Board of Directors (alphabetical by first name)
Austin J. Foglesong (Board Member) lives and works in his hometown, Quincy, Washington, in Central Washington. Austin is a dedicated teacher-leader who works as a high school English teacher and enrichment specialist at Quincy High School (QHS). As of June 2022, Austin is a doctoral student at Bridges Graduate School of Cognitive Diversity, where he is working on completing an Ed.D. in Cognitive Diversity. In 2022, Austin received his Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree from the Information School at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 2018, Austin received his M.Ed. in Teaching and Learning and a gifted education specialty endorsement from Whitworth University in Spokane. He also worked with
Dr. Jann Leppien as a graduate assistant at Whitworth’s Center for Gifted Education. In 2016,
Austin received his BA in English, a secondary teaching certificate, an English Language Arts
endorsement, and an ELL endorsement from Whitworth. Austin is an experienced high school
English teacher, enrichment specialist, and future librarian who incites a passion for reading and
writing in the students he serves while inspiring them. He is a positive role model of lifelong
learning who attributes his successes to his mom first teaching him to read at three years old; he
has remained a precocious reader and learner ever since, traversing the classrooms and schools
of Quincy School District (QSD 144). First identified as “highly capable” in kindergarten, Austin
has experienced everything from acceleration to curriculum compacting to grouping to pull-out
programs. Austin is passionate about how school libraries continue to adapt to serve students’
and teachers’ needs. He would like to research how the school library serves as a natural place
where enrichment can occur for all students, including highly capable learners. With the
experiences of both distance learning and hybrid learning during the COVID-19 pandemic,
Austin is especially interested in the positive and negative effects of communication on youth
and adults, particularly when it comes to mental health and wellness.
Dr. Jann Leppien as a graduate assistant at Whitworth’s Center for Gifted Education. In 2016,
Austin received his BA in English, a secondary teaching certificate, an English Language Arts
endorsement, and an ELL endorsement from Whitworth. Austin is an experienced high school
English teacher, enrichment specialist, and future librarian who incites a passion for reading and
writing in the students he serves while inspiring them. He is a positive role model of lifelong
learning who attributes his successes to his mom first teaching him to read at three years old; he
has remained a precocious reader and learner ever since, traversing the classrooms and schools
of Quincy School District (QSD 144). First identified as “highly capable” in kindergarten, Austin
has experienced everything from acceleration to curriculum compacting to grouping to pull-out
programs. Austin is passionate about how school libraries continue to adapt to serve students’
and teachers’ needs. He would like to research how the school library serves as a natural place
where enrichment can occur for all students, including highly capable learners. With the
experiences of both distance learning and hybrid learning during the COVID-19 pandemic,
Austin is especially interested in the positive and negative effects of communication on youth
and adults, particularly when it comes to mental health and wellness.
Austina De Bonte (Past President) lives in Woodinville. She has had a passion for understanding the highly capable (HiCap) population ever since her oldest daughter neared kindergarten, when she helped to inaugurate the Northshore School District’s HiCap Parents Council (www.hcparents.org). Austina De Bonte is the Past President of the Northwest Gifted Child Association (www.nwgca.org), the Washington State support and advocacy organization for families with gifted children. Founded in 1963, NWGCA is the oldest gifted organization in Washington state. A dynamic and engaging presenter, Austina speaks regularly at regional and national conferences, as well as conducts professional development workshops for educators through her consultancy, Smart is Not Easy LLC (www.smartisnoteasy.com). She is a parent advocate who is passionate about speaking about the unique social and emotional development of highly capable (HiCap) or “gifted” children. Austina's signature style combines her experience as a parent and parent coach along with synthesized research and cutting edge neuroscience. Austina is a certified SENG Model Parent Group facilitator. She has a Masters degree from MIT, and did her thesis work in the MIT Media Lab's Epistemology and Learning Group, where Lego Mindstorms was invented.
