Teton Science Schools
Our Team
Throughout its history, Teton Science Schools has benefited from thoughtful leadership. From our Board of Directors to our educators, the entire organization consists of leaders in their fields who are dedicated to our missions.
Board of Directors
Leah Corrigan
Board Chair, Chair – Executive Committee; Member – Governance Committee and Mountain Academy Advisory Board
Board Chair, Chair – Executive Committee; Member – Governance Committee and Mountain Academy Advisory Board
Leah K. Corrigan, Esq. is a Partner at Moffett & Corrigan LLP and a civil litigation attorney with experience representing clients in high-stakes matters including multi-million-dollar fiduciary litigation, wrongful death lawsuits, and large real estate and land use disputes. She is also the founder and managing attorney at Recreation Law Group. Leah is admitted to the bar in five states, practices law in state, federal, and appellate courts, and enjoys an "AV Preeminent" rating from Martindale-Hubbell. Leah is a frequent presenter, speaker and writer on legal issues impacting the outdoor recreation industry, and has significant experience advising organizations and companies engaged in outdoor education and recreation on risk management. Leah has served on various boards including LEAP (Life Expanding Adventures Program) and Habitat for Humanity for the Greater Tetons. She has experience as professional multi-day wilderness river guide, and has been trained in Wilderness First Response, Swiftwater Rescue, and Avalanche Level II. Most importantly, Leah is a parent to current 5th Grader, Colby, and 3rd Grader, Owen, on our Teton Valley Campus.
Pete Regan
Co-Chair – Mountain Academy Advisory Board Member, Executive Committee, and Finance Committee
Co-Chair – Mountain Academy Advisory Board Member, Executive Committee, and Finance Committee
Pete Regan was Chief Executive and Chairman of ERM Holdings, Ltd from 2000-2009. ERM has 145 offices in 41 countries across Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America, and more than 3,500 employees around the world. The firm is one of the world’s largest global providers of environmental management, science and engineering services. ERM’s clientele includes over 60% of the Fortune 500.
His education includes degrees in Geology from Rutgers University (BS, 1979) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (MS, 1982). He also attended the Advanced Management Program (AMP 168) at Harvard University in 2005.
In 2001, he co-led the financial restructuring of ERM’s 34 operating businesses into a single entity, and was named Chief Executive of the newly-formed, global ERM Holdings, Ltd. Since his retirement from ERM in 2010, Pete has served as Chairman of the Board of Element Materials Technology (London), Trinity Consultants (Dallas), and JMJ Associates (Austin).
Pete, his wife Coleen, and their children Sean and Grace moved to Jackson in January 2013. Sean (Class of 2020) and Grace (rising junior) have attended Mountain Academy since that the family’s arrival. Pete has served as one of the co-chairs of the Mountain Academy annual fund-raiser for the past 3 years.
Andrew Chung
Member – Mountain Academy Advisory Board
Member – Mountain Academy Advisory Board
Andrew has been a tech investor and entrepreneur for over 20 years with rare experience & success investing in health & sustainability. He was involved with 8 unicorns in world-positive sectors while at Khosla Ventures and Lightspeed Ventures that have created $30B+ of market value. He founded 1955 Capital to invest in revolutionary technologies to solve the greatest global challenges of our time. As a thought leader in sustainable technology and U.S.-China collaboration, Andrew served on a White House roundtable on advanced manufacturing during the Obama Administration and has advised global leaders on energy policy. He is also on the Advisory Board of Future Food-Tech, world-leading event series focusing on the most disruptive technologies transforming our food system. He has also been a guest lecturer at Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, MIT, Tsinghua (清华大学), Peking University (北京大学), and the Paulson Institute.
Andrew holds a BA in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with honors as a Detur Prize recipient, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. Andrew currently serves on the Dean’s Advisory Cabinet at the Harvard John A. Paulson School for Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), where he sits on the Harvard Life Sciences & Innovation Task Force, and served on the Advisory Board for the Wharton Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL).
Andrew is an avid musician and nearly pursued a singing career after winning a national Chinese singing contest and becoming a finalist in Hong Kong Idol. He has performed as a vocalist and conductor at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Shanghai Conservatory, and off-Broadway. In addition to music, Andrew enjoys photography, skiing, traveling and baseball.
