Grace Gordon is a lead teacher for the Explorers Program at Columbus Academy, having originally served as a three-year-old associate and with our after-school program during the 2018-19 school year. She also was previously team leader for the Explorers from 2020-24. Prior to serving as a substitute teacher on campus from 2010-14, Grace was the program facilitator, curriculum coordinator and summer camp director for Durango Nature Studies in Durango, Col., where she designed and taught curricula in several different areas, trained teachers and volunteers, and managed social-media outreach. A magna cum laude graduate in geography and environmental science from Miami University, Grace has also spent time as a kindergarten teacher at Ridge and Valley Charter School in Blairstown, N.J., and was the founder and lead instructor of the Spring Valley Nature Studies Camp in nearby Granville, Ohio. In 2023, Grace was the recipient of the Environmental Education Council of Ohio's Outstanding Environmental Educator in formal education. Grace has a unique connection to Academy, as her great-great-grandfather Foster Copeland was one of the founders of CA and the school’s first board president. In addition, Grace’s dad and uncle are both alumni of Academy from the 1960s.
Grace’s favorite thing about Columbus Academy
“I love being part of a community that is a model of kindness and respect toward all people.”
Little-known fact
“I helped to author a grant for half-a-million dollars to preserve 45 acres of land in Granville, Ohio, and now it is a nature preserve called Spring Valley Nature Preserve. I also started a small summer camp on the same land several years later.”
Favorite food
Watermelon
Grace was featured in the Spring 2020 issue of our school magazine.
- B.A. Miami University , Geography and Environmental Science
- M.Ed. Ashland University , 21st Century Skills
