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.

Molly Frandrup has been teaching 6th grade for the last four years and has been teaching for a total of seven years. She received a BA in Child Development from California State University Sacramento in 2010 and a Masters in Teaching from The University of San Francisco in 2014.

When she is not teaching, she enjoys reading, playing sports, coaching, and all things Disney. She was born and raised in Sacramento and she and her husband have two wonderful children.

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.

Ashlie Kirby is a Bessie Award-winning Dancer and Dance Educator. Prior to joining the faculty, Ashlie spent a decade teaching dance at independent schools on the East and West coasts, including Bentley School, The Brearley School, and Pierrepont School. Ashlie also is a Teaching Artist for the Mondavi Center at UC Davis.

Ashlie holds a BFA in Dance from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master’s in Dance Education from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Ashlie also holds teaching credentials in New York (Dance) and California (Physical Education). Prior to returning to her native California, Ashlie spent nine years dancing professionally in New York City in a number of modern dance companies, most notably Jessica Gaynor Dance and Pam Tanowitz Dance. In 2010, she was awarded a Bessie, or New York Dance and Performance Award, for her performance in Pam Tanowitz’s Be in the Grey with Me. 

Ashlie has served on the board of the California Dance Education Alliance and is passionate about dance education for every child. She first started her study of Dance Education at the 92nd Street Y’s Dance Education Laboratory, where she fell in love with teaching dance to children. She believes that everyBODY is a dancer and that movement and dance are fundamental ways that humans express themselves and connect to their communities. When she is not at Country Day, Ashlie can be found at home with her two young daughters and husband, engaged in messy art projects and living room dance parties. 

“The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie.” ― Agnes De Mille

Jane is a recent transplant from the Bay Area, where she was a 6th grade English teacher and Middle School Drama Director at Almaden Country Day School. Prior to that, she taught Middle and High School Theatre at Cape Fear Academy in Wilmington, North Carolina. Before becoming a teacher, Jane worked as an actor in the UK, touring schools with educational plays, and taking original theatre pieces to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A highlight of Jane’s acting career was spending two years touring Europe, the Middle East and Japan; she played Ralph in an all-female version of Lord of the Flies, and then Lady Macduff and Witch Three in a production of Macbeth. Jane has a BA (with Honors) in Performing Arts from The Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Drama in Education from Birmingham City University.

Currently, she is enrolled on a Master’s in Creative Writing through the Open University, where her focus is playwriting. Jane’s hobbies include walking with her dogs, Kelly and Lars, and keeping fit in Yoga or kick-boxing classes. She loves to attend theatre productions, locally or in San Francisco, and is a frequent moviegoer. 

Joining our world language and history departments, James Comer brings 21 years of enthusiastic teaching experience to accompany his passion for educating students and outstanding academic qualifications. Holding a PhD in American Immigration History from Bowling Green State University, an MA in Medieval European History from Appalachian State University, and a BA Medieval European History from Virginia Commonwealth University, James’s academic work prepared him uniquely for this position. When not in the classroom, James enjoys birdwatching, writing, and cooking. We are excited to welcome James to our community.

April Sanders is one of the Kindergarten teachers at Country Day. She has been in the field of education since 1992 in many different roles but has found her true passion teaching Kindergarten. Her goal as a Kindergarten teacher is to nurture every child; mind, body and heart and instill a love for learning that will carry through their lives. As a lifelong learner herself, she shares her successes and failures with her students in an effort to encourage them to be confident and motivated to learn and grow.

April earned a B.A. in Early Childhood Development with a concentration in Education and a M.A. in Best Practices in Education at National University.  Having gone back to school later in life to complete her degree, she feels she was able to apply herself more diligently to her studies and use her previous experiences in education to build upon her knowledge. 

Family is of the utmost importance to April and she spends most of her free time with her husband, three children, and grandson. Even though her children are all adults now, they still find time to get together to share a meal, go on camping trips together or just hang out on the front porch, catching up.

On a personal note, April loves to be outdoors and will find any excuse to be outside – whether it’s going on a hike, taking the kayak out, or just relaxing out back in her hammock listening to the birds sing.  Her favorite subject is science and she loves to share the wonder of our natural world with her students. 

“Kindergartners are the picture of curiosity and wonder and I find I whole-heartedly relate to them in this way when it comes to the joy of discovery,” says April.

Dr. Pepa Novell teaches all levels of Spanish throughout the 3 MS grades. Pepa earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Hispanic Studies from Brown University, her Master’s in publishing from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), and her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Literature and Language from Universitat de Barcelona. 

Pepa has worked internationally in teaching and research roles. After her graduation from Brown, she was Assistant Professor at Queen’s University (Canada), where she got tenured and worked as Associate Professor. As a scholar, she has published in peer-reviewed journals on Spanish contemporary culture, particularly narrative, film, and music.

She considers languages and cultures to be key aspects of knowledge, and she thinks that engaging the community in learning different languages and cultures is the best way to contribute to creating citizens for a global world. 

She likes to spend time with her family, to travel and to swim, especially in the Mediterranean sea, and now at Tahoe. She and her husband have three children that attend Country Day. 

Melissa Uroff is a California based artist and photographer. As a photographer, she works in alternative, historical and experimental processes including cyanotypes, gum printing, polaroid transfers, hand coloring and traditional darkroom techniques. She has a long love affair with mixing mediums in both 2-D and 3-D work. She often creates installations, works in printmaking, painting, drawing, electronic art, neon tube bending, collage, and assemblage. Melissa has several public art pieces on display throughout CA, which include large-scale murals along with free-standing art pieces. She currently has artwork traveling throughout China in a group show with the GoGoGallery.

Her 3-D work is comprised of neon lights, artist created sculpture(s), and found objects which are often built into installations.

Melissa’s 2-D work is a mix between her personal life and a strange dream, it is often difficult to find where reality begins and ends. Subconsciously pulling from images of her youth one will find reoccurring themes such as birds, references to music, ferns, cactus, stars, and the moon. She then ties those images into her “now” with women placed among them as a stand in for her experience. There is always a bit of weirdness and exaggeration used to tell her story.

Courtney Doyle is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and is excited to join the Lower School. Courtney has years of experience with both the private and public school systems providing counseling and mental health strategies. Courtney has received her B.A. from Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA, and received her M.A. from the University of San Francisco for Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy. Courtney has focused her career on K-12 education and how to include counseling techniques to help the student in their school life. Courtney loves to get out into nature with her family and you can usually find her swimming or hiking in Lake Tahoe.

Tim Dobbins teaches our Middle School Computer and Programming electives. Tim joins Country Day after a career in Electrical Engineering. Tim received his BSEE from Auburn University and MSEE from the University of South Florida, with additional MS course work in Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Tim’s electives offer our Middle School students an introduction to the hardware inside computers and personal phones. Tim coordinates with the High School Computer Science department to ensure students are prepared for High School programming classes but enjoys introducing all students to the joys of computers and electronics. As technology becomes a large part of modern life, we want all students, regardless of eventual career choice, to be cognizant of basic technology terms and operations.  

Grace is a Country Day alum (and lifer!). She graduated in 2016 and went on to attend the University of San Diego. They graduated with a degree in History.

Gary Wong is excited to join Sacramento Country Day School. Gary earned his BA in English from UC Davis, and his MA in English from San Jose State University. In addition to his middle school experience, he has also taught high school and graduate level teacher induction courses. Previously, he taught English Literature at Natomas Charter School: Performing and Fine Arts Academy and is currently teaching in Fortune School of Education’s Teacher Induction Program. In Gary’s spare time, he enjoys playing video games with his twin sons, watching television, and reading time-travel novels.

B.S. in Psychology; Master’s in Elementary Education, Liberty University

LaTeeka Bradford is on our third grade team at Sacramento Country Day School. She is responsible for teaching, developing curriculum, utilizing instructional technology, and creating a safe, inclusive classroom environment.

LaTeeka holds a multiple subjects teaching credential in the state of California. She has over five years of experience teaching grades K-5, both within the classroom and after-school setting. She obtained a Master of Arts in Teaching with a concentration in Elementary Education and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology cum laude from Liberty University located in Lynchburg, Virginia. 

LaTeeka has recently relocated to Sacramento with her husband and two children. 

Aside from teaching she enjoys: spending time with family and friends, watching romantic comedies, vacationing to the beach, gardening, and attending sporting events. 

Ingrid is a Sacramento native, earning her BA in Mass Communications at UC Berkeley and her MBA with an emphasis in Marketing and Strategic Management at UC Davis. Her career in the field of communications and brand management has crossed over many industries including government, pharmaceuticals, grocery, high-tech, wine, non-profit organizations, and the arts. Ingrid served on local arts boards including the Center for Contemporary Arts, Sacramento and Friends of SMAC, and she co-founded Art Jam, a benefit event for arts education. She co-owns a successful art business with husband, Marc Foster, an awarded local sculptor and functional artist, and is a devoted mother to her children, Harlan (12) and Graeme (9). 

Christian Scott is excited to be joining the lower school team. He is from the Sacramento area and is honored to be able to impact his own community. He received a BA in Political Science and a Minor in Human Rights from the University of California, Davis. He looks forward to devoting his time to one classroom this year as he was a substitute last year for the lower school. When Christian is not in the classroom he is taking care of his cat, playing sports, reading, hanging with friends and family. He is also a big Star Wars, Marvel, and anime fan. 

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! 

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 Director of Bands, directing the Jazz Band, Middle School Concert Band, High School Concert Band, Garage Band, and Fifth Grade Band. He also teaches musicians private lessons on campus.  The bands participate in daytime, evening and weekend performances throughout the school year on campus and in the community, including music festivals.

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.

Dr. Pam Peters, a certified life coach, parenting consultant, and teacher with over thirty years of experience working with students and corporate and non-profit organizations, including 11 years with Country Day from 1998 to 2009, is returning to our campus in the role of part-time Middle and High School counselor.

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.

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 Graphic Design and Media Arts at Southern New Hampshire 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.