Sacramento Country Day School

Haley Roeder is the Lower School Art Assistant and ASE Counselor. She recently graduated from Sacramento State University with a B.A. in History and is pursuing a Master of Arts in Education with a focus in Behavioral Science and Gender Equity.

Faten Ghariani was born and raised in Tunis, Tunisia, to bilingual parents. She studied Law at the University of Law and Political Sciences of Tunis and obtained her B. A in 2001, her first master’s degree in Intellectual Property Law in 2003, and her second master’s degree in International Contracts in 2005. During her years at the university, she taught French tutoring courses for elementary and high school students. She worked for over 10 years for a TV broadcaster in Tunisia as a chief legal officer and taught several law courses in French for three years at the university where she studied.

She has been an educator for several NGOs of socio-professional integration programs. Her passion for cinema led her to work on several film productions and to cofound a production company with her filmmaker husband in 2010. She moved with her husband and their two kids to the United States in the summer of 2017, where she started her preferred career as a French teacher in the Alliance Francaise, an institutional French school. She joined Sacramento Country Day School as the Middle School French teacher in the 2021-22 school year.

Ryan decided to become a teacher dedicated to engaging, hands-on, and discovery-based learning because as a middle school student he often felt bored and disengaged from school. He believes that students should have a voice in their education and that they should be allowed to discover and pursue the topics and inquiries that naturally interest them. Ryan has a B.A. in History from Bethany College and M.Ed. in Administration and Policy Study from the University of Pittsburgh.

Prior to joining Country Day, Ryan spent four years at Alta Vista School in San Francisco teaching 5th-8th grade history. Ryan also previously worked at a private boarding school in West Virginia where he taught 6th-grade history, coached middle school soccer and basketball, and was the Associate Head of the Boarding Department. When he is not teaching, he enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, traveling, trying new food, going to Kings games, and cheering for his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers.

With over 23 years of extraordinary high school teaching experience, Jo French joins our world class STEM faculty. Holding a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University, an MS in Sociology from Stanford University, and a MBA from Stanford University, Jo has a unique combination of exceptional academic training, real-world experience, and passion for high school education. When he is not gently leading students through the most complex mathematics, he enjoys board games, puzzles, designing escape rooms, and exploring new places with his dog, Fritz. We are so fortunate to have Jo join our faculty and we welcome him to the SCDS team.

Christopher Arns joins us to teach 9th grade history and AP United States History. An experienced educator, Christopher recently taught English and History at St. Francis High School, as well as multiple college-level political science courses at Sacramento State University, Napa Valley College, and Folsom Lake College. Christopher holds an MA in International Affairs from Sacramento State University and a BA in English from California Polytechnic University. When he is not providing a compassionate and dynamic learning environment for his students, he enjoys playing the banjo, gardening, and cooking. We welcome Christopher, his wife Jaymie, and two daughters, Cam and Violet, into our community.

Michael Unti has taught Computer Science, Robotics, and Ethics for 10 years. He holds a Master’s Degree from Boston College, as well as a Bachelor’s from Saint Bonaventure University and is working towards a Master’s in STEM Education at NC State University. He enjoys traveling and has studied abroad at Oxford University, England, as well as the Colegio de Espana in Salamanca, Spain.  

Richele graduated from Sacramento State with a BA in Liberal Studies and has been in the field of education since 1997. Originally from the Bay Area, she and her husband, Jason, have two energetic boys, ages 11 and 5. Mrs. Cooley loves taking her boys on adventures or spending time at the beach.

Richele says, “Second grade will be a year to grow together and I hope to inspire my students to continue their passion for learning. I strive to create a positive, collaborative learning community in which all students feel welcome, respected, and able to do their very best learning. I cannot wait to take this journey with you.”

Emily Wilson is excited to continue her work as Associate Director of Admission and help new families learn more about Sacramento Country Day. Emily has a strong public relations and communications background and is an experienced community member with children in all three divisions. In her spare time, Emily loves to read.

Taratip Adams serves as one of Country Day’s Learning Specialists for middle and high school. She works closely with students to help them reach their fullest potential, as well as partners with teachers and families to provide instructional strategies that work best for their learners. 

