Faculty & Staff Directory

What is your role at CSS? I’m an Upper School Math and History Teacher. I teach statistics, AP statistics, discrete math, world history, micro- and macroeconomics, and AP micro- and macroeconomics. I’m also an advisor, the sponsor of the chess club, the coach of the High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling Team (HiMCM), and a sponsor of the Class of 2022.

What would people be surprised to learn about you? My favorite kind of music is 60s pop. And I don’t mean the Beatles or the Stones or anything the students might have heard of. I mean Jay and the Americans, the Turtles, Coven, Pebbles and Bam Bam, Ricky Nelson, the Toys, the Archies, Edison Lighthouse, Tommy James and Shondells, Dion, Otis Redding, the Velvet Underground, etc. I go hard.

What did you want to be growing up? What didn’t I want to be? A paleontologist, an aeronautical engineer, an Olympic swimmer, a theoretical physicist, and a studio musician are the things that stand out most. These days I can’t figure out why anyone wants to be anything other than happy.

What draws you to working with students? They’re smarter, more curious, more active, more motivated, and kinder than almost all of the adults I know.

What is your role at CSS? I am a first grade teacher.

What is one thing you’ve learned from students? I’ve learned tons of things from my students, but the most important thing is to slow down and listen. Kids have great ideas and think in ways adults rarely consider, so there’s a lot you can learn from them if you do.

If you were a superhero, what powers would you have? I would have super speed. That way, I’d be able to work with my first graders even more each day!

What did you want to be growing up? I wanted to be a first grade teacher. I got very lucky!

What is one thing you enjoy about CSS? I love the way CSS encourages students and teachers alike to reach for their potential. CSS opens countless opportunities for people to try new things and explore the world around them.

What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I have lived in Japan and Iceland.

What is one thing you've learned from students?
To laugh off the mistakes.

What did you want to be growing up?
A teacher.

What draws you to working with students?
Seeing that lightbulb moment when a student finally gets something they have been trying to understand.

What is your favorite spot in the world and why?
I think I would have to say Iceland, the land of fire and ice. It has tranquil beauty – whether it is summer and lupine or cotton grass are in bloom or winter with white, bright blue, and black snow. It is a place relatively untouched by commercialism. We recently took the kids back so they could explore a place they lived and/or were born in. That journey, seeing the wonders of Iceland – black sand beaches, rugged basalt cliffs, rolling green hills, glacier-covered mountains, stunning waterfalls, hot springs, wildlife, rainbows, and the northern lights – with the kids as adults was and will always be one of my most favorite times in one of my most favorite places.

Theresa began her teaching career as a 2nd-grade teacher while stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Her experiences include teaching 1st grade in the Las Vegas school system and teaching grades two through four at Hilton Head Elementary International Baccalaureate School. Additionally, she spent a year working at the Gifted and Talented Center for York County schools in Yorktown, Virginia. Throughout the course of her career, Theresa has had wonderful opportunities to teach and to work with diverse students and exceptional teachers. As a result, she has been exposed to many different teaching styles and classroom disciplinary systems, and has created, integrated and expanded her classroom curriculum to meet a vast array of student needs. She's adapted what she has learned from each experience to become proficient at designing creative and stimulating lesson plans, which accommodate multiple learning styles, encourage hands-on learning, and promote student discovery and creative-thinking. Theresa earned a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts with a minor in Elementary Education – magna cum laude – from the University of New Hampshire, and a Master of Art in Education from Colorado College.

If you were a superhero, what powers would you have? I would want my superpower to be the ability to move things with my mind.

What is one thing you enjoy about CSS? One thing I enjoy about CSS is I get to spend my day with the best kids on the planet. They brighten my day with their enthusiasm, energy, joy, and giggles.

What draws you to working with children? I am drawn to working with kids because it’s always an adventure. Every day brings new rewards and new challenges. The kids are excited to take on the day, and it’s contagious. (And they don’t think my dinosaur obsession is weird.)

