Ms. Padilla is thrilled to be working as the Reading Intervention and Migrant Education Teacher. She grew up in a small ski town in southern VT, always preferring the outdoors to being inside. After going to college in Boston, MA, she ran away to the mountains of NW Montana for a few seasons of backcountry work with the USFS. Ms. Padilla first moved to Wrangell in the summer of 2010 to work for the USFS at Anan Bear and Wildlife Observatory. She fell deeply in love with this incomparable place and its tight-knit community! Since then, she spent 2011-2014 as the program coordinator for a wilderness-based STEM camp, and 2015-2020 in a senior management role at SEARHC Alaska Crossings. Her plan to pursue a new career in education began with enrollment in the UAF Master’s in Elementary Education (K-8) program and student teaching 6th graders at Stikine Middle School for the 2020-2021 school year. Here we are in 2022, and she couldn’t have been happier about this opportunity to serve the youth of her local community!
When not in the classroom, Holly, her husband, and two sons fish, hunt, paddle, snowboard, ski, garden, knit, bake, and read for recreation. She is excited about working with the elementary and migrant students.