Prior to her big move to California in 2016, she worked in Illinois as a 5th grade teacher. She was a member of the IEP team and also partnered with local schools to bring in 1-to-1 technology for all middle school students. She was the head of the 5th grade science department, bringing more hands-on learning into the classroom. Before coming to Country Day in the spring of 2019, she served as a classroom teacher at Charles Armstrong School, a Bay Area school for students with learning differences. 

She earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Western Illinois University and will soon earn her Master’s in Educational and Interdisciplinary Studies. She also has endorsements in Middle School Education, Social Science, and Language Arts. 

Her mother is her biggest role model and is grateful to have experienced living in Thailand for seven years, where she learned to cook and live like the locals.

“Food is what brings people together and my mother always tells people that if you want to make someone happy, bring them some of my Pad Thai!” she says.

Tara’s current hobbies include cooking, rock climbing, or binge watching one of her favorite reality TV shows. 

Erin Post is happy to be joining the Pre-Kindergarten team. She has previous experience working in First grade and Pre-Kindergarten, and spent a summer as a camp counselor at Country Day. She has also spent valuable time at home raising her three young children and volunteering in their classrooms. One of her favorite volunteer activities was her role as an Art Docent, where she taught lower elementary students about various artists and their techniques, then guided the students through a related art lesson. 

Erin is a true believer in developing the whole child. She believes that creating a safe community within the classroom allows students to develop appropriate social/emotional skills and thus feel safe enough to take risks in their academic learning.  She loves the emphasis that Country Day places on community, experiential learning and developing all aspects of a child’s self. 

When she is not in the classroom or shuttling her kids to and from activities, Erin enjoys reading, gardening, exercising and exploring new places with her husband. She is also enjoying challenging herself as she attempts to re-learn the Spanish language through online tutoring. 

Erin earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Scripps College and her Multiple Subject teaching credential with CLAD at California State University, Sacramento. 

A uniquely talented educator, Diego Panasiti brings a wide-range of extraordinary talents to Country Day. An experienced Spanish teacher and a Latin-American literature and culture specialist with a B.A. from Rutgers University and a M.A. from the University of Maryland, Diego adds to our Spanish program and helps build our 10th grade humanities curriculum towards a remarkable study of global migration. As a skilled wilderness guide and trained first-responder, Diego will also add a layer of safety to our campus and will potentially help develop our outdoor education program. 

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.

Alma Ponce joined Country Day in 2020-21 as a Lower School substitute teacher. For the 2022-23 school year, she will take on the role of Middle School electives teacher and will teach Kindergarten through 2nd grade art.

Maisae has 25 years’ experience as an administrator and teacher in U.S. and international Independent schools including Vision International School in Qatar, Ibn Khuldoon National School in Bahrain, American International School in Pakistan, St. Catherine of Siena School in Reading, Pennsylvania, and Caribbean School in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Maisae is an educator with a passion for early childhood and elementary education. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature and master’s degrees in Translation and Interpretation from the University of Aleppo and in Teaching from Marygrove College in Detroit.

Rachelle Doyle has served as the Director of Advancement for Sacramento Country Day School since 2018. She provides leadership for all fundraising, alumni, and board of trustees relations. With her team, she oversees planning for the school’s fundraising efforts, including the annual Country Day Fund, capital campaign, endowment, alumni giving, grants, special projects, and planned giving. Rachelle works on providing strategic direction for all aspects of Country Day’s Advancement. 

Before coming to Country Day in 2018, Rachelle served as a Director of Development for Sacramento Waldorf School. Prior to that, she worked for 10 years in marketing and advertising. 

Rachelle earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Media Communications from California State University, Sacramento, Masters degree in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University, and a Fundraising and Development Certificate from U.C. Davis. 

Rachelle is dedicated to making a positive impact: at Country Day, in her home, in Sacramento, and in the world. She loves philanthropy and building relationships and brings passion to her work. 

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. 

Phoebe Howe is a lifelong learner and longtime educator, born and raised in Massachusetts, she began teaching in high school, as a volunteer summer school reading helper. Phoebe has a BA in Latin American Studies from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where she started the English Language Learners Tutoring Program at a local middle school. After completing her TEFL/TESOL certification, Phoebe traveled to northern Honduras and taught English as a Foreign Language for three years. In addition to that, Phoebe was a Farm Educator, assisting in the development and implementation of several new outdoor education curriculums.

