At Quest, Andrew studied acoustic psychology and design and graduated with a bachelor’s in Arts and Science. Additionally, Andrew has spent the last ten summers guiding folks down the wild and scenic rivers situated in Idaho’s vast wilderness. When not on skis or a raft you can find Andrew climbing any rock bigger than 5 feet or endlessly noodling on a guitar. Andrew is excited to return to the Sage School and Wood River Valley after his ten-year hiatus.
Maggie Blatz
Mathematics
All Bands
Maggie, a Colorado native, grew up with a love for outdoor adventures and for all things science and math. After studying physics, French, and math at the University of Colorado, she moved to Jackson, Wyoming, and worked for two years as an optical engineer. Eager to be a student again, she attended Stanford University and earned a master’s in environmental earth system science. After graduating, she found her way to the Wood River Valley and The Sage School to share her love for math with students. When she’s not teaching math, Maggie can be found skiing, biking or climbing with her husband Nick.
Lucy Griswold
Mathematics
All Bands
Lucy grew up in the Wood River Valley and is excited to be coming home after a whirlwind year teaching abroad. She graduated early from Carleton College in 2022 with a degree in physics and incorporates her love of science and passion for adventure into everything she does. She enjoys hiking, playing music, and whistling with her bird Merlin.
Dylan Merino
10/11 Team
Human Ecology & Writing
The Owls
Teachers of the seniors need to be comfortable with the big picture. They need to help the students make sense of the global realities, but also of the college process, and the many choices our students will face this year. They need to help the students be ready to fly while making sure the flight is truly their own.
Harry Weekes
12th Team
Human Ecology, Head of School
Raised on the East Coast until the ripe age of three, Harry moved to Idaho in 1972. He studied Environmental Science, Biology, and Studio Art at Middlebury College, and earned his graduate degree in Life Science from the University of Maryland in College Park. After 25 years of teaching and researching topics ranging from how the built environment enhances learning to brain development, he continues his work as an aspiring adolescent anthropologist. Harry founded The Sage School in an effort to fully explore the ideas, methods, and philosophies embodied by the school, and because he believes that including adolescents is essential in creating real and positive change. He is curious about and interested in many things: writing, sketching, Biology, Ecology, watercolor, and agriculture. Harry has a wonderful wife, three children, two dogs, and a smattering of chickens and houseplants.
Chris McAvoy
12th Team
Human Ecology, Assistant Head of School
Chris has been teaching for over 20 years in independent and charter schools. He worked to develop a brand-new charter school, a Montessori middle school, and an Expeditionary Learning curriculum and is most proud of his work co-founding The Sage School. Chris worked with Harry for 5 years before starting The Sage School. Long hours of conversations inspired the two to go further into developing an educational system for adolescents. Chris’s formal education took place at the University of Vermont, where he earned his undergraduate degree in psychology (with minors in sociology and political science), and at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he earned his master’s degree in education. His informal education took place throughout the years he spent leading kids in the backcountry or just rambling about in the woods as a kid. He owes a great deal of debt to a former teacher, Mrs. Zeller, who inspired him to think creatively and critically as a young tyke. He loves being outdoors with his family when he isn’t cheering his two kids on in hockey or soccer or…
Maggie Blatz
8/9 Team
Human Ecology & Mathematics
Maggie, a Colorado native, grew up with a love for outdoor adventures and for all things science and math. After studying physics, French, and math at the University of Colorado, she moved to Jackson, Wyoming, and worked for two years as an optical engineer. Eager to be a student again, she attended Stanford University and earned a master’s in environmental earth system science. After graduating, she found her way to the Wood River Valley and The Sage School to share her love for math with students. When she’s not teaching math, Maggie can be found skiing, biking or climbing with her husband Nick.
Lucy Griswold
Mathematics
All Bands
Lucy grew up in the Wood River Valley and is excited to be coming home after a whirlwind year teaching abroad. She graduated early from Carleton College in 2022 with a degree in physics and incorporates her love of science and passion for adventure into everything she does. She enjoys hiking, playing music, and whistling with her bird Merlin.
Nathan Kolar
12th Spanish
Nathan joined the Sage faculty in 2011 and is best known around campus as “Nazario,” a nickname he acquired from his host brother while living in Seville, Spain during the 2003-04 school year. His time in Spain was a crucial chapter in his Spanish language training, which also included big chunks of time traveling in Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Prior to coming to the Sage School, Nathan earned a B.A. in English from Williams College, taught History at Hopkins School in New Haven, CT, and earned an M.A. in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Nathan lives in old Hailey with his wife, Tenaya, and their two children, son Dash and daughter Sadie. When not at school, Nathan pursues his other interests: reading, gardening, cooking, making music, and being in the beautiful outdoors for swimming, hiking, biking, and camping.