Lisa Gould has dedicated the last 24 years to nurturing and growing young artists at the Rectory School. She enjoys sharing her love for art, photography, and ceramics with her students and celebrating their achievements, great and small! A consummate student herself, Lisa attends ceramics, photography, and printmaking classes at the Castle Hill Center for the Arts in Truro, MA, during the summer months and incorporates what she learns into her classes. Outside of Rectory, she pursues her other passions, horseback riding and going on grand adventures with her family!

 

Robert Oakes is an author, teacher, storyteller, and performing songwriter. He has written three books, The Ghostly Tales of the Berkshires (2023), Ghosts of Northwestern New Jersey (2022), and Ghosts of the Berkshires (2020), all published by Arcadia Publishing. He has also released numerous recordings of original songs. Since 2010, Robert has led immersive ghost storytelling experiences at historic locations in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, including Ventfort Hall and Edith Wharton's The Mount. He has also given talks and readings, and led a writing workshop at Arrowhead, home of Herman Melville. He has appeared on Syfy’s Ghost Hunters, Jeff Belanger’s New England Legends series on PBS, and The Apple Seed show on BYUradio and has been featured in The Boston Globe, The Berkshire Eagle, and numerous other media outlets. Robert has written and produced media for AAA, Canyon Ranch, and a number of other organizations and performs as part of the folk music duo Oakes and Smith. Robert earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Montclair State University in Upper Montclair, NJ, where he was awarded the English department’s prestigious Moe McGee Scholarship and earned his master’s degree from the Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English in Middlebury, VT. Robert has taught elementary, middle, and high school English, as well as adult workshops, and currently serves as associate director of communications at Rectory School in Pomfret, CT.