Staff

Faculty Weatherspoon Clarke

Clarke Weath­er­spoon

Clarke is the head of school effec­tive July 1, 2022. With more than 20 years as an educa­tor, Clarke is joining us from the San Fran­cisco Friends School (SFFS), where he has served as Middle School Head for the past two years. Clarke brings tremen­dous school lead­er­ship expe­ri­ence. His passion for educa­tion and dedi­ca­tion to creat­ing ways for students to engage authen­ti­cally and invest in their learn­ing has been evident in his role as a history teacher, dean, divi­sion head, water polo coach, and commu­nity volun­teer. (Email)

Faculty Geller Molly

Molly Geller

Molly (Waverly class of 2002) is the elemen­tary school direc­tor. She has a B.A. in theol­ogy and reli­gious studies from the Univer­sity of San Fran­cisco and a teach­ing creden­tial and a Master of Educa­tion degree from Antioch Univer­sity. As a member of the Waverly commu­nity for 25 years, Molly supports and chal­lenges the students by meeting them where they are emotion­ally, socially, and acad­e­m­i­cally. (Email)

Faculty Sloboda Amy

Amy Sloboda

Amy is the middle school direc­tor. Amy has an M.F.A. in film and video from Cali­for­nia Insti­tute of the Arts and a B.A. from Univer­sity of Nevada, Las Vegas where she studied English and film. Prior to being the middle school direc­tor, Amy was the middle school dean where she supported student acad­e­mic and social-emotional growth and taught social justice and well­ness as well as the high school film­mak­ing elec­tive. Before coming to Waverly in 2013, she spent seven years at Wild­wood School in West Los Angeles where she was the Admin­is­tra­tive Direc­tor and taught the film elec­tive. She then worked as a consul­tant for Cal/​West Educa­tors, guiding inde­pen­dent school board members through the process of hiring heads of school with a strong commit­ment to promot­ing diver­sity and equity in inde­pen­dent school hiring and reten­tion prac­tices. Amy has two chil­dren, Nola and Kanaan, and two lovable dogs, Bonnie and Katie. (Email)

Faculty Watts Ralinda

Ralinda Watts

Ralinda is the high school direc­tor. She has an M.Ed. from Colum­bia Univer­sity and holds a B.S. from Cali­for­nia State Univer­sity, North­ridge, also having completed post-baccalau­re­ate research studies at UCLA. With more than 15 years of inde­pen­dent school expe­ri­ence, Ralinda has served as an advisor, teacher, admin­is­tra­tor, and mentor, as well as direc­tor of Diver­sity, Equity, and Inclu­sion. She has devel­oped K‑12 iden­tity and social justice curricu­lum, frame­works, and programs, includ­ing a 9th grade seminar course, Inter­sec­tions of Iden­tity. Ralinda is the founder of the Los Angeles Diver­sity Direc­tors’ Consor­tium and is a member of the board of trustees at Chil­dren’s Commu­nity School. She is a writer, thought leader, and speaker, contribut­ing to numer­ous publi­ca­tions. (Email)

Admin Marsille Reed 2021

Marsille Reed

Marsille is the direc­tor of enroll­ment manage­ment. He holds a B.A. in polit­i­cal science from Loyola Univer­sity New Orleans. Prior to joining Waverly, Marsille served as Interim Direc­tor of Commu­ni­ca­tions and Market­ing at Drew School in San Fran­cisco and as Asso­ciate Direc­tor of Admis­sion at Mark Day School in San Rafael. As Direc­tor of Student Services at Break­through Minneapo­lis at Blake (Minneapo­lis, MN), he was respon­si­ble for student recruit­ment. Through­out, he has coached youth, middle school, and varsity sports – foot­ball, basket­ball, and girls lacrosse. (Email)

Faculty Khoe Juli

Juli Khoe

Juli is the busi­ness manager. She has a B.A. in econom­ics from Duke Univer­sity and an M.B.A. from the Ander­son School at Univer­sity of Cali­for­nia, Los Angeles. Juli is excited that her Waverly posi­tion combines her 25 years of oper­a­tional finance expe­ri­ence in the private sector with her passion for volun­teer­ing as a trea­surer for various Pasadena-area non-profits. In her free time, Juli enjoys hiking, trav­el­ing, and explor­ing tasty L.A. restau­rants. (Email)

