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)

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 11th grade. (Email)

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)

Joanna teaches science at the high school. She holds a B.S. and M.S., both in biochem­istry, from the Univer­sity of Cali­for­nia, Los Angeles, where she taught numer­ous under­grad­u­ate biochem­istry courses and worked in research labs in the fields of biochem­istry, organic chem­istry, and chem­i­cal engi­neer­ing. Joanna feels strongly about making science acces­si­ble and (with hope) fun for all students, and she believes Waver­ly’s focus on expe­ri­ence-based, inter­dis­ci­pli­nary learn­ing makes for an ideal envi­ron­ment for students to explore their scien­tific curios­ity and develop an appre­ci­a­tion for the often surpris­ing rele­vance of science to all parts of life. (Email)

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)

Nick teaches Math in the high school. Nick holds a bachelor’s degree from the Univer­sity of Chicago, and a master’s degree from the Univer­sity of Tennessee, Knoxville, both in econom­ics. He has taught under­grad­u­ate courses and has been involved in a great deal of fasci­nat­ing research, includ­ing with profes­sors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, authors of Freako­nom­ics. Further, he attended a progres­sive school and believes deeply in build­ing strong rela­tion­ships with students and creat­ing learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that allow students to connect deeply with the mate­r­ial. (Email)