Current Whistlestop Staff

Past Whistlestop Staff

Julia Ormond, raised in Oakland, California, was a senior at Dickinson College while working at Whistlestop. She spent her second half of her junior year in Bologna, Italy, and has now graduated with an American Studies degree. She was the Station Manager of Dickinson College’s radio station and a DJ. She enjoys listening to and finding new music, hiking and backpacking, and eating desserts. She now works in Washington DC.

Daniela Aldrich, born and raised in Carlisle, spent her 8th grade year in Madrid, Spain, and, after a dazzling stint at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, moved to New York City when she was sixteen to pursue ballet.  After graduating high school in New York, she danced at the New York City Ballet as an apprentice for eighteen months.  She completed her third year in fine form at Dickinson College by spending 14 months in Spain and most of South America in academic study and research.  She is bilingual in Spanish and English.  She has also picked up Portuguese while attending Dickinson. She graduated in May 2019 and now works in Massachusetts.

Abby Reed returned from her teaching stint in Tanzania in the autumn of 2006.  The summer of 2007 found her in Guatemala, among other places. During the 2008-2009 academic year she studied at Norwich University in the United Kingdom.  She graduated from Middlebury College (Phi Beta Kappa) and has completed a master's at Cambridge University.  Abby was the recipient of the 2005-2006 Employee of the Year.

Kara Eatman, now Kara Rajapakse, completed her junior year at Carlisle High School while working at Whistlestop.  The summer of 2007 saw her in France, among other places.  She graduated from Riverview High School in Tampa, Florida.  She is now living in Irvine, California, where she has a degree from UC-Irvine in Criminology, Law, & Society.  She was the recipient of the 2006-2007 Employee of the Year award.

Brooke Marlin has graduated from Dickinson College magna cum laude with a major in sociology and a minor in women's studies.  She is from Bayside, New York.  She learned about Whistlestop Bookshop when she became friends with Abby Reed in Tanzania. During the Spring 2009 she studied in Mexico.  She earned a M.A. in Social Work and is working in New York City. 

Grace Moore has graduated from Dickinson College cum laude with a major in anthropology and a minor in Spanish.  She is from Columbia, South Carolina.  During Spring 2009 she studied in Ecuador.  She was the recipient of the 2007-2008 Employee of the Year award.  In an unprecedented achievement, she is also the recipient of the 2009-2010 Employee of the Year award.  She is living in Philadelphia.

Elise Bricker graduated from Wilson College (Phi Beta Kappa) in Chambersburg, a double major in history and classics, and where she was the 2010 class historian.  She is from Shippensburg, also "down the valley," and is much-traveled in Europe.  She is the recipient of the 2008-2009 Employee of the Year Award.  She has completed her M.A. in classics at Villanova University.  She taught Latin for a year at Radnor Middle School in Wayne PA.  She is now a sales associate for Vera Bradley in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Katrin Haque holds an M.A. in American Studies from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, Munich, Germany (her home town).  She is also a freelance translator.

Kathleen Tiley graduated from Boiling Springs High School.  She is skilled in French, has studied Japanese, and is interested currently in Arabic.  She visited Madagascar in the Summer of 2009.  In the Summer and Fall 2012 she studied in Cairo, Egypt  She graduated from Colgate University with honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  During the summer of 2014 she worked again at Whistlestop, thus picking up the title of Senior Staffer.  She ought to be moved to Current Staff, but she is sly that way.  During 2014-2015 she taught French and English in France.  She has a graduate degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Catherine Coyle, a Carlisle native, was homeschooled in the usual wide range of skills thereof, including singing, art, and horseback riding.  Catherine is the recipient of the 2010-2011 Employee of the Year Award.  After a "gap year" after graduation, which included a tour of New Zealand, she enrolled at nearby Messiah College.  She completed her first year with a flourish, had her usual packed summer including some weeks in England and Norway.   Her junior year was half in Italy, half here.  Catherine has graduated with honors from Messiah College.

Erin Anderson, a Carlisle native, graduated with honors from Carlisle High School and a membership in the National Honor Society.  In the Spring of 2014 she studied community health at the University of Capetown, South Africa.  She spent the Summer of 2015 in an internship in Washington, D.C.  She has graduated magna cum laude from the University of Maryland.  She now lives and works in Los Angeles.  Erin and Avalon are the co-recipients of the 2011-2012 Employee of the Year Award.

Avalon Demetri eventually wound up here from Northern California's Marin County area.  She graduated early from high school in Illinois.  After studying dance at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet for two years, she was a professional dancer in the Eugene City Ballet in Eugene, Oregon, for another two years.  After adventuring around the country, she has alighted in Brooklyn, New York.  Avalon and Erin are the co-recipients of the 2011-2012 Employee of the Year Award.

Kathryn Crutcher graduated from Columbia International University in Columbia SC in May 2011.  She counts archaeological work in Israel and editing a journal in college as experience, and she enjoys highland dance and singing as pastimes.  She completed a year of graduate work in humanities at the University of Dallas 2012-2013.  She is currently working at the HACC Gettysburg Campus book store.

Micala Hotra-Schubert, a native of Carlisle, is a graduate of Carlisle High School.  She was on the student council, a member of the Shakespeare Troupe (the goddess Iris in The Tempest), and a member of the National Honor Society.  She is known to be favorably disposed to cats and dogs and inspired by squirrels.  She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College with a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies.  Micala is the recipient of the 2012-2013 Employee of the Year Award.

Kate Anderson, a Carlisle native, sister of Erin Anderson, has graduated from Carlisle High School and simultaneously completed the first year of her collegiate career at Harrisburg Area Community College.  She has completed her second year at Ohio University.  She is a thrift store maven and has ambitions in the field of extreme couponing.

Elizabeth Rainone hails from Connecticut, where she graduated from high school early to accelerate her training in dance at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet.  She has danced with the Royal Danish Ballet, has a fine artistic hand and eye, knows her way around the piano and violin, and is passionately devoted to cats.

Lucia Verzola, army brat and the second oldest of six children, was born in Lawton, Oklahoma.  After spending her childhood in an array of places from West Point NY to Anchorage AK, her family settled in Lansing, Kansas, upon her father's retirement from the army in 2008.  Lucia was homeschooled her high school years to accommodate her training as a full-time ballet student.  Upon spending summers at Miami City Ballet School and the School of Pennsylvania Ballet, she moved to Carlisle her senior year in the Fall of 2017 to more seriously pursue her training at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet.  She has completed her second year in Carlisle and is headed to San Francisco University in the Fall.

Emma Kay Krebs, raised near Carlisle on a farm, is a graduate of Carlisle High School and has completed her second year at Layfayette College.  She is interested and talented in theater, very well-versed in comic books, and knows her way around poetry.  Travel, New York City, and warm places with sand are near the top of list of favorites.

Hannah Campbell, a Carlisle native, has graduated summa cum laude from West Chester University.  She is an award-winning equestrian and is an experienced hand at therapeutic horseback riding.  She enjoys photography, skiing, and travel.  She recently made a life goal with a trip to her ancestral home of Ireland.