Markiah Friedman
Biological Sciences, Global Science, Chemistry, Creative Writing, Poetry,  Photography, Digital Art,  Technology,  Web Design,  Music Performance, Promotion & Business and Harmonica
E-mail mark.friedman@catalystedu.org
Phone (303) 604-6521 x 206

With over 30 years in education, Markiah has had a variety of teaching and leadership experiences, including 25 years as a science teacher at Loveland High School. He served for seven years as the Thompson School District’s K-12 Science Curriculum Specialist responsible for developing the district’s award winning standards-based K-12 Science Curriculum and Assessment System. He was the founder of and taught at the Thompson School District’s Credit Recovery Center for students who had difficulty in traditional high schools. Markiah was a founding board member for Colorado Online Learning, a state-wide provider of supplemental online high school classes, where he currently designs and teaches courses. Markiah has a B.A. in Literature with a minor in Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis and a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Northern Colorado. In his free time, Markiah is a musician and plays harmonica regularly with three popular local bands. Also, he is a noted poet with four published poetry books, a digital artist and a professional web designer. As if that were not enough, Markiah hosts and produces a poetry television show on the local cable community access channel, CCTV 54. See www.mdfriedman.com to keep up with all of Markiah’s creative ventures.

Heather Gardner
English, Literature and Humanities
E-mail heather.gardner@catalystedu.org
Phone (303) 604-6512 x 205

Heather Gardner traveled around the world on her way to Catalyst. She moved to India when she was three weeks old and continued moving from country to country until she finally landed in Colorado. She attended graduate school at the University of Colorado at Boulder where she earned her Master’s Degree in English and taught English and Creative Writing. For the next 20 years, she taught in the Boulder Valley School District, during which time she married and settled down with her husband and two daughters. Initially, Heather taught in mainstream and alternative educational programs at the middle level. Driven by the need for intellectual challenge, Heather moved to the high school level and enjoyed teaching in the District’s International Baccalaureate program. After a serious car accident, Heather was forced to retire early from public teaching, on disability. During the spring of 2008, Catalyst contacted Heather and helped her venture back out into the world of education. Since then, she has been teaching happily. In her spare time, Heather writes poetry and is hoping to finish her first book.

Melita Gump
All Things Mathematical
E-mail melita.gump@catalystedu.org
Phone (303) 604-6521 x 212

Melita teaches math at Catalyst. For seven years, she taught middle school and high school math and some art in the Boulder Valley School District. She was awarded a grant from Xcel Energy to create and implement lesson plans that integrate Art and Algebra. During her entire career in public teaching, Melita served on the District’s Math Curriculum Council working on CSAP preparation, vertical curriculum articulation and content standard alignment. Melita graduated from the University of Colorado in Boulder with a Bachelors Degree in Mathematics. She has a State of Colorado secondary teaching license and is highly qualified to teach all levels of math through Calculus. Melita also has been a team leader for the Boulder County Youth Corps and a mentor for the I Have a Dream Foundation. She loves reading and collecting books, listening to music, and creating crafts. Most of all, she enjoys being with her husband and raising their daughter.

John Kettling
Physical Science and Invention
E-mail kettlingj@aol.com
Phone (303) 604-6512 x 214

John is a 20-year veteran of industrial and musical instrument engineering and manufacturing. He has been a science lab adviser for 17 years and has volunteered hundreds of hours guiding secondary students through internships and scholarships acquisition. John has served on the advisory board to the Rocky Mountain Children’s Clinic in Denver for 31 years. He holds a BS from Metropolitan State College of Denver and a SCPD Certificate in Computer Security from Stanford University. He has studied nanotechnologies through Stanford’s Engineering Science Institute and neuroscience disciplines through Harvard University’s professional extension. John is an avid organ musician and collector of exotic antique automobiles. Finally, John is a Little League baseball fanatic, a writer of baseball stories, and a bit of a character.

Anastasia Milliken
Language Arts
E-mail anastasia.milliken@catalystedu.org
Phone (303)-604-6512 x 204

Anastasia is a New Yorker at heart with a mountain woman’s spirit. Throughout grade school, she worked professionally as a child actor/model before earning her BA in Speech at SUNY Cortland as an accelerated graduate. Anastasia moved from Brooklyn, NY to Boulder, CO after graduating from The National Shakespeare Conservatory in NYC, a two-year professional training program for the actor. As a product of her training, she developed a strong student-centered philosophy of education through teaching and directing in Colorado public and private schools since 1997. Anastasia is a graduate of The University of Colorado School of Education’s MA+ program where she earned a Master of Education in Instruction and Curriculum and Colorado State Teaching Certification in Secondary English. While attending CU, Anastasia spent 2 successive summers in Steamboat Springs at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp as the Head Counselor and Intermediate Drama Instructor. She went on to work with the Great Books Summer Reading Program at Stanford University and Amherst College as Theatre Director and Discussion Leader, creating a successful and growing theatre program consisting of over a dozen self-abridged Shakespearian plays and countless original student works. She began her professional teaching career at Denver School of the Arts where she co-led a “History of Theater” tour for a group of 70 students, parents and teachers to Italy, Greece and Turkey. Inspired by the power of experiential learning, Anastasia returned to Boulder to teach at the Watershed School as an expeditionary humanities instructor where she also founded a thriving drama program. Anastasia is thrilled by the opportunity to apply an extensive array of professional experience to Catalyst High School with the intention to create meaningful and personally relevant learning for each individual student, in and out of the classroom.

Tyler Thompson
Language Arts, Social Studies and Guitar
E-mail tyler.thompson@catalystedu.org
Phone (303)-604-6512 x 210

A lifelong learner and lover of the language arts, history, and music, Tyler revels in the daily reciprocity of ideas and inspiration with students and colleagues. Before Catalyst, Tyler taught language arts, social studies, and music to students ages five to eighteen at the Living School in Boulder, and literacy to middle and high school students at the Hillside Learning Center on the Bridge School campus. Most recently, while completing his post-graduate work, Tyler worked as a private tutor teaching literacy and composition one-on-one. Throughout his journey, he has enjoyed coaching middle and high school boys and girls soccer, as well as facilitating high school band students to organize and play in rock bands. A graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School and a Wilderness Medicine Institute first responder, he has also had the privilege of leading high school students on backpacking expeditions throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Tyler holds an M.A. in Education and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder. When he isn’t teaching, Tyler may be found reading, writing, or playing the guitar with his beautiful wife Dina and serenading their three cats Butters, Breezes, and Bean.

FROM our PRINCIPAL The heart and soul of Catalyst is truly in the people who embody our community.