TUCKER MAXON - Key Persons
Alicia is a Portland native, born and raised in our beautiful corner of the Northwest. Educated in the Parkrose School District, she played clarinet and served as Drum Major before attending Reed College. She spent the early years of her career in the insurance industry. Later, she joined the nonprofit world as the Assistant to the Executive Director at SnowCap Community Charities. There, she discovered a passion for being a small part of a collaborative team, which led her to Tucker Maxon. Alicia is a wearer of many hats, and an avid reader of sci-fi, fantasy, and nautical fiction. She is a great lover of music in many eclectic genres, an amateur arachnologist and spider enthusiast who lives with her dog, Tugboat.
Amber Roberts was born and raised in Southern California. She went to California State University, Fullerton where she received her B.S. in Child & Adolescent Development. In 2019, Amber moved to Portland, Oregon to continue her education where she attended Lewis & Clark College and graduated with her MAT in Elementary Education (during a pandemic!). After graduating in 2020, Amber married her best friend and started working as a Pod Teacher & Childcare Provider for kindergarten and first graders. Amber enjoys exploring the outdoors with her husband, camping, finding new restaurants, and spending time with family and her two kitties. She is excited to join the Tucker Maxon family as a Preschool Teacher.
Amelia was born and raised in Georgia and has lived in several states across the US as an adult, including Tennessee, New York, Arkansas, Connecticut and Missouri. Amelia and her husband Mike moved from Kansas City to Portland in 2007, started a family, and have never looked back.
A desire to work with children and an interest in communication initially brought Amelia to the field of Speech-Language Pathology. While working towards a Master's degree in Communication Sciences at Vanderbilt University, Amelia was drawn to medical settings. After completing her M.S., she worked with stroke, head injury, and cancer survivors in hospitals and rehabilitation centers for 10 years. Shifting her focus to disease prevention, Amelia went back to graduate school to study Public Health, receiving an MPH from Yale University in 2003. She worked at the University of Kansas Medical Center managing NIH-funded cancer prevention research studies, and later transitioned into working in development for a non-profit Latino arts and mental health organization in Kansas City. After moving to Portland, she returned to Speech-Language Pathology as an outpatient therapist at OHSU.
Amelia believes strongly in community building through volunteerism. She also believes that creativity, human connections and adventure are the heart of life. In her spare time, Amelia enjoys gardening, hiking, camping, reading, traveling and attending her children's many sporting events.
Andrew Fort has been a teacher of music for nearly twenty years and has been affiliated with Tucker Maxon for fifteen years, since his eldest son began Preschool in 2004. Once a week this year, Andrew will lead your student through vocal and instrumental music by using folk songs, popular songs, and Classical themes. Children will begin pre-reading music in the Preschool classes and will have a solid foundation for rhythm and notation by the time they reach fifth grade. We will also have fun with xylophones, marimbas, recorders and more!
Job Titles:
- Treasurer, Lead Actuary in Individual Annuities Division, the Standard Insurance Company
Ben Wacker joined the Tucker Maxon Board of Directors in January 2019. Ben is the lead actuary in Individual Annuities Division of The Standard Insurance Company. Ben is responsible for product development, pricing, rate setting, corporate modeling applications, financial planning, financial reporting, and operational reporting. Ben spent nearly a decade in Bermuda at various insurance companies (Northstar Financial, Athene Life Re, and Ability Reinsurance) after having started his career in Des Moines, IA with Principal Financial Group. Ben graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison with a degree in both Actuarial Science and Finance, Investments and Banking. Ben has also co-founded an own study materials business for aspiring actuaries. Ben and his wife are the proud parents of two beautiful girls and they try their best to take advantage of the Pacific Northwest's outdoor activities.
Bria was born and raised in Washington, D.C. and uses they/them pronouns. Bria moved out to Portland four years ago to go to Lewis & Clark College, where they graduated with a B.A. in English. One of Bria's favorite things about the Pacific Northwest is its nature. They love camping and feels very grateful to live close to both the coast and the mountains. Besides camping, Bria's other interests include listening to podcasts (The Happiness Lab is a favorite), jigsaw puzzles, reading, writing, and roller skating. They love all things spooky and creepy, and some of their favorite authors are Japanese horror mangakas Junji Ito, Gou Tanabe, and Inio Asano.
