Academics Department - ��ֱ��

Haley Goularte

Keely Mikkelsen — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 23:16:59 +0000

Haley Goularte is an experienced educator and passionate advocate for students with learning differences, with years of experience in the high school setting. Previously, she served as a Lead Teacher at a school in the East Bay and taught literature and drama, where she loved bringing creativity and fun into the classroom. Coming from a family of musicians, performers, and artists, Haley has always believed that the arts have a unique way of helping students find their voice. She also serves as a dorm parent in Husch Hall, where she looks forward to supporting students both in and out of the classroom.

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Hunter Huie

Keely Mikkelsen — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 23:07:40 +0000

Hunter Huie has taught U.S. history, civics, and geography for the past five years. Before joining the ��ֱ��, he was an instructor at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, Alabama. Hunter served as a fellow of Learning for Justice, an educational outreach program of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and has facilitated professional learning around its Teaching Hard History: American Slavery curriculum.

His approach to teaching history is captured by a favorite mantra: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. And the future is free verse.”

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Evan Hetland

Keely Mikkelsen — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:00:41 +0000

Evan Hetland is a mathematician and educator with a passion for making high-level mathematical concepts intuitive and accessible. Evan earned his Master of Science in Mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics/Mathematics with a minor in Statistics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. His professional background spans both industry and academia, starting by managing data pipelines and quantitative investment models, then teaching mathematics at the high school level for two years at the Abraham Joshua Heschel School in New York City. He draws on this wide domain of knowledge and depth of excitement to demonstrate how math can be found everywhere and used anywhere. Evan currently teaches mathematics at ��ֱ��.

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Margaret Gray

Keely Mikkelsen — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 21:54:48 +0000

Margaret returns to ��ֱ�� after two years at the Denver Waldorf School where she developed a comprehensive language arts curriculum for their middle school. Prior to moving to Denver, Margaret taught at IAA for nearly fifteen years, teaching in the Humanities department and serving as learning specialist. Margaret has a M.,Ed. in Holistic and Integrative Education, an undergraduate degree in the Arts and Social Change, and strives to create an inclusive and lively classroom environment, bridging students’ interests in the arts with academic skills.

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Eric Hesson

Keely Mikkelsen — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 18:34:22 +0000

Eric is an artist and educator with over fifteen years of experience teaching math and a lifelong passion for the synthesis of mathematics and the arts. He is a proponent of Buckminster Fuller’s theory of comprehensivity which posits that a deeper wisdom can be gained by pursuing several fields of study and identifying links between them. Accordingly, his areas of interest and expertise are myriad – while his undergraduate studies at UC Santa Cruz were in Linguistics with a focus on speech technology, his greatest passions are for mathematics, electronic music production, and digital arts/creative coding. He maintains a profound enthusiasm for teaching, with the ongoing goal of presenting mathematical problem solving as an open-ended and creatively enriching process.

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Angela Murphy

mmapel@idyllwildarts.org — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 20:28:48 +0000

Idyllwild local Angela Murphy is Mathematics & Science faculty, with a bachelor’s degree Chemistry, a master’s degree in Anthropology and Central Eurasian Studies, and a Biological Sciences Teaching Credential, and many years of experience in middle and high school math and science instruction. Her passion for scientific study stemmed from a deep fascination with fossils in her youth.

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Donald Duffy

Keely Mikkelsen — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 18:15:09 +0000

Donald Duffy’s experience as an international student program director, boarding school language instructor, professional Spanish translator, and world traveller make him uniquely suited to the IAA community. His experiential approach to teaching centers around creative projects that speak to student interests and transcend classroom confines, allowing students to develop vocabulary and language skills organically in context. With extensive knowledge of Latin American literature and culture, Donald teaches courses across the ELL/World Languages and Humanities programs.

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Peter Varga

Keely Mikkelsen — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 20:09:26 +0000

A former arts high school student himself, with four years of experience working in arts high schools and a master’s degree completed last year, Peter brings a wealth of knowledge and passion to the classroom.

As a teacher, Peter strives to focus on humanizing pedagogy which puts a focus on people. He is excited to help mold the next generation of artists, and sees social studies as an important part of creating citizen artists. Creatively, Peter is a founding member of the Paper Theatre company in Chicago, which focuses on new devised works.

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Isabel Castillo Cortes, PhD

bjones@idyllwildarts.org — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 17:01:58 +0000

Isabel Castillo Cortes holds a law degree from the Centro de Estudios Universitarios del Norte (CEUN-Mexico), a master’s degree in Latin American Literature from New Mexico State University (NMSU), and a PhD in Philosophy with a focus on Spanish from Texas Tech University (TTU). She has taught Spanish as a Second Language at NMSU and TTU, working with L2 learners, Heritage Speakers, and Study Abroad programs in Spain. She also served as president of Sigma Delta Pi and has contributed as an editor for academic and literary journals such as ��é�ھ�� and Arenas Blancas.

Her research interests focus on cultural, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary studies, with a current emphasis on the literature of drug trafficking and its impact on collective psychology.

Beyond academia, Castillo Cortes is an accomplished creative writer. She has participated in more than fifteen anthologies and literary magazines in Mexico, Spain, and the United States, and is the author of two novels, Aurora and Los Rezanderos. She also writes poetry and theater, reflecting her passion for literature and the arts.

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Ashley Christman

Keely Mikkelsen — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 18:59:11 +0000

With nearly two decades of experience in corporate America, Ashley Christman is thrilled to return to her true passion—academia—as a faculty member of the humanities department at ��ֱ��. A proud double alumnus of the University of California, Riverside, Ashley holds degrees in English Literature and Public Policy with a minor in History. She is currently completing her graduate studies in Public Policy, focusing her research on policy processes and institutions impacting low-income communities of color. Alongside her academic pursuits, Ashley nurtures her creative side through a history-themed YouTube channel, where she explores historical topics and shares her culinary prowess.

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Kellie Meyer

bjones@idyllwildarts.org — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 21:00:52 +0000

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Jonathon Kaufman

bjones@idyllwildarts.org — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 04:29:49 +0000

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Academics Department - ����ֱ��