Susan Lazareck has been teaching for over 30 years, working with elementary and college students. Susan moved a lot during her childhood, going to 14 different schools before college. She came to Oregon in 1977 from Cornell University, looking for adventure and new vistas.  Before teaching, Susan worked as a social worker with at risk families in Boston.  She taught at the Laboratory School at PCC and for the Portland Public Schools. She came to Catlin Gabel in 1993, teaching First Grade for 11 years. Susan’s oldest daughter, Alison, graduated from Catlin Gabel in 2004 and is now working in Portland for OHSU. Her younger daughter, Anna graduated from Catlin Gabel Middle School and graducated from Grant High School. Susan’s husband, Jack, is a middle school math teacher at Beaumont School in Portland. Susan loves reading, cooking, gardening and sharing tall tales with the kids! 

Herb Jahncke has been working with kids since before the turn of the century.  He begin in 1990 working in an outdoor school in Virginia, taking kids rock climbing, spelunking, canoeing, hiking and more. After that it was time to but the biology degree from Rollins College to work and moved to Catalina Island to work with 2nd graders through high school in another outdoor school environment. This time he taught marine biology and island ecology while snorkeling, kayaking and hiking with groups of students. In 1993, he moved to Portland to attend the Lewis & Clark M.A.T program, where he met Maya, and they married seven years later. His first indoor teaching position began in 1994 at the Neskowin Valley School, located on the Oregon coast, where he taught a small class of 3rd & 4th graders. After 8 years, it was time to move to Seattle, WA and teach at the Bertschi School, teaching a 3rd grade class for 5 years. Chloe, his first child, was born in 2004. He has been working at Catlin Gabel since 2007, when his son Justin was born.

Suzie Roane is the teaching assistant and is starting her fourth year in third grade at Catlin Gabel. For the past eight years, she has been involved in several educational programs, such as Portland Audubon’s sanctuary field trips, OMSI’s school-to-work program, Multnomah County Library’s Summer Reading, and BUND-Freiburg, an environmental classroom program in Germany. She has worked with a variety of age groups in many different settings. She has been a restaurant manager at the Delta café for ten years and has a BA in social sciences from PSU.  She loves to garden, paint, read, watch birds, ride bikes, study German, and hang out with her kitten, Night Moves.

Elisabeth Neely is the 3rd grade Lewis & Clark intern this year. She has many years experience teaching groups of students outdoors, most recently at Oxbow Park. She has a husband, Bob, a son, Peter, who is in 4th grade, and a daughter, Annabel, who is in first grade.