Verónica Guzmán
Co-Founder, Co-Director& Support Teacher
Verónica was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia. She came to the United States for college, earning a B.A in Political Science and International Studies from The University of Chicago. A few years after working in Washington, DC., she pursued a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from The University of California, Berkeley.
Maria Oneto
Co-Founder, Co-Director& Support Teacher
Maria has a B.A in Early Childhood Education from the Catholic University (Pontificia Universidad Católica) in Lima, Perú. She has taken courses in Mindfulness from Mindful Schools and Mindfulness Northwest as well as the Training of Trainers Program in High/Scope Curriculum from The High Scope Foundation in Michigan.
Ireny Youssef
English Teacher 1st & 2nd grade
Ireny has spent the past 11 years working as a teacher in Cairo, Egypt, where she taught elementary at American, British, and German International Schools (B.B.C. International School, British Ramses School, Dr. Nermien Ismail International Schools, and Roots International School). Ireny has a Master’s Degree in Education from Acacia University in Arizona.
Elena Kazanjian
English Teacher TK/K, 3rd & 4th Grade
Elena has a Washington State certification in elementary education, grades K-8th. She started teaching in 2015 at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), where she taught filmmaking and worked to develop curriculum for their educational programs. Elena spent two years living in Antigua, Guatemala where she taught 1st-3rd grade at the Antigua Green School and helped develop their new project-based learning curriculum.
Emily Frisk
English Teacher TK/K, 1st & 2nd Grade
Emily grew up near Chicago, Illinois before moving to Germany to finish high school and later attending university in Austria. After several years in Vienna, she returned to the U.S., finally settling in Washington in 2015. Her Washington State Teaching license is in Elementary and Special Education and she also has a BA in German Studies.
Sol Flaherty
Spanish Teacher TK/K, 1st & 2nd grade
Sol was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Sol came to the US to work in Biomedical Research. She completed graduate studies at NYU School of Medicine, earning a Phd in Biomedical Sciences. In 2016, after several years of doing research, Sol decided to follow her dream career, being an educator. She first taught Pre-Kindergarten for 2 years at Bright Horizons. This experience further confirmed to her that teaching young kids was her calling.
Priscilla Portocarrero
Spanish Teacher TK/K,, 1st & 2nd Grade
Priscilla has a B.A in Psychology from Universidad Femenina del Sagrado Corazón (UNIFE) in Lima, Perú and a specialization in Family Therapy from Universidad de La Sabana in Bogotá, Colombia. Her area of expertise is the socio-emotional development of children. She has ample training in Conscious Discipline and is a certified Positive Discipline Parenting Educator from the Positive Discipline Association
Sonia Cobo
Spanish Teacher 3 & 4th Grade
Sonia has a multicultural background: she was born in Mexico City, her parents were Spanish, and has lived the United Stated for the past 25 years, in the Seattle area since 2009. For the past 18 years she has worked assisting preschool classes and teaching Spanish from pre-K to 5th grade in private schools such as Canterbury School in Fort Wayne, IN; Franklin Road Academy in Nashville, TN; St. Thomas School in Medina near Bellevue, SnoSprings School in Issaquah, and Cascadia School in Redmond.
Javiera Izquierdo
Math Teacher 3 & 4th Grade
Javiera is a passionate educator, deeply dedicated to her students’ growth and well-being. She has a bachelor’s degree in primary education from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, specializing in mathematics. She broadened her horizons through a university exchange program at the University of Ottawa where she engaged in elective courses related to education, enriching her pedagogical knowledge and skills.
Juan Miguel Lavista
Computer Science Teacher
3rd &4th Grade
Juan Miguel is Vicepresident & Chief Scientist at Microsoft. Juan is involved in working to define the data science discipline within Microsoft and is currently the editor of the Microsoft Journal of Applied Research (MSJAR). He is also a faculty member at Singularity University and is a speaker on data science, big data, and artificial intelligence in the US and internationally.
Humberto Castañeda
Computer Science Teacher
Ist & 2nd Grade
Humberto works at Google as a Product Manager in the area of video calling and video meetings. He has been doing computer programming since he was 10 years old and he loves playing video games. Profe Humberto has two wonderful daughters. When he is not at work or teaching, you will find him jogging with his dog. Profe Humberto is originally from Bogotá, Colombia.
Mia Rozmyn
Computer Science Teacher
Ist & 2nd Grade
Lizbeth Huerta
Art Teacher & Support Teacher
Lizbeth has a B.A. in Administration from the National Polytechnical Institute in Mexico City. She moved to the Pacific Northwest sixteen years ago. For the past 8 years, Lizbeth worked as a teacher assistant in grades K-5th at her children’s school in Sammamish. She has always enjoyed and worked with different art forms and uses an art and crafts approach to help students find their inner strengths, supporting them to build their self-confidence.
Mary Ewald
Music Teacher
Mary is a professional theater artist. As an actor she has performed in NYC, various regional theaters around the country, all the major Seattle theaters, as well as touring internationally. As a director, music director, and teacher, she has worked at Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle Waldorf School, and the Seattle Waldorf High School.
Andréia Azevedo
Afterschool Teacher
Jennie Knapp
Voiunteer Librarian
Jennie Knapp received a B.S. in Cultural Anthropology from Northern Arizona University in 1979, inspired by her year as an exchange student in Colombia in 1973. After working in Public Health for 18 years managing programs allocating funds to non profit community clinics, she pursued a second career as a teacher by obtaining her teaching certificate through the University of Washington, Bothell campus in 2001.
Beth Robinson
Voiunteer Librarian
Information coming soon