Cheryl Fischer has lived in Portland for 25 years. She got her undergraduate degree at OSU in
education and her graduate degree at PSU. She has taught English as a second language at
local Community Colleges and she has taught in K-5th classrooms for Portland Public Schools.
During the last three years, Cheryl homeschooled her son - one of the most difficult and
gratifying teaching experiences of her educational career. Now that he is back in school, Cheryl
Job Titles:
- Speech - Language Pathologist
Christina Slusarczyk is thrilled to be joining Tucker Maxon as the new Speech-Language Pathologist. Christina is a graduate of the Portland State University Speech and Hearing Sciences program. During her studies, Christina completed clinical training focused on children with cochlear implants at both Providence Children's Development Institute and Oregon Health and Sciences University. Christina also has experience in early childhood and school-based settings. Currently, Christina serves on the Board of the Oregon Speech-Language and Hearing Association as Membership Chair. Prior to becoming a speech-language pathologist, Christina obtained a Bachelor's degree in vocal music from the University of Redlands in southern California. She loves finding creative ways to bring her passion for music into her work as a speech therapist. When she is not working, Christina enjoys taking dance classes, going to concerts, eating at the many amazing Portland restaurants, learning Spanish, and pampering her cat, Neemo. Christina is very honored to be part of the Tucker Maxon family!
Dr. Hargunani is a pediatric otolaryngologist in the Portland area. His field encompasses many areas, and his special interests are in managing hearing loss, chronic ear disease, speech disorders, and cleft lip and palate. He currently works for the Oregon Clinic serving children at Randall Children's Hospital. He also is on staff at OHSU and cares for children at Doernbecher Children's Hospital.
Dr. Hargunani was raised in Michigan and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. He then completed medical school at Georgetown University, and finally landed in Oregon to undergo his otolaryngology residency at OHSU. He has since stayed in Oregon to do his specialty training in pediatric otolaryngology and develop his medical practice.
Denise was born and raised in upstate New York. She is the youngest of three sisters. She received her A.S. at SUNY Orange and went on to receive her B.A. in English at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. After working in Edinburgh, Scotland on a visa, Denise and her spouse moved to Bellingham, WA in 1999 and they have been living on the west coast ever since. They lived in Berkeley, CA for seven years while her spouse was attending a doctoral program and moved to Portland, OR in 2012.
Denise began working at Tucker Maxon in Fall 2022. She brings over fourteen years' experience working with preschool through fifth grade students in both a professional and volunteer capacity, and she has five years' experience being a lead preschool teacher. Prior to working in education, Denise worked as a human resource assistant/payroll clerk, accounting assistant, and in food service.
Denise lives in Southeast Portland with her husband, daughter, son, dog, two cats, and a bearded dragon. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends, being outside in the beautiful NW, walking the dog, and taking photographs.
Dr. Frank Warren was born in Portland, Oregon and graduated from Tufts University in 1992. He completed his medical training and residency at Oregon Health and Science University. Following this, he went on to fellowship in Neurotology at Vanderbilt University in 2006, after which time he joined the faculty at the University of Utah for four years prior to moving back to Portland. Dr. Warren was an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at OHSU until recently when he joined The Oregon Clinic.
Dr. Warren has performed over 100 cochlear implant surgeries per year in the Portland Metropolitan area and is a co-investigator on an NIH funded research project investigating magnetic guidance of cochlear implants.
Dr. Warren has two children in elementary school, and enjoys golf, volleyball and automobiles.
Job Titles:
- Professor at Oregon Health & Sciences University
- Secretary of the Board, Oregon Health & Sciences University, Affiliate Professor
Dr. Homer Chin was born in Okinawa and grew up in the Sudan (Africa) and Hong Kong. He came to the US and attended college at UC Berkeley, majoring in Bioengineering. He obtained his MD degree from Dartmouth Medical School, completed a residency in internal medicine, and did a fellowship in medical informatics at Stanford University, before joining Kaiser Permanente. He was associate medical director for clinical information systems at Kaiser Permanente Northwest until his retirement from that position in 2013.
Dr. Chin is an affiliate professor at Oregon Health & Sciences University and on the board of OCHIN-a organization that supports information systems for clinics that serve mainly the medicaid and medically indigent population. He is currently working with Beth Israel/Harvard Medical School on the OpenNotes initiative-working to give patients easy and transparent access to their medical records.
He is married with 2 young sons.
