Our excellent faculty forms the foundation of our rich joyful Pacem community. Our teachers are all experts in their subject areas. They are dedicated professionals who show strong commitment to our mission and communicate warmly and effectively with students, parents, and colleagues.
Jenni Belotserkovsky
Language Arts and Literature, Study Skills, Student Directed Project
Jenni Belotserkovsky was born to Ukrainian/Russian immigrants in Italy. She received her diploma in graphic design in Munich, Germany, volunteered in Botswana as a speech therapy intern, and traveled New Zealand before settling in Vermont, USA. Jenni has a B.A. in Psychology and Nutrition with a focus on Child Development and is a certified teacher. She has worked as an educator for the past nine years. She has experience working with students K through adults in public schools, private schools, and students in the prison system.
Jenni enjoys creating student-centered curricula and believes that students learn best when their interests are interwoven in lessons. Jenni was awarded a fellowship with the Institute of Art in Washington D.C. in The Power of Art: Pathways to Critical Thinking and Social-Emotional Learning. She incorporates her learning at the Institute in her curricula to teach people holistically.
Jenni is a contributing comic artist for The Montpelier Bridge, she also teaches ceramics and art classes at the Waterbury MakerSphere and is an avid reader. She lives with her family, dog, and chickens in Plainfield, Vermont. Her website is https://www.jennibeeart.com
Noa Benamotz
Middle School Math
Noa Benamotz has been working as a private learning counselor for decades, and joined the Pacem faculty in the Fall of 2025. Her Masters Degree in Education and Human Development focused on the art and (cognitive) science of mathematical invention, discovery, thinking, learning, and teaching. Caring as much about the hearts of her students as about their minds, Noa customizes her teaching style to help transform math anxiety and mystery into curiosity and confidence, one whole person at a time.
Bonnie Hooper
Studio Art
Bonnie is a certified art teacher and has taught art in both private and public schools, as well as for individual students out of her own studio. She was a board member of the now defunct Vermont Alliance for Arts Educators. She is also a painter and a bookmaker and regularly exhibits with the Vermont Book Arts Guild. She loves teaching art and bringing out the creative potential of her students. She believes strongly in creating a community of learners that support each other in taking risks.
She grew up in a family heavily involved with the performing arts, and has also taught drama and dance.
An avid outdoors person, Bonnie pursued a M.S. in Environmental Studies at Antioch New England Graduate School. She enjoys spending time gardening, hiking, and camping, and really appreciates Pacem’s focus on the Environment.
Bonnie has a B.A. from Smith College in Comparative Literature with a focus on French literature. She has always had an interest in learning about other cultures. She has taught English through bookmaking to newly settled Americans, as well as led conversation groups, and cooking and gardening classes. As a leader of the most culturally diverse community garden in Burlington, she has learned to create community amongst a group of diverse people. She has been a speaker at several conferences on issues of food access and diversity.
Bonnie lives in Burlington with her husband, two children and four chickens.
Lexi Shear
Director, High School Science, Math Tutorial
Lexi has many years of experience teaching science in public and exceptional private high schools and believes that that the most powerful learning experiences happen when students are allowed to explore their own observations, ideas, and beliefs in a community of committed learners. She is excited to be part of such a community at Pacem. Lexi has leadership experience as a member of the Board of Directors of the Green Mountain Club, as the founder and organizer of the Green Mountain Club’s Young Adventurer’s Club, and as a project associate for the Trust for Public Land. She wrote Nature Guide to Vermont’s Long Trail and has journeyed extensively in the wilderness. Her adventures have included thru-hikes of the Pacific Crest Trail, the Long Trail, the John Muir Trail, and the South Downs Way.
Lexi believes passionately that, through education and personal exploration, humanity can create a more sustainable relationship with the environment. To this end, she has taught hundreds of students in traditional classrooms and wilderness environments, has studied biological conservation, and has worked as a conservation ecologist. Lexi’s scientific curiosity, love of teenagers, passion for the wilderness, and commitment to sustainability all help her students to flourish, whether they be under a roof, a forest canopy, or the night sky.
Lexi has an undergraduate degree with honors in biology from Harvard College, and a Master’s degree in botany from the University of Vermont where she was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa society.
