Sam Skillern

As Library Assistant, Sam Skillern supports students in library circulation, retrieving materials from online databases, maintaining the collection, and converting materials into accessible formats.

Sam joined The Seattle School staff in 2022, drawn to the school’s mission and interdisciplinary approach to learning and community engagement. He’s really enjoyed getting to know each member of this community and seeing the depth and range of passions for their work. Sam wants to help people feel welcome and valued so he eagerly offers his skills and talents. In turn, he appreciates feeling like a valued member of this community and being a part of all the amazing things people are learning and doing here.

To his role, Sam brings a range of experience including interning at the Salem Leadership Foundation, working as a Bilingual Program Coordinator at Big Brothers Big Sisters, serving as Youth Director at Calvin Presbyterian Church, and working as a Brick Specialist at The LEGO Store Bellevue. In 2017 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theology with minors in Spanish and History from Seattle Pacific University.

Outside work, Sam’s hobbies include playing Dungeons and Dragons and collecting LEGOs and Transformers. He’s also into Star Wars, Marvel, fantasy, and sci-fi. Sam likes trying new restaurants with his wife Jessica, spending time with his brother Drew, and hanging out with friends. Recently Sam’s also been getting into mini-golf. 

Currently living in Lake City with his wife, he hopes to get a cat as soon as the landlord allows. Salem, Oregon is his hometown and his favorite place in the world (so far) is Wallowa Lake, also in Oregon.

Sam is passionate about decolonizing and recontextualizing Christian faith and practice and reconnecting it to the unadulterated divine revelation of Jesus of Nazareth. He believes Christians raised in the Western world are called to take on the gargantuan work of divorcing our understanding of the Triune God, and of what it means to be made in God’s Image, from the systemic colonialism, racism, sexism, xenophobia, ableism, and homophobia ingrained in the culture that molded us and surrounds us. “Jesus lived, died, and was resurrected so we can be free, so let’s embrace our liberation!”