Sacramento Country Day School

Carrie Meyers is the middle school French teacher and also is leading the Improv elective while helping out with Farm to Fork.

She attended the University of Maryland for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees. Carrie earned a Bachelor of Arts double major in French Language and Literature and Secondary Education, spending her junior year abroad in Nice, France. 

She started her career teaching high schoolers French at Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School in Washington, D.C. After one year with students, Carrie realized she wanted to learn more and embarked upon the journey to obtain her Master of Arts degree in Curriculum and Instruction while continuing at Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School for three years. She knew that teaching would be her lifelong career and found a position with St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School in Alexandria, Virginia. Carrie started out teaching 8th graders and coaching middle schoolers, eventually adding the titles of Administrative Assistant to the Director of Teaching and Learning, upper school French teacher, library assistant, technology support, and sustainability coordinator. 

Carrie moved to Sacramento with her cat, Bugs Bunny, and her dog, Roo, who she affectionately calls her “furry family.” Her human family is in New Jersey, where she grew up, and her extended network of friends spans the mid-Atlantic region.

Carrie has enrolled in local improv classes and plans to audition for community theater, so you may see her on stage at some point soon! She has also become active within the Alliance Française to make connections with local French speakers. Carrie is thrilled to have this opportunity to teach middle schoolers how to be good people, and maybe learn a little French too.

Annie Sterling teaches 6th grade English at Country Day. She also serves as a 6th grade advisor, mentoring and supporting 6th grade students through daily advisory periods, parent communication, and conferencing. Additionally, Annie leads the book club and current events elective classes, through which she enjoys sharing her own interests in literature and social issues with her students. 

Before coming to Country Day in the fall of 2019, Annie taught 8th grade English language arts and social studies at Mill Valley Middle School. At Mill Valley Middle School, Annie also served as a teacher leader in professional development and technology integration. She mentored new teachers and contributed to advisory committees related to reading assessment and social emotional learning. Annie also has previous experience teaching English at the high school level and working with the Bay Area Writing Project, a branch of the National Writing Project, as a teacher consultant.

Annie earned her Bachelor of Arts in English and global studies at UC Santa Barbara, then went on to study education at UC Berkeley with the Multicultural Urban Secondary English program, where she earned her teaching credential and master’s degree. Annie also has completed coursework towards her master’s in administrative services and educational leadership at San Francisco State University. A highlight of her educational journey was studying English literature at King’s College London during her junior year, where she loved getting to see Shakespeare performed in the Globe Theatre and read the complete works of Jane Austen.

Her personal accomplishments include running the San Francisco Nike Women’s Marathon, completing a yoga teacher training, backpacking the Na Pali coast of Kauai, and, most importantly, creating a beautiful daughter in 2018.

These days, Annie spends her free time relaxing with her family, hiking, running, reading, and practicing yoga. 

Taratip Adams serves as one of Country Day’s Learning Specialists for lower through 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. 

David Alvarado teaches 6th and 8th grade Spanish 1. David earned his B.A in Spanish with a Certificate for Healthcare Professionals (HEALS) at California State University, Sacramento. He also is working on his M.A in Spanish at CSUS. 

Before coming to Country Day, David was a qualified tutor at Total Education Solutions. During his time in this role, he supported students in achieving their individual academic goals by identifying specific skills to be worked on through direct academic instruction. Driven by students’ academic success, he takes pride in providing the best assistance his students can receive.

As a Spanish teacher, his goals include helping his students become proficient in the language and get familiar with the culture of Spanish speaking countries. In addition to his primary job functions, David has been recognized by various organizations such as El club de español, Alpha Psi Lambda and Sigma Delta Pi for his extraordinary commitment to community service inside and outside of campus.

In his free time, he enjoys working out, reading literature books, traveling, and hiking.

Ashlie Kirby is a Bessie Award-winning Dancer and Dance Educator. She currently teaches the Dance Elective and Yoga Elective in the middle school, as well as Music and Movement in pre-kindergarten. 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

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.

