This year, Harker bids farewell to four staff members: Library Director Lauri Vaughan, Speech and Debate teacher Scott Odekirk, Computer Science teacher Susan King and Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Brian Davis. Each of these members has left a lasting legacy on the community through their years of dedicated service. As they prepare to move forward, we celebrate their contributions and efforts to create supportive learning environments. 

Lauri Vaughan, Library Director

I’ve always been a good reader, but I think of myself as an information evangelist. Information should be free and pushed around. It should be given to as many people as possible, and people should understand the value of information and the power it has. I just think this stuff is so imaginative. It’s not just about books, it’s the free sharing of resources. Things that are like this are really of substance and this is going to increase somebody’s quality of life — the library is a big part of that.

When I step back and think about Harker, I think that this is an amazing group of students and adults. We have such dedicated students who want to learn and it’s great being able to teach them. But it goes the other way, too. I think that there’s definitely something to recognize about these individual teachers. There’s something about working in a group of so many amazing adults. The teachers here are some of the most just really gifted people in their disciplines. We’ve got some real magic going on. 

One thing that I’m exploring is actually working as a professional researcher. I started working with my friend who’s written several nonfiction books, and I know that could be an opportunity. I feel like I guide so many people through research but I would love to dive in myself to any number of research topics that I think are really interesting, so I’ll see what comes of that.

Scott Odekirk, Speech and Debate teacher

I really like persuasion and I’m really good at it, so it’s fun to teach it and make it the center of my life. The more I was in education, the more I liked mentorship and the more I liked leadership. So, I became motivated more by the teaching part of it than I did by the subject matter. When I had my daughter, I realized that it came full circle for me that this whole project of education was really about being a dad. I just didn’t have a great role model for that in my life, so I didn’t learn that what I was really doing the whole time was just trying to be a dad. 

I’ve always been about living in a way that’s true to my values and there’s no amount of material wealth or profit for me that has ever sacrificed my values. The best thing for me is to spend time with my kids and support them. I now get to build a family that I never had. It’s easy for me to stop this thing I’ve been doing because I can see clearly in my mind that my role as a full-time parent for my two kids is even more in line with my values.

I want to be remembered as a man. I want them to think, “Hey, here’s this man and he definitely was a man. He’s a straight white guy, but he also has feelings and sensitivity. He believes in empowering women and thinking about people that don’t have the same experience.” 

Sometimes we have a notion in this society that a man is a selfish person who achieves the most he can, and that the way he shows love to people is by sharing that success with other people. I hope people can remember me and say ‘No, a man can actually say ‘I love you’ or that he’s sad.’ A man can be nurturing. A man can learn how to bake bread. A man can be empathetic. There’s nothing gender-essentialist about sharing your feelings — anybody can.

Susan King, Computer Science teacher

I wanted to be a teacher because I loved being a programmer, and the people that I was surrounded by were such interesting people. The stereotype was geeky nerdy people sitting in a cubicle just staring at a computer, and I didn’t find that to be the case at all. I wanted to expose students to the possibility that there’s something out there as a career that isn’t the stereotype that was being shown on TV. That’s why I went into teaching. 

When I was in high school and college, I didn’t know anybody who was happy over 50 years of age. They all seemed miserable. I am now about to turn 72 years old, and this has been one of the happiest stages of my life. I will give a great deal of that credit to students who have shown me a lot of compassion, kindness and grace. I just want students to know that life could be really great past 50 years of age.

[My husband and I] are going to move to Montana and I want to move while we’re still physically strong enough and sharp enough that a move can be done on our terms. I love the mountains, the snow in winter, the four seasons and the landscape. It just speaks to me. I’ve spent most of my adult life outside of Montana, so I’m happy to go back.

I have tremendous gratitude for the Harker community, my peers, the administration and especially the students. They’ve made my life rich beyond any treasures.

Brian Davis, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

I grew up in Philadelphia, and I was a straight-A student all my life. But I still recognize even with that, I still was at a disadvantage, and I just excelled in my capacity. As I started meeting people from different places when studying legal systems in different countries, I recognized that there are policies, practices and procedures that have disadvantaged people in some ways and advantaged others. 

I felt like I wanted to be a part of working toward creating equity because, even though I took the most advantage out of my experience in Philadelphia, that we had less resources, less teaching staff and less counselors. So, it felt like a no-brainer, and I had a lot of mentors throughout my life who were really involved in this work as well. They made a huge impact on my life and I wanted to have that same impact on others.

I love how engaged people at Harker are with their own goals. Students are really intelligent here in every way possible. Not just academically intelligent, but also emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent. I always see people on campus showing care for another person and it’s such a vibrant space. This just feels like a place like when I wake up, I can’t wait to get to work because there’s good energy. That’s not only reflected with students but also with faculty and staff. I think it’s a great place to really bloom into your fullest potential.

Me leaving Harker is not a reflection of anything except positivity, growth, and belief in myself. An opportunity came up, and it was an opportunity I couldn’t say no to. Obviously, it was a tough decision, especially when you love the place that you work and you have so much joy where you are. I think wherever you are in life, you should always assess where you are, recognize the goals that you have for yourself and ultimately make what sometimes might be a tough decision. But those decisions will allow you to grow as a professional in your career and also challenge you in different ways.