Austina's talks: What Educators and Parents Need to Know about Smart Kids (Slides), Peeling the Onion: Equity in HiCap (Slides), Peeling the Onion: Equity in HiCap (Research Paper). Click here to contact Austina. Download Austina's resumé.
**Austina is no longer doing free NWGCA community talks, in order to focus more on professional development for educators. Many other NWGCA board members are glad to visit your community to do a free parent presentation. Please see the board bios below to find a speaker that will fit your needs, or fill out the Speaker Request Form.**
Austina's talks: What Educators and Parents Need to Know about Smart Kids (Slides), Peeling the Onion: Equity in HiCap (Slides), Peeling the Onion: Equity in HiCap (Research Paper). Click here to contact Austina. Download Austina's resumé.
**Austina is no longer doing free NWGCA community talks, in order to focus more on professional development for educators. Many other NWGCA board members are glad to visit your community to do a free parent presentation. Please see the board bios below to find a speaker that will fit your needs, or fill out the Speaker Request Form.**
Christina Clark, M.D. (Board Member) is a double board certified Psychiatrist with experience treating child, adolescent, and adult patients. She completed medical school on the east coast and then moved west to California for residency. After her adult residency, she completed her Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2012. Her clinical experience spans numerous settings and she has worked with populations ranging from preschoolers to the elderly; she currently maintains a busy private practice concentrated on increased access to comprehensive psychiatric evaluations, individual & parenting therapy, and medication management. Dr. Clark has focused her career on helping young children and their families improve their mental health and more effectively navigate challenges at home, in the community, and at school. Recently she has cultivated an interest in the unique needs of gifted individuals, especially those designated as twice exceptional. Dr. Clark has pursued further training and study in the areas of mental health needs unique to gifted populations, gifted educational needs, and advocacy needs for gifted individuals within the Black community. She is excited to be able to add to the advocacy efforts for twice exceptional and minority youth through her participation in the NWGCA board.
Elizabeth Williamson (Vice President) is a long-time board member of NWGCA (Northwest Gifted Child Association). Elizabeth was identified as a gifted student in 2nd grade in the Phoenix Unified School District and both there, and in southern California, was able to participate in pull-out hi-cap programs during her elementary school years.Elizabeth lives in Bothell and is married to her best friend. Together, she and her husband strive to learn all they can about the needs of gifted children and advocate for these special children. They have two beautiful, unique, young adult children. Her children’s educational experience has included: self-contained gifted classrooms in the public school system; Honors, “High Cap”, and IB classes; a short stint in private school; home schooling; and radical acceleration through the Robinson Center at the University of Washington. Elizabeth has served on the Edmonds School District's Gifted Advisory Board and the Northshore School District HiCap Parents Council, and has also served extensively in PTA leadership roles. She recently became a SENG (Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted) Model Parent Group Facilitator. Elizabeth has done extensive study on the topic of gifted and raising gifted children, as well as on personality temperaments, communication and relationships. She has traveled the country to attend NAGC, SENG, CAG, WAETAG, and NWGCA conferences and conventions and has also attended numerous other seminars and classes to learn as much as possible to help her children. She is passionate about supporting the emotional intensities and needs of these unique and special children. She believes that this support is as fundamental as the need for an appropriate educational experience - that, in fact, an appropriate educational experience cannot be fully had without that emotional support. Click here to contact Elizabeth.
