Staff

A woman performing a yoga pose while standing on a paddle board, which is floating on a body of water

Lisa Demro

Advisor / Lead Teacher

email: ldemro@montelloschools.org

school cell: (608) 369-4468

classroom: (608) 297-2126, x201

Ms. Demro is a Wisconsin native. She graduated from UW Whitewater with her Bachelor's in English Secondary Education in 2009 and went on to join TAGOS Leadership Academy in her second year of teaching, which gave her the passion for project-based learning and has influenced her teaching philosophy ever since. Ms. Demro then taught high school English at Brodhead High School from 2011 to 2020. She earned her Master's in Education through UW La Crosse in 2014. As part of her professional development over the years, she was selected as a Reynolds Journalism High School Institute Fellow with Arizona State University in 2014 and a PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs Fellow in 2018. In 2018, Ms. Demro attended the Greater Madison Writing Project Summer Institute, where she rediscovered her passion for alternative education and began taking steps to go gradeless in her classroom. She has continued to work with GMWP, co-facilitating a Rise Up and Write camp in 2019 and presenting at the Wisconsin Council of Teachers for English convention about her work with students using writing for advocacy. Since joining High Marq in 2020, Ms. Demro has added her license in US/World History, and she is currently working toward her Special Education license through UW Stevens Point.

Outside of the classroom, Ms. Demro is a certified personal trainer and registered yoga teacher. She is also Wilderness First Aid Certified through NOLS. She enjoys hiking and traveling, but spends most of her time with her two children.

Brad Horn

Advisor / Teacher

email: bhorn@montelloschools.org

school cell: (608) 369-4451

classroom: (608) 297-2621, x200

I'm basically a journalist who's infiltrated teaching. Why do I say that? Because I spent more than a decade working in the world of journalism and media, but started to feel pretty unfulfilled near the end. I'd always loved teaching even though I didn't like school, myself, and it dawned on me: I could be a teacher and bring journalism projects and real-world experiences into classrooms so that students could enjoy school more than I did. Problem solved!

As for the journalism stuff I was/am a photographer, cinematographer, writer, and radio producer who loves storytelling. My writing and visual work appeared in places like NPR.org, MediaStorm, The New York Times, AARP Bulletin Today, and in The Washington Post (where I worked as a staff video journalist until 2016 and produced the Post's first feature-length documentary film). My radio pieces aired in places including NPR's All Things Considered Weekend.

Those are the things I wanted to bring to the classroom. So in 2019 I got a masters in Secondary Education from UW-Madison and began teaching full-time. Since then I taught at an Expeditionary Learning school in Bend, Oregon, at Madison College, and now here at High Marq in Montello.

Once upon a (pre-family) time I spent my days hitchhiking and wandering through America's great wilderness. Now things are a lot different: I drive to the woods with my wife and two daughters, but the destination is the same: nature. We live in Madison. Before all that I managed to collect degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (bachelors) and Syracuse University (masters).

A selfie of a woman with shoulder-length brown hair and a knit cap, with rocks and foggy water in the background.

Tiffany Lodholz

Field Naturalist /
Student Services Coordinator

email: tlodholz@montelloschools.org

google voice (cell): (608) 492-2414

classroom: (608) 297-2126, x202

Tiffany Lodholz was born and raised in Wausau, WI. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Geography from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 2000 with minors in Environmental Earth Science, Geology, and Women's Studies. After graduating, she worked for 10 years at the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault as the Disabilities, Aging, and Rural Program Coordinator and the Senior Program Manager. In these roles she provided guidance on statewide policies and procedures, published articles and other resources, and provided education to a variety of professional audiences throughout the United States. Following her move to Marquette County, Tiffany helped to establish the Wisconsin Friends of John Muir and has served as the President since the organization's inception in 2013. She also worked as the Water Quality and Quantity Coordinator for Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network and the Grants Coordinator for Marquette County Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth before joining High Marq in 2017 as the Student Services Coordinator. In 2019 Tiffany expanded her role to become High Marq’s Field Naturalist. Her passion for placed-based, inquiry-focused education and helping students connect with and explore the outdoors is evident in our engaging weekly field experiences. In 2022, Tiffany received her Charter School Teaching license in Earth and Space Science and Geography to further her ability to support students in our school.


When she is not dreaming up ideas for Field Experiences, Tiffany can be found driving around the Country with her family as she works on her goal to visit all of the U.S. National Parks.