What is your role at CSS? Upper School Science Teacher and garden coordinator. What is a favorite memory at CSS? Taking my Anatomy & Physiology students to Peak Institute for Anatomical Research to observe human cadavers.

If you were a superhero, what powers would you have? The power to teleport anywhere in the world. I would visit all the beautiful places and wonderful people in the world I long to see, not to mention cutting my commute time to zero, but it would be much more eco-friendly than air travel!

What did you want to be growing up? A park ranger.

What draws you to teaching? The challenge and creativity required to work with so many different types of personalities and learning styles, and the joy of helping people discover and understand their world.

What is one thing you enjoy about CSS? Small class sizes and the ability to innovate and create engaging experiences for the students.

What is your favorite spot in the world? Colorado Springs!!! I’m so happy to have moved here four years ago.

What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I'm a beekeeper. My girls and I refurbished a hive during COVID and now our colony of bees has been thriving for three years.

What is your favorite spot in the world and why?
The international arrivals terminal at Charles de Gaulle Airport. There is no greater confluence of human happiness in the world.

What would people be surprised to learn about you? I grew up on an island outside Seattle. I am a trained instructor of Infant Massage and Early Childhood Music (using the Music Together Curriculum).

What is one thing you’ve learned from students? I love the honesty, openness, and curiosity of the young learner, and I learn from them every day how to be a better, more empathetic, and authentic human being.

If you were a superhero, what powers would you have? Flying, for sure, and helping people see the good in other people.

What did you want to be growing up? A veterinarian. I love animals!

What draws you to teaching? My love of kids!

What is your favorite spot in the world? I enjoy being on the water, perhaps because I grew up on an island. Pretty much anywhere I can sit and look out over water is where I want to be.

What is one thing you enjoy about CSS? The community! My children have been in all divisions at the school, and I love how the interactions between age groups encourage a strong community. I also appreciate that the size of our school makes it so that every child is known on campus, even by folks who are not their current teachers. It creates a sense of safety as children move through the grades.

If you were a superhero, what powers would you have and why?
If I were a superhero I would have teleportation ability and I would definitely take my students to places where they could have a first-hand experience of the topics we see in class every day.

What is one thing you've learned from students?
One thing I've learned from students is the importance of feedback and recognition, it can truly make a difference in someone's day and life even, no matter how big or small the milestone is.

What did you want to be growing up?
I come from a huge family, so I was always surrounded by kids, older and younger, and I always felt compelled to take the lead or call the shots, and I would always find myself teaching them something. So teaching just came naturally to me.

What draws you to working with students?
Their ability to learn and their immense potential to shape and reshape the world as they see and experience it.

What is one thing you enjoy about CSS and why?
One thing I enjoy about CSS is the passion for teaching my colleagues showcase. They inspire me to raise the bar continuously.

Alfonso brings more than a decade of experience in language teaching. He enjoys using my professional skills as an educator to contribute to students' integral education through the teaching of a second language. He strongly believes in providing opportunities for students to partake in today's interconnected world and culture and in all the positive effects that speaking a second language could have on the way our brains work. Outside of work, he enjoys being active. He loves hiking and mountain biking with family and friends.

What is your role at CSS? I teach science and mathematics in the Upper School.

What would people be surprised to learn about you? In my 20s, I happily lived out of my truck or a tent for months at a time while I traveled the Western US, South America, and the South Pacific in search of adventure such as rock climbing, mountaineering, river running, and scuba diving.

What is a favorite memory at CSS? Meeting my wife here.

What is one thing you’ve learned from students? I learn something new and interesting from students every single day in the classroom. Most of my students are smarter and more clever than I am. I’ve just been thinking about science and math longer than they have, so I get to teach these subjects to them.

If you were a superhero, what powers would you have? Flight.

What did you want to be growing up? First, a pilot, and then a mountain guide.

What draws you to working with students? The energy, creativity, inventiveness, and humor of high school students.