Mark Vickers, Vice President: I am a 1994 graduate of Oregon State University where I obtained my Bachelor of Science in Exercise Physiology with minors in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics. Throughout college I worked for the Arc of Benton County, a local non-profit agency that provided housing and social services to adults with developmental disabilities. In my role as Personnel Director, I worked very closely with the Board of Directors and the Executive Director. Since 1994, I have been in a number of Information Technology (IT) roles of increasing responsibility at NIKE, Inc. My current role is the US Regional Account Manager for the NIKE Supply Chain project, NIKE’s largest ever business and IT undertaking. My primary responsibility is ensuring that the interests of the US business are met across Finance, Sales, Demand and Supply Planning, Delivery, Inventory Management, and Order Management. Together with my spouse Valerie, we are pround parents of Grace, who started preschool in October.

Sam Cannady, Treasurer: is the father of three children, two of whom are currently attending the GSP. He has served as Board President from 2000-2005 and is now Treasurer. Sam holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Oregon State University, an MBA from Tulane University, and a JD from the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College. He is currently employed by ScottishPower as Managing Director in the Group Risk Management department. Sam is strongly committed to the ongoing growth of the German American School, including the development of a new middle school program.

Robert Manicke, Secretary: is a tax attorney at Stoel Rives LLP. His practice emphasizes state and local tax matters, employment tax and tax-exempt organizations. He has been a member of the board of the German American School since 1999 and serves as corporate secretary. He and his wife, Pastor Michelle Manicke, are fluent in German and have three children, all of whom are enrolled in the School or have graduated.

Tammy Franks, Director: is the mother of two children, both of whom currently attend GSP.  Tammy has a BA from Wittenberg University where she studied German and Political Science and a MA from the University of North Texas in International Politics.  She is currently employed as the Child Passenger Safety Coordinator by both Legacy Health System and Tuality Healthcare.  Tammy has an extensive background in education administration and looks forward to working with the board.  In her free time, Tammy enjoys hiking with her family, dog sledding, and running.

Peter Hoeckel, Director: Ever since our son Miles joined pre-school at the German American School of Portland in 2004, my wife and I have been very impressed with the quality of the education as well as the warm atmosphere at the school.  His recent progress and excitement about Kindergarten, as well as our daughter Ella's immediate acceptance of her new pre-school class environment this year was another confirmation of our choice.  We also strongly believe in the value of a multilingual education for our children, not only for the benefit of developing a closer relationship with their paternal grandparents in Germany, but for the overall developmental benefits.  With both of our children now at GSP, I look forward to becoming involved beyond volunteering, although I view the volunteer efforts as an essential part of creating a strong school community.  With the current growth of the school, I feel that we have a unique opportunity to create a sustainable class structure for children to thrive and parents to rely on.  My background includes a Master's Degree in Physics from the University of the Saarland in Saarbrücken, and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.  Since 1999, I have worked in different process development and project management roles at Intel Corporation, many of them with a focus on quality and reliability.

Claudia Martin, Community Director:  I am the mother of Chaconne, a former students at GSP. Chaconne was a student at the school from second to sixth grade and we have both been very happy with the school since day one. The level of education is high and the GSP community feels like an extended family. These are two aspects that I would like to see continue as the school grows. My connection with the German language and culture comes from my parents who grew up in Germany and immigrated to the United States after they married. We spoke German in the home and had strong connections with our German relatives. Music was an important part of our home life and I started to play the violin as a child and this passion developed into a career as a professional musician. I gave concerts in North America and Mexico and made recordings as a member of a violin-piano duo as well as the first violinist of the Canadian String Quartet. This quartet was "Quartet in Residence" at a small university in Ontario, Canada. Although this was a wonderful life, I felt I could make a bigger impact as a medical doctor and in a rather radical turn chose to become a neurosurgeon. One can question the wisdom of this, but after grueling residency and fellowship training at Yale and Harvard, I am happy with my professional life as a neurosurgeon at Kaiser. I chose this company to work for as it allows me a four day work week, giving me time to devote to my daughter and her activities. It also allowed us to live in Portland; in my opinion one of the best cities in the country--with a German immersion school to boot!

    

Matthias Merkel, Director: I joined the Board in 2006 and now serve on the finance committee. My family and I moved to Portland in 2004 from Munich, Germany, and our daughter Becca is currently in Kindergarten. With our bilingual background (my wife, Jennifer, is from Minnesota), we already decided in Germany to give the gift of bilingualism to our children. We soon learned that promoting the non-dominant language is a challenge for both parents and children. Coming to Portland, we were pleased to find a school like GSP - a perfect match for families looking for bilingual education and more. The current growth of our school is an exciting time to be part of the Board and be actively involved in planning and decision-making in the best interest of our children and the larger GSP community. In my professional life I am an anesthesiologist and critical care phycisian. I have an MD-PHD degree from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany, and since 2004 I have been at OHSU as Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Peri-Operative Medicine.

                                                                         
Jon Nordby, Community Director: Jon has been involved with the school since its initial move into the current building. He has provided architectural design and space planning since then. Jon Nordby brings more than 20 years experience to residential architectural projects where his award-winning designs reflect both innovation and careful attention to his clients' desires and lifestyle needs. With prior experience as a builder, developer and a cabinet maker, Jon brings exceptional insight, creativity and service to each project. As more clients request modern architecture and creative design solutions, Jon’s extensive commercial design work inspires his residential work. His work in the Pacific Northwest ranges from multimillion dollar custom homes to creative remodels and additions.

David Papp, Community Director: Graduated from Central Catholic HS, BS from Portland State University, 10 years as Budget analyst - VA Medical Center, 18 years as Finance and Administrative Officer Department of Surgery, VA Medical Center, GSP school board member past 1.5 years

Karen Sanders has a background in education. She has a Masters degree in Adult Education, and is finishing up a PhD is Community College Administration through Oregon State University. She worked as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher for close to 14 years, and is currently employed as the Division Dean for Social Science and College Preparation at the Portland Community College Rock Creek Campus. In her free time she likes playing soccer and writing for publication. Together with her husband she has published two activity texts for beginning ESL learners and three language learning games. In addition, she recently finished co-editing a book on foreign language teaching and learning in the K-12 system. From 1990-1992 she and her husband lived and studied in Stuttgart; he studied architecture at the university, and Karen did her best to learn German! Since that time they have made regular trips back to visit family and friends and plan on continuing this connection for many years to come.

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