Our Staff

Aria was just a year old when she moved to Portland and made it her home. She has loved working with children ever since she was young and helped out in her mom’s kindergarten classroom. In her free time Aria enjoys concerts, going on walks with Percy, her golden retriever, and chatting with her penpals in Australia. She loves all things music, theatre, film, and books.

Born and raised on the gulf coast of Florida, Stephanie has been swimming since she was two years old and began competing at the age of five. She has competed in triathlons, open water swimming, and championship swim meets. In 2020 she was part of the Oregon state winning relay.

Stephanie has completed a junior life guarding course and assisted with in-water swim lessons before coming to Farber. Swimming is truly one of her life’s passions, and she loves to share the joy of swimming with her students. Stephanie has worked with children of all ages for years, both as a swim instructor and a regular camp counselor. 

Stephanie loves kids and wants them to be the safest swimmers that they can be, while still having a FUN time in the water. Safety is always the first goal, and after that she loves seeing her students progress to true proficiency!

Specialties: Ages 3–18 years

Amanda grew up near the coast of the great Pacific Northwest, which inspired her deep love for the ocean and nature! She began swimming at age four, starting with lessons and progressing to a junior lifeguard certification and the role of a co-teacher at another program. She now swims competitively for the Westview High School team. In her free time Amanda enjoys creating art, playing the piano, and exploring the beautiful Oregon beach with her dog, Ginger. Another of her passions is environmental preservation, with a special emphasis on Earth’s oceans and all the incredible wildlife who live there. Amanda is very excited to share her love for swimming with others, and looks forward to providing a safe and fun experience for all swimmers.

Specialties: Ages 4–17 years
Additional languages: Vietnamese

Tyler was born and raised in Vancouver, WA and recently relocated back to the area after residing the past two years in Provo, UT. Tyler has several years experience working with young children with various additional needs as a tutor at Sunnyside Elementary. Tyler believes patience and playfulness are key to helping swimmers overcome new challenges. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn, and Tyler loves continually guiding his students toward their next breakthrough!

Tyler loves to travel, in particular to his family’s farm in Innsbruck, Austria. He plans to attend to University of Portland next year.

Specialties: Ages 3–17 years, Babies, Littles, Additional needs

Megan grew up in the Hillsboro/Beaverton area and had swimming lessons when she was in elementary school. She was part of her high school’s competitive speech and debate team and even graduated a semester early from high school. Megan was a camp counselor at YMCA Camp Orkila this past summer working with kids aged 8-14.

Megan loves helpings kids to challenge themselves and to see how proud they are of themselves when they do something that was scary before. Seeing kids grow and change and use their new knowledge is one of the more rewarding things about working with kids in Megan’s opinion.

Megan is planning a future career in psychological profiling with opportunities to travel the world. She loves reading and music and she tries different creative activities whenever she gets a chance, her favorites so far being writing and makeup. Megan loves traveling and seeing new places and new cultures and hopes to learn tons of new languages.

Specialties: Ages 4–18 years

Taylor was born and raised in Oregon, and has been teaching swimming the past 4 years, for students aged 4 months and up! She swam competively as a teen and now especially enjoys bringing that experience into her teaching, when her students are ready to start working on team-level skills. Taylor’s hobbies include snowboarding and surfing. She loves pushing students to be their best selves in the water!

Specialties: Ages 3–17 years, Babies, Littles

Photo and Bio coming soon!

Specialties: Ages 3–17 years

Photo and Bio coming soon!

Specialties: Ages 3–17 years
Additional languages: ASL

Jesse is from the Adai Caddo tribe in Louisiana and has been swimming since he was two with his community. After moving to Texas, he joined his high school swim team to adventure into more rigorous swimming. He then began working for the City of Austin as a lifeguard & swim instructor. One of Jesse’s favorite sayings is “Our culture teaches us that water is sacred and must be respected.” As a lover of all things adventurous, Jesse enjoys cliff-jumping, hiking, and skateboarding. Jesse is fluent in Spanish.

Specialties: Ages Babies, Littles, 3–18 years
Additional languages: Spanish (fluent)

Kendra’s happy place is the water, whether snorkeling in the ocean, kayaking on the river, or swimming in the pool. Growing up, she swam year round. As an adult, she has come back to swimming regularly, refined her skills, and fell in love with it all over again. Kendra has a master’s degree in social work, and enjoys working with people as they achieve their goals and develop confidence in themselves. After living in many places she is delighted to be settled in Portland. She and her husband have a grown son and 2 cats. Her land-based hobbies include travel, reading, crossword puzzles, and exploring the delicious food and coffee here.

