Emily Williams, Gilpin County. Gilpin County School District has a new psychologist, and her name is Cassandra Marschall. While interviewing Ms. Marschall recently I got to learn more about her and how she came to Gilpin. Hopefully by the end of the article, you too will know more about this very interesting woman.

Ms. Marschall is originally from Washington and grew up in Central Washington. When asked what her favorite places are, she replied, “My favorite places in Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota and Boulder Junction, and I love the beaches along Lake Michigan”.  

Before she was hired to work in Gilpin, she worked in a small town outside of Indianapolis, Indiana. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences from Bradley University (Illinois), and always knew (she) would continue on to graduate school in a social services position. Later she then earned her Master’s in School Psychology and also an Education Specialist degree from Ball State University in Indiana. She said that this “equipped her to be approved as a Nationally Certified School Psychologist, so she is able to work as an in-house psychologist for PK-12 school systems”.

I asked Ms. Marschall what drew her to Gilpin and she said that it was due to her enjoyment of skiing at Vail and Breck. She said, “I started skiing in Colorado in 2016.” After she had come to the decision that she enjoyed the mountains, she “knew she wanted to live in the mountains full time”. 

She has a few different goals for this year. Her professional goals are to “promote avenues for success for all students, model a positive growth mindset, and to ultimately infuse mindfulness into the education system.” She wants to help all students “grow to continue to make an impact on the American community at large.” Her personal goals are to “hike and ski as often as the weather permits.”

Ms. Marschall said that she is impressed with Gilpin. She said that the leadership at the school is very impressive, “Especially during this pandemic”. I asked her what was different about our community than her last one, and she replied, “Every state is different!”. She said that she “grew up seeing dairy farms everywhere”. In her last communities, specifically in Indianapolis, there were lots of beautiful agriculture farms everywhere. In Colorado, she said that she is seeing more ranches and flower farming. The most obvious difference here is the terrain - there are so many climates in Colorado”. I would definitely agree with her on that, some parts of Colorado look like completely different states. 

When I asked Ms. Marschall if she had anything else she would like to share about herself, she said, “Very few people know that I received a full-tuition scholarship for School Psychology from Ball State University”. She also said that she was a Division 1 golfer at Bradley University.

After interviewing Ms. Marschall and getting to know her, I think that she is a very accomplished woman. Hopefully, now, everyone else can see what Gilpin’s new psychologist is like. 

(Originally published in the October 1, 2020, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)