Jocelyn Kemp is a Second Grade Assistant with Country Day, although she has worked with all grade levels in ASE.

Jocelyn graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2019 with a BS in Human Development and Family Studies and a minor in Addiction Treatment Services.

Jocelyn is so excited for this school year and am looking forward to being active in the Country Day community! 

Lauren Davis comes to us from Nashville, Tennessee, where she has been teaching middle school math for three years. She believes she has found her passion in teaching students how to problem solve and apply mathematics in the real world. Lauren earned her B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Austin Peay State University and graduated summa cum laude. While working towards her degree, Lauren also obtained her teaching licensure, WET (Water Education Teacher) certification, and Praxis certifications to further prepare for teaching middle grades. Lauren previously served as the student representative on the Teacher Education Council for Austin Peay’s education program for undergraduates.  Lauren has served as a site-based induction specialist in mentoring new hires and has co-designed a unit plan with technology integration for all 8th grade mathematics teachers across a school district.

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. 

Lauren Miller comes to Country Day from the Classics Ph.D. program at UC Berkeley, where, after finishing her M.A., she taught both Latin courses and freshman writing seminars on the history of the novel. Before moving to California for graduate school, she hadn’t been west of the Mississippi. Lauren grew up in upstate New York and attended Williams College, where she completed a B.A. as a double major in Comparative Literature and Classics but she fell in love with the Bay Area and has made Berkeley her home for the past five years. Outside of the classroom, Lauren is passionate about fashion history, and has enjoyed working on a number of contemporary plays and theatrical productions as a designer, as well as sourdough baking, cycling, and hiking with her partner Sam and their dog Little Edie. 

Michael Unti joins us from Summit, New Jersey as our new High School STEM teacher and Associate Director of Technology. He 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.  He now enthusiastically joins Country Day and looks forward to working with the students, faculty, staff and parents of the community.

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.

Richele Cooley is a Kindergarten teacher with at Country Day. Richele previously worked in the Merryhill schools where she taught Kindergarten for nine years and taught 1st grade for one year. Her greatest accomplishment was being nominated for Teacher of the Year in 2014.

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 rambunctious boys, ages 9 and 3.

In her free time, she loves taking her boys swimming or to the beach. Richele believes every child deserves the opportunity to achieve his or her highest potential. Kindergarten is a time to spark and direct the curiosity and natural love of learning. Kindergarten has become her passion and she cannot wait to take this journey with you. 

B.S. in Animal Science, Cal Poly San Luis Opispo

Christina (Stainbrook) Emerson is an alumna of Country Day’s Class of 2006. She serves as a first grade teaching assistant and ASE counselor. She received her Bachelor of Science in Animal Science from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and served as an Animal Services Officer in Clovis, CA for a rewarding seven years. During that time she rescued animals, worked with behavioral modification, animal medical needs, and matching pets with adopters, but found that she connected most with educating others in the community. She is currently working toward her Masters in Education, and teaching credential, which she is scheduled to complete in 2020.

Christina Kaufman serves as Sacramento Country Day School’s Garden Facilitator. She is responsible for managing the garden and teaching students about all aspects of productive gardening, including maintaining healthy soil, planting seeds, transplanting, harvesting and ultimately preparing vegetables for eating.

Christina has been part of the Country Day community since 2004 when her oldest child began as a kindergartener. Both of her children are Country Day Lifers. Prior to her involvement in the school garden, she was Parents’ Association President for two years. For the past 10 years, Christina has served as a parent volunteer in the school garden, and in July 2019 she took over as Garden Facilitator. 

Christina attended CSU, Sacramento, San Diego State University, and American River College completing courses in business, recreation management, horticulture and landscape design. She also holds a certificate from Soil Born Farms in the “Grow Your Groceries” program. 

Christina has a passion for the great outdoors, expressed in gardening, camping,  backpacking and multiple athletic adventures. She has a love of all sports (including marathons, triathlons, tennis, golf, cycling, and mountain biking), but her favorite is soccer. Over a career spanning 25 years, she played for Sacramento State, San Diego State, American River College, US national club champion Ajax FC, Buitenveldert FC in Amsterdam, and the U.S. Women’s National Team (earning two caps and a goal at a 1993 CONCACAF tournament.)

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 daughter, traveling, trying new food, and cheering for his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers.

B.S., University of Minnesota

Emily Allshouse serves as Country Day’s Director of Marketing and Communications. She is responsible for the school’s internal and external communications and marketing efforts and manages the school’s print and digital advertising, its website and social media accounts, and school-wide communications.  

Before coming to Country Day in 2018, she served as a communications specialist for the Association of California Water Agencies, where she monitored water-related regulation and legislation and developed key messages, fact sheets, presentations and other communications related to California water policy. Emily also has previous experience in city and state government, property management, media, and nonprofit program management.

She earned a bachelor of science in Humanities and Religious Studies from California State University, Sacramento, and an Associate of Arts in Art from Sacramento City College. Her favorites college experiences were learning to make puppets in theater class, studying Buddhism and meditation, and reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in Dr. Victoria Shinbrot’s Romanticism in literature course.

After college, Emily spent two years studying Inca Shamanism and Native American medicine traditions and traveled to Machu Picchu to perform prayer ceremonies with Q’ero elders. 

“Traveling to Peru was a life-changing experience,’” she says of her trip.

Emily’s current hobbies include rock painting, Bible meditation, and watching movies.

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. 

Cameron Bohn is Country Day’s 5th Grade Humanities Teacher. She covers our Language Arts and Social Studies curriculum in preparation for the students’ transition into middle school. She joined Country Day in 2015.

Cameron earned a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from the University of Colorado in Boulder, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Elementary Education from Montana State University, and an Upper Elementary Certificate from the Montessori Education Center of the Rockies. In addition, she currently holds a valid teaching credential in the states of Montana and California. 

After college in Colorado, Cameron joined a group from Stanford University to explore and further excavate an Archaeological site in Peru known as Chavin de Huantar. Upon completion of her time in Peru, she returned to the United States and moved to Montana to further cultivate her love for hiking, camping, and fly fishing. While in Montana she discovered her true passion for teaching, and begin working several jobs in order to fund her second degree, this one in Elementary Education. After teaching for several years in Montana, Cameron moved to California to be closer to her family, and fell in love with Country Day.

Cameron’s passions other than teaching include photography, time hiking with her dogs and camping outdoors, viticulture, visiting local wineries and distilleries, and creating or viewing art.

Kelly Bornmann serves as Country Day’s 6th Grade Science teacher, 6th Grade Human Sexuality Educator, and Lower School Science Coordinator for grades PreK-1. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to work in both divisions helping students explore and understand the world around them. 

Over the course of her career, Kelly has had the pleasure of teaching science at almost grade level,  teaching 6th grade history, teaching Music Together, running her own school, being head of the Princeton Lab School in Princeton, NJ, working for the Nature Conservancy, and the best job of all, raising her two children. Prior to joining the faculty at Country Day, Kelly most recently served as the Lower School Science Coordinator for the Collegiate School for Boys in New York City. There she served as the science teacher for grades K, 2, 3, and 4, and oversaw curriculum development, teacher training, and special events such as the Invention Convention and Family Science. In addition, she worked closely with the head of the science department planning the K-12 science curriculum and developing interdisciplinary/interdivisional units of study. 

Kelly believes that to be a good teacher, you must always be a student. She is passionate about developing her own craft and supporting others in doing the same. To foster her own learning, she has been the recipient of many grants that have allowed her to collaborate with educators and science professionals around the globe which has helped her deepen her understanding of the art of teaching and keep her science skills sharp by spending time in the field. Kelly also belongs to several state, national and international teaching organizations, and regularly attends and presents on topics such as early-childhood music education, STEM education, and technology in the classroom. In addition to her job at Country Day, she serves as a Lower School human sexuality consultant for Dr. Debbie Roffman and the Park School in Baltimore, MD; an educational manuscript reviewer for the International Society for Technology Educators; and as a beta-tester and educational consultant for organizations such as The Lawrence Hall of Science, Google, Nearpod, and BioDive. 