Tess Kahn teaches Middle School History, 6th grade Ancient History and 8th grade U.S. History. She also teaches the Crafting and Culture Around the World elective. 

Before joining the Country Day community in fall of 2019, she worked at the Long Trail School in Dorset, Vermont. She worked there for six years serving the last four as the history department chair and taught everything from 8th grade World History to 12th Grade IB History of the Americas. 

She earned her Bachelor’s in History from Wells College in Aurora, New York and her masters in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester in England. She has worked in museums including the Sutton House in London, the Museums of Old York in Bath, Maine and the Dana House Museum and Woodstock History Center in Woodstock, Vermont. She shifted her focus to teaching when she went back to school and earned her Masters in Teaching from the Upper Valley Graduate Institute.

“Working in museums allowed me to engage with my love of ‘hands-on history’. However, after working as a collections manager focusing mainly with database development, I realized my love of history came from engaging people with the complicated task of understanding how history fits into our understanding of our place in the world today. This is what lead me to my career in teaching,” she says.

Tess’s current hobbies include traveling, cooking one new dish a week and spending time exploring the local area and history. 

May Mercury is a Pre-K Teaching Assistant at Country Day. They have worked at several preschools in the Sacramento area since graduating from Portland State University with a Bachelors in Child, Youth and Family Studies and a minor in Sociology.

In their free time, they love both performing in and watching musical theater, playing with their dog and learning new things!

Adie Renteria is one of Country Day School’s Learning Specialists. She works to support students and teachers throughout the lower school. She is responsible for overseeing AimsWeb testing, writing learning profiles for students who need extra accommodations, meeting with teachers and parents to develop learning plans for students, and working with students one-on-one and in small groups. 

Before coming to Country Day School in 2019, she worked at Trevor Day School in New York City as the K-2 Learning Specialist where she helped the lower school faculty review and modify the literacy curriculum, monitored assessments, and worked with students in small groups and one-on-one as a Reading Recovery Teacher. She had a private tutoring practice for students of all ages and has previous experience as a First Grade Teacher. 

Adie earned a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Language and Literature from Princeton University with a certificate in Latin American Studies. The best part of her college experience was working with the award-winning poets, C.K. Williams and Paul Muldoon, in the Creative Writing Department, and the Argentinean author, Ricardo Piglia, in the Spanish Department to translate the work of the Argentinian poet, Alejandra Pizarnik, for her senior thesis. 

Adie had always dreamed of becoming a teacher so she joined the New York City Teaching Fellows as soon as she graduated from Princeton and spent two years teaching at an inner-city school in the South Bronx. She earned a Master of Science in Childhood Education from Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York and a Master of Education with a specialization in Literacy from Bank Street College of Education in New York City. 

Adie’s current hobbies include indoor cycling, yoga, baking, reading, and biking along the American River with her family. 
 

Bri grew up in San Jose and relocated to Sacramento to pursue her Bachelor’s degree at Sac State. She studied Child Development and minored in counseling. Bri has a handful of years of experience working at the preschool level, however she is eager to explore child development at the second grade level at Country Day! When not working, Bri enjoys spending time with my friends and family outdoors on hikes and watching baseball. She has various houseplants and succulents at home that she tends to and enjoy! 

Amanda Leidolph holds the position of assistant for Sue Lorens’ wonderfully rambunctious Kindergarten class.  During her days in the classroom, Amanda loves handing out warm fuzzies for acts that fill her bucket, and she appreciates being reminded that not everything adults do has come about easily.  She gets to enliven her life and be energized by the excitement of the children, clean up after said excitement, and then promptly goes home to collapse on the couch with her cat, Harper.

Amanda is a deliberator of all things, and spent her first several college years changing majors and earning Associate’s degrees at American River College.  That is, until she took an introductory psychology class and realized that she actually may be able to figure out what the heck is going on. Clinging to that hope, Amanda moved on to get her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, magna cum laude at California State University, Sacramento. Shortly after, she began volunteering at the Sacramento Crisis Nursery where she remained for eight years.

On the weekends, Amanda loves to cook and bake, mostly because she loves to eat.  Since high school, Amanda has worked in a restaurant where her love of food and a satisfaction of waiting on people (seriously!) brought this shy and awkward couch surfer some much needed social skills.

When Amanda isn’t trying to catch up on the wondrous glory that is sleep, or baking and cooking, she likes to plan adventures, host game nights, and shop for things she’ll never buy.

She is an INFJ, a Type 2, a Capricorn, her favorite doctor is Tennant, and she would probably be sorted into Hufflepuff.

B.S., University of Minnesota

Amanda Ashdown is a 4th grade teacher at Sacramento Country Day School. She has taught 4th grade most of her teaching career, taught 1st and 2nd grades, and has worked as a reading support teacher. 

Amanda received her Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Baptist Bible College, and a teaching credential from the State of Missouri for grades 1-6. She has completed additional training from Schools Attuned to All Kinds of Minds, Responsive Classroom, and The Neuhaus Education Center.  

When not at school, Amanda loves to spend time running, reading, and watching tv (shhh!). Now as a working mom, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two daughters, who are currently attending Country Day.

Edward Bolman is a 6th grade teacher. He teaches 6th grade Math and History and is a 6th grade advisor. Additionally, he also serves as the Middle School Dean of Students and the Department Chair of the Middle School Math Department.

Edward has been teaching for more than twenty three years. Two of those years were spent in the People’s Republic of China teaching in the Chinese Public School system where he was also responsible for managing 20 expatriate teachers. He has been a teacher in the Country Day Middle School for more than 15 years.

He earned his A.A. at Sierra College and his B.A. from San Francisco State University. Edward also has earned SSAT, CSET, CBEST, and Praxis certifications from SFSU as part of their teacher training program.

Stephanie Castillo is a part of our pre-kindergarten team at Sacramento Country Day School.  Before joining the pre-K team at Country Day School, she worked as an early childhood specialist and interventionist to support children of all abilities into a fully inclusive preschool program within the Sacramento City Unified School District. As a part of her work in the classroom, she gave technical assistance to other early childhood programs in the state of California in developing their own inclusive programs and practices as a consultant with the Sacramento County Office of Education in their SEEDS program (Supporting Early Childhood Delivery Systems).  During her 12 years as a teacher there, she was the recipient of the SCUSD Above and Beyond Award as well as Supported Life Inclusion Award for her dedication, vision and belief in inclusive communities.  

She earned her Master of Education and Early Childhood Specialist Teaching Credential at California State University, Sacramento and her Bachelor of Arts in Law and Society with a Criminal Justice emphasis from University of California, Santa Barbara.  While in Santa Barbara she was the Co-President of the UCSB CAB (Community Affairs Board) where she helped to plan, support and promote volunteerism within the school and surrounding community. 

Stephanie grew up in Stockton, California but has lived in Sacramento for over 20 years and considers this her home.  When not creating magic with our youngest students, she can be found taking her daughter, who is a Country Day student, to her after school activity du jour, going on a ‘real quick run’ around the park, doting over her cat(s), or scrapbooking memories into the wee hours of the night. 

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

B.A., Menlo College; M.A. Hunter College

Charles Farris joins Country Day to lead our Computer Science program. As a QuestBridge Scholar, Charles earned his BA with a double major in Computer Science and Spanish Language and Culture from Wesleyan University. Charles has experience teaching coding, software development, game design, as well as leading courses in bilingual education. An expert chess player, avid musician, and strong athlete, Charles will add passion and creativity to many areas of our campus.

Sarah Gerber has been one of Country Day’s first grade teachers since 2017.  She is deeply committed to nurturing a learning community of kindness, inclusion, and respect, and fostering a lifelong love of learning in her students. 

Before coming to Country Day, Sarah was a full time mom to her daughter for a year. She is thrilled to have her daughter here at Country Day as a student now. Before that, Sarah taught second and fourth grades at St. Paul’s Episcoal School in Oakland, and Kindergarten, 2nd, and 3rd grades at the Brandeis School in San Francisco. Prior to teaching elementary school, Sarah met her husband when they were both teaching at Head Start preschools in Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

Sarah earned a B.A. in Sociology, and another B.A. in English and World Literature from Pitzer College, one of the Claremont Colleges in Southern California. She minored in Spanish and had an amazing experience living with a host family in Sevilla, Spain, for a semester, while attending the Universidad de Sevilla’s Language and Society program. Sarah earned her elementary teaching credential through Cal State Monterey Bay. 

