Our Team
Meet the talented individuals who foster the love of learning at TVS.
Administrative Team:
Business Manager
Tracy Boykin she/her
tracy.boykin@thevalleyschool.k12.or.us
Tracy grew up in beautiful Southern Oregon. She has worked with schools for the past 20 years. She has a certificate in medical office transcription and administration. Her strengths are organizational skills and creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere. She is an integral part of what makes TVS such a wonderful place for learning.
Education Assistant
Alex Lacap she/her
alex.lacap@thevalleyschool.k12.or.us
Alex joins the front office team in 2025-26, helping to manage student schedules, student records, classroom requirements and cover. Alex will be a point person for family communications, returning to the school full time in January after she settles in with her second child in October.
Alex grew up and lived in the Rogue Valley her entire life. She has always had a passion for working with kids and when the opportunity presented itself to work at TVS, she took it. She has two beautiful daughters, a great husband and a dog. She is family oriented and loves the warm weather. She also has a passion for cooking or baking. When she is not working, she loves spending time in the sunshine with her family or at the coast taking long walks on the beach.
Projects Manager
Craig Lamm he/him
Craig is long standing member of the staff team at TVS. In 2025-26, Craig takes on a new role as Projects Manager where he will continue to enhance the learning opportunities and programs for the school as he manages our beautiful campus. Craig will be in and out at the school as he travels the world during the first semester, and be more present and visible during the second semester, sharing his tales and food adventures in a variety of ways. Before TVS, Craig worked with non-profit organizations, theatre companies, and schools across the country and abroad. He loves travel, nature, animals, and adventure. He is a graduate of Phoenix High School and the University of Oregon.
Executive Director / Head of School
Kris Von Wald she/her
kris.vonwald@thevalleyschool.k12.or.us
Dr Kris Von Wald joined the Administrative Team at The Valley School in July of 2023. She comes to the School with a unique combination of education and experience in community education and business management across the commercial, non-profit and education sectors in the UK and US. She has specialist expertise in strategic business planning, organizational and leadership development, and outcomes-based research. Kris has experience as a social science leader for a British Exploring Society expedition to Greenland, the business manager for research centers at Penn State, and as the chief executive of the Association for Experiential Education in the United States, the Hibernian FC Community Foundation in Scotland, and Tall Ships America. Kris also has more than a decade of experience providing financial services to Fortune 500 companies. Kris has a BSc in Business (Finance and Marketing), a MA in Educational Psychology and a PhD in Educational Leadership and Innovation. She grew up in Colorado and is happy to be back West after living abroad and on the East coast for the last 20 years.
Instructional Team:
Social Studies Lead Teacher
Kate Coetzee she/her
Kate joins The Valley School in 2025-26 with a wealth of education experience in Oregon and abroad, having taught place-based education in a charter school in Portland and in several schools in Thailand. Kate has a Teaching Certificate from Moreland University in Washington, DC and a Bachelors of Science in International Business and Economics from Mount Saint Mary's University in Maryland.
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Occupations and Practical Life Lead Teacher
Marcel D'Haem he/him
Marcel D’Haem is a 5th generation Oregon educator with 20 years of public school teaching experience. A graduate of Washington State University, a few years in the private sector convinced him that he needed a job that he could be passionate about.
He began his teaching career in the Roseburg area after graduating from SOU with a Masters of Arts in Teaching and is highly qualified at Middle Level in Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts. He also spent 7 years as co-teacher for the School of Design and Innovation at Talent Middle School and is now happy to be the Lead Teacher of OPL at TVS.
Since the age of 15, Marcel has been spending his summers working at various camps and programs. Beginning at Boy Scout and Cub Scout resident camps, he worked in ecology/conservation and camp administration. He has also worked at high adventure camps, taking youth to the summit of glaciated mountains and on weeklong backpacking adventures. In addition, he spent several years as program director of Resources and People Camp, a career exploration camp that was run by Winema National Forest. Marcel continues to spend some of his summer teaching at Academia Latina, a college preparatory program hosted at SOU specifically for latinx students.
Health Wellness Teacher and Social Emotional Learning Coordinator
Stefanie Eddleman she/her
Stefanie joins us with specific qualifications in Elementary Education and Children’s Yoga and Mindfulness. Stefanie is taking the lead on implementation of the Transformative Social Emotional Learning Framework and direct work with students and families focused on student success in the middle school environment.
Math Teacher
Stacey Faught she/her
Stacey grew up moving all over the east coast and midwest. After earning a Bachelor of Science in upstate New York, she worked in wildlife rehabilitation in Florida. She moved out to Oregon over 20 years ago to be with her true love, and when working with the environmental education Table Rocks crew at the Bureau of Land Management and assisting in a Preschool at SOU, realized being a teacher is ultimately what she wanted to do.
Stacey received her MAT from SOU and taught in early childhood and elementary school until she had a child. That child ended up at TVS, a welcoming and inspiring place for parents to volunteer.
Stacey feels so thankful to be back in education, learning alongside an incredible team. When she is not at TVS, she loves birding, gardening, being crafty, dancing in the kitchen, talking about deep, emotional things, and reading just about any genre of book.
Social Studies Co-Teacher
Gabriel Hildreth he/him
Gabriel was born in Grants Pass, Oregon, but grew up for most of his life in San Diego, California. In Southern California, he studied in the arts (painting, photography, illustration, and graphic design). Over the past ten years he has focused on using his creative skills towards wood working. He has an amazing wife and two beautiful daughters. Gabriel has been at TVS for over four years.
Science Lead Teacher
Lena Hosking she/her
Lena joined the TVS team in the fall of 2024 as the Lead Teacher for Science and Algebra. After getting a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she spent 20 years geeking out as a medical laboratory scientist. During this time, she also worked as an Allied Health Sciences Instructor teaching college classes to aspiring nurses, medical assistants and lab technicians. When her own kids entered school, she finally found her spark - getting youth excited about science! She started working for 4-H, and this led her to pursue a Master of Science degree in free-choice STEM Education from Oregon State University.
Lena has a passion for bettering our community through the empowerment of youth. Since 2011, she has focused on urban outreach, hands-on STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math) programming, teen leadership and community camps. She enjoys creating spaces where youth are accepted for who they are, helping them grow, share their voice, and be happy. She believes school is a place where kids and adults can have fun, learn life skills, develop a sense of mastery and give back to their community. She does this by building relationships and bringing together people’s strengths and talents in the education process.
ELA Co-Teacher
Audra Henson she/her
Audra joins The Valley School in 2025-26, having relocated to the Rogue Valley from California. She has extensive experience as a substitute teacher in various academic areas across K-12 education.
Science Co-Teacher
Kathy McClung she/her
Kathy comes to The Valley School in 2025-26 with years of experience in administrative management and, most recently, as the Director of an after school program at a local Montessori school.
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Math Lead Teacher
Nasser Rihan he/him
Nasser comes to The Valley School with extensive direct instruction and teaching experience in Medford and, most recently, Ashland School Districts. He holds a Teaching Credential from Humboldt State University and a Bachelors of Arts in Environmental Studies from the University of Toledo.
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English Language Arts Lead Teacher
Maddie Wilson she/her
Maddie Wilson joins The Valley School in 2025-26 as the Lead Teacher for English Language Arts. Maddie has experience in a variety of school settings as a substitute teacher and is excited to create her ELA classroom at TVS as a place to explore, be curious and acquire the love of learning.
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Maddie earned a Bachelor of Arts in Teaching from Southern Oregon University and holds her teaching license for multiple subjects.
