ADMINISTRATION

Amber Edelman was born and raised a military child. After her father finally retired, they settled here in Utah. She attended Weber State University, where she received her bachelor's degree in respiratory therapy. Shortly after graduating she met her husband, Kurtis. He was active-duty Army. She decided to follow him around the United States and begin a family. Together they have 3 children, Kayla, Turner, and Allie, and have recently adopted a daughter named Milena from Colombia. 

While her husband was stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, Amber served in the Family Readiness Group. There she led other wives and united them to support the local troops. She was also a part of the Comfort Team where she assisted other wives when there was trauma in their homes. During this time, Amber supported her husband while he was deployed to Iraq for 18 months. Two weeks before his homecoming, he was hit by an IED (roadside bomb) and suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. Amber was told that her husband would not ever be able to perform basic functions, drive a car, or even hold a basic conversation. This began the intensive road to recovery for him. Amber was determined to learn all she could to assist him in his recovery. They relocated back to Utah where she found great passion helping her husband to learn how to do basic things again. After many years he has seen great success in his recovery and is even able to drive a car again. When meeting Kurtis today, many people are not even aware of his injury. His recovery has exceeded the expectations of all his health-care providers.  

Amber was selected as the Utah Elizabeth Dole Fellow for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, which is an organization that empowers, supports, and honors our nation’s military caregivers.  She served on many boards during her three-year term as the Utah Dole Fellow. She assisted military families, wounded warriors, and primarily the caregivers of our nation’s wounded soldiers. She sat at round-table discussions with the U.S. Speaker of the House, the Secretary of the Department of Veteran Affairs, and many other prominent congressmen. Together they worked to identify the needs of caregivers and created the Caregiver Program within the Veteran Affairs system. Amber visited the White House and also rallied on Capitol Hill in DC many times in an effort to provide support and awareness for caregivers of all war eras. Amber has also worked here in the state of Utah with Congressman Rob Bishop and our governor to bring awareness to the silent heroes supporting our nation's wounded soldiers. She’s currently an alumni Dole Fellow.

As Amber’s children reached school age, she was adamant they get the best education possible. She began looking for a place which provided a vision of excellence in education and she found Promontory School of Expeditionary Learning. She quickly put her kids in the lottery, luckily all of them were accepted, and her children started the very first year Promontory opened its doors. Amber volunteered a lot in her children’s classrooms and was eventually offered a job at the school. She worked in many different capacities within the school, but eventually landed in the special education department. There she quickly became the autism behavior specialist. She found that a lot of the skills she had learned assisting her husband in his recovery were applicable within the special education world.  After many colleagues commented on her gifted ability to work with children with special needs, she went back to school to become a board-certified behavior analyst. After many years working at Promontory, she left for the next step in her career. She currently writes behavior plans for children with behavior needs, and helps oversee their progress.

Although her children no longer attend Promontory, Amber’s love for Promontory remains strong. She loves the values and the mission and is excited to be back at Promontory as a member of the governing board.  She looks forward to the opportunity to give back to the school and to provide a unique perspective.

Our new Instructional Coach! Janni graduated from Box Elder High School and received 2 bachelor's degrees from Utah State University. Janni is a founding teacher here at Promontory. She moved back east for a few years where she taught preschool and directed the children's choirs at Indiana State University. After moving back to Utah, she worked as a Beverly Taylor Sorensen Music teacher at Three Mile Creek. From there she spent 5 years at ACYI where she taught 6th grade science, General Music, 7th grade Speech, and Social Studies. During this time she worked towards her masters degree and completed her instructional coaching endorsement through SUU. Janni is excited to be back at Promontory! She brings a lot of enthusiasm and a love of learning to the table.

Ms. Emily is proud to serve as Promontory’s Assistant Director. With over a decade of diverse experience in youth development, she has excelled in roles such as treatment coordinator and student support facilitator, in addition to school social worker. Her expertise has resulted in successful implementation of evidence-based strategies to enhance student well-being and performance. One of her strengths includes the ability to lead multidisciplinary teams and foster collaborative relationships with families and community stakeholders. Ms. Emily has a bachelor's degree from Utah State University in Health Education & Promotion, with an emphasis in health sciences. Driven by her experiences in the field, Ms. Emily earned her Master of Social Work degree, where she gained hands-on experience in community engagement, policy analysis, program development and evaluation, grant writing, therapeutic intervention, and more. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), and previously worked as Promontory’s school social worker for three years. Ms. Emily serves as a community partner with the Transforming Communities Institute, and was formerly a member of the editorial board for the Transforming Communities Journal. Emily also teaches for her alma mater, the Department of Social Work at Utah State University. 

Emily leads with empathy and focuses on creating a supportive environment where students and teachers feel encouraged and capable. She aims not only to support students in meeting academic goals, but also to help them develop confidence and practical skills that extend beyond the classroom. Emily maintains high expectations of her students because she believes all individuals are capable of growth and success. Emily truly exemplifies our motto of “We are crew, not passengers,” and works diligently to help all students succeed.

Teresa Lee graduated Summa Cum Laude from Utah State University with degrees in Special Education and Elementary Education. Since Promontory’s early days, she has been deeply involved in the school community.

Teresa discovered Expeditionary Learning as a student teacher in Lynette Reeder’s crew while taking a “Teaching Social Studies” class at USU taught by Bryce Passey. Those experiences sparked her passion for Expeditionary Learning and Promontory’s mission and “We are Crew, Not Passengers” culture. She believes all students can be successful when they have the right tools and are empowered to be leaders of their own learning.

One of the highlights of her career was presenting at the 2016 Expeditionary Learning National Conference in Detroit, where she shared her passion and strategies for empowering struggling learners to become independent leaders of their own learning. She loves working with children of all abilities and their teachers to help set and reach challenging goals.

Outside of school, Teresa enjoys exploring the outdoors with her husband and four kids. She loves fishing, playing games, reading, and preparing delicious and nutritious meals for her family.

Promontory legend has it that Mrs. Lee, the school’s boldest party fowl, brought a live rooster to the faculty white-elephant gift exchange, proving she can handle a few ruffled feathers.