Staff

Gina Felter
Principal

 

ginafelter@carrollk12.org 

Ms. Gina C. Felter has spent the 50 years of her life learning about and caring for our local, natural environments here in Maryland.  Growing up in Cockeysville in Baltimore County, Gina began to form her deep love of nature through the Girl Scouts of the USA program.  After graduating from Dulaney High School in 1990, Gina attended Virginia Tech to study Wildlife Science/Pre-Veterinary Medicine.  While there, she had opportunities to conduct authentic research in the fields of mammology and ornithology at Mountain Lake Biological Station in Southwest Virginia.  Although she loved learning about wild animal populations and how to preserve them, she decided to change her career path to one in which she could share what she had learned with others.  Gina returned to Maryland to attain her Master of Arts in Teaching from Towson University.

 

A position at Sykesville Middle School then began her 18 year tenure as an educator in Carroll County Public Schools.  While there she worked tirelessly to educate students about their local environment through the construction of The Living Laboratory, a double fish pond system with surrounding native habitat.  Ms. Felter was then given the opportunity to go to work at Carroll County Outdoor School where she helped transform curriculum to integrate the environmental issue investigation model of instruction.  After three and a half wonderful years at the Outdoor School, Ms. Felter transferred to Francis Scott Key High School where she worked to incorporate the EII model into more advanced, high school curricula.  Of special note are the Aquatic and Terrestrial Environmental Science courses that include not only hands-on, real-life environmental investigations, but a service-learning component as well.  At each of these three teaching experiences, Ms. Felter educated not only students, but staff members as well to attain MD Green School or MD Green Center status.

 

During those experiences, Ms. Felter also worked to attain her administrative certification from McDaniel College and worked as an Assistant Principal at both North Carroll and Manchester Valley High Schools.  During those years, she has provided unique professional development opportunities for her staff on effective environmental education and has worked with the NC Green Team, a club created by NC students to improve the local environment both in and around the school.  In May of 2013 North Carroll became one of the latest MD Green Schools under Ms. Felter’s direction and then received the United States Department of Education Green Ribbon recognition in 2014.  At Manchester Valley she also worked with a student-led group, the MV Enviro Club to continue to promote green initiatives as part of the MD Green School program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Throughout her life, Ms. Gina Felter has strove to learn more about and then to positively change the local environment through the education of others using creative, hands-on, authentic environmental learning experiences. She is looking forward to another exciting and smooth  school year.

Favorite Quote: "We get to be a ripple in the water..." -Indigo Girls