2020-2021 Faculty Cohort
Ian Arenas teaches Visual Art, Film History and Video Production at Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco, and has been an arts educator since 2010. Before joining LWSH, Ian was the Department Chair of Art and Director of the STEM Initiative at YULA High School in Beverly Hills. Outside of the classroom, Ian loves playing and coaching soccer. He earned his MFA in Art from CalArts, attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and is an interdisciplinary artist who is interested in ideas of labor, work, worth, use-value, and inefficiency.
Tania teaches biology and neuroscience and is a collaborator in the research program at Marin Academy. She also co-leads mindfulness practices for students and enjoys participating in the Outings program. Tania received her B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavioral Sciences from UC Davis in 2000 and her PhD in Psychology from UC Berkeley in 2011. Before joining MA, Tania was at UC Berkeley, where she spent three years as the lab coordinator and developer for the introductory biology course. She has taught Comparative Cognition, Biological Psychology, and Animal Behavior as a Graduate Student Instructor and Introductory Biology and Exploring Research Methods as a lecturer at UC Berkeley. Tania has always been fascinated with the inner workings and evolution of the brain and nervous system and is excited to explore this further with students in the Blend-Ed psychology course.
Jack teaches chemistry, AP chemistry, and a semester-long organic chemistry elective at College Prep. In addition to belonging to several school committees, he is the senior class advisor and also coaches Cross Country and Track and Field at the school. Prior to coming to College Prep in the 1990s, Jack taught at El Cerrito High School, and had worked as a bench scientist in a Berkeley lab before getting into teaching. Jack is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in bacteriology and immunology, and did graduate work at Cal and San Francisco State University.
We all have a human body and Justin feels it is each person’s responsibility to learn about this marvelous machine that takes us from birth to death. Justin enjoys learning about the anatomy and physiology of the human body and connecting this knowledge to a greater understanding of how to live a healthy, long life. Justin is the Director of Educational Technology at The Branson School. Prior to that, he taught chemistry, biology, forensic science and human anatomy and physiology for many years in Hawaii. Justin earned his bachelor’s degree at Northland College in Chemistry and Biology and has a masters in Teaching and Learning with Technology. When not engaged in his primary duties, Justin loves cooking, Sci-Fi and entomology.
Sanjev brings over 15 years of experience in education, youth development, and community service to the BlendEd consortium. His life’s mission is to empower young people to be leaders and to create progressive change in their communities. Sanjev is currently a humanities seminar teacher at The Athenian School. Sanjev also brings two decades of work in the music industry field, working with many different artists, producers and labels in developing, marketing and promoting their brand.
Liz teaches Chemistry, Advanced Biology, and Environmental Science at Marin Academy. She also coaches the Cross Country team at MA and leads a number of running, hiking, and restoration outings. She has led summer trips to Alaska to study biodiversity, the high Sierras to study climate change (& pika) and the American Prairie Reserve in Montana to participate in citizen science projects.
Liz was a founding BlendEd Consortium teacher, leading 3 successful cycles of the Bay Area Field Ecology course and is excited to pioneer a new immersive blended/hybrid model with the Wilderness Studies Summer/Fall trimester course.
Liz earned a B.A. from Colby College and also a Masters in Science from Montana State University. She began her teaching career by participating in Teach for America, where she taught seventh- and eighth-grade science at Roosevelt Middle School in Compton, California.
Nicole Hunter has been a librarian at San Francisco University High School since 2003. Working with the history department she teaches research skills across the history curriculum with a focus on the use of primary sources. She has co-taught an English course called the Fourth Estate in which students both examined media coverage of current and past events and created media pieces of their own. Nicole has a passion for research, constructivist learning, art, and history. She has a degree in history from UCLA and a master’s in library science with a focus on archives from San José State. Nicole lives in Oakland with her husband and son. She loves to sew and knit and hosts a podcast on her creative pursuits. She enjoys running on the trails of the East Bay hills and exploring local history sites.
Nick is an MA alum (’05) who went on to earn an M.S. in Environmental Studies with a focus in nonfiction writing from the University of Montana in 2014. Nick has spent extensive time over the last six years working in the backcountry of the Great Burn Recommended Wilderness and currently serves on the Great Burn Study Group’s Board of Directors. He loves to use writing to explore the intricacies of place, and in 2017, he won The Montana Quarterly’s Big Snowy Prize for his essay “Passing Through” about crossing through the entirety of the Great Burn. Throughout the school year, you can find Nick teaching poetry to elementary- and middle-school students as a Writer in Residence with the Missoula Writing Collaborative. Come summer, he moves outside to teach college students about the complexities of human-landscape relationships in Montana as an instructor for the Wild Rockies Field Institute. He is also currently working on a book about the evolving industry and ethics of making maple syrup in the Northeast. In his free time, Nick loves to explore the wilds of Montana by foot, paddle, or ski with his wife, their dog, and, very soon, their first child.
Patricia has been teaching at College Prep since 2007. She is a French teacher and a Wellness and Decision-Making Facilitator for the tenth grade Health Program. Patricia holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in Contemporary French and Francophone Literature with an emphasis on Socio-Cultural Studies, and is currently completing an MA in Counseling at Saint Mary’s College of California. Prior to teaching at College Prep, she taught at UC Berkeley as a Graduate Student Instructor and at Cal State East Bay as a lecturer. For this Intro to Psych course, Patricia will be drawing from her counseling training and socio-cultural background as well as curriculum and best practices from the American Psychological Association Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools, the Stanford Psychology One Program, and the Psych One Conference at Duke. Patricia has always been fascinated by how one’s origins and various environmental factors play a role in human psychological development and looks forward to sharing her enthusiasm for and insights into socio-cultural psychology with her BlendEd students.
Ashton Richards, a thirty-six year veteran of the classroom, teaches United States History and Modern World History at Branson where he has been teaching since 2010. A self-described “political junkie,” Ashton loves digging into the American political process and has done volunteer work on a number of political campaigns throughout his life. When he is not teaching or coaching, Ashton enjoys working in the garden, rowing, and cheering on his children in their various athletic pursuits. Ashton earned his BA in History at Syracuse University and his Master of Liberal Studies at Wesleyan University.
Don Rizzi has been teaching Biology and Chemistry at Lick-Wilmerding High School since 2007. He also coaches wrestling, is an advisor, and mentors independent study students in electronic music production. Prior to coming to Lick, Don taught Physics, Math, Chemistry, and Media Production at High Tech High, which is a charter school that emphasizes project based learning and the cultivation of 21st century skills. He also received his MA in Instructional Technologies from San Francisco State University.
Jessica Yen has been teaching at Urban for the past three years, and currently teaches both math and biology. Prior to that, she taught math at South Lakes High School in Virginia for four years. Jessica earned a B.S. in secondary education and biology (with a minor in math) and a M.Ed. focused on math curriculum development at Vanderbilt University. A long-time lover of mathematics and logic, she enjoys inviting students to experience the beauty and elegance of math.