Dr. John Goddard grew up in Alexandria, Virginia and is a proud graduate of the University of Virginia. He and his family have lived on both the East and West coasts and are extremely happy with their migration to the great Northwest. Dr. Goddard practices at Kaiser Permanente, specializing in Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery, a surgical sub-specialty of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. He exclusively treats patients with hearing, facial nerve, vestibular, and lateral skull base disorders and takes great pride in actively listening to his patients to provide the best outcome possible. Dr. Goddard enjoys spending time with his family - a great joy for his mind and spirit. He enjoys golf immensely and finds being on a golf course or practicing his game "good for the soul."
Dr. Sharon M. Higgins was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. She served as the President of Tucker Maxon Board of Directors, as well as Northwest Permanente PC, and Medical Director of Kaiser Permanente Northwest from April 2007 to December 2010. Prior to this she served as Chief of Otolaryngology from 1987 to 1999, Vice president and Operations Medical Director for Specialty Care from 1999 to 25 and as Assistant Medical Director for Business Affairs from 2005 to 2007.
Dr. Higgins joined Northwest Permanente PC as an Otolaryngologist and Head and Neck surgeon in 1979 and retired from practice in 2012. In addition to serving on the board of Tucker-Maxon, she has also served on the board of the Foundation for Medical Excellence which promotes high quality health care and sound health care policy through sponsoring physician education. Sharon received her undergraduate degree from Creighton University and her medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical School in 1975. She completed both her General Surgery Internship and her Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery Residency at the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center receiving her Board Certification form the American Board of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in 1979. She served with Project Hope in Chengdu, China in 1992
Ellen lives in Portland with her partner Eric and their 5yr old Vizsla, Juniper. She has many years of experience playing sports including volleyball, basketball, and running track. But by far, her favorite sport is soccer which she played up through college. She enjoys watching the Thorns and Timbers games-RCTID! She has run a marathon, started practicing yoga, and got into rollerskating last year. She also loves going hiking and backpacking. Outside that, she enjoys trying new things, traveling, and spending time with her family and friends.
Born and raised in Massachusetts, Glen has been a nonprofit executive, consultant and leader for nearly 30 years. He became Executive Director of Tucker Maxon School on June 2, 2014. In January 2024, Glen was named by Portland Business Magazine as one the year's CEO/Executive Directors of the Year for Social Impact.
Glen was Executive Director of the Oregon Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation and led a successful capital campaign to quadruple the number of school children screened for sight and hearing. During his tenure, the budget and staff size at the Foundation also doubled. He recently led the effort to merge the 72-year-old Museum of Contemporary Craft with the 100-year-old Pacific Northwest College of Art. Other clients have included Metro, Zero Waste Alliance, Tibetan Peace Center and the National Community Land Trust Network. Glen was Interim President and CEO of Nature Bridge (formerly Yosemite National Institutes), the largest environmental education organization in the country. He was also the inaugural President and CEO of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council for Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska.
Prior to green building, Glen was President and CEO of the World Forestry Center, a nonprofit that includes a museum, a demonstration forest, and an international fellowship program. He led a $7 million campaign to reinvent the museum. Glen was inaugural Executive Director during the Berkeley Public Library Foundation's $4.3 million capital campaign. Glen began his nonprofit career as Executive Director of the human rights organization Tibet Justice Center in San Francisco, where he organized a Gala fundraising dinner with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and two other Nobel Prize laureates.
After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1989, Glen was an attorney, a human rights consultant to the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, an Assistant Professor of Law in Prague, and Legislative Counsel to the Pacific Island nation of Palau in Micronesia. His law school thesis on environmental dispute resolution was published in the Ecology Law Quarterly. Glen was also a journalist between college and law school and he backpacked around the world for over a year. Glen has also lived and worked abroad in India, Prague and the Republic of Palau. Glen is a film buff, scuba diver, backpacker, photographer, avid reader and volleyball player.
Job Titles:
- Aftercare Director / Finance
Jennie was born and raised in Salem, Or. and has lived in Portland for the past 24 years. She loves the beauty and nature of the Pacific NW & is thankful to have raised her 3 wonderful children here.
Jennie enjoys doing most anything artistic & creative, including sewing, which led her to run her own small business creating children's wear. She brought these business skills with her when the opportunity came about to own & operate the preschool her son attended. She spent 13 fun and rewarding years in that role and found the students' passion for learning and unbiased views of the world to be inspiring. In her spare time, Jennie enjoys spending time with her family and friends, hiking in Forest Park and Central Oregon, watercolor painting, and listening to her record collection.
