The Ash Creek Governing Board meets on the second Wednesday of each month in the Multi-Purpose Room on the west side of the campus.
Board Members:
Mrs. Victoria Brand, President
Victoria Brand has a Masters Degree in Elementary Education from Arizona State University. She recently retired from education administration in order to help run her family’s small business – Mustang Mall. She decided to run for the Ash Creek Board in order to support the staff and students of our community school. She works full time at the store, mostly in the back office. She is also Vice President of the Chiricahua Community Health Centers here in Cochise County where she works to support the organization and its mission to provide health for all. She is married to Jeff and has two children and one very special grandson. She enjoys her horses, dogs and chickens as well as cooking and reading.
Dr. Jessica Dilworth, Clerk
Even before I started kindergarten, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. In fact, one of my earliest memories was lining up my stuffed toys on the front lawn and pretending to teach them. I went immediately to college after high school and graduated from Buffalo State College with a degree in secondary education to teach English and Spanish. My first teaching job was in Nogales, Arizona. When I moved to Tucson, I got my Master’s Degree from the University of Arizona in teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and I worked in adult education and family literacy for Pima College.
When I came to the Sulfur Springs area to meet the Sandhill Cranes, I fell in love with Cochise County. I became the director of adult education for Cochise College and moved here. Then I got my Doctorate Degree in education from Capella University. Now I am retired from full-time work and do educational consulting for the National Center for Families Learning and the Bureau of Indian Education.
I have been on the Ash Creek School Board since 2012 and am very happy to be able to serve. My parents taught us early that it is important to volunteer and to always work to make the world a better place. I love Ash Creek School and boast to everyone I know that we are a small school that does big things and that all the students benefit from arts integration, agriculture studies, and a rigorous curriculum. I appreciate the teachers and staff who work hard and care so much about the students; and I extend my gratitude to the students and parents who make our school such a special place.
Ms. Pat Hill
We moved here in 1975 from northern Arizona. We were farming and ranching with four of our five children while they attended school in Elfrida. Then, in 1989 we opened a building supplies and batch plant, (another name for a concrete plant), that we operated for 30 years. These days I am attempting to get a plant business going; in addition to being a notary public, an Avon representative, and a school board member.
I enjoy gardening and doing yard work along with my animals. Evenings and in my spare time, I crochet afghans of my own design.
Jeanette O’Donnal
Is naturally curious, discerning, creative and helpful. Others perceive her as captivating, energetic, outgoing, daring and fearless in her approach to life, and spontaneously interactive with any new environment. Jeanette connects with others on an individual level.
With over five decades of public speaking, mentoring, life coaching, public service experience in the grass-roots community involvement, Jeanette’s views about education and leadership are creative and rather unique. Most importantly, they are real-life self-actualization of moral and ethical principles. This is the secret to her success. She uses proven techniques that elicit, induce, and promote Psycho-Synthesis.
Jeanette intentionally brings to the forefront of her interactions an abundance of wisdom by fusing symbiotic audience engagement and discussion of inspiring real-life stories. She knows that education is a dynamic everyday experience for everyone. It is about an ongoing self-awareness and an interactive enthusiasm for life.
She is a legitimate Mayan Shaman and is known as a “Self-Esteem” guru, often called “Psychopractor” by her clients, for they feel they have received a gift of “attitude” adjustment. Jeanette understands clearly the entanglement between quality of life and the mind/body connection for high self-value. Her bold yet charismatic outlook on life leaves others with a desire to change what they once thought might not be possible. To be present, aware and alive, in the now moment is important in life, because, as Jeanette puts it: “Life is truly a great adventure!”
Jeanette is a leader and an entrepreneur. She home schooled her seven children and became the Coordinator for Christian Liberty School Academy Illinois in Arizona. Prior to her professional public education efforts and in the midst of running her own Beauty/Barber business, Jeanette created “Sacred Knowledge Circle,” a nonprofit Personal Excellence group for aspiring professionals.
She quickly immersed herself with the ground-work and inception of Youth at Risk Program in Phoenix. She also inspired women to get off welfare and help resolve their self-esteem issues through a United Way Pilot Programs. She served as senior consultant and Certified Master Facilitator for Arizona Motivational Center in Phoenix, helping youth with sexual and drug abuse issues. With her gentle yet firm conversational coaching and delivery skills, she became a facilitator in various city, state, and federal educational agencies. She coached juveniles with court appointed programs and was also a motivational speaker at career orientation workshops for high school seniors. In 2002 Jeanette founded a Motivational and Healing Center in Payson, Arizona.
As an expert Cosmetologist and PHD (Professional Haircut Designer) for over 50 years in four states (Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Florida), Jeanette was inspired to write her first book. The Making of a Master was published in 2003, which anecdotes unique self-reflection client conversations and consultations. In 2012 she published her second book: The Feathered Serpent Speaks, life memoirs of a childhood in Guatemala and fascinating transformational experiences.
Jeanette moved to Nevada and established her motivational and consulting business “New Visions” and became the education committee Chair in the American Business Women Association, Colorado River Chapter, in charge of vocational and working readiness training. Later she went on to become an outreach educator and establishing three health HIV/AIDS education programs for Nevada Hispanic Services in Reno. Jeanette became a youth program facilitator at University Of Nevada, Reno. She went on to become a special commissioner and consultant to state Governor Miller on Hispanic community issues. She also served as commissioner in the board of advisors for: Commission on the Status of Women, Sierra Nevada Community Access Television, Reno Housing Authority, and Reno’s Child Abuse Task Force. Jeanette served as Vice-President under President Mike Moreno of Reno/Sparks Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. O’Donnal created Personal Excellence programs for the Hispanic community for Las Vegas YMCA and became a language instructor at Las Vegas Community College.
Back in Arizona she soon moved to the beautiful countryside in the south eastern high dessert to Sunizona in 2007 and bought her own Beauty/Barber business. She began offering Beginning Conversational Spanish classes and soon filled up her shop in the evenings. In 2015, Jeanette established a consulting business that helps others establish Personal Excellence as an ongoing part of their lifestyle. She continues to work with the best and brightest in the field of self-empowerment.
Deborah Koole
Born in Phoenix, I have lived in Arizona my entire life. I wanted to be a nurse since I was in the hospital at 4-years old, the nurses were so nice. Starting my journey in healthcare, my first job was in the laboratory at Good Samaritan Hospital. After marrying and having 2 boys, I began the path of becoming a nurse later in life. After graduation, I continued going to school, earning a Master of Science in Nursing and an MBA. This beautiful part of Southern Arizona was discovered while visiting a friend. Eventually we bought land and built a house. I am now retired and ready to serve my community as a member of the Ash Creek School Board.
Ash Creek School 