Meet the Faculty

2022-2023

Commit­ted to a human­is­tic approach, our high school teach­ers encour­age their students to be creative, self-disci­plined, and inde­pen­dent intel­lec­tu­als capable of high acad­e­mic achieve­ment and personal growth. Faculty share and model life­time learn­ing by devel­op­ing new classes and working with students on a range of activ­i­ties outside of class.

Faculty Ajugu Immaculata

Immac­u­lata Ajuogu

Immac­u­lata teaches human­i­ties in the high school. Immac­u­lata was born and raised in Nigeria and has been living in the U.S. for over 16 years. She received her Bachelor’s in public health from the Univer­sity of Wash­ing­ton and her Master’s in anthro­pol­ogy, with a focus on global health and studies, from Case Western Univer­sity. In her spare time, she enjoys poetry, trav­el­ing, dancing, reading, and engag­ing in research. As a scholar of anthro­pol­ogy and its impact on public health, and with the highest of confi­dence, she is convinced that Niger­ian Jollof rice (not any other jollof) will change every­one’s life for the better!

Faculty Boateng Lydia

Lydia Boateng

Lydia is Waver­ly’s school coun­selor. Lydia holds a B.A. in Africana Studies from Bing­ham­ton Univer­sity as well as an M.S. in Social Admin­is­tra­tion from Case Western Reserve Univer­sity. Lydia is a native of New York City and a recent trans­plant to the area, moving from north­east Ohio where she served in multi­ple roles, includ­ing school liaison, school based ther­a­pist, and asso­ciate teacher coun­selor. In her roles, she has coun­seled chil­dren and adoles­cents with mild to severe behav­ioral, mood, and trauma-stres­­­sor related disor­ders. She has provided indi­vid­ual and group sessions to K‑12 students, supported fami­lies with commu­nity resources, mental health tech­niques, and collab­o­rated with teach­ers and parents on devel­op­ing behav­ioral inter­ven­tions and emotional support for students. She is excited to join the Waverly commu­nity where she will be working collab­o­ra­tively to bring advi­sory program­ming to the high school. Lydia loves to serve in her church commu­nity, travel the world, and play sports in her free time. (Email)

Faculty Harrison Greg

Greg Harri­son

Greg teaches science at the high school. He has a B.S. in aero­nau­ti­cal and astro­nau­ti­cal engi­neer­ing from M.I.T. and an M.S. in aero­space engi­neer­ing from the Univer­sity of South­ern Cali­for­nia. Greg served in the Air Force and then worked at NASA’s Jet Propul­sion Labo­ra­tory as a space­craft engi­neer. Greg tran­si­tioned to becom­ing an educa­tor when he asked himself, What can I do to make the world a better place?” His answer: I am intensely curious about our natural world, and I love learn­ing new things and explor­ing deeper. I was drawn to educa­tion because I enjoy sharing my love of finding things out.” Greg’s sons are part of the Waverly commu­nity – Kazuo 21 and Eiji in 12th grade. (Email)

Faculty Jaffe Michael

Michael Jaffe

Michael is a high school English teacher and also serves as the regis­trar and high school curricu­lum coor­di­na­tor. 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. In 2021, he was honored to be a recip­i­ent of a Michael LaPrade Holo­caust Educa­tion Fellow­ship through the Anti-Defama­tion League, becom­ing a member of the second-ever cohort of Holo­caust educa­tors in the South­ern Cali­for­nia region. Michael has over 15 years of expe­ri­ence in the English class­room and has taught at the commu­nity college and high school levels. For the past 10 years, he taught at The Buckley School in Sherman Oaks. 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, also an English teacher, and their two chil­dren. (Email)

Faculty Johnson Jennifer

Jennifer Johnson

Jennifer is the learn­ing special­ist for kinder­garten through 12th grade. Jennifer has a Cali­for­nia Teach­ing Creden­tial, a Master’s in teach­ing, and certi­fi­ca­tion as an educa­tional ther­a­pist. Led to a career in educa­tion by a life­long fasci­na­tion with the many differ­ent ways people think and learn, Jennifer is happi­est when around chil­dren and teens and believes that most kids are natu­rally curious and seek chal­lenges to stretch them­selves. To support them, she explains,​“Often, you just need to give them the time and space to follow their curios­ity. For chil­dren who may find them­selves facing tasks which are too chal­leng­ing, what is often needed is support in build­ing the skills to feel capable of meeting a chal­lenge.” (Email)

