Our Team
At each location, our staff includes a Program Director, Residential Life Director, Teachers and Resident Assistants (RAs). Our Program and Res Life Directors lead a strong team and bring vast experience in all-girls, camp and residential environments. The Program Director oversees all aspects of the camp, and the Res Life Director specifically tends to the residential experience of the girls.
Our classes are taught by smart, hands-on teachers who are advanced graduate students and young professionals. They are endlessly enthusiastic about their topics, always livening the classroom with fresh ways of thinking and teaching. Our energetic RAs organize a variety of afternoon and evening activities. Each RA oversees 6-8 girls in her hall group, making sure they are doing well and enjoying themselves.
Our all-female staff lives in the dorms and is always available to the students. Our on-staff EMT is available for any medical need. Campus safety provides 24-hour security.
Please read more about the founder and our goals in About Us.
Beth Fauerbach, Program Director (Bryn Mawr)
We are thrilled that Beth is joining us once again as Program Director! She has been involved in summer camps her whole life – starting out as a young camper, moving into counselor positions as a teenager, and stepping into the Director role at Blue Tree. Before moving to New York City, she spent five years as the Education Director at Playhouse Merced in California. There, she spearheaded the summer drama program. She holds her BA in Dance, and spends her year teaching, directing and choreographing in NYC.
Nancy Noto, Program Director (Smith)
We are also so excited to have Nancy step into the Director role this summer! She joined us last year as our acting teacher, but also has great experience in and a love for the camp environment in general. She has spent many summers working with camps, and, as a Spielberg Fellowship recipient, she trained specifically to conduct theater workshops in a residential program environment. Nancy earned her BFA in Drama from NYU and continues to act on both coasts. Her home base is NYC.
Jessie Male, Writing Instructor
Jessie Male is a writer, native New Yorker, and incredibly loud laugher. She is an MFA candidate at Hunter College, where she is studying nonfiction. Jessie is currently working on a manuscript and has performed excerpts at venues throughout the city. She is the recipient of a 2011 Edward Albee Fellowship, to write in Montauk. She is also a modern dancer, and wrote several articles for national dance publications. Jessie teaches writing at Hunter and has worked at summer programs similar to BlueTree. She is very excited to be on staff this summer and is looking forward to meeting the students!
Cara Lavallee, Dance Instructor
Cara Lavallee is a native of New Hampshire and graduated cum laude from William Smith College in Geneva, NY with a B.A. in Dance. In May 2010 she received her Masters of Education in Dance from Temple University. She is currently an adjunct faculty member for the dance department at Temple, teaching an undergraduate course about how movement expresses human identity and difference. Cara loves working with students of all ages and also teaches grades K-12 at a private dance academy. She has choreographed several competitive dance routines in genres such as hip-hop, jazz, tap & contemporary, and is very excited to work with the ladies at Blue Tree!
Sofya Mirvis, Story Arts and Public Art Instructor
Sofya is a graduate student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She's always drawing, painting, and working on outside art projects and installations! She is also a freelance illustrator, and has taught in schools, camps, and art centers for many years. This is her second summer at Blue Tree, and she cannot wait to meet new faces and to reunite with familiar faces. She was so impressed with the amazing job her girls did last year and she's thrilled to come back! Her hobbies include travel, yoga and riding her bike around Philadephia, her favorite city! She has many new things in store for the summer, and she's always excited to see creative minds at work.
Chloe Boxer, Writing and Fashion Instructor
Chloë is so excited to be teaching Creative Writing and Fashion Remix at Blue Tree this year. She was the assistant Fashion ReMix teacher at Bryn Mawr last summer and looks forward to returning to teach classes in her two favorite disciplines. She attended Vassar College as an English and French double major and where she also worked as a costume atelier. She has received both gold and silver national Scholastic Art and Writing awards for her short stories and was accepted to present her original historic costume research this summer at the Costume Society of America symposium. The camp environment is near and dear to her heart as she spent five summers at an all-girls camp in addition to numerous creative writing camps and workshops.
Allison Moy Hayhurst, Acting Instructor
Allison Moy Hayhurst comes from a family of educators and loves to share her knowledge of drama. She is a young theatre professional living in New York. She is a graduate of The University of Alabama, where she earned her BA in Theatre. While in college, Allison was honored to be the president of Alpha Psi Omega, the theatre honors society, where she lead workshops and organized classes. She taught theatre for two years at a Tuscaloosa high school. Since graduating, Allison has acted at theatres in New York and around the country. In addition to being an actor Allison has an extensive costume design background and is an avid quilter. She's very excited to bring her experience and enthusiasm for acting to Blue Tree!
Kerri, Acting Instructor
Kerri is super excited to join Blue Tree for the first time this summer! As an MFA Theatre Performance Candidate at the University of Central Florida, Kerri has been performing in musicals, plays and participating in numerous workshops to hone her craft. Most recently, she finished an apprenticeship at Actor's Theatre of Louisville where she was featured in several productions. When she's off the stage, Kerri loves cooking, crafting and being outdoors. As a life long camper, Kerri truly understands the vital role camp plays in the life of young women and is honored to be a part of that tradition.
Trish Borrell, Residential Advisor
Trish is "soo soo excited" to be joining Blue Tree again this summer! She graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in May with a BA in History and Government. Having had YEARS of experience working with kids in both academic and social environments, she spent last summer at Blue Tree's Bryn Mawr campus, absolutely thriving off the energy and ethusiasm of our girls! is currently working as an AmeriCorps volunteer at John Bartram High School's Student Success Center in SouthWest Philadelphia, getting students ready for their future colleges and careers. She loves being in the middle of big crowds, being outdoors, swimming, biking, all kinds of sports, journaling, listening and reading; but she especially loves it when she can connect with girls who are as talented, bright, and just amazing, as the girls at Blue Tree!
Rachelle Haynik, Residential Advisor
This summer will be Rachelle's second as an RA at Bryn Mawr, and she's super excited to return! Rachelle studies Political Science and Arabic at the University of Pittsburgh. She also creates short films for a student television station and plays trumpet in the band. She loves to read, learn new languages, and most of all, bake. Rachelle has spent the last four months in London, England, and says that what she missed most about the US was pancakes!
Chelsea Werlinsky, Residential Advisor
Chelsea was a key part of our team last summer and is very excited to be coming back to Blue Tree! She is currently a senior at Penn State majoring in Human Development and Family Studies and plan on graduating in December 2011. She enjoys reading, playing and listening to music, and spending time with her friends and family. She has a very bubbly personality and always enjoys meeting new people! She had such a great time at Blue Tree last year and she's looking forward to what this summer will bring!
Jovi Phillips, Residential Advisor
Jovi is currently finishing up her senior year at Ursinus College in Collegeville, PA. At Ursinus she is a member of the senior committee and gospel choir. She is also a resident advisor for first year students wherein she plans and coordinates programs and helps residents acclimate to the college experience. She enjoys taking photos and listening to music in her free time. This will be her second summer working at Blue Tree and she is very excited to be back!
Please check back this Spring for more staff bios. Many teachers and RAs return to Blue Tree summer after summer, and we will be updating this section in the months before camp opens.
If you are interested in being part of our summer staff, email " This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ."