Dee Hudson is the Director of Testing and Section 504 for North Lamar ISD.  The campuses she serves directly are North Lamar High School and Parker Elementary.  She has been in education for over 21 years.  She was the Stone Middle School Principal from March 2019 to May 2022. Prior to becoming principal, she was a special education inclusion teacher at Stone Middle School and formerly an assistant principal in her last district. She also taught special education for 12 years.  

Krista Gillen

kgillen@northlamar.net

Krista Gillen is the Elementary ELAR Instructional Coach for North Lamar ISD. She is starting her 18th year in Education, 3rd year in Instructional Coaching, and her 1st year at North Lamar. She has her Bachelor Degree in Elementary Education (Alabama State University ‘00).

During her time in the classroom room, she has taught a variety of grades and contents. She has taught 2nd and 3rd grade, 4th grade Math and Science, 5th grade Math and Science, and 5th grade ELAR. Krista has also served as a Language Coach where she worked to build teacher capacity and impact student achievement. Her goal as an Instructional Coach is to build relationships with all staff members in order to build capacity and drive instruction. 

 

Krista has been married to her husband Rodney for 24 year. They have two wonderful daughters- Ashley and Alyssa. Ashley is studying to be a doctor at The University of Texas A&M Medical School. Alyssa attends The University of Texas A&M at Texarkana where she plays Softball and is studying to become a High School History teacher. 

During her free time, Krista is most likely watching Alyssa play softball or visiting Ashley in AggieLand. She also enjoys watching sports, going to the movies, traveling, reading, and walking in the evenings. She is excited to be joining the North Lamar team!

Ella McLaughlin

emclaughlin@northlamar.net

Ella McLaughlin grew up on a farm in Kansas, the youngest of five daughters. In 1986 she graduated from Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas with a Bachelor of Arts in Math Education.  She began her teaching career that fall at Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kansas.  Five years later, her and her husband moved to Hutchinson, Kansas, where she taught at Hutchinson High School for two years.  From 1993 – 2003 she took a break from full time teaching to raise three sons, Adam, Trent and Nate.  In 1997 she completed a Master’s in Education Counseling degree from Wichita State University.

In 2003 she returned to teaching full time at Hutchinson High School, where she remained until 2014. During that time, she completed a Master’s in Teaching degree from Friends University, Wichita, Kansas. In 2014 she moved to Paris, Texas to be with her husband, John.  They had a long distance marriage for five years before she moved.  She began her Texas teaching career at Paris High School. In 2016 she came to North Lamar. 

During her teaching tenure, she taught math courses ranging from General Math to College Algebra.  She taught regular as well as honors classes.  She enjoyed the relationships she built with her students and the ongoing challenge to improve her teaching to reach more students.

In 2017 she was hired as the Math Instructional Coach for North Lamar ISD.  She has enjoyed shifting her focus from teaching students to helping other teachers become better at their craft. The best part of the job has been developing relationships with other math teachers in the district and seeing the level of commitment and love they have for their students.

In her spare time she enjoys flower gardening, reading, and spending time with her husband at their home in Powderly.  Her sons are now grown and live in other states.  However, John has two sons, Eric and Michael who have families in the area.  They enjoy spending time with them and especially with their grandchildren, Owen and Mia who visit them often.

Mark Russell

mrussell@northlamar.net

Mark Russell graduated from North Lamar as an honor graduate in 1993.  He then went to McMurry University and graduated Summa Cum Laude with Honors in English and theater and was named Outstanding English Graduate and earned three writing scholarships while attending undergraduate school.. He continued his studies at Texas A&M--Commerce and earned over twenty hours of theater graduate hours.  During his studies there, he was named outstanding theater graduate student, won the Debut Scholarship Award from TETA, and was published in Theatre Southwest for his essay “The Religious Issues in the Early Plays of Lanford Wilson.”  He also placed second for the Oscar G. Brockett scholastic theater essay contest for his essay “Buchner’s Woyzeck Influence on Brecht’s Baal.”

Mark came back to North Lamar in 1999 to begin his teaching career in English.  During his time at North Lamar, he has taught all levels of high school English, including English I & II pre-AP and English III AP.  He also served as one of the theater directors for fourteen years. During his tenure as theater director, he helped lead his cast and crew to three state one-act play contests, winning the silver medal in 2009 and the state championship in 2010.  Mark currently serves as a certified one-act play adjudicator and contest manager.

As an instructional coach, Mark’s goal is to support the North Lamar staff to create rigorous and engaging lessons to enhance student learning.

Mark has been married to his high school sweetheart, Tonya,  for 23 years.  He and his wife have five wonderful children, and they just adopted a beautiful baby beagle.  He enjoys reading, writing, painting, cooking, watching films, and mostly, being with his family. 

His completed summer reading list includes:  Carson McCormack’s The Road, Laurie Halse Anderson’s Chains, Forge and Ashes, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Richard Peck’s Along Way from Chicago, Carl Hiaasen’s Hoot, Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War  and I am the Cheese, Catlin Tucker’s Blended Learning in Practice, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein’s They Say/ISay, and Laurie Halse Anderson’s Fever: 1793.

Currently reading: Ted Dekker’s Three and the Book of Acts.

Next up:  Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns.