High School

Jane Bauman joined the high school English faculty in fall 2005 and added Director of College Counseling to her teaching duties in the fall of 2012. 

Before coming to Country Day, she worked in undergraduate admissions at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she specialized in international admissions. 

Bauman has also taught English as a Second Language in a variety of university programs at University of Nevada, Las Vegas; University of Nevada, Reno; University of Nevada Reno, International Division in Japan; Texas Wesleyan College; and Strayer College (Washington, D.C.).

Bauman has a Master’s degree in teaching English as a Second Language from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in French literature from UC Santa Cruz. She is also a member of the Northern Nevada Writing Project. 

Having lived and studied abroad in Japan, Ecuador, and France, she considers study abroad a transformative experience that all students should consider. She is also an avid theatergoer and longtime member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. 

B.A., Mt. Holyoke College; M.S., Pace University; J.D., Widener University School of Law

B.A., California State University, Sacramento

Maria Berenice Hoyos is the 5th grade orchestra and  High School chamber music teacher at Country Day. She also works with the Napa Valley Language Academy teaching cello, with Oasis Music Inc providing cello, violin lessons  and live performances, and collaborates with local churches and organizations preparing different performances and musical events.

She plays the cello at Camellia Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Napa Valley. Her professional experience spans more than 30 years of both teaching and performing during which she established a reputation as an outstanding performer and successful teacher.

She is a member of several associations, including, but not limited to, the Federation of Professional Musicians, the Suzuki Association of the Americas, the California Music Teachers Associations and the American String Teachers Association. 

Maria earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in cello performance and she completed several courses of Suzuki teacher training at Stanford University in California, in Texas and Utah. She participated in Summer chamber and orchestra studies at San Francisco Conservatory and Nevada University in Las Vegas.

Chris Kuipers is chair of the Country Day history department and serves as the Associate Director of College Counseling. He teaches 9th grade World History, AP United States History, and AP European History. In his college counseling role, he advises and supports students and their families through the college planning and application processes. He is also the proud father of a Country Day student.

Before coming to Country Day in 2010, Chris taught history and served as department head at Stoneleigh-Burnham School, an independent boarding and day school for girls in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

In addition to his teaching experience, Chris also worked for several years in the admission offices of Amherst College and Stanford University. At both institutions, Chris managed regional territories and served on the admissions selection committees, reading and evaluating over a thousand applications annually. Chris also previously worked as the Assistant Director of Alumni and Parent Programs at Amherst College.

Chris earned his Bachelor’s degree in history from Amherst College, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He wrote a senior honors thesis on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s understanding of the American Civil War under the guidance of professor David Blight, one of the world’s leading scholars on the Civil War and historical memory. Chris also earned a Master of Education with a focus on Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Chris was named the National History Day Teacher of the Year in Sacramento County in 2018. He has also been twice selected by his students as a “Lifer Honoree” at Country Day and was awarded the “Faculty Appreciation Prize” by his students at Stoneleigh-Burnham School.

When he’s not enjoying time with his family or honing his pedagogy, Chris loves to run, read, watch sports, and dominate the Country Day fantasy football league.

B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology; M.A., University of California, Santa Barbara; California Teaching Credential

Jo Melinson has been working in libraries for over 28 years. She started working at Country Day in 1994, and since 2007 has been the 6th – 12th grade librarian. She has been the High School Literary Magazine Adviser since 2000, and the High School Scholar Inclusion Co-Coordinator since 2019.

The mission of the library is to foster lifelong learning, which the library team does through encouraging a love of reading as well as building a strong foundation for research. Jo collaborates often with teachers and students on research projects, trains students and faculty on the use of library resources, and has conducted Q & A sessions with guest speakers. She is very interested in inclusion, diversity, and equity and has served on the school’s IDEA committee since 2000 (as the founding chair from 2000-2007).

She is a member of the Association of Independent School Librarians (AISL) as well as Bay Area Independent School Librarians (BAISL), where she is on the High School eBook Committee. In October 2019, she was a panelist on the Education Week webinar, Activate Student Success with Database Access. She presented on Library Remodels at the 2015 BAISL annual meeting. She was also one of the subjects of the Lisa Peet article for Library Journal, “Conspiring to Educate: Working Together for Transitioning Students”

Jo earned her B.A. in English with a writing concentration at La Salle University in Philadelphia. Before working at Country Day, Jo worked at Rutgers Law Library in Camden, NJ and Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science (now University of the Sciences) in Philadelphia. She also was a freelance editor and writer in Philadelphia and had a resume writing business. 

Jo loves crafting, playing ukulele, and spending time with family, especially on road trips. Her daughter attended Country Day for second through 12th grades. 

B.A., Wesleyan University

Patricia Portillo serves as Country Day’s High School Spanish Teacher. She is responsible for creating and implementing curriculum for Spanish I, II, III, IV and AP Spanish Language and Culture. Patricia is a Co-Coordinator of the Scholar Inclusion Program along with Joanne Melinson.

Before coming to Country Day in 2008, Patricia worked at Rosemont High School. She was a faculty member at Trinity University in Washington D.C. after finishing her Ph.D. at Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While finishing her Ph.D., Patricia taught undergraduate level classes at Temple University, and at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned a Master’s degree in Spanish from the University of California, Riverside while teaching at Rancho Cucamonga High School. Patricia obtained a California Single Subject Teaching Credential from California State University, Fullerton and earned her B.A. in Spanish from the University of California, Irvine.

Her favorite college experiences were reading Latin American and Spanish literature with her classmates, and exploring aspects of language and power in her graduate courses at Temple University.

“What I love about teaching is being able to see students grow emotionally and intellectually, and to be able to help them see the world from the angle of a Spanish speaker. As becoming bilingual is often the end result in their years studying Spanish at Country Day,” she says.

Patricia was born and raised in El Salvador. She has traveled to Guatemala, Spain, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, England and most recently, China. To her, “traveling is one of the best ways to understand others, our own culture, and why we live the way we live.” Patricia also enjoys her free time hiking and gardening.

Bonnie Stewart is an award-winning journalist, author and educator with 30 years of experience as an investigative reporter and university professor. She earned a George Polk Award for stories she and an investigative partner wrote for the Indianapolis Star, uncovering the city’s high animal shelter euthanasia rates and financial malfeasance at the Indianapolis Humane Society. While teaching at West Virginia University, she investigated a coal mining disaster and the West Virginia University Press published her nonfiction book, “No.9: the 1968 Farmington Coal Mine Disaster.” During her research, she uncovered new evidence that explained why the mine exploded and 78 men died. Families of the dead filed a new lawsuit against the coal company, which subpoenaed Stewart’s unpublished reporting records. In court, her attorney argued Reporter’s Privilege, and the court ruled against coal company. Stewart has won dozens of awards while reporting in Indianapolis and for the Press-Enterprise in Riverside and Oregon Public Broadcasting. She was the adviser for the award-winning Daily Titan at California State University, Fullerton before semi-retiring to Sacramento to be near family. She has two grandchildren at Country Day. Stewart holds a Master’s Degree in English from California State University, Sacramento.