Milca is a 1st/​2nd lead teacher. Milca has a B.A. in art history with a minor in anthro­pol­ogy, an M.F.A., and a Multi­ple Subject Teach­ing Creden­tial from Cali­for­nia State Univer­sity, Los Angeles. Prior to coming to Waverly, Milca substi­tute taught in Spanish Dual Immer­sion class­rooms in South Pasadena USD and was on the faculty of the Creative World Art Camp held at our campus during summer. (Email)

Maria is a 3rd/​4th asso­ciate teacher. Maria has worked with chil­dren for more than 25 years and has been with Waverly since its days as a preschool. Of her work, Maria says, ​“It gives me joy to watch the chil­dren grow year after year and see how they become passion­ate artists, confi­dent speak­ers, talented musi­cians, and kind young adults who love us all for being part of their journey.” Maria’s two daugh­ters attend Waverly: Aaliyah in 10th grade and Natalie in 12th grade. (Email)

Katie is the kinder­garten lead teacher. Katie grad­u­ated from Pitzer College with her Bachelor’s in Inter­na­tional Studies and from the Univer­sity of the Pacific/​Bay Area Teacher Train­ing Insti­tute with her Master’s in Educa­tion. Katie worked as a lead teacher at Marin Country Day School in Kinder­garten and first grade for six years prior to coming to Waverly. Katie has expe­ri­ence design­ing and imple­ment­ing curricu­lum for various grade levels in the areas of reading, writing, social studies, and math. She uses a variety of teach­ing modal­i­ties to differ­en­ti­ate instruc­tion to meet the needs of all students. Katie has expe­ri­ence creat­ing year-long social studies curric­ula for Kinder­garten and 1st grade on iden­tity, drawing upon child devel­op­ment, social justice issues, SEL, and anti-bias frameworks.

Bryce is a 5th/​6th asso­ciate teacher. Bryce holds a B.A. in strate­gic commu­ni­ca­tions from North­ern Arizona Univer­sity. Prior to joining us in the class­room, Bryce was a camp coun­selor in Waver­ly’s summer camp. Bryce has previ­ously worked as a phys­i­cal educa­tion teacher at Chan­dler School, and he has also served as a para­pro­fes­sional for the La Cañada Unified School District. (Email)

Cheenu is an elemen­tary school faculty member. She has a B.A. from the Govern­ment College for Women in Punjab, India, and has studied early child­hood devel­op­ment and educa­tion at Pasadena City College and through UCLA Exten­sion. Of Waverly’s approach to teach­ing, Cheenu says,​“Above all, we appre­ci­ate that every student will have a differ­ent path, and that it is incum­bent upon us to under­stand each student’s journey thus far as well as the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties that lie ahead. We provide students with tools to reach farther, a support­ive plat­form where they are comfort­able taking risks, and a culture of cele­brat­ing values-based deci­sions.” Cheenu loves to cook and she has two sons, one of whom also teaches at Waverly. (Email)

Malcolm is the elemen­tary school coun­selor. Malcolm earned his Bachelor’s degree from Pitzer College and a Master’s in Social Work from Smith College. Malcolm works with students, staff, and parents to provide mental health support, student mental health groups, and on-site profes­sional devel­op­ment for teach­ers and staff. Malcolm was a school-based mental health ther­a­pist at Para Los Niños Charter School in Los Angeles and is a licensed clin­i­cal social worker. Malcolm is fluent in English and Spanish and brings a range of expe­ri­ences to Waverly. (Email)

Brit­tany is a 1st/​2nd lead teacher. Brit­tany holds a B.A. in psychol­ogy and fine art/​art history from Buck­nell Univer­sity, a Multi­ple Subject Creden­tial from CalState TEACH, an Early Child­hood Educa­tion Certifi­cate from UCLA Exten­sion, and a Master’s in Teach­ing with a focus on social justice, multi­cul­tur­al­ism, and action research from Cali­for­nia State Univer­sity, Fresno. Brit­tany believes that all students should be given the space and oppor­tu­nity to love learn­ing and to realize that there is so much that can be uncov­ered through the learn­ing process. She says, ​“The class­room is set up to meet varying student needs in a variety of learn­ing expe­ri­ences. In this envi­ron­ment, students are given the space and support to take risks, ask ques­tions, and express them­selves.” (Email)

Jason is a 3rd/​4th asso­ciate teacher. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Cali­for­nia State Univer­sity, North­ridge and has worked in educa­tion for over 25 years. Before coming to Waverly, Jason spent six years working as a co-teacher in grades 3 – 5 at Braw­er­man Elemen­tary. Jason shares that he has ​“a passion for connect­ing with students and support­ing them socially and emotion­ally. When their social-emotional needs are met, their acad­e­mics begin to flourish.”

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.”