Dr. Andrew Sapp is the Founder of Cherry Gulch.

He has extensive experience working with children and adolescents in the fields of mental health and psychology. Dr. Sapp earned a M.A. and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. He also graduated with honors from Oregon State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in psychology.

In the early stages of his career, Dr. Sapp was a Field Supervisor and Therapist at a therapeutic wilderness program. He also served as the the lead therapist on the adolescent unit of an inpatient psychiatric hospital, and then worked as a therapist at a group home for foster boys where he did family preservation work. He also worked as a therapist at two community mental health clinics, a community college, an elementary school, and a youth correctional facility. Andrew is a veteran and honorably served as a Naval Lieutenant stationed at a Naval Medical Center where he worked as a therapist.

Dr. Sapp has served on the Government Relations Committee for the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) and a committee that wrote best practice guidelines for small therapeutic programs, much of which was later incorporated into NATSAP’s best practice guidelines for members. He has also been honored to present at a number of national and regional conferences.

Dr. Sapp has worked with patients ranging from 4 to 80 years of age and truly understands psychology and human development. He believes that therapeutic intervention can prevent a child from jeopardizing their future. He truly believes that to reach adolescents, one’s therapeutic interventions must be supportive, creative, and engaging. He is an expert in working with adolescent boys and at using the natural environment and everyday activities to create positive change in a child’s life. He is a firm believer in the power of outdoor experiential activities, adventures, and animals to aid in the healing process. He also believes that to effect lasting change in an adolescent, a holistic (mind, body, and spirit) approach is necessary.

Cherry Gulch is arguably the best therapeutic boarding school in the world for the population of middle school boys they specialize in. Dr. Sapp and his team started the school from nothing but dirt and sage brush and Cherry Gulch is now the largest private employer in Gem County. Cherry Gulch has been honored by the Idaho Psychological Association as the “Overall most psychologically healthy workplace” in the State and by the Idaho Business Review as “One of the best places to work” in the State. Cherry Gulch has also been selected numerous times for National recognition for “Excellence in Education.” In 2011, the Idaho Business Review selected Dr. Sapp as one of the top 40 “Accomplished Under 40” professionals in the State.

Dr. Sapp has worked very hard to overcome his own undiagnosed learning disabilities. He is deeply passionate about helping boys who struggle academically because of his own personal challenges throughout his academic career. He believes that these challenges have helped him become more determined to reach his goals. By far his greatest professional accomplishment has been starting Cherry Gulch and serving the many students and families that have benefited from this life-changing program. His greatest joy is spending time with his three precious little girls and his wonderful wife, Christina.

Katie is a licensed clinician with a M.A. from Boise State University. She is the Executive Director of Cherry Gulch. She has been with CG since 2015 and has served as a therapist and Clinical Director. Previously she has worked with children, adolescents and their families in multiple settings including hospitals, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, outpatient clinics and schools. She is a registered supervisor with the state of Idaho and enjoys providing supervision for master’s level clinicians seeking clinical licensure as well as interns working on their LSW or LMSW degrees. Her therapeutic focus is in Trauma Informed Care, Social Thinking, and Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT).

Katie is an Idaho native but lived in Minnesota for 4 years to complete her undergraduate studies and participate in collegiate softball. In 2008 she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work with minors in Psychology and Health Care from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN. She earned her Master’s Degree in Social Work at Boise State University in 2009, during which time she completed an internship with Cherry Gulch. In Katie’s time away from work she enjoys activities with her husband and family in the outdoors. She actively enjoys hiking, softball, fishing and hunting.

Kahn first joined the Cherry Gulch team in 2009, and has filled many different roles throughout the years. He received his Master’s Degree in Social Work from Boise State University and is a big Broncos fan! His decision to pursue a career serving youth came early on in college and he has never looked back. He has experience in multiple youth residential settings, but has settled at Cherry Gulch due to the effectiveness of the program and the awesome team that we have here. One of Kahn’s favorite parts of being at Cherry Gulch is keeping in touch with Alumni students and hearing about all of the incredible things they are accomplishing. When not at work, he loves to take advantage of all that Idaho has to offer with his wife and children. Dirt biking, camping, fishing, horseback riding, and hunting are regular past times. He lives in a little town of roughly 300 people, and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Victor joined our Cherry Gulch team in 2021. He and his family moved to Idaho from the Bay Area. After graduating with a BA in Education and Child Development from California State University, he went on to earn his credential in Elementary Education and Teaching from San Francisco State University. Victor has built a long list of service, leading a variety of programs for schools and nonprofits. He is an active board memeber of the City of Refuge Ministries.

He was then drawn to Human Resources once he saw how a healthy workplace culture affects organizations and pursed his certification to be a Professional in Human Resources. Supporting leaders and staff as they dream big for our students and our programs is easy for Victor with his contageous positivity. Victor jumped right into programming and serving our students joining them in football, foosball and Just Dance. He is currently trying to keep up with them on their Friday mountain biking outings and truly enjoys spending time with our students.

Away from Cherry Gulch, Victor enjoys spending time with his family and fermenting their own ethically sourced brand of Kombucha.

Dr. Si Steinberg, affectionately called Dr. Si, by his patients and staff is a Double Board-Certified Child Adolescent and Adult Psychiatrist. He has been working with individuals and families for over thirty years. His philosophy with regards to prescribing medications is that medicine is merely the lubricant to grease the wheels of the machinery of therapy and living fully. Rarely is medication the center or primary component of an individual’s treatment. Dr. Si strives to be as minimalistic as possible with medication interventions and encourages the resolution of underlying causes and conditions prior to jumping to conclusions about diagnoses and medication treatment regimens.

Dr. Si lives with his wife Kim and their two golden doodles Sammy and Nala. They all like to travel, hike, bike, Nordic ski, canoe, and sail. Dr. Si is also a musician and plays many instruments by ear though he trained on piano and oboe as a child.

Krista comes to Cherry Gulch following 18 years in healthcare. She has worked primarily as a nurse in the largest trauma hospital in Idaho on the Neurological and Rehabilitation floors with a specialty in brain and spinal cord injuries. She also spent some time as a physician recruiter and in an assistive living center for seniors. Krista’s priority in life has been raising her three very active sons. She is passionate about boys, their physical and emotional development, and their growth as young men.

Melissa joined Cherry Gulch following 17 years of teaching. She started in alternative high school Speech and English. The majority of her teaching career was teaching Language and Reading to struggling readers in 6th grade. She served many students and families as a liason for special education, working with her team to meet IEP goals and implementing interventions and many accommodations. After a decade in 6th grade she moved to Kindergarten to support school readiness with whole-brain, play-based learning. When the oportunity to move to a position to help serve students and families in a full wrap-around program, she joined Novitas, which then led to Cherry Gulch.

Melissa and her husband, Chris, are the proud parents of 3 adopted girls. They enjoy Idaho’s amazing outdoors as much as possible with their sweet golden doodle, Willis.

Bobbi Geiger is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) specializing in evidence-based treatments to support children and their families in meeting their goals and improving overall quality of life. She specializes in providing therapy to children, adolescents, and their families who are presenting with a wide range of behavioral, mental health, and emotional concerns.  

Bobbi has experience working with children presenting with ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, and behavioral challenges.  She works to develop the social emotional skills needed for success at school, home and in the community. 

In therapy, she works from a trauma-informed attachment and child-centered approach that combines various research-supported therapy modalities including cognitive behavioral therapy.   Bobbi integrates techniques from a variety of approaches and adjusts her counseling methods based on the client’s needs. She prides herself on creating relationships built on trust with her students and understands that real progress can only be achieved when such a relationship exists.  

She enjoys helping children become more in-touch with their emotions, increasing their ability to communicate their feelings and needs, encouraging their own self-acceptance, and empowering them to make healthy choices on how to handle difficult emotions and situations.  She has extensive training and experience in working with children who have a history of trauma and/or who have been in foster care or who have been adopted. 

Bobbi is a mother of three boys, and understands that when a child struggles, the whole family is affected.  Because of this, she is passionate about empowering parents and children in their lives. She understands that every client has a unique set of needs and works hard with each family to develop individualized care in a safe and empathetic environment that promotes health and wellness.  She believes helping is an honor, therapy is a collaborative adventure and that we all do well when we can. 

Bobbi earned her Master of Education in Counseling from North Dakota State University.  In addition, she has a Master of Nonprofit Administration from North Park University. Bobbi has received certifications in Attachment and Trauma-Focused , Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE), and is a certified trainer of the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) from the Trauma Resource Institute.  

Outside of work, Bobbi enjoys spending time with her family. In addition, she enjoys caring for the family pets, traveling, reading, gardening, and relaxing in the sun. 

Kylie received her master’s degree in Social Work with an emphasis in Clinical Mental Health and Addictions from Northwest Nazarene University and her bachelor’s degree in Recreation Management and Youth Leadership with an emphasis in Therapeutic Recreation from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Her passion for the outdoors, adventure and working with people led her to her career working with troubled youth over thirteen years ago. Kylie’s passion for working with troubled adolescents led her to many careers in adolescent mental and behavioral health before finding employment at Cherry Gulch including other therapeutic boarding schools, residential treatment centers, juvenile correctional facilities, psycho-social rehabilitation services and wilderness therapy. Kylie has enjoyed seven years with Cherry Gulch working as a Direct Care staff, Recreation Therapist, Character Development teacher (with her teaching certification in Psychology), Clinical Liaison and most recently as a licensed therapist.

Kylie oversees the service program at Cherry Gulch, co-directs the NATSAP research program and oversees international travel at CG. Kylie has received training in the Anasazi Foundation’s The Seven Paths as well as Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey and has co-led a number of Hero’s Journey/The Seven Paths international trips with the students and their families and worked to restructure the phase work here at Cherry Gulch to align with the Hero’s Journey cycle. She is ATTACh certified, a certified Child and Youth Care worker, a Gottman Institute Level one certified therapist, has spoken at both regional and national conferences and has worked to make CG a RULER certified school after receiving extensive training from Yale University.

Kylie is an Idaho native and enjoys spending time with her family skiing, backpacking, mountain biking, camping, dirt biking and traveling.

Tara is back! Bio coming soon.

Moises (Mo) received his bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2012. He then went on to complete his master’s degree in Social Work with an emphasis in Trauma from University of New England and graduated in 2017.

Over the last 8 years, Mo has specialized in working with adults and adolescents who have challenging behaviors, developmental issues, low self-esteem, and anxiety & depression clouding their life. Mo has an extensive background working with adolescents in different settings that include inpatient psychiatric hospitals, intensive outpatient programs, residential treatment centers, and private practice counseling.

Mo previously worked as the Program Manager for an outpatient facility that was designed for adolescents with ASD, ADHD, RAD, anxiety, depression, defiance, aggression, substance use disorder, and challenges with executive functioning skills. Mo has also worked for the Department of Health and Welfare as a Designated Examiner and for the State Appellate Public Defender’s office as a Mitigation Specialist. Certified in Family Functional Therapy, Mo has assisted numerous adopting families who experienced daily challenges related to behavioral challenges. Mo’s theoretical base of therapy includes the root and role of attachment and seeing the world through a trauma lenses.

Mo grew up spending most of his time playing soccer recreationally and semi-professional. Away from work, you can find Mo playing soccer, spending time with his family, and floating the Boise River.

Bio Coming Soon!

We knew Madison was a fit the moment she walked on campus.  She is the therapy human we are always describing.  Her presence is warm, engaging and I don’t think she knows a stranger.  She has lived and worked in Washington and Colorado.  She has recently moved to Boise from Salt Lake City, UT in the last year but Idaho has always been her home. Her experience includes therapeutic preschools, extensive group work in social skills, trauma, and facilitating trusting and positive relationships in various settings.  She has utilized play and art therapy interventions in her work with children who present with ASD.  She has worked with juveniles and adults with co-occurring diagnosis in the correctional field. She is EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) trained and DBT certified.

—–Katie Rienstra, Executive Director

Darren joined the Cherry Gulch team as the Residential Director in 2022. He earned his degree from the American Institute of Health Technology in 1997. He then worked as a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant and Therapeutic Activities Lead for 20+ years. He worked at Intermountain Psychiatric Hospital for the last 10 years before joining CG. He leads his department with patience, intention and high expectations. His years of experience in helping people emotionally regulate has been an excellent addition to our Cherry Gulch team. He is working to build a sensory gym at CG, so stay tuned!

Away from Cherry Gulch, Darren enjoys Idaho’s incredible outdoors and quality family time!

Patrick joined Cherry Gulch in 2017.  He began as a youth care mentor and was promoted to shift supervisor, and was recently promoted as one of our two Residential Coordinators.  Patrick oversees the staff experience at Cherry Gulch. This includes training, coaching and developing staff as they grow with us. He is also an Arbinger Facilitator, leading with an outward mindset. His background was diverse before finding CG and his passion working in youth care.  During his time here at Cherry Gulch, he has seen the value in the teachings while witnessing the Hero’s Journey of the students as well as experiencing his own with the help of the students while on a journey together in Peru.

Patrick has lived in the pacific northwest his entire life, only moving into Idaho upon working at Cherry Gulch.  He has enjoyed the natural beauty of the area, taking in all Idaho has to offer.  While both on campus with the students, as well as at home Patrick enjoys basketball, football, board games, puzzles, camping and fishing.

Maggie has been with Cherry Gulch since 2009 in many different roles including Residential Manager, Academic Coordinator and now as a teacher. She fell in love with Special Education while helping the teacher at the time and decided to pursue her degree.  First stop was earning her Bachelor’s degree in History and Habilitative Instruction at Boise State University.  Along the way, she enrolled in a Master’s program for Special Education at BSU and graduated in May 2022.  She is also working on another Master’s in Behavior Analysis through the University of Arizona and enjoys working collaboratively with all departments at Cherry Gulch to ensure positive behavior supports and interventions for the students. Maggie loves being the History teacher at Cherry Gulch, sharing her passion and “nerding out” with her students about the subject.  

When not at school or studying for her own exams, Maggie goes on adventures with her husband and their two kids, David and Ella. These adventures include everything from traveling to taking walks around their neighborhood to see what their imaginations can conjure up. Maggie fills her own bucket by reading a good fiction novel or binging on reality tv. 

Shannon joined the Cherry Gulch team in 2021. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Studies and a Master’s degree in Education.  Shannon has been in the educational field since 2002.  Her prior teaching experience includes teaching elementary school, middle school and high school.  She is excited to be working at Cherry Gulch where she can continue her love for teaching students who learn differently and seeing students grow personally.  

When Shannon’s not teaching, she volunteers her time through managing a nonprofit dog rescue that she started in 2018.  She also enjoys spending time outdoors, listening to music and always ends each day with a lap full of dogs.  

Dan began working at Cherry Gulch January 2009. He started out as a direct care staff and moved into the residential Manager role.  He’s worn many hats in between and enjoys learning new things and bringing new ideas to each of them. Having mastered the therapeutic modalities, Dan is now the Character development teacher, and helps boys understand each of the pillars. Dan served in the United States Army for nineteen years.  He was an infantry team leader and served two tours in Iraq. Dan has also been a firefighter and EMT for five years. Dan currently attends Purdue University online and is pursuing a degree in Human Resources.   

Dan is a proud father to eight children and is married to his wonderful wife, Andrea. His family keeps him remarkably busy. Dan enjoys camping with his family and is an avid soccer fan. Dan coaches his kids sports teams and stays active in his community.  

Allen is joining the Cherry Gulch team as our science teacher. Allen has a degree in Biology from Northwest Nazarene University and began his teaching career in 1987 teaching high school biology. He has been a high school biology teacher for twenty years and is very excited about making a change at this point in his career. Allen is currently working on a masters of science in medical entomology from the University of Florida. 

Allen has been married to the love of his life, Alita, for the last 25 years. They do not have any kids but they are a part of a pack of three dogs. When not teaching, Allen enjoys painting dog portraits and bird and bug photography. His wife Alita’s description of him is, “If it starts with a “B” and it flies he is passionate about it.

Sarah earned her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Concordia University (Portland, OR) in 1992. She spent the next years in the elementary classroom and went on to earn her Master’s degree in Special Education from Boise State University in 2011. Sarah worked as an intervention specialist and Special Education teacher for the Emmett and Ontario School districts before coming to Cherry Gulch in 2017. After spending a couple of years as a history teacher, she moved to the elementary program where she taught the self-contained 5th and 6th-grade class for the last few years. Sarah has been instrumental in growing our academic programming for our youngest students at Cherry Gulch.  She currently teaches 7th grade classes as we do not have 5th or 6th graders enrolled.  

 Sarah and her husband, Kevin are parents to 6 kids. Their youngest son needed a therapeutic placement when he was 12, so Sarah is especially tender-hearted to the mothers in this process, as she remembers the difficult journey in her son’s healing. Now, Sarah and Kevin are empty nesters and enjoy spending time with their many grandchildren. They live on a small acreage where they raise their own grass-fed beef, ride horses and herd their many dogs, cats and chickens. Sarah is an arts and crafts enthusiast, is interested in Gluten-free cooking and using her Insta-pot. She and her hubby camp in their tiny teardrop trailer where they try to visit as many national monuments and parks as possible.  

Jessica is a fresh mind in the field of education as a recent graduate from Eastern Oregon University with a Bachelor’s in Science in Multidisciplinary Studies. Jess holds endorsements in Elementary Education (K-8) and English as a Second Language. She completed her first year of teaching at a local public school during COVID and is gifted with incorporating technology in the classroom, as well as supporting learners at various levels. Jessica struggled academically as a child with reading and writing. Quickly identified as a student who needed extra help, she worked hard to overcome her academic challenges. As a teacher, Jessica uses her own school experiences to motivate her work in helping students re-engage in learning and believe in themselves. 

Nevada born, but Idaho raised, Jessica loves to spend her summer days on a boat, fishing and enjoying the beautiful lakes in Idaho. She is very close with her family and enjoys spending time with her 4 dogs. Despite struggling with reading growing up, Jess is now an avid reader who often loses track of time while reading. Her favorite series is the Tiger’s Curse. 

Bio coming soon!

Brian received his Bachelor’s degree in Commercial Recreation from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1993. He began his career working with several YMCA’s and Boys’ Clubs around his hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, where he discovered a passion for working with underprivileged and disaffected youth. After a detour into the world of sales and marketing, Brian reconnected with his passion for helping young people upon discovering Cherry Gulch when he moved to his new home in Star, Idaho. 

Brian was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and spent the majority of his life in and around the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Here he developed a love of sports of all kinds, but especially New Orleans Saints football. Geaux Saints! Life eventually carried Brian and his family to Belize and Mexico for almost a decade. Landing in Idaho in 2019, he enjoys being able to share these experiences with the boys of Cherry Gulch.