Former Faculty Members:
Heike Maria Kilian grew up in Aschaffenburg am Main, in Unterfranken, Germany and has been living in Oregon for over 30 years. In Germany she was a Kindergarten teacher and worked in preschools and elementary schools in Minnesota when she first came to the US. Later she got her RN degree and retired after many years of working as a Pediatric and Med/Surg Nurse. With her wonderful energy she wanted to work with children again. After organizing an Arts in the Parks summer 2021 program for the International Mom’s group, she joined DSC in the Fall 2022. Heike loves growing a small garden and making pottery.
Elke Marion Asleson is a retired Faculty member from Western Oregon University, she taught PE classes & managed the WOU pool for 22 years. Prior to that, she worked as a Naturalist for Parks Canada and taught elementary school in Banff, Alberta.
She has degrees in Biology & Education from the University of Calgary, Alberta. She moved to the USA 40 years ago, marrying an American, Jim, who was the Albany YMCA’s CEO for the past 25 years. Both are retired now, & living on an acreage just above Lebanon, OR.
Being born in Germany, she has kept her mother tongue. Her parents emigrated to Canada when she was 2.5 years old. Always interested in preserving her heritage and with her love of teaching, Elke has accepted a teaching position to work at the German School!
Ellen L. McPherson was a student at Oregon State University (Department of Education) studying to become a teacher at the elementary school or a preschool. She started to support the DSC in 2017 as an internship student. Ellen taught our Kindergarten and Elementary school children.
Martine Zimmermann was born in Germany, but lived in the USA for many years and raised two daughters here bilingually. She started teaching on a regular basis in the Fall 2018. Martine taught our advanced beginning students grades 2-6.
Abigail Bernasconi was a student at Oregon State University. She began as a volunteer in 2019 and was an assistant for children’s classes and adult German conversation classes. In 2020, she taught conversation course to support adult learners.
Martha Moore began as a volunteer with the adult German conversation, then moved over to teaching in the Fall 2016 to Winter 2019. Her full time job is a special ed teacher, and she is licensed to teach German K-12.
Agnes Rehr-Zimmermann was born in Göttingen, Germany. As a student at OSU, Agnes was with DSC 2016-2018.
Kerstin Früh has a teachers credential from Switzerland. She joined our school 2017-2018.
Anke Knauth was born in Ober-Ramstadt, Germany. She taught at GASPA (a German Saturday school in Menlo Park, CA), and at DSC 2015-2018.
Manuela Waberer joined our team in the Spring 2015 and stayed to her graduation in June 2016 with us. Now she lives back in Vienna, Austria.
Cynthia Cox, MA in Linguistics from the University at Buffalo, was an International Student Advisor at OSU. She taught at DSC from Fall Term 2014 through June 2016.
Helga McCamley was born in Germany. She volunteered at DSC as a conversant for adults in the Fall 2014 and as a reading specialist until 2016.
Zoe Alley studied psychology at OSU. She studied German at OSU. Zoe a member of our team from Spring Term 2015 through 2016.
Sandra Balzer: “I am very glad to have the opportunity to volunteer at Deutsche Schule Corvallis. It is very exciting to be able to teach my native language to children and adults.” Sandra joined our team in 2014 and moved back to Germany in 2020.