Rebecca is a 3rd/​4th lead teacher. She received a B.A. from San Fran­cisco State Univer­sity in psychol­ogy and art. With an inter­est in devel­op­men­tal psychol­ogy, Rebecca taught preschool for seven years, followed by teach­ing the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th grades in San Fran­cisco, Brook­lyn, and Los Angeles. Rebecca has partic­i­pated in diverse educa­tional train­ing over her 15-year career, includ­ing Jewish educa­tor train­ing, Reggio Emilia, Reader and Writer’s Work­shop, Respon­sive Class­room, Bill David­son Math, and anti-bias train­ing. When Rebecca isn’t teach­ing, she can often be found baking pie for her small pie company, called Piety. (Email)

Stina is a 5th/​6th lead teacher. Stina has a B.A. in English and a Cali­for­nia Single Subject Teach­ing Creden­tial in Language Arts from Cali­for­nia State Univer­sity, Los Angeles. Stina is commit­ted to creat­ing emer­gent, project-based social studies units that empha­size multi­ple perspec­tives and crit­i­cal think­ing and to engag­ing her students in service-learn­ing projects. She is passion­ate about progres­sive, student-centered educa­tion. (Email)

Gisselle is a 1st/​2nd asso­ciate teacher. She earned her Bach­e­lor’s degree in psychol­ogy from Mount Saint Mary’s Univer­sity. Before start­ing at Waverly, she interned at Chil­dren’s Bureau and helped run the Library and Family Enrich­ment Program. She started at Waverly as a substi­tute teacher and worked for the summer camp. Gisselle loves to read, go to concerts, and spend her time watch­ing movies. Her hope is to make sure every student feels seen and heard and to know how impor­tant it is for them to be them­selves. (Email)

Dharinne is a 3rd/​4th lead teacher. Dharinne has a B.A. in human devel­op­ment and a Multi­ple Subject Teach­ing Creden­tial from Pacific Oaks College. She will complete a Certifi­cate in Educa­tional Therapy at Univer­sity of Cali­for­nia, River­side this fall. In addi­tion to teach­ing in elemen­tary class­rooms, Dharinne has devel­oped and imple­mented eques­trian programs for Tom Sawyer Camps and has also served as a Behav­ioral Ther­a­pist in the B.L.A.S.T. Program. Dharinne has a back­ground in Visions Inclu­siv­ity Train­ing and Respon­sive Class­room, and she is commit­ted to child-centered educa­tion. (Email)

Millie is an asso­ciate teacher in the kinder­garten class­room. Millie was previ­ously an elemen­tary school music teacher and long-term substi­tute at Waverly. She also has previ­ous expe­ri­ence working in summer camps and children’s theater work­shops. Millie loves to read, write, explore nature, and create murder mystery parties. Her ​“fore­most hope this year is to instill in our students empathy for them­selves as well as others.” (Email)

Claire is a 5th/​6th asso­ciate teacher. (Email)

Karen is a 5th/​6th lead teacher. Karen grad­u­ated from Arizona State Univer­sity with a Bachelor’s in Human and Family Devel­op­ment as well as a Master’s of Educa­tion, Educa­tional Admin­is­tra­tion and Super­vi­sion. Karen has been teach­ing for the last 18 years and, prior to coming to Waverly, was teach­ing and working as the Direc­tor of Educa­tional Initia­tives at Braw­er­man Elemen­tary School since 2016. In this role, she taught in the upper elemen­tary and provided support and coach­ing for the 1st-6th grade teach­ers in curricu­lum and instruc­tion. She has researched curric­ula, imple­mented project-based learn­ing, and culti­vated a devel­op­men­tally appro­pri­ate program empha­siz­ing whole child expe­ri­ences. She also brings her expe­ri­ence working with BLAST (a social skills program that works with chil­dren with and without diag­noses to build their social-emotional, inter­per­sonal, and conflict-reso­lu­tion skills). As an educa­tor, ​“I firmly believe that every student is capable of excel­lence; acad­e­mic, behav­ioral, and emotional excel­lence.” (Email)