Staff
Laura Robell, Principal
laura@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Laura was born in North Carolina and grew up in the Southern United States. She attended Duke University with a BA in English and Religion and moved to California. After working in classrooms in San Francisco, she decided she wanted to be a teacher and went to Stanford University where she received a Masters in Education.
Ms. Robell has been working for the past 11 years in education. She was a high school English teacher at San Lorenzo High and a founder of Elmhurst Community Prep in 2006. Working to reform schools is a passion. Her favorite thing about ECP is how the students make her smile and laugh every day. Outside of school, Ms. Robell loves to enjoy the beautiful Bay Area outdoors and travel.
Kilian Betlach, Assistant Principal
kilian@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
After earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Psychology from Boston College, Kilian was accepted into Teach For America, and began teaching at Lee Mathson Middle School in east San Jose. For six years, Kilian taught 7th grade English-Language Arts and English Language Development, coached basketball, and served as the school’s athletic director. During that time, he earned a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from San Jose State University, and was the summer training Institute Director for the Oakland Teaching Fellows and the Oakland City Teacher Corps.
This is Kilian’s first year at Elmhurst after working as the Associate Director of Data & Policy for the Education Trust—West, an advocacy group committed to closing the achievement and opportunity gaps. He is thrilled to be at ECP, and particularly enjoys the strong sense of community and mission that surrounds the school. Kilian has a passion for teaching and learning, particularly reading, Algebra, and ELD. He also loves pirates, coffee, Boston College athletics, and really good chilaquiles, although not necessarily in that order.
Carol Szurkowski, 7th Grade Pre-Algebra Teacher
carol@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Carol grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Dartmouth College this past June. This is her first time living anywhere but the East Coast, and so far she has been greatly enjoying life in the Bay Area!
Carol chose to become a teacher because she remembers what a huge difference it made in her life to have teachers who believed in her and challenged her every day. She is so happy to be teaching at ECP because the close sense of community reminds her of her own middle school experience, and she thinks it is so important for a school to be a place where students feel comfortable and appreciated.
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Greg Holtz, 8th Grade English Teacher
greg@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Mr. Holtz has been teaching 8th grade English on the Elhmurst campus for five years. He has taught French and Creative Writing, and is a Teacher Consultant for the Bay Area Writing Project. When not at the 'Hurst, Mr. Holtz can be found biking and hiking throughout the Bay Area, and he looks forward to sharing his love for fitness and the outdoors with his students.
Stephanie Butler, Technology Teacher
stephanie@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Stephanie has a Bachelor's Degree in Business with minor in Communications, as well as a Masters in Instructional Leadership. She has an Adult Education credential as well as a Vocation Education credential in computers and technology. She is in the process of attaining her Administrative Credential. At ECP, she teaches Technology classes to all grades of students.
Amy Carozza, Resource Specialist and Algebra Teacher
amy@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Amy has been teaching for 9 years. This is her fourth year at Elmhurst Community Prep. Prior to this position, she coordinated a GED program for LifeWorks, a social service non-profit, and taught at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas. She has taught a variety of classes: Algebra, reading, math intervention, and student support classes.
She finds all of these subjects interesting when they are really dissected and taught well. She became a teacher to help students learn to use their brains so they can be as smart as possible as adults and have options in their lives. ECP is the type of school where everyone (student, teachers, administration, staff and families) works to do the maximum and get the highest results for all the students every day. This is why she loves Elmhurst Community Prep!
Navdeep Dosanjh, 7th Grade Life Science
nav@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Navdeep has a year of teaching experience at Elmhurst Community Prep and two years of teaching experience in the Central Valley. The reason why she chose to teach science is because she finds it to be fun and exciting. She earned her Bachelors in Biology from UC Riverside and learned lots of interesting concepts about science.
She chose to be a teacher because she loves being around young adults and influencing them in a positive way. She feels as though she can make a positive impact on their education and daily lives. The reason why she chose to teach at ECP is because she heard the students were amazing and it was a great place to be. It has been a great experience working at ECP!
Kim-Dung Nguyen, Newcomer Teacher
kim@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
After graduating from Brown University, Kim-Dung Nguyen returned to Oakland to do non-profit work supporting civics education in high schools and providing an after-school academic enrichment program for Fruitvale Elementary School students. In 2005, she joined Teach for America, and found herself back on the Elmhurst campus — her middle school alma mater. “Back teaching at the same school, in the same classroom where I was a student — it was so nostalgic,” she says. “It’s so great to be able to serve the community with so much respect and dignity and humility. That’s something you feel on the inside when you’re able to come to school each day, because you love the students so much. I feel so driven to give them everything I can by providing my students a quality education, and giving them the love and support that I feel I was given as a student. It’s been really great.”
Mara Flores-Naumann, 7th Grade English Teacher
mara@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Mara has always wanted to teach, but wasn’t sure which subject or grade level. She has been teaching in the Bay Area for about eight years. She started with the AmeriCorps program Project Yes, where she taught science and led a community service club with middle school students. Here she realized that middle school was, perhaps, the most exciting and formative years of a student’s life. She led the recycling program and instituted a school garden at Madison Middle School.
Later, she joined the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and worked as a Naturalist interpreting marine life, teaching about sharks, and running the visitor center located by the Golden Gate Bridge. She directed the Sanctuary Explorers Camp for a summer, leading interpretive field rips to tide pools, marshes, and bird nesting sites. Eventually, she realized that she needed to teach her real love – English – the same subject she studied in college.
She worked on her teaching credential at Mills College in Oakland, and has worked in Bancroft Middle School and San Leandro High School. This is her second year at Elmhurst Community Prep. She choose Elmhurst because it has similarities to her middle school in Los Angeles, which concentrated on bringing out the best in its students.
Shari Generaux, 8th Grade Science Teacher
shari@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Shari Generaux was born in Kansas City, Missouri. She attended the University of Missouri and received her B.S. in Geology. After graduation she had incredible opportunity to work with the faculty conducting research. She spent three summers collecting fossil specimens in the Badlands of South Dakota, she spent 2 summers investigating the San Andreas Fault zone just north of us in Olema, she performed laboratory research at UC, Berkeley, and she even worked for a week at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory preparing samples for radiocarbon dating.
Miss Generaux believes you learn science by doing science. She joins ECP from San Lorenzo High School where she taught Conceptual Physics and Physics. As she begins her second year of teaching, she plans on bringing the real world and her personal experiences into the classroom. She is excited about working with the ECP students and anticipates the 8th grade science classroom to be an active and fun educational environment.
Miss Generaux has two extremely active Australian Sheppard's who keep her busy in her spare time. She also loves to golf, hike, ride motorcycles and bicycles, read books, and work with stained glass.
Nancy Gomez, Office Manager
nancy@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Tamica Groves, 6th Grade English and History Teacher
tamica@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Tamica has six years of experience with Oakland Unified School District. She has worked with youth in various community organizations and tutoring programs for the past 13 years. This is her first year teaching middle school at Elmhurst. Teaching Language Arts and History gives her the opportunity to inspire students to express themselves through reading, writing, and studying the past. Oakland, California is filled with trees, beautiful people, and open minds. There is no better place for her to teach and learn.
Clarence Holmes, Accelerated Reader Coordinator/Librarian
clarence@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Clarence Holmes was born in Austin, Texas and attended the University of Texas, where he majored in History. He left a job with the Austin Public Library and moved to the Bay Area in 1968. He began a long career as an artist, working primarily in pencils, oils and acrylics. He started working at Elmhurst Middle School 8 years ago and helped initiate the Accelerated Reader program. He loves the program, and the effect it has had on improving student reading. He enjoys cooking, eating good food, and traveling. His favorite trip was a two week wild life safari in Kenya.
Neha Mehta, 6th Grade Math & Science Teacher
neha@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Neha was born in Bakersfield, CA and graduated from U.C. Berkeley this past May. Neha is a first-year teacher and part of Teach for America. She has some education related experience, including a college mentorship program called P.A.C.E. (Prepare to Achieve a College Education) at U.C. Berkeley. After doing this, Neha realized how amazing it is to work with students and motivate them towards achievement. She is so excited to be teaching Math and Science because of how important they are in understanding the world around us. Neha can't wait to enter the classroom and work with the amazing students, families and staff at Elmhurst!
Emily Novick, 8th Grade Algebra Teacher
emily@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Emily graduated from U.C. Berkeley where she studied Environmental Engineering. She has a single-subject math credential. This is her first year at Elmhurst Community Prep and she is very happy. She chose to teach math because it was her best subject in school, but she also loves science.
She chose to be a teacher because she went to public school her whole life and equal opportunity for education is very important to her. She ended up at Elmhurst because she loves the East Bay. Also, her brother used to be a teacher here, and she remembers the students being amazing. She was very happy for the chance to come here!
Jeremy Packman, 8th Grade History Teacher
jeremy@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Jeremy has been teaching at Elmhurst for five years. He loves to learn about our past and connect it to our present. Everyday, history takes place, and we can learn a lot from our ancestors. He chose to become a teacher because he really cares about today’s youth, especially those who live in the inner-city.
Teaching is a great way to connect with young people and lead by example. His goal is to encourage them to stay in school and work their hardest to be successful in life. He chose Elmhurst 5 years ago because he heard very good things about our principal Mr. Duffy. He is very happy to be a part of this great learning community!
Kelly Quayle, Reading Intervention Teacher
kelly@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Kelly will enter her third year at Elmhurst Community Prep in the fall of 2009. Before Kelly became a reading intervention teacher at ECP, she taught 10th grade English in San Jose, and is excited to see her former students graduate high school. A Virginia native, Kelly moved north to attend Princeton University, but was very happy to escape the Northeast and migrate to Hawaii following her graduation from college. After two transformative years working with kids at Kealakehe Middle School in Kona, Hawaii, she returned to the mainland to get her teaching credential and Master’s in Education at Stanford University, where she was fortunate to be taught by the infinitely gifted Laura Robell. Although Kelly misses her friends and family on the East Coast, and the ocean and culture of Hawaii, she has grown to love Oakland, and feels truly blessed to be a part of such a dedicated and loving community here at ECP.
David Reese, 6th Grade Dean
david@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
David has 15 years of experience total with 6 of those years at Elmhurst. He loves how the imagination works and how we get to express it through the language arts. For history, well, we wouldn’t be able to understand how and why humans do the things they do without it.
Also, he loves to travel and to share his experiences with students. He hopes to motivate them to visit some of the places they have learned about. He chose to be a teacher so that he could continue to get into trouble with the principal. Really, Elmhurst chose him. He was assigned here back in 2003. He used to teach elementary school.
Liz O'Hare, 6th Grade Math and Science
liz@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Liz attended Harvard University and has a BA in Psychology. Ms O'Hare has taught for 4 years, three in Los Angeles before coming to Elmhurst Community Prep. This is her first year at ECP. She has always loved math and science, and wanted a chance to make math fun and exciting for her students. There are so many opportunities for exciting projects and activities that she wants to share with her students all year long.
Liz love kids and enjoy their energy and sense of humor and the excitement they bring to learning new things. She spent 4 years in college working in after school programs in Boston and wanted a chance to work in the classroom with the amazing kids that she saw every day after school. Liz wanted to be a part of educating the unbelievable kids at schools like ECP.
Liz visited ECP at the end of the last school year and was impressed with how dedicated and excited and enthusiastic both the students and the staff were throughout the school. She could tell that everyone at the school really cared about the students’ education. She also felt like the community feeling throughout the school was really strong and positive and supported the students’ achievement in all ways. Liz couldn’t wait to be a part of such an amazing group of people!
Juan Rodriguez, English Language Development Teacher
juan@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Juan has a BA in Secondary Education from San Marcos University Lima, PERU. He also has a Masters in School Administration and Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Oregon. He has taught in Oakland for 10 years, seven of those at Elmhurst. Prior to teaching in Oakland, he taught School Administration at Universidad de Lima. Elmhurst's philosophy of acknowledging and validating our varied students' cultural background and the pursuit of our students' individual achievement has become a great motivator for Juan to serve here.
Cori Schneider, Special Day Teacher
cori@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Cori grew up in Northern California but has lived in the Bay Area since 1998. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in Anthropology and is working on a Masters Degree in Special Education at San Francisco State. She received a Teacher Quality Award for the 2007-2008 school year from the district for middle school special educators. She loves being a teacher and loves teaching at ECP!
Erin Waterhouse, Intervention Teacher
erin@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Erin has been a staff member at ECP since January 2009. Erin received a B.A. in Psychology from Montclair State University. She recently moved from New York City to California. Erin enjoys meeting new people, most outdoor sports, reading and traveling.
Selyah Waters, Instructional Assistant
selyah@elmhurstcommunityprep.org
Selyah attended Laney Jr.College and received three AA Degrees in Substance Abuse, Community Service and Science and Behavior. She attended East Bay Cal State Hayward Majoring in Liberal studies with Emphasis in Drama. She works as an Ass't in Special Education and coordinated the Adopt a Family Program. Her passion is preventing violence, and she enjoys performing and writing plays.