Specialties: Ages 5–18 years, Adults

Photo and Bio coming soon!

Specialties: Ages 4–18 years

Devin grew up lakeside camping in her home state of California, so she’s always had a love of water. This natural affinity became a true passion when Devin began competing for her high school swim team. Since then, Devin has worked as a swim instructor, lifeguard, and swim team coach at her local community pool before joining the FSS team. Devin specializes in backstroke and endurance events. Outside the water, Devin spends her time in a variety of hobbies: singing, drawing, sculpting, writing, video gaming, and most importantly: spoiling her cat, Oliver. Devin is a very open person with a vivid imagination, always ready to strike up conversation and share her thoughts. Which, usually, mostly involve Oliver.

Specialties: Ages 4–18 years, Team-level, Adults

Meghan Bell is an author, poet, swimmer, camper, hiker, and aspiring educator. She recently graduated from Portland State University with a Bachelor of Science in Social Sciences and hopes to go on to teach middle school Social Studies and English. Meghan has a lifelong love of swimming since her family took day trips to California’s Lake Siskiyou to swim as a kid. Working with kids brightens Meghan’s days and nothing makes her happier than seeing the kids’ progress as they learn and have fun!

Additional languages: ASL (conversational)

Specialties: Babies, Littles, Ages 4–18 years

Kira was born and raised in Hillsboro where she began taking swim classes as a baby. After years of lessons, when she was six years old she started swimming on her neighborhood team and stayed with them until middle school. For three years, Kira swam for Hillsboro High School – it is safe to say that she loves swimming! 

She has recently moved back to the Portland area after living in New Zealand for three years! Kira spends her free time hiking, cooking, doing yoga, thrift shopping, and enjoying the outdoors as much as possible. She believes that everyone should know how to swim, and wants to teach all her students how to feel safe and confident while they’re in the water!

Specialties: Littles, Ages 3–18 years, (Babies pending)

Photo and Bio coming soon!

Specialties: Ages 4–18 years

Megan was born in Ohio and moved to the west coast as a high schooler. She then attended Grand Canyon University in Arizona for a degree in biology. Since returning to Oregon, she has worked in telecommunications climbing up the ladder throughout her career. Megan now lives in Beaverton with her two kids and a dog. Most weekends she can be found attending her daughter’s dance competitions or her son’s taekwondo classes. She loves spending time with family, watching movies, or running her kids around to their activities. Megan is so excited to be a part of the Farber Swim Family because she loves being around people and watching others learn!

Aloha! Shantel was born and raised on the island of Honolulu, Hawaii. She moved up to Oregon in 2013. Growing up in Hawaii, the ocean has been Shantel’s second home since childhood. She was often described by friends and family as a mermaid! Swimming is a source of comfort to Shantel and brings her much joy, which she can’t wait to share with her students!

Shantel currently attends PCC and will be transferring to OSU soon, to pursue her dream of being a marine biologist. She loves animals and currently has 3 dogs. In her spare time, Shantel loves music, making new friends, and outdoor adventures of all kinds. Other hobbies include video games and anime. Shantel can’t wait for your swimmer to make a splash at FSS, so she can share her experience and love of swimming!

Specialties: Ages 3–18 years, Babies & Littles (pending)

Specialties: Babies, Littles, Ages 4–6 years

Holly is a native Oregonian, born and raised in Portland. She swam for the first time when she was 6 months old and has not stopped since! Holly swam for the Jesuit Swim Team all four years of high school. Holly also loves languages: she speaks conversational Spanish and is learning Mandarin Chinese. Holly’s favorite food is her sister’s Indonesian fried rice and her favorite place to travel to is Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Her hobbies include riding horses, volunteering with children with disabilities, reading, as well as sailing, kayaking, and traveling with her family.

Specialties: Littles, Ages 4–18 years
Additional languages: Spanish (conversational)

Photo and Bio coming soon!

Photo and Bio coming soon!

Allison was born across the river in Vancouver, Washington. She attended Skyview High School and graduated in 2019. While going to school, she worked as a swimming instructor and lifeguard for a pool close to her home. Allison found a love of teaching and learning through her experience. During her free time, Allison enjoys drawing, spending time with her best friend, and cuddling with her little cat named Toast. 