Job Titles:
- Principal & Teacher of the Deaf
Jennifer Carver was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. She is the oldest of 4 sisters. She graduated from Portland State University with a BS in History. She started working at Tucker Maxon as an EA in December of 2000. She entered the Masters of Education program at Lewis and Clark College in 2002 and graduated with a Masters of Education, Deaf and Hard of Hearing in 2003. She did some of her studies, student teaching, and a mentorship at Tucker Maxon during her Masters Program. She married Scott Carver in September of 2004 and moved to Lacey, Washington for two years, where she taught children ages 2 to 18 with low vision, blindness, and hearing impairment. She and her husband then moved to Eugene, Oregon for a short time and Scott and Jennifer welcomed their first daughter Olivia.
In 2008 the Carver family moved back to Portland and Jennifer returned to Tucker Maxon. She has taught in both the elementary and preschool programs. Jennifer now has two daughters; her second, Sophia was born in 2014.
Jennifer loves spending time with her family, traveling, and reading and crafting.
Job Titles:
- Board Chair, Washington ESD 112, Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Jennifer Lootens, M.Ed., was born and raised in Northern California, and is the current President of the Tucker Maxon Board of Directors. She has a bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss from Rubella which was diagnosed at birth, allowing her to be fitted with a hearing aid at eight months. She began her journey early of being a kid who happened to have a hearing loss, her parents opting for her mainstreaming in neighborhood schools.
Jennifer received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute, majoring in photography and printmaking, and did graduate work in Art Therapy at Pratt Institute. She worked and lived San Francisco, where she met her husband and soon after getting married in 1989, she moved to Portland and received her cochlear implant. She has been an active member of the Oregon Chapter of the Alexander Graham Bell Assoc. for the Deaf, serving as board president and as a member-at-large with the national group's deaf adult section's Executive Committee.
Jennifer received her M.Ed. degree with her teaching training at Tucker-Maxon, through our training program at Lewis & Clark College. From 2002 until the present she has been an itinerant Teacher for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing with Educational Service District 112 in Washington State.
Jennifer lives in Portland with her husband and two children who work and attend college. Besides teaching and mentoring, she loves reading, doing her artwork, gardening, spending time in the outdoors, and time with friends and family.
Job Titles:
- Technologies, West Coast Regional Sales Manager
Jim Knutsen has spent 33 years working with the hearing impaired. Jim attended Oregon State University where he received his B.A and M.A. in Audiology and Business administration. He started his career at the Portland V.A. hospital at the National Auditory Research Lab. Shortly after that, he joined the East Portland Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic where he practiced for 15 years. In 2000, he joined Starkey Hearing Technologies as a field representative. In 2006, Jim became The Northwest Regional Manager and in 2009 he became the Western U.S. Sales Manager. In 2014 Jim became the NW Regional Business Manager and Starkey Hearing Alliance representative. He is a past president of the Oregon Hearing Society and a former director of the Tristate Hearing Commission.
Jim spent over eight years coaching youth sports in the Portland Area but now spends most of his free time with his wife Mary Ellen and their dog Lloyd.
Jim was first introduced to Tucker Maxon in graduate school and reconnected with the school in 2015 through Starkey's sponsorship of the annual auction.
Job Titles:
- Financial Planner & President
John has a long history with Tucker Maxon as his son David was a student in the early intervention and pre-school programs in the late 80's and early 90's. John is a Certified Financial Planner® and president of Lenz Financial Group with offices in Portland, Eugene and Boise, ID.
John has been married for 35 years, is the father of four children and grandfather of five. Outside of work he enjoys spending time at the beach, skiing, backpacking, and DIY home repair and remodeling with his wife and kids. John is also good at trivia games.
Justin Levy was born and raised in the Maryland suburbs around Washington, D.C. After graduating from the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in 2006, Justin began his undergraduate at Connecticut College. There, he studied Chinese, performed on the upright bass, and played on the rugby team. While earning his degree, Justin studied and worked in China for six months. Justin graduated with a degree in East Asian Studies in 2010.
