Kristen Kullberg is the new Middle and Upper School Making and Design Initiatives Coordinator, who is replacing Jaime Chao Mignano.

Kullberg was born in New York, raised in New Jersey, and moved to the D.C. area in sixth grade. 

From an early age, Kullberg was passionate about art.“I’ve always loved art,” she said. “I would lay underneath the living room table and I would color on the bottom of the chair or on the bottom of the table.”

I would lay underneath the living room table and I would color on the bottom of the chair or on the bottom of the table.

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Kristen Kullberg

Later on, she attended the University of Maryland and received a bachelor’s degree in English literature, focusing on American literature. Right out of college, she started teaching.

While a lot of Kullberg’s friends had known for years they wanted to teach, she was unsure. However, once she started, she “[fell] in love with it almost immediately.”

She taught English language arts for 16 years. At her previous school, she was also the school’s art integration instruction coach. This means she would use design and the arts to help students grasp academic content.

Kullberg’s arrival at WIS finalized her transition to a more design-oriented role.

Now that she’s at WIS, Kullberg has many ideas about projects to organize within the community.

“I have what I call practical ideas, and then I have really extreme ideas that might not happen,” she said. Kullberg keeps a Google document with all her ideas and checks it every day.

For example, she wants to create a community mosaic.“I got really into mosaic and I’m still kind of obsessed with it,” Kullberg said.

However, she loves all forms of art, from calligraphy to watercolor to collage. And she’s always looking for new things to learn.

“I think my interests are very diverse,” she said.

She’s also discussed the possibility of projects in the Design Lab with several teachers, both in the middle and upper school.

“I’m also really excited to partner with the school counselors to do some social emotional learning here,” she said. “Because the arts are so cathartic. They’re therapeutic and they’re a great way just to decompress.”

In addition to her work in the Design Lab, Kullberg is an eighth-grade advisor. 

She is especially excited that they’re in Radoss for the Middle School House Cup. Radoss’ main trait is creativity and she feels that it works very well with her passions.

Outside of school, she enjoys a lot of outdoor activities.

“I like to pretend I’m a runner. I jog extremely slowly. Say, where you can’t even tell I’m jogging,” she joked. “But my heart rate knows I’m jogging.”

She’s had many adventures. She once white water rafted the entire Grand Canyon with her mom.

“[We went] without a guide, which might be brave or it might be stupid, but it’s definitely fun,” Kullberg said. “It took us 13 days. It was insane.”

She is also very passionate about animals and she and her family are very involved in animal rights issues.“I’ve got a cat named Wilson,” she said. “He’s like a supermodel cat.”

Overall, Kullberg is thrilled to be joining the WIS community.“My first week has been amazing and it’s been crazy, but in a really good way,” she said. “I count myself as so lucky to be here.”

By Isabella Duchovny