Maria is the kinder­garten 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)

Stina is a 5th/​6th co-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)

Karen is a 1st/2nd-grade lead teacher. Karen brings twenty years of expe­ri­ence leading young learn­ers in progres­sive learn­ing envi­ron­ments, creat­ing project-based learn­ing expe­ri­ences, and apply­ing research-based teach­ing prac­tices to help all students grow and learn. Karen is passion­ate about helping students discover their strengths and inter­ests and come to know them­selves as vital members of a caring commu­nity of learn­ers. She believes that ​“honor­ing the think­ing and perspec­tives of young chil­dren is the most impor­tant and the most fulfill­ing work.” Karen has a Bach­e­lor of Arts in psychol­ogy from Dart­mouth College, as well as a Master of Educa­tion in reading instruc­tion and a teach­ing creden­tial from the Univer­sity of San Fran­cisco. (Email)

Luke is a 5th/​6th co-lead teacher. He earned his B.A. from New York University’s Gallatin School of Indi­vid­u­al­ized Study with a concen­tra­tion in liter­a­ture, philos­o­phy, and psychol­ogy. Before coming to Waverly, Luke spent the last nine years teach­ing 5th and 6th grade at Braw­er­man Elemen­tary School in Los Angeles. Outside of school, Luke enjoys reading and writing, watch­ing and playing sports, and being in nature. Luke looks forward to teach­ing students to love life and the world around them. (Email)

Kelcey Wallens-Logan is a 3rd/4th-grade Asso­ciate Teacher. She grad­u­ated from Barnard College with a degree in envi­ron­men­tal science, chem­istry, and educa­tion studies, and recently earned her Cali­for­nia State Multi­ple Subject K‑8 Teach­ing Creden­tial. Kelcey is passion­ate about student-led, expe­ri­en­tial learn­ing, which allows students to develop an under­stand­ing of them­selves and the world around them. In her free time, Kelcey loves to rock climb, hike, and knit. (Email)

Erin is an asso­ciate teacher in the Elemen­tary School. More infor­ma­tion to come!

Jason is a 5th/​6th co-lead 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.” (Email)

Karen is a 5th/​6th lead teacher as well as an Elemen­tary School curricu­lum special­ist. 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)