Upon graduating from college, Justin accepted a position teaching English in the Chinese city of Chongqing. After one year, Justin returned to the US and worked as a freelance graphic designer and retail employee in Washington, D.C. In 2014 Justin accepted an opportunity to lead a farming program at B.B. Camp in Lincoln City, Oregon and fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. Since moving to Portland in 2015, Justin has worked in numerous roles as an educator from a substitute teacher to serving as Program Leader with MESD Outdoor School. This work experience motivated Justin to pursue his Master's degree in Teaching which he earned from Lewis & Clark College in 2018. Since then, Justin has been teaching students of all ages in Portland and joined Tucker Maxon as a long-term substitute in the Upper Elementary classroom in March 2020 and facilitated distance-learning for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. Justin returns in Fall 2020.
Justin lives in Northeast Portland with his girlfriend, Adi and two dachshunds Ketchup and Honey Mustard.
Katie grew up in Woodland, Washington. She moved to Ellensburg to attend Central Washington University from 2011-2015, where she got a degree in Psychology. She worked as an Educational assistant for 2 years, then attended Washington State University Vancouver to get a Master's in Teaching. She moved to Stevenson, WA to teach second grade for a year in 2018, then moved back to Vancouver, where she lives now with her partner, his son, and their dog Dixie. She loves to teach reading and writing, and has taught first, second, and third grades while subbing over the last five years.
Outside of school, she really enjoys cooking, baking, and painting. She also loves to make Italian food and crock pot meals. She bakes all kinds of cookies around the holidays. Elephants are her favorite animal, and she has a huge collection of all kinds of elephant trinkets!
Kyle was born in New Jersey, but grew up in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC. His family took yearly summer trips to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, where Kyle developed a lifelong love of beaches and the musical stylings of Jimmy Buffet. After his family moved to Fresno, California, Kyle attended CSU Fresno where he double majored in History and Political Science. CSU Fresno is also where, as a barista for Starbucks, Kyle met his eventual wife whom he married in 2019.
Graduating from college, Kyle moved back to Virginia to pursue a Master's Degree in Education from George Mason University. While attending classes, Kyle worked as a teacher's assistant for Prince William County Schools, working with students who had physical and emotional disabilities. After graduating from George Mason University in 2015, Kyle then moved back to the West Coast, this time to Portland, Oregon. Since then, he has worked for several different school districts in the Portland area before landing at Tucker Maxon.
When not in the classroom, Kyle enjoys cooking, playing baseball, hiking, and running extraordinarily in-depth tabletop roleplaying games for his friends.
Lynda grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and attended Arizona State University where she earned her teaching degree. She taught in Arizona and California before coming to Oregon. Lynda has over 20 years teaching experience working with preschool through 5th Grade. In 2002, she joined the Tucker-Maxon family. Lynda has enjoyed teaching kindergarten, her favorite classroom activity is doing the Hokey Pokey and guiding young minds in reading.
Outside of the classroom, Lynda loves spending time with her family; her husband and three children. She also likes taking sunny walks or hikes with friends and curling up with a good book. Lynda has quite the collection of vintage and antique schoolhouse accessories. She visits antique shops whenever she travels. When Lynda isn't doing these things, she can frequently be seen with her small, spunky dog, Ginger.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Business Services Manager, Columbia Credit Union
Marc grew up in Southeast Portland. He attended D.A. Grout Elementary school right down the road from Tucker Maxon. After graduating from Cleveland High School, he went on to attend and graduate from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Business Management, and minoring in Economics. Marc graduated from Pacific Coast Banking School (PCBS) and holds a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP). He has over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry.
Marc's banking experience includes branch management, treasury management sales and treasury management operations. Currently, he specializes in treasury management services for commercial banking customers.
Marc now lives in Beaverton with his wife Emily of 19 years, and their two children-Elizabeth, 15 and Lucas, 12.
He is a member of the Association for Financial Professionals of Oregon and SW Washington, a member of the Tualatin Chamber of Commerce, involved with the Willamette Valley Development Officers Development Series, and volunteers with Beaverton Little League, Westside Soccer, Beaverton Youth Track Club, HEAD Start, Financial Beginnings. He has held various volunteer positions as a member of Mt. Olivet Baptist church.
In his spare time, Marc enjoys spending time with his family, running, and volunteering in the activities his children are involved in.
Marc is excited about joining the Tucker Maxon team!
Mary Hull joined the Tucker Maxon School Board of Directors in October 2015. Mary is a partner in Stoel Rives law firm's Corporate practice group and is co-chair of the firm's Technology Ventures Group. She has a general corporate and securities law practice with an emphasis on the representation of emerging-growth companies.