Maria Damon
Member – Mountain Academy Advisory Board
Member – Mountain Academy Advisory Board
Dr. Maria Damon currently serves as Director of Strategic Initiatives at Environment for Development (EfD), an environmental economics institute focused on research, policy, and academic programs in developing countries. Maria is widely published in the fields of environmental policy, green growth, and development economics. Prior to joining EfD, Maria was on the faculty of New York University’s Graduate School of Public Service and the College of Arts and Sciences, where she was a founding faculty member of NYU’s Environmental Studies department. She created an abroad program focused on climate change and sustainable development, in which she brought groups of students to South Africa each year, teaching them along with students from throughout Africa. Prior to NYU, Maria was an Assistant Professor at the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. She also served on the White House Council of Economic Advisers, as the staff economist for environment and regulation. Maria holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego, and concurrently completed an NSF-funded doctoral program on Marine Biodiversity and Conservation with Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She holds an A.B. in Economics from Cornell University, with a concentration in Earth System Science. Maria sits on the board of directors of CityKids Wilderness Project and the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, and served on the advisory board of the Institute for Policy Integrity. Maria lives in Wilson, WY with her partner Daniel and son Isak. She is a passionate backcountry skier, alpine climber, and surfer.
Ashley Finan
Co-Chair – Mountain Academy Advisory Board Member – Executive Committee
Co-Chair – Mountain Academy Advisory Board Member – Executive Committee
Ashley Finan is Chief Scientist for the National and Homeland Security Directorate at Idaho National Laboratory and is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center.
Dr. Finan was previously the founding Director of the National Reactor Innovation Center and a Division Director at Idaho National Laboratory. In this role, she was responsible for creating projects and programs to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear energy in partnership with technology developers.
Dr. Finan served as founding Executive Director for the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, where she was responsible for managing the nonprofit organization’s strategy, operations, government affairs, policy and technical development, stakeholder outreach, and fundraising. She provided expert guidance to policymakers, academic teams, industry stakeholders, and NGOs, testifying before Congress several times and speaking at national and international events. Dr. Finan previously served as a Director of Nuclear Innovation at Clean Air Task Force.
Dr. Finan earned her Ph.D. in Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds an SB degree in Physics as well as SB and SM degrees in Nuclear Science and Engineering from MIT.
Ashley and her husband Tim live in Teton Valley, Idaho with their three children and dog, and enjoy skiing, fishing, biking, climbing, backpacking, and spending time with family and friends in this spectacular place they call home. Their two sons are students at Mountain Academy, and their daughter plans to be when she is older.
Fred Keller
Chair, Finance Committee Member, Executive Committee
Chair, Finance Committee Member, Executive Committee
Fred Keller is the Founder and Chair of Cascade Engineering, headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Fred started Cascade in 1973 with a belief that he could have a successful business while creating a culture where people enjoyed coming to work and were treated with dignity and respect. Fred began molding plastic parts with six employees in a 10,000 square foot building. Today Cascade Engineering employs over a 1000 people in Michigan and Budapest, Hungary.
The Cascade Engineering Family of Companies serves diverse markets including recycling and waste containers, automotive, office furniture, agricultural/industrial containers, polymer compounding, and RFID technology integration. Cascade is primarily focused on injection molding of large plastic parts and the supporting design and engineering required to provide excellent quality and reliability. Cascade Engineering is a “Triple Bottom Line” company, and has been a certified “B” Corp since 2010 just a few short years after that designation became possible. Cascade Engineering is now also a certified Woman Owned Business as Fred has passed the reins of control to his 3 daughters with Christina serving as overall CEO of the family of Companies. Fred believes that business has the unique opportunity to complement its efforts on financial performance with important work in the social and environmental arenas. He has emphasized the key role business can play in building financial, social and ecological capital,
often through partnerships with government and community agencies. His innovative management approach and work in advancing sustainability are featured regularly in business and industry publications. For 17 years Fred was a Sr. visiting lecturer at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, is an Emeritus Executive-in-Residence at the University of Michigan’s - Center for Positive Organizations - Stephen M. Ross School of Business. He was formerly the board chair of the U.S. Department of Commerce Manufacturing Council and for 14 years served on the Board of Trustees for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation serving 2 years as chair. Fred is currently a trustee for the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and serves on five corporate boards including 2 startups. Fred is actively involved in many community organizations and change initiatives including the co-founder and chair Emeritus of TalentFirst, a 150 CEO membership organization that serves as a catalyst for the development of an integrated talent system to meet employer needs throughout 13 West Michigan counties. He also was previously co-founder and chair of K-Connect, a Kent County collective impact and systems change collaborative. A Grand Rapids, Michigan native, Keller earned a B.S. in materials science and engineering from Cornell University and an M.S. in business management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
M. Margaret McKeown
Chair, Murie Committee Member, Governance Committee
Chair, Murie Committee Member, Governance Committee
M. Margaret McKeown has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since 1998. Before joining the court, she was the first woman partner at Perkins Coie law firm in Seattle and Washington, DC. Judge McKeown was a White House Fellow and served as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Interior and at the White House. A Wyoming native, Judge McKeown attended the University of Madrid, received her BA from the University of Wyoming and her JD from Georgetown University Law Center, and holds an honorary doctorate from Georgetown.