Jennifer Allen, Ed.D. (Board Member) lives in the Seattle area and is the Head of School at Bridges Academy in Seattle, a school for twice-exceptional learners. Jennifer has dedicated her career to meeting children’s individual needs and supporting families. Jennifer is an experienced teacher, school administrator, and special services director. Jennifer’s interest in neurodiversity began in a high school psychology class. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in psychology from Washington State University, earned her master’s degree in teaching from Whitworth University, completed her principal certification program from Seattle Pacific University, added her gifted education specialty endorsement from Whitworth, and earned her Ed.D. in leadership and professional practice from Trevecca Nazarene University. Jennifer’s dissertation explored educational equity, financial adequacy, and how legislation impacted students with specialized needs. Jennifer is the parent of two gifted teens. A fun fact is that she and her family lived in South Africa for five years. In an effort to meet her children’s unique schooling needs, Jennifer has experience with Montessori schools, independent schools, homeschool, and public schools. Supports that were helpful included cognitive and academic testing, grade skipping, Mensa, talent search, after-school enrichment, self-contained gifted classes, camps for gifted children, Davidson Young Scholars, a 504 plan, honors and AP high school classes, and working with a variety of specialists. As a board member with NWGCA, Jennifer enjoys raising awareness of gifted children as a special needs population and connecting parents to resources.
Karen Thornton (President) has been part of the Northwest Gifted Child Association community as a board member focused on communications and programming, and now shares her collaborative leadership and creative energy as President. Karen is a SENG-trained facilitator of discussion groups for parents of gifted kids and loves sharing resources and ideas with other parents, particularly resources related to executive functioning, intensities and deep emotions. Karen’s professional career spans outdoor and experiential education, business consulting, and now she is the owner of a corporate event planning company. She has served on several non-profit boards over the last two decades, including Northwest Girls Coalition, Alliance for Black Legacy, and the Association for Talent Development. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Karen has lived in the Pacific Northwest for nearly 20 years and currently resides in Woodinville. She and her husband, Kelly, enjoy sports, travelling, and the outdoors with their school-aged kids, Ella and Shane.
Marcella Appel (Parent Group Chair) works as a limnologist in West Richland, WA where she lives with her husband and two children. She became involved in gifted advocacy after a three-year journey of intensively researching and synthesizing information pertaining to the needs of gifted/2e children. Her research has taken her to both Colorado and California to meet with experts and identify how to best support and advocate for her own 2e children. Armed with knowledge and an enthusiasm for all gifted/2e children, she joined the NWGCA board to work with families and parent organizations across the state. Marcella also enjoys working with rural and smaller communities where services for gifted children may not always be available. Marcella is passionate about parent groups and the powerful role they have in their community. She is co-founder of Mid-Columbia 2e a parent group for families of twice-exceptional children. Marcella is also trained as a SENG-Model Parent Group Facilitator. Click here to contact Marcella.
Marcia Holland (Past President, Secretary) lives in Renton and has been involved in supporting excellence in education for children since her sons were students in the Renton School District in the 1970’s and 80’s. The Renton School District had an outstanding gifted program that served one son well and the other one, who was gifted and dysgraphic, not at all. Marcia served eight years as a school board member, where she honed her advocacy skills. Her late husband, Bruce Holland, was elected to the state legislature. He was ranking minority chair of the House education and finance committees for eleven years. In those combined roles, the Hollands continued to advocate for gifted education funding and support. Marcia has served on the board of Northwest Gifted Child Association on and off for 30 years. Her focus has always been educating others – parents, educators, administrators and legislators – about the unique learning needs of children who learn at markedly faster and deeper rates than their chronological peers. Having been an unserved gifted child herself, she remembers the sense of frustration, isolation and “marching in place” of her K-12 experience. Click here to contact Marcia.
Michael Postma, Ed.D. (Board Member) Dr. Michael Postma is a teacher, administrator, consultant, speaker, and author dedicated to the holistic development of both gifted and twice-exceptional children through his company Gifted & Thriving, LLC. During the last two decades, Dr. Postma has worked in the field of gifted/talented education as both a teacher and administrator in the public and charter school system in Minnesota and North Carolina, and, was the architect of the Minnetonka Navigator Program, a magnet school specifically designed for highly gifted and twice-exceptional students.
Satnam Pureval (Newsletter Chair)
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Northwest Gifted Child Association, PO Box 2081, Woodinville, WA 98072-2081
Tax ID: 91-0781776
info@nwgca.org
Tax ID: 91-0781776
info@nwgca.org