Asheville Academy

Asheville Academy for Girls utilizes the residential model of the traditional boarding school to create a home-like therapeutic boarding school setting.  We offer a safe and comfortable setting for girls to learn new ways to interact with peers, adults, and their families.

Asheville Academy for Girls (AAG) is for girls ages 10-14, located in the beautiful mountains of Asheville, North Carolina.  Specializing in developmentally appropriate interventions for young girls, the foundation of our program lies in relationship-based treatment—emphasizing high levels of family intervention, emotional safety, and healthy boundaries.

Recognized by the state of North Carolina as a certified non-public school, our academic classes are taught in a conventional classroom setting by certified secondary education and special education teachers.

Our families’ most common reason for placement is chronic disruption to the family system along with the inability of their daughters to find success in school, develop meaningful friendships with peers, and/or engage in activities they used to love.

Asheville Academy for Girls also provides state-of-the-art treatment for girls suffering from co-morbid anxiety or mood disorders, depression, low self-esteem, negative self-perception, learning challenges, and oppositional behavior.

testimonials

We feel Asheville Academy has offered extremely high quality service across all spheres. And we are very grateful. Thank Goodness for Asheville Academy.

Leslie, Mother AAG
LeslieMother of student

contact

Phone: 800.264.8709

Email: kathryn@ashevilleacademy.com

locations

City: Black Mountain, NC

Closest Airport: Asheville Regional Airport

admissions

Average Duration:  9 -12 months.

Who we Help: Girls between the ages of 10-14.

Examples of Student Profile:

  • Depression              
  • Low Self Esteem 
  • ADHD                      
  • Adoption & Attachment Issues
  • Anxiety                      
  • School Refusal
  • Defiance

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A Therapeutic Boarding School for Girls 10-14
  • Cat Jennings
    Cat Jennings
    Executive Director - Asheville Academy
  • Kathryn Huffman
    Kathryn Huffman
    Admissions Director - Asheville Academy
  • Rebecca Gebb
    Rebecca Gebb
    Program Director - Asheville Academy
  • Ben Chamberlain
    Ben Chamberlain
    Academic Director - Asheville Academy
  • Brooke Pastene
    Brooke Pastene
    Director of Operations - Asheville Academy
  • Jane Rosseth
    Jane Rosseth
    Clinical Director - Asheville Academy

Asheville Academy For Girls News & Press

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Cat Jennings
Executive Director - Asheville Academy

Cat brings more than thirty years of experience making an impact in the lives of adolescents. Cat has developed multiple programs helping children, teens, and young adults in a variety of settings and with a diverse range of diagnoses. She has dedicated her career to behavioral health and is honored to be part of the passionate team at Asheville Academy for Girls.  She recognizes how delicate this age is and is proud of the role she and her team play in helping girls grow and prosper.

Cat received her degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina Asheville. With her free time, Cat enjoys spending time with her wonderful family and close friends, sharing stories and making new ones. She loves being active and getting outdoors whenever she can.

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Kathryn Huffman
Admissions Director - Asheville Academy

With more than fifteen years in the industry, Kathryn Huffman has extensive experience working with struggling adolescents and pre-adolescents in residential and wilderness settings. Kathryn’s background includes helping to develop, and providing admissions support, for the first wilderness program in the country specifically for 10 to 13-year-olds, and serving as a founding member and Admissions Director for a personal development boarding school for girls ages 10 to 14.

With her long history of serving this population, as well as having two young daughters of her own, Kathryn recognizes the necessity and value in providing families and their loved ones with a safe, nurturing and fun environment that recognizes and addresses the unique developmental needs of our specific age group.

She considers it a privilege and a treat to be part of a caring organization dedicated to helping young girls and their families improve relationships and achieve healthy, happy, and fulfilling lives. In her free time, Kathryn enjoys reading, movies, yoga, jumping rope and losing at Wii to her two daughters, Ellie (age 10) and Frances (age 9).

 The opportunity to serve our girls and their families, and to help guide these special young ladies towards recognizing, and achieving, all of which they are capable while they still in their formative years is a gift and a joy. I am grateful every day to be part of a caring organization dedicated to helping young girls and their families improve relationship, and achieve, happy, healthy and fulfilling lives.

