Tammy DeRuyter to Become Full-Time Social Studies Teacher

Ms. Tammy DeRuyter, a part-time Modern World History and World Religions teacher at Good Hope Country Day School this year, will become a full-time member of our Middle and Upper School Social Studies department in August. 

Prior to moving to St. Croix a year ago, Ms. DeRuyter was an administrator in the Dean’s Office of the College of Arts & Behavioral Sciences at Michigan’s Saginaw Valley State University for 16 years, while simultaneously serving as an Adjunct Professor in the History Department, teaching survey classes of US History both early and modern.  In addition to teaching at SVSU, she taught Civil War & Reconstruction as an Adjunct Lecturer at Northwood University in Midland, MI, as well as Creative Arts & Social Entrepreneurship.

GHCDS is not only a physically beautiful place to work, but moreso, is filled with a fantastic student population and taught by talented and dedicated faculty. I am so excited to be joining the GHCDS team.

—Tammy DeRuyter

Prior to 2006, Ms. DeRuyter was a Series 7 licensed Institutional Equities Sales Assistant for a brokerage firm, and research assistant for several companies in Nashville, TN, Pasadena, CA, and Midland, MI.

A graduate of Baylor University, where she earned a Bachelor of Business Administration majoring in both Finance and International Business, Ms. DeRuyter also earned two master’s degrees, the first from Fuller Theological Seminary where she concentrated in Church History, and the second from Central Michigan University, where she earned a Master of Arts in US History.

As a perennial social worker and volunteer over the years, she has also worked with a number of community service organizations including Nashville’s Adult Illiteracy Council and Homeless in the Inner City (the latter of which she was founder); Youth with a Mission in Hawaii; and the Midland Reformed Church and Habitat for Humanity in Michigan.

Her many interests include reading, sailing, SCUBA, wood working, music, hiking, and gardening. Her husband, Mike, is pastor of the St. Croix Reformed Church. They have three young adult children: Benjamin Michael, Hannah Grace and Ben Michael (who was adopted as a 10-year old and already came with both names matching his older brother!).