We Are Currently Hiring for 2020 Girls Residential Staff
Our girls residential team consists of godly women who are passionately committed to serving troubled or struggling teen girls in crisis. The Shepherd’s Hill Academy girls residential team provides safe around-the-clock care for your daughter’s daily needs, including her academic, emotional, physical and spiritual development.
Every Shepherd’s Hill Academy team member must meet all the employment requirements, including a thorough background and criminal history check as set forth by the state of Georgia. All residential staff members are required to be trained in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), First Aid, and Emergency Safety Intervention (ESI).
In addition, each member undergoes an intense 30-day training period. Assuring the greatest degree of care and attention in the industry, Shepherd’s Hill Academy uncompromisingly upholds a maximum 5:1 student to staff ratio. This means your teen daughter is not out of sight of a girls residential team member at any point during her stay in the Therapeutic Outdoor Program.
Haley Walker
Girls Wilderness Program Manager
Haley is currently enrolled at Toccoa Falls College in Toccoa Falls, GA, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Counseling Psychology. She has always had a passion for learning and applying new knowledge to every aspect of her life.
Haley coached a kid’s soccer team for two years, where she combined her love for children and her love of soccer. She really enjoyed forming relationships with the players, teaching them about the sport while instilling confidence, and having the chance to lead short weekly devotionals after practice. Haley was also a live-in nanny and the sole caregiver for three young girls whose dad worked as a contractor overseas. She has always loved children, so nannying comes very natural to her.
Haley is thrilled at the opportunity to work with the students at Shepherd’s Hill Academy because she remembers, appreciates, and loves the adolescent years. She respects that each student will enter our program with their own experiences, strengths, challenges, and personality, and is excited to help them learn how to use all of these things to live out the plan God has for their lives. She is also looking forward to guiding them as they learn and develop wonderful, new skills that they can apply to their lives outside of Shepherd’s Hill.
Haley lives in Toccoa, GA with her husband, Garrett, and their wonderful pets. She loves cooking, gardening, reading, sports, and frequenting farmer’s markets and antique stores with her husband and family.
Brazel Marquez
Brazel has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Menlo College in San Francisco, CA.
Brazel and her family are from the Los Angeles, CA area. Since 2015, Brazel has worked with youth as a Behavioral Therapist in the San Francisco, CA area.
She also coaches high school and college students in wrestling. It is Brazel’s desire to make an impact on teens that struggle with mental and behavioral health and to help them see there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Some of Brazel’s favorite things are coaching wrestling, working out, drawing, painting, hiking, and outdoor activities.
Britney Lamey
Britney attends Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, GA where she is pursuing an associate’s degree in Biology. She is doing well academically. Her first year in college she was on the Dean’s list and holds a 3.6 GPA.
Britney was a youth coordinator for two years at her home church, Beulah Missionary Baptist Church, in Miami, FL. Her mother died when she was six-years-old. She grew up in the church with her father and 11 siblings.
Today, she lives with her father and a few of her siblings. Britney says: “All my life, my heart lies with helping young individuals grow. I never had that while growing up. So, I want to make sure I am able to serve the youth of today and lead them down the right path and ensure they get the care that I didn’t when I was growing up. I have always been eager to share the love of God through my actions and that is something I genuinely want others to experience.”
In her spare time, Britney enjoys reading books that teach her life lessons. She loves singing, dancing and doing sports. She has a love for science and likes doing the research that goes with it.
Hope Cooper
Hope is in the process of pursuing a Middle Grades Education degree and minoring in Outdoor Leadership Education at Toccoa Falls College, in Toccoa Falls, GA.
She has always had a heart for people and their needs. Hope desires to show the love of Christ and help teens recognize their potential and purpose. She wants teens to know that not all hope is lost though we may face challenging and dark times in this life.
Hope has had several opportunities to work with youth. She is currently a youth leader as well as a small group leader at her church, where she gets to help them grow as a person and in their relationship with Christ. She had an awesome experience working for WinShape Camps in the summer of 2019. She found that summer challenging and a huge blessing to positively impact so many young lives, making Christ’s love known.
Hope grew up in a family of five with a loving mother, father, older sister, and younger brother. Family is so important to her and she thanks God for the one He has given her. She enjoys anything outdoors, whether it is mountain biking, hiking, swimming, fishing, kayaking, etc. She enjoys spending time with people, trying new things, and traveling! She also plays the ukulele and loves participating in sports.
Janelle Thompson
Janelle graduated from Toccoa Falls College in Toccoa Falls, GA with a bachelor’s degree in Cross-Cultural Business Administration and a minor in Marketing.
While growing up, Janelle gained nearly 10 years of experience working with youth by volunteering in her church nursery and summer VBS programs. She also served as a summer camp counselor at a camp for underprivileged and impoverished children in Canada, as well as leading and organizing Sports’ Camps in communities in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for two summers. Her college business internship took her to Bandung, Indonesia where she spent almost four months working in a local coffee shop and volunteering at a faith-based orphanage.
After previously working with middle school-aged students and having loved it, Janelle is now very excited about the opportunity to work closely alongside an older group of girls. She believes that these years in a student’s life are pivotal and have a great impact on their current and future character development. Deep and meaningful relationships are also very important to Janelle as she firmly believes that good friends have profound effects on one’s social and spiritual life.
Janelle played several sports in high school, and she enjoys anything that involves either a ball or being outside. She also enjoys hiking in the mountains, spontaneous trips, and traveling.
Madeline Kiser
Madeline currently attends North Georgia Technical College at both the Currahee campus in Toccoa and the campus in Clarkesville, GA, and is majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Nursing.
She has served our youth by helping with VBS at her church for several years. She has also been involved with an equine ministry where she worked with young girls.
Serving today’s teens is such a passion of Madeline’s. She knows how hard life can get at such a vulnerable age; but with help, these kids will be able to conquer anything life throws at them. She considers it such a privilege to watch kids grow, learn, and become the best version of themselves.
Madeline grew up in a family of five with her mother, father, and two older brothers. Her family is her rock and has given her the best foundation anyone could ask for. She claims if she is not at work or home, you can find her in the barn. Horses are a huge part of her life, and besides her family, they are one of the sole reasons for keeping her out of trouble when she was growing up.
