Our Team

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 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.

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.

Allison was born and raised in Orange County, California. She moved to Washington after being recruited to swim at Seattle University, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Education, followed by a Master degree in Teaching. During her time at Seattle U., she completed two years of student teaching at Enatai Elementary in Bellevue, Washington, and went on to receive her Washington State certification in elementary education with a focus on English language learners.

Iris attended Western Washington University for her B.A. in Environmental Studies and Elementary Education. She has a Washington State certification in elementary education, grades K-8th. After her graduation from Western, Iris received a Fulbright grant to teach English in Taiwan for one year. She gained many valuable experiences from the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) methods of bilingual education in Taipei.

Silvia is originally from Colombia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Literature from the Universidad Industrial de Santander (Bucaramanga, Colombia) and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Education at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. She brings more than 15 years of experience teaching Spanish to students from preschool through high school.

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.

Wendy, originally from Ecuador, holds a degree in Educational Psychology and Vocational Guidance from the University of Guayaquil, a Master’s in Higher Education from Ecuador, and a Ph.D. in Pedagogical Sciences from Cuba. She has dedicated more than 15 years to teaching at different educational levels, bringing with her a strong academic background and a passion for learning.

Angela was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, where she earned a degree in Early Childhood Education from Universidad del Bosque. She brings more than 25 years of teaching experience, with a strong emphasis on literacy development in Spanish. For the past eight years, she has shared her passion for the Spanish language and culture with children from diverse backgrounds at Sponge School.

Javiera holds a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary School Education with a specialization in Learning Difficulties from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She has several years of experience teaching in bilingual schools in Santiago, Chile. Having moved to different countries during her childhood, she was raised with a global perspective. She is grateful for the outlook this gave her and values the wealth of experiences it brings to her students and the school community as a whole.

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-5^th 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.

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Juan is the Senior Director of Data Science for Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence For Good Research Lab. He 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.

Luke Englund is a Staff Machine Learning Engineer at Meta with a background in Physics and Mathematics. He began his career in Optics before transitioning into Software Engineering and Machine Learning, where he now focuses on applying the latest ML innovations to the real world.

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. Humberto has two wonderful daughters. When he is not at work or teaching, you will find him jogging with his dog. Humberto is originally from Bogotá, Colombia.

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Mia is a Civil Engineers durinim

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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.

Karn holds a Masters in Physical Education and Dance with an emphasis in choreography from the University of Iowa and a Bachelor’s of Arts and Humanities with a dance emphasis from Mount Holyoke College. Karn taught creative movement for children at the Creative Dance Center for Anne Green Gilbert, and the Ravenna Eckstein Community Center, beginning and advanced ballet for 25 years, and World Dance at Shoreline Community College.

Malena was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where her passion for sports, languages, and teaching began at an early age. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education with a minor in Disability and High Performance from River Plate University and is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s in Education and New Technologies at Universidad Siglo 21, along with a degree in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences.

Jennie 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 studied Biology in Oregon and received a degree in Nursing Science from Columbia University. After working many years in cancer units, she moved to the Seattle area with her husband and two young boys where he was a stay-at-home mom and volunteered in a preschool. Beth found her call: she loved the laughs and creativity of young children instead of having to deal with people dying. As the children were older, Beth decided to reinvent herself in the education field. She received her teaching credentials form Seattle Pacific University and for 20 years she was a K to 3^rd grade teacher.

Verónica Guzmán

Maria Oneto

Elena Kazanjian

Allison Plamondon

Iris Hubbard

Silvia Calderón

Sonia Cobo

Wendy Cortés

Ángela Alfonso

Javiera Silva

Lizbeth Huerta

Juan Miguel Lavista

Luke Englund

Humberto Castañeda

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Mary Ewald

Karn Junkinsmith

Malena Gil-Vidal

Jennie Knapp

Beth Robinson

Malena Gil-Vidal