Sarah’s current favorite things to do are playing board games with family and friends, listening to and singing along with musicals and Beatles songs, and going on family hikes.

Cade “Mr. G” Grunst teaches 8th grade Earth Science in the Country Day middle school. Earth Science is a broad umbrella covering topics like astronomy, weather, continents, erosion, dinosaurs, the deep ocean, and of course the planet’s ongoing Climate Crisis. The goal of his class is to re-awaken the sense of wonder we experience as young children. He wants students to reexamine the world around them, to see with fresh eyes and understand the joys of clouds and mountains and the moon.

Cade teaches two electives: Robotics and Maker Lab. Maker Lab is an introduction to engineering, where students compete to build the fastest car, the longest bridge, the heaviest cargo ship, etc. Students seeking a more technical experience can engage with laser-cutting, 3D modeling and printing, or work with hobby electronics using the Arduino platform. Cade’s Robotics class is based on the powerful LEGO Mindstorms system. Students build and program mobile robots of their own design, constantly evaluating and innovating to complete a series of challenges. The Robotics elective is also a feeder for the middle school’s competitive after-school Robotics team, which Cade also coaches. Go Techno Cavs!

Cade attended the University of California, Davis, graduating with honors and a degree in Animal Biotechnology in 2009. Cade enjoyed the diverse offerings of a huge university, and during his four years took classes in rock climbing, archery, SCUBA certification, raptor management, Ultimate Frisbee, mushroom cultivation, screen printing, didgeridoo, and 3D animation. Cade also found time in there somewhere to pursue an independent undergraduate research fellowship, where he moved umpteen thousand fungal spores around petri dishes until he had determined that the palmitoyltransferase protein in brewer’s yeast is not involved in telomeric anchoring during meiosis. Probably.

After graduation Cade took a research position with the UCD Center for Neuroscience. While he found the implications of his work on neural connectivity fascinating, the actual day-to-day mechanics of being a lab monkey were ultimately not the best fit. Cade left after two years to pursue education. Cade’s first experiences with classroom teaching were through the Breakthrough Collaborative, and he will forever be grateful to Adolfo Mercado for giving him his start. Cade started substitute teaching in several schools in the Sacramento area, eventually landing a 1-year contract at Country Day that has turned into quite a bit more than expected.

In July, Cade enjoys exploration and wildlife photography. A recent trip took him to Alaska, where he spent three weeks backpacking among juvenile brown bears and a breaching humpback whale. Previous trips have led him to bighorn sheep in the canyons of Utah, mountain goats high above Montana, and pika tucked away among glacial deposits in the Canadian Rockies. Cade loves studying interactions between Earth’s physical and biological systems. Teaching Earth Science has led to a deeper understanding of how geology, meteorology, and ecology intertwine, and Cade brings each adventure back to the classroom. When speaking about convection currents in weather systems, he tells stories of cool night air descending in Canyonlands National Park. Glaciology comes with photographs of Yosemite and the Rockies. Mineralogy is addressed through undersea lava tubes off Kauai.

One of Cade’s biggest regrets is that he was unable to visit the northern region of the Great Barrier Reef before it was devastated by unseasonal cyclones and coral bleaching events. He hopes that through education, he can help enact the societal change necessary to protect our beautiful space pebble. Cade draws inspiration from Carl Sagan, quoting the imperative that ends his famous Pale Blue Dot speech: “…to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish [this] pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

Kathryn LaComb teaches 7th grade English at Country Day and serves as the Chair of the Middle School English Department. She also has taught eighth and tenth grade English.

Prior to teaching at Country Day, Kathryn taught high school and middle school English and was an adjunct faculty member at Sacramento City College. In between teaching jobs, Kathryn spent 15 years as an independent consultant for educational publishing houses, including Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and Sylvan. During this time, she wrote hundreds of leveled reading passages, created curriculum and classroom activities, and developed standardized tests for grades K-12. 

Kathryn earned her B.A in English writing from St. Lawrence University and her M.Ed. from Harvard Graduate School of Education. 

Kathryn has two children, both of whom graduated from Country Day. She spends as much time as she can with them, her parents, and her four siblings at the family rice farm in the northern Sacramento Valley, where she says she enjoys “taking long walks with the dogs and reading to my heart’s content.”

Rick Lewkowitz has been teaching a mock trial course at Country Day since the fall of 2017.  He also coaches their mock trial team. In 2018 he coached that school’s program to its first ever Sacramento County Championship.  

Before coming to Country Day, Rick had nearly 20 years experience as an attorney coach for high school mock trial.  From 2003 – 2017, he was the attorney coach for Elk Grove High School Mock Trial. In that role he helped that program win one state championship,  finish twice as runner-up for the state championship, and win nine county championships. In 2014 the Constitutional Rights Foundation (the organization that runs the state’s high school mock trial program) named him the recipient of the award that year for “Adult Advocate of the Year” (In other words: High School Mock Trial Coach of the Year for the entire state).  

For the past four years he has also served as the attorney coach for the UC Davis Undergraduate Mock Trial Team.  In his first year as their coach he helped guide them to qualify to compete in the 2016 National Collegiate Championship Tournament for the first time in the school’s history.  They repeated that lofty feat again in 2017 and 2019. Finally, he has frequently helped teach trial advocacy to law students at UC Davis, Stanford University, and the University of Pacific.

Rick’s retired from his first career as a prosecuting attorney in Sacramento in 2013.  The last 25 years as a prosecutor he served as a Supervising Deputy DA. During his career he was the recipient of multiple awards for his efforts in combating both domestic violence and child abuse.  While still a prosecutor he taught a wide range of courses to prosecutors throughout California with the California District Attorneys Association and throughout the United States with the National District Attorneys Association. 

Rick earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Santa Clara University.  While there, he served as the University’s Varsity Tennis Team Captain. After Santa Clara’s graduation he attended law school at the University of Pacific McGeorge School of Law where he earned his Juris Doctor degree.  He has been happily married to his wife for 43 years. They are the proud parents of three adult children and the proud grandparents of six grandchildren.

Pamela Livesey is a 4th grade teacher responsible for teaching all subjects and helping creating a cross curricular program. Upon joining Sacramento Country Day School in 2002, she was the 4th grade math and science lead teacher. She has been a part of two Country Day accreditations, the Head of School search committee, the Strategic Planning team, and is currently a member of the Teaching and Learning Committee. 

Pam earned a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Georgia. Her favorite times in college were attending UGA football games every Saturday, going to see live music, and making visits to nearby elementary schools to volunteer and attend classes. After graduation, she began teaching Kindergarten at Jefferson Elementary in Jefferson, Georgia.

Once she and her husband Ryan were married, they moved to Sacramento where Pam began working at Freeport Elementary teaching Kindergarten and then 4th grade at Sacramento Country Day. Ryan and Pam have three children all of whom attend Country Day.

Kristi Mathisen teaches fifth grade Language Arts and Humanities in our Lower School but has been a fixture in many different classrooms across all grade levels in her tenure at Country Day. Kristi also has served as an assistant director in the MS/HS theater department and as a faculty adviser to the HS LGBTQ and ChicanX/LatinX Clubs.

In her classroom, Kristi prides herself on creating an inclusive, equitable, and nurturing environment where each student is encouraged to stretch their learning and make mistakes. Intertwining her love of literature and history in the curriculum, Kristi has worked in all of her classrooms to create experiential learning activities that provide students the chance to fully immerse themselves into the worlds they study. From the annual “Gingerbread Baby Hunt” in Kindergarten to the Aviary Vet Clinic imaginative play center in 1st, to the Colonial Trades Play that she co-wrote with her students each year in 3rd grade, Kristi is always looking for any chance for her students to “live and breathe” the curriculum.

Kristi received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater from the California State University of Northridge. She also holds a Masters of Education in Language and Literacy from California State University Sacramento, a certificate of Women in Business Leadership from Cornell University, and a certificate of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from Northwestern University.

In her personal time, Kristi enjoys spending time with her large extended Mexican family, reading anything she can, and working on social justice initiatives. She is also an avid patron of the arts and currently serves on the board of Sacramento’s Capital Stage Theater Company. When not in Sacramento, you can probably find Kristi and her husband visiting their two adult children (Country Day grads)  in Rhode Island or in New York -or watching a Broadway play!

Laura Steele Monahan teaches 7th grade mathematics at Country Day, as well as an elective course, Introduction to Digital Photography. She has worked in all three divisions of the school since she started as a long-term substitute in 8th grade Algebra in the fall of 1995. After a few months of daily subbing, she covered a second maternity leave in 5th grade English and history. Laura taught math, history, and science in the 5th grade for six years before working as the Director of Summerbridge Sacramento (now known as Breakthrough Sacramento) for three years, and has now settled into a long, happy stint in middle school mathematics.

With an undergraduate degree in American Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Laura earned a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential at California State University, Sacramento. Some of her previous jobs include working at the Girl Scout Council of Orange County’s Camp Scherman, the Orange County Outdoor Science School, and a small private science museum called The Visionarium where she also taught enrichment classes; she fell in love with math when tutoring at Math Masters Learning Center. During her time at Country Day, she’s participated in curriculum, scheduling, strategic planning, and diversity committees, and helped to establish the school’s fundraising team for the Run to Feed the Hungry.

Laura is an avid reader and an enthusiastic member of the Staffulty Book Club, enjoys musical theatre, and loves spending time outdoors and visiting museums with family and friends. She serves on the Breakthrough Sacramento Advisory Board. A member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, she also enjoys learning about best practices in math education, and talking with colleagues about teaching. One of her favorite Country Day events is playing flute with the Mega Band each May during the Rulindo Play-a-Thon. 

B.P.A., University of Arizona

Inés Ochoa is the Lower School Spanish teacher at Country Day.  She is responsible for teaching the Spanish language and culture for grades K-5.  

Inés spent her early childhood years living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  At the age of 10, what was initially supposed to be a sabbatical year brought the family to California, where her father was a biochemist and researcher at the University of California, Davis.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from UC Davis, and her Multiple Subject Credential from Chapman University.  Some of her favorite areas of study while completing her undergraduate degree included Native American studies, Art, and Sociology classes.  

Inés’ current hobbies include horseback riding, hiking and paddle boarding in Lake Tahoe, cooking, and decorating homes for friends and family.

Kurt Pearsall serves as Country Day’s Middle School Bands teacher and 5th Grade Band Brass Instructor.  He directs the Middle School Concert Band, Middle School Jazz Band, Middle School Garage Band and the 5th grade trumpet, trombone, and baritone students.  The bands participate in daytime, evening and weekend performances throughout the school year both on campus and in the community or festivals. He also teaches private lessons and performs with the Faculty Jazz Band. 

Before coming to Country Day in 2017, he concluded a 33-year-plus teaching career in public schools, spending the bulk of the years in the Washington Unified School District where he taught marching band, jazz band, concert band, high school chorus, madrigal choir and countless other project groups for all grade levels K-12.  His students can be found performing in a wide variety of musical settings all over the world from a symphony orchestra in Spain to the streets of New Orleans. His former students include current distinguished music professors and music educators in public schools.  

During a short break in his teaching career, he became a full time musician, and even though he returned to full time teaching, never stopped working with the highest quality musical companies including Walt Disney, Barnum and Bailey Circus, The Music Circus and Broadway theater productions, The Sacramento and Central Florida Symphonies, and countless big bands including the Glen Miller Orchestra and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. He has a strong performance background and has performed with Cab Calloway, Natalie Cole, Englebert Humperdink, Frank Sinatra Jr., Wayne Newton, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, The Temptations and many more.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and his Master of Music from California State University, Sacramento.  His college career included induction into the Phi Kappa Lambda, an American honor society for undergraduate, graduate and professors of music. He also is credentialed to teach social sciences and has an intense interest in history. 

Over the years he has participated in the California Music Educators Association’s activities and served as the conductor for the Sacramento Capitol Pops Concert Band, and in leadership roles with the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society, Washington Unified School District and the University of Nevada, Reno’s summer music camp at Lake Tahoe.  He was instrumental in the establishment of the Teagarden Jazz camp where he taught and was camp director under the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society.  He also helped to establish the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Foundation.

When he is not performing and teaching Kurt’s hobbies include rebuilding and collecting 1960-1970 era Japanese motorcycles and antique trucks. He also enjoys watching television, doing research on the internet, wilderness survival and outdoor sports and activities, coin collecting, photography, and gardening.

