Faculty and Staff
Principal
Principal, Middle School
Lisa Hengst
Mrs. Hengst has served at Grace for over 20 years as the school music director, middle school language arts teacher, and history teacher. She has now been called as Principal starting for the 2025-26 school year. She will continue to teach middle school English through fun, interactive projects while students continue to work on core grammar skills and creative writing. Mrs. Hengst also provides private piano lessons after school and has been our church organist/pianist/ Director of Music for over 30 years. She has a degree in Elementary Education from Concordia University–Wisconsin and is certified through the state of Wisconsin in K-12 Music Education, 1-8 Elementary Education, 6-12 Choral Music, Masters License in Educational Administration, and Director of Instruction. She is also a graduate of Grace Lutheran School. Her son is a teacher at Grace Lutheran School and serves as School Music Director. Her daughter also a graduate of Lutheran schools is currently attending UWM. In Mrs. Hengst’s spare time she loves to travel with her husband and family. She and her husband also travel all over the country for golf.
Teachers and Staff
4-year-old Kindergarten
Amy Pankow
The daughter of a librarian, Mrs. Pankow is a book lover who shares that enthusiasm with her students. Featuring an extensive library in her room, she rotates the books she uses throughout the year to align with the themes the children are learning about. Mrs. Pankow employs a number of reading strategies to make reading fun and exciting for her students. She also teaches children about forgiveness, how to take ownership of mistakes, and how to learn from those mistakes to make better choices. Mrs. Pankow is also the Theater Club leader, directing the students’ theatrical production each spring.
5-year-old Kindergarten
Nicole Tindall
Mrs. Tindall has served as our 5K teacher’s aide for nine years. She will taking over as our 5k teacher for the 2025-26 school year. Her knowledge in the classroom provides a very strong resource for our young of students. Mrs. Tindall is a member of Grace Lutheran Church and watched her own children attend and graduate from Grace.
1st Grade
Roxanne Taggatz
Mrs. Taggatz is a graduate of Concordia University Wisconsin and has taught at various levels with the majority of her classroom experience being at the 1st/2nd grade level. She joined the faculty at Grace for the 2020-21 school year when her family relocated to the area after her husband, Reverend John Taggatz, took a Call to serve at Grace as Pastor. Mrs. Taggatz enjoys helping her students develop and grow both academically and spiritually.
2nd Grade
Jennifer Mendez
Jennifer Mendez began teaching at Grace in the 2016-2017 school year. A graduate of Concordia University, Mrs. Mendez is an inspiring, well-organized instructor that puts the students’ needs and interests at the forefront of her lessons. She is agile in determining ways to make her lessons impactful, and is innovative in introducing classroom incentives that reward good behavior. In addition to in-classroom instruction, Mrs. Mendez is also active with leading Lego Club.
3rd Grade
Kristi DeVries
Mrs. DeVries is a graduate of Concordia University, River Forest, who always knew she wanted to be a teacher. She loves being able to share her faith and the Good News of God’s love with her students as they learn about the world He created. She has a hard time choosing a favorite subject, and she hopes to pass that enthusiasm for learning on to her students. She also loves using music in the classroom, both for learning and for fun. She brings many years of teaching experience to the classroom with the bulk of her time being spent in 3rd grade. We are very excited to have her as part of the team at Grace.
4th Grade, Middle School Art, Physical Education, Athletic Director
Rita Heinen
Mrs. Heinen intertwines structure and respect for all with a fun and active classroom environment. Her students know that they can succeed through hard work, as well as learn from their mistakes. The fourth graders at Grace particularly enjoy her culture unit for reading, which includes cooking and learning words in other languages. In the middle school art program, students learn about positive and negative space, shading, and dimension, as well as working with multiple types of media. At the end of each year, all of our young artists showcase their work in our annual Art Gallery Night. Additionally, Mrs. Heinen leads fun summer programs at Grace, which continue to rise in popularity.
Middle School, 1st-8th Computers
Ariel Hagar
Mrs. Hagar is a proponent of hands-on, active learning, particularly with her science classes. Some of the students’ favorite lessons include using ice cream sundaes to show how the different layers of earth come together or putting paint on speakers so that the students can not only hear sound but see it move. The computer lab continues to thrive under Mrs. Hagar, who incorporates many different programs into the curriculum, including interactive games designed to improve math, science and English skills, introductory coding programs, blogging, and more. Mrs. Hagar holds an Elementary Education degree from Concordia University–Wisconsin with an emphasis on environmental science. She helps with our middle school youth group and student council and is an assistant coach for volleyball and track & field.
Middle School, 4K-8th Grade Music
Anthony Hengst
Mr. Hengst (Mr. H.) is a graduate from Concordia University Wisconsin and is returning to his roots as he also attended Grace Lutheran from 4k to 8th grade. He is very excited to join the faculty at Grace and will bring a lot of energy to the classroom. Many of the students have had the opportunity to meet Mr. Hengst through our Summer Camp or Wrap-Around Care programs at Grace. The Love of Jesus and education is evident in his interactions with the students that he works with on a daily basis.
Vice-Principal, Middle School
Steve Gettelman
Steve Gettelman has served at Grace Lutheran for the past 19 years. A graduate of Concordia University–Wisconsin with a degree in Secondary Education–Math, Mr. Gettleman has served in various classroom and administrative roles at Grace. A constant throughout his tenure at Grace has been teaching our 5th – 8th grade math classes.
4K Teacher’s Aide
Jane Durant
Mrs. Durant serves as our 4K teacher’s aide. She is in the classroom five days per week supporting our 4K students. She brings over fifteen years of experience to the classroom as she helps our 4K students learn and grow during their initial school experience.
5K Teacher’s Aide
Information Coming Soon
Information Coming Soon
Administrative Assistant
Dena Guziewicz
Ms. Dena, as the students know her, joined the staff at Grace in December 2016. Prior to coming to Grace she served as a teacher’s aide in a neighboring Lutheran school. Ms. Dena and her husband have three adult children all whom which have graduated from Lutheran schools. Ms. Dena and her husband also love to travel abroad. When she is not busy with family and church, you can often find her reading or behind the lens of her camera.