At the heart of every great school are the people who guide, nurture, and inspire its students. At the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School, that vision begins with Director Peter Steedman, whose own journey has spanned continents — from childhood years in Dakar, Senegal, where his father worked with USAID and the Peace Corps, to teaching in Australia and the Hague, and leading a school community in São Paulo, Brazil. His experiences across cultures have shaped a belief in education as a bridge between worlds, and it is with this lens that he has built a team as globally minded as he is.
This year, the Charter School is welcoming six extraordinary educators whose journeys also span the globe. From classrooms in India, Egypt, Nigeria, Vietnam, and the Philippines to service in the Peace Corps in Romania and the Caribbean, to work as a journalist across Europe and a childhood rooted in Sydney, these teachers carry stories and perspectives that stretch far beyond our shores — but whose impact will be felt right here, in the hearts and minds of our Island’s students.
Vicki Richardson had lived many lives before arriving on the Vineyard. She began as an actor in New York, shifted into law, and then discovered her true calling through teaching. Her service in the Peace Corps in Romania sparked a passion for working with young people; she built a theater program there for high school students who had never had access to the arts. Her journey carried her to classrooms in Vietnam, China, Singapore, Egypt, India, and Nigeria, blending theater, English, and social justice. Now she brings that vast global experience to the Charter School, where she teaches health (grades 6–10) and guides upperclassmen in “Creativity, Activity, and Service” (CAS) for the International Baccalaureate program. “For me,” she says, “it’s about helping students learn themselves better — how to set goals, manage stress, and advocate for who they are becoming.”
Amber Van Duuren came to Martha’s Vineyard from Newcastle, near Sydney, Australia, with more than a decade of teaching experience. Back home, she’d specialized in Aboriginal studies, and taught multiple subjects, but felt called to challenge herself by learning a new educational system. “I had been teaching other teachers, and felt like I had nothing else to give — I needed to learn more,” she explains. That curiosity led her here, where she now teaches social studies for grades 6–8. Though she arrived not knowing a soul, Van Duuren quickly discovered the Vineyard’s deep sense of community. “The amount of people I’ve never met who have reached out to help me — I just feel so lucky to be here.” For Van Duuren, teaching begins with authenticity and connection: “You can’t really teach until you have that relationship. When kids know you’re real with them, beautiful things happen.”
Patti McCracken brings a journalist’s curiosity and global perspective to the classroom. Before arriving on the Vineyard, she spent 20 years living in Europe, working as a trainer for journalists in the Balkans and former Soviet bloc. “Sometimes it was about teaching, sometimes it was about getting people to safety,” she recalls of her work, which she likens to a “journalism Peace Corps.” McCracken also freelanced for major newspapers and magazines, and served as an assistant editor at the Chicago Tribune. She eventually moved to Chilmark to finish her first book, “The Angel Makers,” which was published to critical acclaim. Seeking community after years of solitary writing, she joined the Charter School as a learning facilitator, moving between classrooms to support teachers and students alike. Still in her first weeks, she is finding joy in observing her colleagues’ teaching styles and building relationships with students: “Right now, I’m absorbing as much as I can. It’s a privilege to be part of this community of learners.”
Maya White Pasqual has spent the past 18 years living and teaching in the Philippines, but her heart has long been tethered to Martha’s Vineyard. “I’ve always referred to the Vineyard as my happy place,” she says, recalling family summers on the Vineyard that stretched into autumn when she homeschooled her children. A graduate of Rutgers University, where her mother is a professor of African American history, Pasqual has built her life around education — first as a homeschooling mother of four, then as a teacher at a Catholic international school in Manila. This year, with her eldest child off to college and her youngest enrolled at the Charter School, she and her family returned to the Island full-time. Now teaching 9th and 10th grade English and serving as a high school learning facilitator, Pasqual is eager to bring her love of literature into the classroom while exploring the Island’s trails and beaches with her dogs: “For me, this is about both community and beauty — the chance to connect with students in meaningful ways, and to be rooted in a place that has always felt like home.”
Gabriel Braunstein grew up in Arlington, spending summers on the Vineyard, but his path to the Charter School took him far beyond the Island’s shores. Most recently, he served in the Peace Corps in the Eastern Caribbean, where he worked in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on an English literacy project in primary schools. “It was a privilege,” he says, recalling the years spent teaching children in grades 1 through 4. He brings that spirit of service and connection into his 5th grade social studies classroom. This fall, his students are launching a pen pal program with Barrouallie Anglican School in St. Vincent — the very place Braunstein once taught — exchanging letters to learn firsthand about life as a student in another part of the world. “I think it’s important to preserve the art of letter-writing,” he explains, “and it’s a way to help our kids see themselves as part of a global community.”
Alice Kyberg has always been a traveler at heart — whether by land, by sea, or through ideas. After earning her degree from UMass Amherst, she taught high school math, then philosophy and cognitive science at the university level, before life carried her in unexpected directions. With her husband, a sailor, and their children, Kyberg twice set off on extended voyages that took them from the Great Lakes to the Caribbean. For six months at a time, their sailboat became both home and classroom, as the family immersed themselves in island cultures, learning to cook with local ingredients, speak new languages, and see the world through perspectives far from their own. Now, after years of running a Vineyard tutoring center, Kyberg has returned to the classroom as a math specialist in the Charter School’s special education program. She supports students in high school math and beyond, and she is eager to dive into the International Baccalaureate math curriculum while also building deep relationships with her students. “I’m looking forward to really getting to know kids well,” she says, “and to making new friends among the adults too. And who knows — maybe one day I’ll be handpicked to go on a school trip abroad. I am, after all, still an avid traveler.”
Together, Richardson, Van Duuren, McCracken, Pasqual, Braunstein, and Kyberg embody the idea that learning is never confined to four walls. Their experiences stretch across continents, cultures, and callings — and now their stories are being woven into the fabric of the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School. For students, this means lessons rooted in the wider world, classrooms infused with empathy and perspective, and the chance to grow not only as learners but as global citizens.
Their arrival is also a reminder of how special this Island is: a place where children learn not only from textbooks, but from the lived experiences of mentors who have seen the world, embraced its cultures, and chosen to share those lessons here. For our students, it means wisdom that lasts far beyond graduation — and a daily reminder that knowledge, when shared with love, can change lives.