Faculty Knight Jack

Jack Knight

Jack teaches high school math. He has a B.S. in math­e­mat­ics and physics from the Univer­sity of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, a Diploma in Math­e­mat­ics (part 1) from the Univer­sity of Auck­land (New Zealand), and a Diploma of Teach­ing in Math­e­mat­ics, Physics, and Chem­istry from Teacher’s College in New Zealand. Jack enjoys teach­ing at Waverly because the students are friendly and honest in sharing their thoughts.” (Email)

Faculty Morris Kate

Kate Morris

Kate teaches science and math in the high school. Kate earned her B.A. in cultural anthro­pol­ogy from the Univer­sity of Cali­for­nia, Santa Cruz and obtained her M.A. in multi­cul­tural educa­tion from Sacra­mento State Univer­sity. Kate aims to make educa­tion inter­est­ing, engag­ing and acces­si­ble for every­one. She has been working in educa­tion for almost 20 years, and has taught courses on the colle­giate level and most recently at Tree Academy, a progres­sive school in West Holly­wood. When not teach­ing or research­ing about educa­tion, Kate can be found trav­el­ing, walking for hours through cities, the coun­try­side, or the forest taking photos and making art.

Faculty Repique Kathy 2

Kathy Repique

Kathy teaches middle and high school math. Kathy has a B.S. in Math­e­mat­ics with a Minor in Music from Loma Linda Univer­sity, an M.A. in Applied Math­e­mat­ics from Univer­sity of Cali­for­nia, Santa Barbara, and an Ed.D. in Lead­er­ship for Educa­tional Justice from Univer­sity of Redlands. Addi­tion­ally, Kathy holds a Cali­for­nia single-subject teach­ing creden­tial in Math­e­mat­ics and certi­fi­ca­tion in cross-cultural language and acad­e­mic devel­op­ment. A self-described math nerd, Kathy lives in Los Angeles with her partner Jon and her dog Barney. (Email)

Faculty Roblero Andres

Andrés Roblero Villalobos

Andrés teaches Spanish and AP Spanish language and culture at the high school. He is a native of Costa Rica and grad­u­ated from the Univer­sity of La Salle with a degree in busi­ness and inter­na­tional market­ing. Andrés loves to inspire students to deepen their under­stand­ing of crit­i­cal aspects of Hispanic culture and language. In turn, Andrés says, Waverly students inspire me because of their humil­ity, consis­tency, work ethic, and deter­mi­na­tion in every­thing they do.” (Email)

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Ryan Schwarzrock

Ryan teaches U.S. history/​APUSH and 9th grade English. Ryan received his Bachelor’s in English from the Univer­sity of Cali­for­nia, Berke­ley. He contin­ued his passion for history and English, complet­ing both his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Univer­sity of Exeter, in England, focus­ing his research and studies on liter­ary study and trans­la­tion with his thesis titled: Chron­i­cle and Conflict in Twelfth-Century León‑Castile.” Prior to coming to Waverly, Ryan taught history as an adjunct profes­sor at Long Beach City College. In his spare time, Ryan enjoys surfing, reading, and spend­ing time with his family.

Faculty Sedivy Amy

Amy Sedivy

Amy teaches English and creative writing at the high school. She received a B.A. and M.A in English, with an empha­sis in writing from Cali­for­nia State Univer­sity, North­ridge and taught for over six years at the college level. Her fiction has been published in both print and online liter­ary jour­nals. Her son, Rylan, grad­u­ated from Waverly in 2010. Amy shares her love for stories with her students and encour­ages them to see the world from many differ­ent perspec­tives. (Email)

Faculty Young Briana

Briana Young

Briana teaches psychol­ogy, art history, and human nature (philos­o­phy) at the high school. She also serves as the coor­di­na­tor of the well­ness program and teaches weekly yoga classes for students. Briana holds a B.A. in art history, an A.A. in devel­op­men­tal psychol­ogy, and has grad­u­ate-level expe­ri­ence in social work. She encour­ages her students to adopt a broad lens on human behav­ior and history, utiliz­ing the spec­trums of a micro/​macro lens. She encour­ages students to unpack the intri­ca­cies of what it means to be human with curios­ity, self-reflec­tion, and compassion.