BRIDGES STAFF
Greg Tuke
Greg, Bridges Executive Director, has worked fervently to ensure that the students of tomorrow have an increased global consciousness. He served as the head of Powerful Schools as well as Passport Schools NW and the Washington State Coalition for International Education. For Powerful Schools, he led an innovative coalition of public schools and community organizations dedicated to creating powerful learning environments in schools and low-income communities. In Partnership with the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN), he cultivated deep learning partnerships between schools in the US and the rest of the world. He brings management and consulting experience in the private sector to Bridges, after having worked as a manager for Washington Mutual and doing independent consulting for many years. He’s deeply enthusiastic about the potential of emerging technologies to facilitate cross cultural learning. With Bridges, he hopes to develop a Washington State model for teacher development to be used as the school-wide prototype for schools throughout the United States.
206.925.5301
greg@bridgesweb.org
Jennifer Geist
Jennifer's position as Teacher Development Manager with Bridges is a continuation of her work with Passport Schools NW/iEARN. She loves working directly with teachers to incorporate global perspectives into their pre-existing curricula through online project collaborations.
Jennifer's commitment to international education grows out of her experiences traveling and working in Southeast Asia, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and Latin America. She created the Spanish language program at John Hay elementary School, and has written an interactive curriculum for K-6 Spanish. She is a founding member of Successful Schools in Action and currently chairs its World Languages and Cultures committee. As a language teacher, Jennifer was selected to participate in the 2003 Department of Education/iEARN C3 World Project, a year-long professional development program. This allowed her to meet teachers from over 100 countries around the world. She continues to cultivate those relationships today in her work with Bridges.
206.925.5303
jennifer@bridgesweb.org
Lori Markowitz
Lori is Bridges International Program Manager and will focus her efforts on organizing face to face programs. She is a committed grassroots activist who demonstrates her passion for social justice by supporting numerous causes throughout the local community and beyond. Lori is a founding member of the Middle East Peace Camp, an organization committed to building bridges between the Jewish and Arab communities in Seattle. She is also a founding member of Find Common Ground, an interfaith coalition whose mission is to educate the public on peaceful solutions to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through events, presentations and discussion.
Lori serves on the public school Board of Directors for Washington Middle School , and co-chairs the task force for diversity. Additionally, Lori serves on the Board of Directors for the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust. She was the recipient of the 2005 Daniel J. Evans Leadership Award for innovative leadership and public service.
206.925.5306
lori@bridgesweb.org
Tania Westby
Tania is a photographer who has been involved with Bridges since 2004. She is fascinated by the odd details and everyday beauty of the places in which we live, and is interested in telling stories of people and places through photographs. Her photography can be seen at www.taniawestby.com. Tania began to seriously study photography in the Rocky Mountain School of Photography's summer intensive program in 2002, where she heard about the Bridges program. Tania spent two years as a weekly volunteer classroom mentor with Bridges classrooms at Aki Kurose and Hamilton Middle Schools in Seattle prior to joining the staff in 2006.
In her role as Bridges’ Community Programs Manager, Tania helps develop curriculum for the Bridges classrooms and workshops, trains and supports teachers, teaches in Bridges workshops in Seattle and internationally, updates the Bridges website, and coordinates Seattle classroom volunteers.
206.925.5304
tania@bridgesweb.org
Cheryl Crow
Cheryl is our Communications and Operations Manager. She graduated from Mercer Island High School in 2000 and Magna cum Laude from Vassar College (in Poughkeepsie, NY ) in 2004 with degrees in Psychology and Anthropology. After completing college, she enjoyed working and volunteering abroad before volunteering as a grant-writer for Bridges starting in June 2005. After being hired to staff in March 2006, Cheryl has coordinated, marketed and taught at numerous successfull Bridges workshops, generated public relations materials, and ensured smooth office flow and organization.
206.925.5302
cheryl@bridgesweb.org
BRIDGES INTERNS
Marta Nimlos
Marta is an MPA candidate at the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Affairs and joined Bridges as an Executive Intern in January, 2008. After spending the last 6 years in Canada, Japan and South Africa, she is very excited to be back in her native Seattle and is especially enthusiastic about working at Bridges. Marta's primary role at Bridges is assisting with putting on the Face to Face student exchange program and coordinating Bridges' role in the Seeds of Compassion Conference. Marta is passionate about Bridges' mission of cross-cultural understanding, and is looking forward to the experience and learning opportunity working at Bridges will provide.
Caiti Lynch
Caiti is an accomplished, award-wining high school student from Meadowdale High School. She brings years of experience with photography, video and animation to Bridges as well as a fresh youth perspective. She's currently helping us catalogue all our digital images and we hope to engage her in curriculum discussions as well. Thanks, Caiti!
CONTACT INFO
Bridges to Understanding
601 N 34th St
Seattle, WA 98103
ph: 206.925.5300
email: info@bridgesweb.org