Mary regularly advises start-up and early-stage companies on general corporate governance matters, and she has extensive experience in representing these clients in venture capital and angel financings. Mary has experience representing public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, and executive compensation matters. She also has experience representing clients in the health care industry, including having worked on dozens of affiliations between dental practices and companies that provide business support to dental practices.
Mary was awarded a "Forty Under 40" Award by The Portland Business Journal in 2012, listed among Rising Stars by Oregon Super Lawyers®, 2008, 2010-2012, and presented the Outstanding Pro Bono Service Award, Lewis & Clark Law School Small Business Legal Clinic, 2008-2009. She was a Member of the Board of Directors of Write Around Portland from 2006-2010. Mary was an intern in the Office of Senator Joseph Biden, Washington, D.C. in 1987-1988 and at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1987. She is a graduate of Tulane Law School, magna cum laude, and holds a B.A. from Amherst College, cum laude.
Mary is married to Steve Hull, and they have two children. In her spare time, Mary likes to read to her younger daughter. Mary's favorite book is The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer, Cardenas Markets
Matt is an Oregon native, graduated from Portland State University with a Bachelor of Science, and is a Certified Public Accountant. He was formerly the Chief Financial Officer/Controller for Fred Meyer and QFC, which are both divisions of Kroger, and is currently the Chief Financial Officer at Cardenas Markets with grocery stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.
While living in Portland, he worked for 12 years at the Fred Meyer corporate offices, which is less than a mile from the Tucker Maxon campus. Matt, his wife Heather, and their two children have also lived in Cincinnati, Ohio and Issaquah, Washington, and currently reside in Claremont, California. The entire family enjoys traveling and returns to Oregon as often as possible.
Matt and Heather were first introduced to Tucker Maxon in the early 2000's after their daughter was diagnosed with bilateral severe-to-profound hearing loss. They were new parents and searching for the right services and education philosophy that would provide the widest range of opportunities for her in the future. After finding Tucker Maxon, they immediately realized it was exactly what they were looking for and enrolled her in preschool as quickly as possible. She was mainstreamed beginning in 3rd grade and recently graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science, is working on a Master's degree, and has started a career in global supply chain.
Matt is honored to join the Board and looks forward to continuing the great work supporting the Tucker Maxon mission, goal, values, and vision.
Melissa Burleigh was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She is the youngest of 6 brothers and 1 sister. In 2005, she moved to Portland, Oregon where she began volunteering at her childrens' school; she has 2 sons and a daughter. Over the years, she has been an instructional assistant, Title I instructional reading assistant, reading tutor, AVID Tutor, and English Language Learner Paraprofessional. Melissa graduated from Warner Pacific with a B.S. in Human Development and from Western Governors University with a Master's in Teaching.
Melissa lives in Vancouver, Washington with her husband, daughter, and 2 step-daughters. They have a cat, Bowser, and a Boxer puppy, Lylah. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She also loves playing board or card games; she can be very competitive, as well as hiking, camping, and kayaking. When she has time to herself she enjoys playing piano and guitar.
Nicole Lee has taught at Tucker Maxon School for ten years, spending the first six years in the classroom as an Educational Assistant in preschool and kindergarten. She has also taught after school art for preschool students and explored culinary arts and bushcraft/outdoor arts with elementary summer arts campers. Nicole has led the Preschool Pineapples classroom for four years, and enjoys collecting goofy pineapple items to add to her classroom collection. As an Educational Assistant, Nicole became interested in Tucker Maxon's focus on deaf and hard of hearing students. She completed a Master's degree in deaf education through Minot State University in 2023. Prior to entering education, Nicole spent years working in the catering business, in kitchens and at a local bakery where she ate warm chocolate chip cookies… for breakfast! Nicole graduated with a Bachelor's of Science at Warner Pacific University with a major in Urban Studies and Sociology. Nicole loves to laugh and delights in building relationships with students and families. When she's not teaching, Nicole enjoys the outdoors with her husband and pets, reading in a cozy chair (with her pets) or cooking tasty foods. Her favorite classroom activities are playing card games like Go Fish and reading books to her classroom of happy children.