Maura Ryan Perotti is a First Grade teacher and the Responsive Classroom Lead for the Lower School. After earning her “Lifer” status with 14 years as a student at Country Day, Maura went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a focus on Developmental Psychology from Santa Clara University. Maura continued at Santa Clara for her Master’s degree in Education. She holds two separate teaching credentials, a Multiple-Subject Teaching Credential and a Single Subject Credential in English. Maura is also certified in the teaching of Gifted and Talented Education (GATE).

After leaving school, Maura taught in the heart of the Silicon Valley for 10 years at another independent school. There Maura led the Character Education Committee and sat on the Student Study team for eight years.

In the classroom, Maura’s greatest love is bringing high-level concepts to a primary level and the teaching of early literacy. Teaching children to read in a community of committed, thoughtful learners is her greatest joy in the classroom. Her experience in teaching reading helps her to foster in her students an excellent foundation in decoding, word knowledge, and reading comprehension. She is passionate about her work with the Student Success Team, the Lower School Literacy Committee and IDEA.

Outside of 1st grade at Country Day, Maura is the Lower School Lead for Responsive Classroom, a program that has been adopted throughout the Lower School. Responsive Classroom is a student-centered, social and emotional learning approach to teaching and designed to create safe, joyful, and engaging classrooms.

In her life outside of school, Maura is highly involved in the world of artistic gymnastics. After competing as a gymnast herself for 11 years, Maura began her career as a member of the National Association of Women’s Gymnastics Judges. She has served as a judge since 2002, judging at competitions around the United States at the State, regional, and national level.

From Granada, Spain, Alvaro joins us in our high school language department as a Spanish teacher. Alvaro received his bachelor’s degree in speech therapy from the University of Grenada and his master’s degree in speech therapy research in neurodegenerative disorders and brain damage from the University of Grenada. Alvaro also completed three years of Ph.D. research about autism and childhood development, taught physiology at the university level, and taught Spanish to emergency doctors. He is currently finishing up his master’s degree in Spanish at Sacramento State University.

When not teaching, Alvaro enjoys hiking with his dog and family, cooking, and watching movies.

A wearer of many hats, Melissa Strong is the Assistant Librarian in the Matthews Library, the Medallion yearbook advisor, and The Glass Knife literary magazine advisor. They curate the library’s displays, perform circulation services, create content for the library’s social media sites, process books, and assist however she can to help make the library a magical place.

Before coming to Country Day is 2016, she worked for the California State Library Foundation archiving special projects. Prior to that, they worked at the Sacramento Public Law Library and the library at Humboldt State University. 

Melissa graduated with high honors from Sacramento City College with an Associate in Science degree in Library and Information Technology. Their favorite college memory is having their daughter attend their graduation. They are currently in pursuit of their degree in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Oregon State University.

Melissa’s hobbies include tsundoku (book hoarding), reading, crafting, and streaming the same show for the hundredth time.

Brittany Torretta serves as one of the second grade teachers in our lower school. Brittany joined the Country Day community in 2017. Before joining Country Day, Brittany earned her Master of Early Childhood Education at the University of Phoenix and her Bachelor of Arts in Child Development at California State University, Chico. While at Chico she spent time working in their Associated Students Child Development Lab where they practiced intentional teaching, supporting children’s development of critical thinking skills, and enabling them to be lifelong learners. She also volunteered her time in the Helping Hands outreach, working one-on-one with children who had learning challenges, as a positive role model helping the students with self-esteem and being comfortable in a classroom setting. Outside of work, Brittany spends time with her dog, Tulip, and life partner Denise. Brittany enjoys traveling around the world, spending time with her family and friends, hiking, and cooking/baking up her next creative concoction.

B.A., University of the Pacific

With more than 25 years of experience in education, Brooke Wells traveled around the country as an English teacher, History teacher, Dean, Coach, and College Counselor before being appointed as Country Day’s Head of High School in 2014. As a former Teach for America 1995 Corps member in Greenwood, MS, Brooke believes deeply in the power of compassionate, creative education that promotes deep student engagement, social justice, and understanding. 

Brooke and his wife, Amy, have two children, Sophia and Spencer, a golden doodle named Calliope, and share a love of the wild beauty found while hiking, skiing, and camping in the many gorgeous spaces in the California wilderness.