She serves on the Council of the American Law Institute, the managerial board of the International Association of Women Judges, the Judicial Advisory Board of the American Society of International Law, and the editorial board of Litigation magazine. She is Jurist-in-Residence at the University of San Diego Law School and has lectured throughout the world on topics as diverse as international law and intellectual property.
Judge McKeown is an avid hiker and is often found tramping the Teton trails. She was a member of the first American mountain climbing expedition to Mt. Shishapangma in Tibet.
She has been involved with Murie Ranch for many years, first serving on the board of the Murie Center and now chairing the Murie Ranch Committee of TSS. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Citizen Justice: The Environmental Legacy of Justice William O. Douglas, which recounts Justice Douglas’s relationship with Olaus and Mardy Murie.
Judge McKeown is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, the ABA John Marshall Award, and the Girl Scouts Cool Woman Award, among others.
Tracy Ammerman
Grand Teton National Park Representative, Ex Officio
Grand Teton National Park Representative, Ex Officio
Senior Leadership Team
Josh Kleyman
Chief Advancement Officer
Chief Advancement Officer
Josh has been connected to Teton Science Schools (TSS) as an alumni of the TSS Graduate Program, as faculty in the TSS Graduate Program, TSS Teacher Learning Center adjunct faculty, Director of Field Education at the Kelly Campus of TSS, and as Director of Development. He is the father of three curious and engaged TSS students. Josh is humbled and honored to lead advancement efforts at TSS where he finds great joy in building relationships, fostering community and connecting people to the mission of TSS.
Nicola James
Chief People Officer
Chief People Officer
Nicola originally hails from Sydney, Australia and has called Wydaho home for the past 15 years. With an extensive HR background in hospitality and the ski industry, Nicola held the role of Human Resources Director of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort prior to joining TSS in 2018.
In her time at TSS, Nicola has worked to elevate the role of human resources from an administrative function to a strategic department focused on talent recruitment and retention, supporting diverse employee types from seasonal field education instructors to year-round faculty and staff. As TSS’s Chief People Officer, Nicola shares her passion for helping employees find an enriching career experience where they can learn and embrace their natural talents while building a strong, positive organizational culture.
Nicola’s daughter, Millie, is an avid learner on the Teton Valley Campus of Mountain Academy. They love to ski, play outdoors, hold spontaneous dance parties and torment their cats, Wilma and Betty.
Mike Witherite
Chief Operating Officer
Chief Operating Officer
After growing up in Texas, Mike moved to the Tetons in 2000 to spend time on the rivers, trails and ski slopes. Twenty years of private sector experience in the hospitality industry, coupled with working in the startup industry, has prepared Mike to help lead the entrepreneurial spirit that exists at Teton Science Schools. Mike brings a history of analytics, forecasting, business development, and straightforward communication and believes in applying for-profit business principles to expand a non-profits mission impact.
Claire Lewis
Executive Assistant
Executive Assistant
Claire Lewis joined Teton Science Schools in the fall of 2022 as Executive Assistant to Shawn Kelly, CEO. Previously, Claire worked in Enrollment Management at an independent all girls school in the Philadelphia suburbs. Claire supports Shawn in his leadership role in the daily operation of Teton Science Schools and Mountain Academy, and the Board of Directors and standing committees in their ongoing governance. Claire enjoys belonging to an organization which has, at its core, the principles of best practice in placed-based education. She was drawn to TSS by its committed educators and connections to people, place and nature.
Claire loves daily early morning walks with her two dogs, and likes to read, knit, and cook dinner for friends. She is actively involved in stream restoration work, stormwater management and the preservation of green space in her community.