Michelle was born in Orange County and fell in love with the water at a very young age. She took swim lessons as a kid and grew up spending her free time going to beaches along the West Coast. In her early 20s, she taught swim to kids 3mo.-10 years old, where she discovered her love for teaching and kids. She spends her free time exploring trails, doing yoga, eating French pastries, and reading books.

Naomy is a life-long Oregonian. She grew up swimming in lessons and for fun, and she is more than happy to be back in the water and teaching others to enjoy the water as much as she does! Naomy is a high school senior and the captain of  the Speech and Debate team. She stays active in the community, and currently volunteers at a small secondhand bookstore where she loves the opportunity to help and interact with young kids. In the future, she plans to pursue a degree in computer science at a university in the United Kingdom. Her primary goal is to make sure the kids have a great time while learning to stay safe in the water.

Specialties: Ages 3–17 years
Additional languages: Spanish

Billie was born near Chicago and raised in Albuquerque. She started swimming lessons at 3 years old after giving her mom a scare at a local water park. Living in the desert Southwest gave Billie 8 months a year in, on, or around the pool. She began teaching family and friends and, later, her two sons (who are grown and live here in the Portland metro also.)

Billie “visited” Portland for the last time in 2013 and became a resident after falling in love with the Timbers Army. In her spare time since, Billie has volunteered and served on committees for the 107IST and the Red Dress Party Portland. 

Billie was a career corporate trainer in the restaurant industry and combined her love for teaching and swimming four years ago. She is always excited to swim with the kids and says, “We often teach each other something.”

Billie also enjoys painting and paddle boarding.

Specialties: Ages 3–17 years, Babies, Littles

Adam was born in Tennessee but has spent the majority of his life in Oregon. He is a very active person who enjoys the outdoors and lots of exercise. He graduated from U of O and now works as a sports journalist for multiple websites. Adam began lifeguarding in college and went on to teach swim lessons to children from kindergarten to middle school age. He has several years of experience in the aquatics industry. In his free time Adam loves to write and draw, as well as spend time outdoors with his wife and family.

Specialties: Ages 5–18 years, Adults, Team-level

Marisa was born in Salem, Oregon where she grew up taking swimming lessons at the local YMCA and taking trips to the coast with her family. She moved to Nebraska her junior year where she swam on her high school swim team. Years later she suffered multiple injuries due to her time in the U.S. Army, but after months of aqua therapy she gained more mobility and reclaimed her passion for swimming again! She recently moved back to Oregon to pursue her bachelor’s degree at Pacific University. She is currently a senior studying child psychology and will be graduating next spring! She enjoys video games, exploring the outdoors, watching old television series and movies, and cuddling with her cat (Dexter). She has many years of experience working with children of different age groups and is excited to teach them how swimming can be beneficial in multiple ways!

Specialties: Ages 3–17 years (Babies & Littles pending)

Sankarsh is a Portland native. He has been working with kids since high school, first as an Outdoor School Counselor and later as a swim instructor. He swam competitively in high school and comes to FSS with several years of competitive coaching experience, both at the recreational and the university level. While he was earning his degree at Western Oregon University (with a minor in Education Psychology), Sankarsh worked for the Campus Recreation department. Sankarsh has experience teaching all ages and abilities, from babies to adults, novices to competition level.  Sankarsh loves working with people and helping them acquire new skills and find their confidence in the water. Kids are especially fun to teach, due to the cuteness factor and also their incredible senses of humor! His goal is to provide a relaxed and flexible teaching style, with just the right amount of goofiness to keep those kiddos smiling.

In his spare time Sankarsh is an avid baker, currently working on his cake decorating skills. He also loves archery, and hiking in the beautiful PNW wilderness.

Specialties: Ages 3–18 years, Team-level, Adults

Hunter has been swimming his whole life! He grew up taking lessons and began competing at a young age. This naturally transitioned him into a teaching role, and he’s been coaching and teaching swim lessons since June of 2015. Out of the pool, Hunter has worked extensively with kids in a variety of roles, from nanny, babysitter, to serving as the Kids’ Activities Director at his church. Hunter loves kids’ energy and enthusiasm, and knows how to harness it to teach them new skills, whether it be how to solve a math problem, how to tie a shoe, or how to do a great racing dive. His experience with literally hundreds of kids has shown him how to create the right balance of fun, laughter, learning, and a little bit of crazy for each child he interacts with!

Specialties: Ages 3–17 years, Babies, Littles, Additional needs