Steve McKibben's eyes light up when he talks about learning.

"I think all of us are teachers in our own way," said McKibben, headmaster at Lake Tahoe School. "Be it through teaching in school or teaching as parents or learning because part of teaching is learning."

Learning and teaching have been a lifelong pursuit for McKibben, who was born in Maine and is the son of a college professor and elementary school teacher.

"I grew up without a television, reading constantly," he said. "Education has always been important and I am passionate about it. I have a hard time imagining a more fulfilling vocation."

His career has been spent in education. Before being the headmaster at Lake Tahoe School, he worked in Vermont for a nonprofit that collaborated with high-need public schools to raise student expectations and achievement. Prior to that, he mentored first-year teachers, taught English, and coached basketball and lacrosse at Taft School in Connecticut.

His passion for education is obvious in the string of letters and certifications after his name. He did his undergraduate work in English and Psychology at Wesleyan University and has earned graduate degrees from Middlebury College in English, Springfield College in Education, and from Columbia University's Independent School Leadership.

He's also a dissertation away from a doctorate in education from Columbia.

But McKibben is not without a sense of humor.

"I was trying to trade in a couple of master degrees for a doctoral but that's not the way it works," he joked with a hearty laugh.

It was while earning his graduate degree from Middlebury College in Vermont that he met his partner Andréa.

Since meeting, the couple has traveled extensively in the U.S., Europe, Iceland, and Southeast Asia; in addition, they've ridden mountain bikes up and down Nova Scotia, England, France, and Cuba.

"She's a rambling soul," he said affectionately.

Traveling is still a part of their lives as Andréa lives in Vermont with the couple's daughter, almost-four-year-old Cady Scout.

For the past three years McKibben, Andréa and Cady Scout have had a transcontinental relationship, with McKibben visiting as often as possible.

"It's worked but it's been very difficult," he said. "More difficult on Andréa than on me because she was a full-time professional and single mom."

However, Andréa resigned her position as dean at Middlebury College last summer and McKibben hopes the family will be reunited this summer.

"It's been difficult and challenging, so I'm excited for them to get up here," he said. "It's going to be wonderful."

McKibben said the couple was very deliberate when picking their daughter's name.

"One of the things that happens teaching multiple classes in multiple years is every name has a strong connotation," McKibben said. " So, in thinking about who our daughter was going to be and who we hoped we should be we came up with Cady and Scout."

Cady comes from the Acadia National Park in Maine and Scout comes from the character in Harper Lee's Pultizer Prize-winning novel "To Kill a Mocking Bird."

Scout is the protagonist of the story who believes in the goodness of people in her community.

"I hope my daughter has the integrity and courage of Harper Lee's character," McKibben said.

He describes his daughter as self-assured who knows what she wants.

For example, for Cady Scout's birthday in a few weeks, she's told her father that she wants cupcakes - with green frosting.

"I need to work on my cupcake recipe," he joked.

Lake Tahoe is one of the few places for which McKibben said he would leave rural Vermont.

"Lake Tahoe and Incline Village have everything Vermont has on a different scale in terms of recreational opportunities," McKibben said.

He has a deep love of the outdoors and is also an avid backcountry camper, biker, and skier.

The Incline Village and Lake Tahoe School community are also important to McKibben.

"We have an intimate community, small classes and extraordinary teachers," McKibben said. "We have families who are committed to the education of their children and the sense of community we try to nurture here is amazing."

He sess his role in that community as a facilitator and an educator.

"My primary job is giving teachers the resources they need in order to do what is in the best interest of the students," he said. "At Lake Tahoe School we respect the individual and honor the individual creativity in every child."