Job Titles:
- Operations Manager & Enrollment Coordinator
Patty joined the Tucker-Maxon family when her youngest daughter (then 3 years old) was in preschool at Childswork (who partnered with us for many years). The long standing joke in her family is that Katie graduated but Patty is still there, sorting crayons.
Over the past 25 years, she has had lots of learning opportunities: as an EA in both preschool and elementary divisions, tutoring hearing impaired students, teaching summer programs and preschool classes, managing the library and directing the Extended Care program. Most recently she has transitioned into the office, working primarily with students and their families (now those students include two of her own grandchildren).
When not at school, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Tom and their family. Their 3 grown children all have families of their own and live close by, so the moments of quiet are rare. She is an avid Blazer fan, goes whitewater rafting in the summer and then to Mexico each winter for a warm and wonderful family reunion.
She finds that there is truly no end to learning and she enjoys the new challenges that life brings.
Job Titles:
- Preschool & Teacher of the Deaf
Rebecca was born with profound hearing loss, and was enrolled into Tucker Maxon's early intervention program at about 7-8 months of age and fit with hearing aids. She fully mainstreamed in first grade with support from itinerant teachers of Tucker Maxon until high school.
Rebecca graduated from George Fox University in 1999 with a bachelor's in elementary education, and then from Lewis and Clark College in 2003 with a master's in deaf education. She received a cochlear implant in the spring of 2002, and is now able to talk on the phone and listen to the radio. It was one of the best decisions she had ever made!
She started working at Tucker Maxon in the fall of 2000 as an elementary teacher for a couple years before returning to school for her masters. After that, she worked with her dual certification as classroom teacher, itinerant teacher, pull-out teacher, substitute teacher, Early Intervention teacher, and now as the preschool teacher. Rebecca loves to teach! She also spent a year overseeing the process of the school being accredited with OPTION.
Rebecca's husband, Chris Archer, is also a Tucker Maxon alum. They have 3 teenaged children with typical hearing, and their home is in Vancouver. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, bargain shopping, trying new recipes, and going for walks.
Job Titles:
- Controller
- Finance Director
Rick Sorensen is almost a lifetime resident of Washington state. Rick has been the controller for two large non-profits in the Portland area: Mercy Corps and Medical Teams International. Rick received his accounting degree from Central Washington University in Ellensburg and passed the CPA exam a couple of years later. Rick began his non-profit accounting career as a finance manager based in Manila, Philippines for one year and then moved to Quetta, Pakistan for another year, both times with his family and while working for Mercy Corps. During his career Rick has been to 40 different countries, worked with and trained many accountants from various countries.
Rick and his wife, Janet (who is still his best friend) have 2 sons. Andy (and his wife Leah) live in downtown San Francisco and Eric (and his wife Ellen) live in Portland. Rick likes to ride motorcycles, has a private pilot's license, and loves to hike (with their 2 year old golden retriever), fish and camp.
Job Titles:
- Teacher of the Deaf, Elementary
Samantha is thrilled to be back as a part of our Tucker Maxon family. She was a Teacher of the Deaf in our preschool for 3 years, and now will be Teacher of the Deaf for our elementary students. She is a transplant from Mississippi, and has been a resident of Portland for six years. Samantha loves to travel, and spend most of her time outdoors hiking, kayaking, and exploring. She enjoys music; including creating music, singing, and going to concerts. She spends her quiet time reading, building fresh water tanks, and spending time with her beloved elderly cats. She received her degree in Deaf Education at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Shannon is a lifelong Pacific Northwesterner born and raised in Astoria, Oregon (ask her where to get the best fish and chips in town). She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oregon and a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Washington. She has been a school librarian for nearly twenty years, focusing primarily on middle and high school until she arrived at Tucker Maxon in 2019, ready for a new challenge. She will tell anyone who asks (and some who don't) that being the Tucker Maxon librarian might just be the best job on the planet! Shannon believes that everyone should be able to see themselves in books and is dedicated to building the most inclusive library collection possible.
When she's not reading to students, quizzing third-graders about the best graphic novels, wrangling popcorn at movie night, or admiring the baby salmon and chicken eggs that sometimes live in the library, Shannon can usually be found reading, singing, working on the NYT's Spelling Bee, feeding the goats, or eating burritos with her daughter (a Tucker Maxon student) and husband (a stalwart Tucker Maxon volunteer).
Job Titles:
- Board Vice Chair, Realtor - MORE Realty
Job Titles:
- Member of the Tualatin Chamber of Commerce