Faculty Hom Carolyn

Carolyn Hom

Carolyn, devel­op­ment direc­tor, has a B.A. in jour­nal­ism from the Univer­sity of South­ern Cali­for­nia. She has worked in devel­op­ment, market­ing, and public rela­tions for more than 35 years and has led fund-raising work with an array of inde­pen­dent schools. Carolyn and her husband are Pasadena resi­dents who enjoy travel and trying out the region’s many and varied restau­rants. Their son, who attended area inde­pen­dent schools, lives and works in Dallas. (Email)

Faculty Lass Elaine

Elaine Lass

Elaine has been Waverly’s direc­tor of college coun­sel­ing since 2003. She has a B.A. in psychol­ogy and educa­tion from Cham­i­nade Univer­sity of Honolulu, a Master’s degree in Educa­tional Psychol­ogy from Loyola Mary­mount Univer­sity, and a teach­ing and pupil person­nel creden­tial. Elaine has worked in college coun­sel­ing for over 30 years and still loves being a part of the chal­leng­ing appli­ca­tion process. When she’s not working she enjoys spend­ing time on the beach with her husband and chil­dren as well as visit­ing colleges to stay in tune with the student expe­ri­ence. (Email)

Faculty Aldaco Carlos

Carlos Aldaco

Carlos is the assis­tant facil­i­ties manager and Waverly’s campus super power. His work has been a key to daily life at school since he joined the staff in 2012. Carlos is a crafts­man, apply­ing skills as a tech­ni­cian, painter, plumber, elec­tri­cian, carpen­ter, and space problem solver. He fixes anything that needs it and makes major improve­ments, too, includ­ing remod­el­ing of the art studio, recon­fig­u­ra­tion of many offices and class­rooms, and instal­la­tion of the patio surface at the high school. He is unflap­pable and meets all dead­lines, even the unrea­son­able ones. When he’s not keeping Waverly running, Carlos enjoys camping with his friends and family.

Faculty Cagle Vella

Vella Cagle

Vella is the assis­tant busi­ness manager and human resources manager, and she manages tuition and fee payments and the flex­i­ble tuition program. Vella received a B.A. in history from Virginia Tech. What Vella enjoys the most about working at Waverly is the commu­nity. She says,​“I have found my home…Waverly is a place where I feel safe, valued, and where I am truly happy to be.” Vella has two daugh­ters at Waverly: Lily in kinder­garten and Hazel in 4th grade. (Email)

Faculty Caldera Danny

Danny Caldera

Danny is the facil­i­ties manager. Danny brings over 18 years of facil­i­ties expe­ri­ence to Waverly includ­ing custo­dial and facil­i­ties manage­ment at Mary­mount Univer­sity, Mount Saint Mary’s College, and other local prop­erty manage­ment firms. (Email)

Faculty Dator Jackie

Jackie Dator

Jackie is the busi­ness office assis­tant. With a back­ground primar­ily in health­care and expe­ri­ence in cler­i­cal, customer service, and finance, Jackie is excited to make the tran­si­tion into educa­tion. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jackie has a love for art, music, and travel. She enjoys hiking through forests all while taking pictures of its beauty on her camera, but she also finds peace in just sitting some­where quiet with a good book to read. And as a foodie at heart, she loves to find and expe­ri­ence new eats, whether in the area, or while out trav­el­ing. (Email)

Faculty Dennis Joseph

Joseph Dennis

Joseph is the athletic direc­tor for the middle and high schools and teaches math in the middle school. He has a B.S. in inte­grated math­e­mat­ics and a minor in math­e­mat­ics from Ohio Univer­sity. Joseph has been an expe­ri­en­tial learn­ing coor­di­na­tor, inte­grat­ing phys­i­cal educa­tion to the curricu­lum, and has also served as an affin­ity group facil­i­ta­tor. With respect to athlet­ics, Joseph has previ­ous expe­ri­ence as a Divi­sion 1 colle­giate student-athlete and coach in wrestling, and has also coached middle school foot­ball. He is excited about bring­ing expe­ri­en­tial P.E. oppor­tu­ni­ties to the high school includ­ing hiking, hula hoop, strength condi­tion­ing, and more. Joseph is passion­ate about nature preser­va­tion and envi­ron­men­tal­ism, and is looking forward to bring­ing that to the fore­front in his work with high school students. (Email)