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Rebecca Gebb
Program Director - Asheville Academy

Rebecca Gebb has been working with Asheville Academy for Girls since January of 2013.  She currently serves as the Program Director and oversees residential programming.  Rebecca’s prior experience includes early childhood education, a pediatric outpatient hematology/oncology clinic, a children’s advocacy center, therapeutic summers camps, and other therapeutic boarding school settings.  Rebecca has a desire for lifelong learning and strives to meet students where they are at, while providing learning experiences that allow for success and autonomy to succeed in traditional settings. Rebecca is intrigued by the energy and curiosity of the youth she works with.

She is current graduate student at Lenoir-Rhyne University, studying Sustainable Studies.  With the changing of times, Rebecca is embracing the knowledge and skills she is learning with the goal to building a more sustainable future for all community members & business organizations; using systemic solution-based problem solving. Rebecca holds an undergraduate degree in Child Life from East Carolina University.

When Rebecca is not working you will likely find her outside gardening, hiking, foraging, exploring, or exercising with her three dogs and family members.  As a Western North Carolina native, Rebecca is thankful for the beauty and adventures that the Blue Ridge Mountains provide.

ATTITUDE is the difference between an ordeal or an adventure

– Bob Bitchin

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Ben Chamberlain
Academic Director - Asheville Academy

Ben has been working with diverse learners for the past 15 years. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Masters degree in Teaching with a focus in Mathematics. His experience ranges from wilderness therapy instructor to test prep tutor to high school college prep math and psychology teacher. Ben believes that in each child is a wellspring of unique potential, and is committed to finding ways for these potentials to be realized. In his free time, Ben enjoys rock climbing, contra dancing, and computer programming.

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Brooke Pastene
Director of Operations - Asheville Academy

Brooke is originally from Pittsburgh, PA (GO STEELERS).  She attended Edinboro University and majored in Psychology.  While going to school, Brooke started her internship at a RTC  for female juvenile delinquents and continued working there for three years before moving to New York.  Once in New York, Brooke furthered her career by supervising three foster homes for children with Autism & Asperger’s.  This lead her to accepting a position as the Program Coordinator for two Group Homes for adults with MR/DD/MH diagnosis, where she worked for three years before moving to North Carolina.

In 2008 Brooke moved to North Carolina in order to be closer to family. Brooke continued working with adults and children with MR/DD/MH as the Lead Qualified Professional monitoring CAP services.  Due to having to move for her husband’s work, Brooke then transitioned to working for three years as the Clinical Supervisor for two ICF-MR Group Homes for adults.  Due to a job opportunity for her husband and a love for the area, Brooke and her husband moved to the Asheville area in 2014 where she began working at Asheville Academy as a Team Manger and Residential Co- Director.  During Brooke’s free time she enjoys running, camping, hiking with her dogs and husband.

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Jane Rosseth
Clinical Director - Asheville Academy

Jane holds an undergraduate degree in Art History from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and a MA Degree from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA, in Marriage and Family Therapy and Clinical Art Therapy. Jane is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of North Carolina and has previously been licensed in California.

Jane has been in the mental health field since 2001 and has worked as a therapist for children, adolescents, and families. She has provided services in outpatient, school, home, residential, and juvenile hall settings. Jane has served as Clinical Director of two other residential child service agencies in NC.

Jane has extensive experience in working with students with a variety of diagnoses, many of whom struggle with regulating emotions, impulse control, and those who have experienced trauma. She uses strength-based approaches to family systems work. Jane is trained in the EAGALA model of equine therapy and enjoys experiential therapeutic modalities. Jane has her group and individual certification in SPARCS  (Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress.) She is passionate about building clinical and residential programs through the use of holistic frameworks.

Jane has called the Asheville area home since 2013. She has had the benefit of living in many states, including Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, California, and North Carolina. In her free time, Jane enjoys doing artwork and creative writing, exploring nature, and spending time with family, friends, and her dog Ida Mae.

click here to go to Asheville Academy