Kelly credits her love of science and nature to growing up in the Pine Barrens of NJ, her parent’s patience with with her never-ending questions, and two amazing science teachers – Mr. Albert Morrison (8th grade science) and Mr. Stanley Stankewicz (Bio and AP Bio) – who opened up the world of science beyond the woods and never questioned a girls’ passion for science.  Convinced she would be a marine ecologist, Kelly graduated with honors from Douglas College, Rutgers University with a degree in Biological Sciences. She spent much of her college career working in the field at the Rutgers Marine Field station, volunteering for the NY Aquarium in Coney Island, acting as a naturalist for the NJ Marine Science Consortium. While she adored the field work, the many solitary hours of crunching and analyzing data were not for her.  Out of college, she took a job with the Nature Conservancy in New York City as an administrative assistant where she had the opportunity to help develop the local educational outreach program. The interactions with the students were the best part of her job and she began to see education as the career for her. The opportunity to teach high school chemistry and general science presented itself the next year and the rest is history – Kelly has not left the classroom since.

Kelly received her NJ teaching credentials in Biological Science, General Science, and Elementary Education through the NJ Alternate Route Program at The College of New Jersey; her Level 1, 2 and Associate Teacher Trainer Certifications from the Center for Music and Young Children in Princeton, NJ; Mindful Educator Training from the Mindful Schools in San Francisco;  and most recently her  Biological Science Single and Elementary Multi-Subject Teaching Credentials from the State of California. She owes a debt of profound gratitude to the three women who helped shape her into the teacher she is today: Ms. Ruth Drake, Dr. Sami Kahn, and Dr. Lili Levinowitz. 

Kelly believes that ’the cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea’ (Isak Dinesen), so outside the classroom she loves spending time with her family, on her bike, doing yoga, traveling, and figuring out ways to spend more time near the ocean! 

B.S., State University of New York

B.A., University of California, Berkeley

Mitzi Mapa-Contes is the PK Director and Lead Teacher for our Pre-Kindergarten program. She leads the work of early childhood educators in creating an environment that inspires joyful learning while nurturing the social emotional, intellectual and physical growth of our youngest students, establishing positive relationships with our families, and overseeing daily school operations.

Prior to joining Country Day in 2018, Mitzi served as Head of School for one of the AltSchools in San Francisco. Mitzi led a team of educators and collaborated with researchers, technologists, and engineers to design a technology platform to support personalized learning. Her work in a lab school setting led her to curate personalized learning experiences based on student goals, learning styles, strengths and areas of need.

Mitzi earned her Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education in her home country, the Philippines. She then continued her teacher training in the International Baccalaureate – Primary Years Programme, with a focus on teaching using an inquiry based approach and an emphasis on interdisciplinary and conceptual learning. She has worked in several international schools overseas, first as a classroom teacher and eventually transitioning to leadership. Mitzi also is trained in Reggio Emilia practices. She has led several schools and day care centers in developing Early Childhood Programs inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach and rooted in and IB-PYP standards and practices.

She also spends her time volunteering with Children’s International Summer Villages, an organization that runs international camps and community events. As programme director, Mitzi has travelled to over 20 countries to lead children and youth camps that promote diversity, human rights, conflict resolution and sustainable development within communities. 

When not busy in school, Mitzi enjoys traveling the world, drumming on her djembes, dumbeks and cajons, dancing, and dabbling in street photography.

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

B.A., California State University, Sacramento

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.”

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.A., Wesleyan University; M.A. University of California, Berkeley

B.A., Georgetown University, M.A., Johns Hopkins University, J.D., University of Maryland School of Law 

Rommel comes to Country Day from the Park School in Baltimore, where he was the Director of Civic Engagement and Service Learning. Rommel received a bachelor of science in Finance from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in liberal arts from John Hopkins University and a Juris Doctor degree from University of Maryland. His success as both a Middle School Language Arts teacher and as an administrator of a PK-12 program makes him an ideal person for the Middle School position.

Rommel and his wife Jessica live in Sacramento with their three children, Leah, Charlie, and Max. 

Kristi Mathisen teaches third grade 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-writes and directs 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 and a certificate of Women in Business Leadership from Cornell College.

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 daughters (Country Day grads) at college in Boston and Rhode Island- or watching a Broadway play!

B.A., Wesleyan University

Michelle Myers serves as Country Day’s Director of Physical Education for PK-12th grades. She is also a physical education teacher to Lower School and High School students, as well as oversees the Independent P.E. programs for 5th through 12th grades. 

Michelle started her schooling at the University of Hawaii, then transferred to California State University, Sacramento where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education/Athletic Training (subsumption in biology), and became a P.E. Movement Education Specialist.

Michelle was then accepted into the credentialing program at CSUS, to finish her teaching degree. After that, Michelle completed course work  for a Master’s in Education from Saint Marys’ college in Moraga.

While Michelle’s path had two directions- teaching and coaching, she also became a consultant for many CAIS schools on how to develop a “Developmentally Appropriate Physical Education Program”.

While in college, Michelle also found a fondness for volleyball under the tutelage of the infamous Debby Colberg and Weidi Zhang. She then went on to coach girl’s volleyball at Country Day, American River College, and Consumes College. 

Trying to encourage the boys, Michelle started the first boys’ volleyball team at Country Day, formed a Junior Olympic Boy’s club, worked as a summer coach at Stanford Boy’s Camps, coached at Rio Americano, and finally became the Men’s Volleyball coach for both JV, and eventually Varsity, at California State University, Sacramento. 

Michelle received the Francie Tidey award in 2015 from former Country Day alumni in honor of her dedication to excellence in teaching. “It was the most humbling experience and honor, I’ve ever had!” she says.

Michelle’s hobbies include playing polo and enjoying her horses, her running club SACFIT , owned by Alum Ken Press, cooking for friends, and most importantly staying connected to former students via Facebook- that’s about 1,000 students!

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 (‘02) 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.

Pat Reynolds serves as Country Day’s Social-Emotional Counselor and is the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) teacher for 6th – 9th grades. Before coming to Country Day in 2015, Pat served as Upper School Counselor at a large independent school in Houston. Pat has been School Counselor and Head of Residential Life at an Independent School in Cleveland as well as a Middle School Science teacher at an Independent school in Virginia. Some of her past experiences include coaching a variety of sports, teaching Driver Education, and working at the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.

Pat earned a Bachelor of Science degree at James Madison University and a Master’s degree in Counseling Education from Cleveland State University.  Her favorite college experience was playing varsity basketball at JMU. After college, Pat immediately began teaching and coaching.  One experience that stands out for Pat is that while she was in Cleveland she chaperoned an Eco-trip to the Dominican Republic. 

Pat has backpacked across the Grand Canyon, in the Grand Tetons as well as through Alaska, and kayaked around the San Juan Islands.  Most recently she has been car camping and exploring the State Parks in California. A new project is working with her dog Mocha who will become a certified therapy dog.  Her hobbies include bicycling (in 2009 she completed a Century ride in Southern Colorado), camping, reading, and dabbling in cooking.

Julie Shanks teaches fine art to Country Day’s Lower School students in Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade.  Her studio curriculum encompasses art from all genres, cultures, and media.  Using each grade level curriculum as a launching pad, Julie strives to make connections for students from art to academics.  Deeper yet, she yearns to reach into the heart of each student to appreciate art as a tool of expression for their emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

Julie earned an A.A. in Art from Moorpark College in Southern California, a B.A. in art and a single subject teaching credential from California State University Sacramento.  Before teaching at Country Day she taught pre-school and serves as a teacher’s aide in a high school RSP class.

B.A., Harvard University; M.A., Johns Hopkins University

B.A., California State University, Sacramento

B.A., Haverford College; M.Ed Michigan State University