Staff Lindsay Fruend 2021

Lindsay Freund

Lindsay is the advance­ment asso­ciate and provides full-time support for both our admis­sions and devel­op­ment offices. Lindsay has a B.A. in psychol­ogy with a minor in art from Metro­pol­i­tan State Univer­sity of Denver and comes to us with over fifteen years of expe­ri­ence in the nonprofit sector, with a demon­strated track record of provid­ing detailed and orga­nized atten­tion to small insti­tu­tions such as ours. Lindsay has a love of animals (espe­cially elephants), hiking, nature, and plant-based cooking. Lindsay keeps very busy with a 1st grader who is enrolled at Waverly. (Email)

Faculty Gause Cheryl

Cheryl Gause

Cheryl is the assis­tant to the head of school and Board of Trustees. Cheryl has more than 30 years of expe­ri­ence working as an exec­u­tive assis­tant along­side scien­tists, direc­tors, divi­sion chairs, profes­sors, researchers, admin­is­tra­tors, staff, and grad­u­ate students at JPL/NASA and Caltech. Cheryl is dedi­cated and passion­ate about her work. She has said her perfect work envi­ron­ment is a culture of respect, humil­ity, trans­parency, dedi­ca­tion, collab­o­ra­tion, and FUN. Event plan­ning is one of her passions. She has orga­nized several note­wor­thy events. Her favorites were a Noble Prize dinner, annual award banquets, and named profes­sor luncheons. Cheryl volun­teers to help indi­vid­u­als with learn­ing disabil­i­ties. She loves spend­ing time with her grand­son and enjoys music, art, and fabu­lous food. (Email)

Staff Stephanie Gutierrez

Stephanie Gutier­rez

Stephanie is our school nurse. After complet­ing her Bachelor’s degree in nursing from Cali­for­nia State Univer­sity, Fuller­ton, she worked as a nurse at St. John’s Hospi­tal in Orange, where she primar­ily worked in labor and deliv­ery. As a Regis­tered Nurse, Stephanie helps support the health of students and staff. (Email)

Faculty Jaffe Michael

Michael Jaffe

Michael serves as the regis­trar and high school curricu­lum coor­di­na­tor, in addi­tion to teach­ing high school English. He holds an M.Ed. in Curricu­lum and Instruc­tion from The Univer­sity of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in English from The Univer­sity of Cali­for­nia, Berke­ley. He is a beloved educa­tor, who prides himself on helping students move past binary ways of think­ing and inquiry, there­fore strength­en­ing their abil­i­ties to ques­tion and push back against systems of power. A native Ange­leno, he now lives in Pasadena with his wife and their two chil­dren. (Email)

Faculty Lopez Amanda

Amanda Lopez

Amanda is the elemen­tary school admin­is­tra­tive assis­tant and recep­tion­ist. Amanda earned her B.A. in creative writing at the Univer­sity of Redlands and her M.F.A. at Antioch Univer­sity Los Angeles. Her profes­sional history includes wearing many hats in the publish­ing indus­try, includ­ing her ongoing role as book editor and publish­ing house direc­tor for the online publi­ca­tion The Nasiona. Through the stories she publishes and with the authors she works with, her mission is to uplift and amplify the voices of margin­al­ized groups. She is thrilled to be a part of a commu­nity that shares her values and commit­ment to making posi­tive change. When away from the computer, Amanda enjoys reading, listen­ing to live music, and prais­ing her dogs for their effort­less adora­bil­ity. (Email)

Faculty Matos Christine

Chris­tine Matos

Chris­tine is the high school admin­is­tra­tive assis­tant and service-learn­ing coor­di­na­tor. Chris­tine is a grad­u­ate of Cali­for­nia State Univer­sity, North­ridge, where she earned her degree in child and adoles­cent devel­op­ment. She has worked on numer­ous projects and campaigns at the inter­sec­tion of market­ing, tech­nol­ogy, and customer rela­tions. Chris­tine has culti­vated mean­ing­ful volun­teer oppor­tu­ni­ties with orga­ni­za­tions such as The Midnight Mission, Homeboy Indus­tries, and is looking forward to forging new part­ner­ships for our students to engage in. In her spare time, she enjoys party plan­ning, camping, paint­ing, and loves embark­ing on new adven­tures with her partner and her dog! (Email)

Faculty Rogers Aaron

Aaron Rodgers

Aaron is the middle school assis­tant and data­base coor­di­na­tor. They bring to Waverly a broad range of expe­ri­ences in infor­ma­tion tech­nol­ogy, donor data­bases, customer service, and after school and summer camp programs in progres­sive school settings. Aaron has lived all over Los Angeles and still has more to explore. In their free time, they love to hike and camp. (Email)