Aaron Starmer
High School Language Arts and Literature
Aaron Starmer is a writer, speaker, and teacher who lives in Waterbury, where he enjoys hiking, skiing, and exploring the outdoors with his wife and two children. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in English from Drew University and a Master of Art in Cinema Studies from New York University, he worked for over a decade as an editor for a travel bookseller and as an operations director for an African safari company. He eventually transitioned to writing full time, contributing to numerous travel guidebooks and authoring sixteen novels for young readers, including The Riverman trilogy, the Locker 37 series, and the upcoming You Are Now Old Enough to Hear This. His young adult novel, Spontaneous, was adapted into an acclaimed 2020 film from Paramount Pictures. His books have been translated into multiple foreign languages and have appeared on best of the year lists from Time magazine, The Wall Street Journal, New York Public Library, YALSA, Bank Street College of Education, Chicago Public Library and School Library Journal. He has tutored and run workshops for the Fresh Air Fund in New York City, has taught English at Mount Mansfield Ski Academy, and has given dozens of presentations on writing at schools and conferences throughout the country. He is now thrilled to work with the students at Pacem on writing, reading, and appreciating arts and literature.
Paul Wallich
Computer Science, Math Tutorial, Student Directed Projects
Paul has been writing about science and technology for general and technical audiences for more than 30 years. He spent 8 years as an editor at Scientific American, and his work has also appeared in Discover, the New York Times Magazine and the Huffington Post. He has a BA physics from Yale University.
For the past 7 years he has volunteered in the Four Winds nature education program at UES. He has also taught programming, robotics and 3D-printing workshops in Montpelier. He believes that understanding scientific methods for thinking about the world around us is crucial for young (and older) people who want to make a positive difference in our culture.
During the past decade, his writing has focused mostly on technological advances that have made it – for better or worse – relatively easy for non-engineers to build their own mobile robots, drones, laser engravers, 3D printers and various internet-enabled devices from readily available parts. Some of those widgets may even be useful, but all of them have helped him organize his thoughts and priorities.
Rebecca Yahm
Culture, History, and Peace Studies; Middle School Langauge Arts and Literature; Interdisciplinary Student-Directed Projects; Homeschool Support
Rebecca’s long-standing commitment to alternative education began at Swarthmore College, where she developed a passion for environmental education and progressive educational philosophy. During her college years, she was involved in consensus-building and group facilitation programs, was trained to do community mediation, and received a grant to do a semester-long service project in Adirondack environmental education. She also worked at the Farm and Wilderness Summer Camps in Plymouth, VT. Rebecca graduated with distinction in 1994 and has been living in Vermont since 1995.
Rebecca continued to pursue her professional interests at Antioch New England Graduate School, receiving a M.Ed. with a focus on integrated curriculum and environmental education. She taught for five years in public and private schools, where she focused on group-building and conflict resolution in the classroom and was known for her creative curriculum ideas.
In the summer of 2003, Rebecca began Open Path Homeschooling Resources to bring her commitment to educational alternatives to the homeschool community. Since then, she has designed and taught varied programs for children and teens, including innovative thematic and project-based classes. Rebecca has worked with hundreds of homeschool families, providing year-end assessments and individualized tutoring and curriculum consulting as well as her classes and some parent workshops. She is well respected in Central Vermont for the support and resources she provides. She has been involved with Pacem since the very beginning.
Rebecca’s other interests include organic gardening, hiking, backcountry skiing, weaving, and reading. She lives in Plainfield with her family and homeschools her own young daughter. She sees education, particularly place-based and project-based learning, as the best way for her to use her strengths to help create a more peaceful, just, and sustainable culture.
Nick Zandstra
Middle School Science
Nick has been a builder, sawyer, small scale logger, and teacher for the past 24 years. His professional teacher training was in middle school science and he has been using middle school math and science in his professional work for over 20 years. He has been teaching classes at Yestermorrow Design Build School for 21 years and presenting at the Common Ground Fair in Maine for almost as long. He enjoys working with motivated learners of all ages and he loves teaching people about connections in the world around them. He lives with his family in Topsham, Vermont and Newbury, Vermont on two wooded properties they actively use for work and play.
The Staff of the New England Language Academy
Spanish
Pacem is collaborating with the staff of the New England Language Academy to offer Spanish instruction