Teachers

Wade Bradford

College Professor at College of the Canyons, local playwright, and homeschooling father! Wade Bradford will bring his talents to our kids to help bring the excitement of Create Writing into their education!
www.wadebradford.com

Frank Browne

Frank Browne, our guitar teacher, resides in Castaic and tours regularly throughout the U.S. He has performed on stage with many national acts including Zoot Suit Revue, the acclaimed swing, big band, latin, and jump blues show group; and the jazz ensemble Big Brothers Big Band, where he performed for President Clinton. He is featured on ZSR s album “Bold, Borrowed and New” as well as three CD’s with Gary Urwin’s Studio Orchestra. Their latest recording, Kindred Spirits, can be heard on jazz radio stations across the country. Frank has performed at such notable venues as The Derby, The Coconut Club, The Supper Club NY, House of Blues, and the MGM Grand. Fluent in all musical genres, he also maintains a large studio of private students. Frank originally hails from New York and is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Music.

Kelly Bygum

A graduate of the USC Marshall School of Business and homeschool Mom for 7 years, Kelly is also a licensed cosmetologist for over 30 years and have worked with many well-known artists such as Vidal Sassoon, Allen Bush, and Paul Mitchell. As instructor and platform artist for the ABBA Academy she brought her love of teaching and artistry to the move industry. An actress and dancer in the entertainment industry, Kelly moved to more sedate activities with the birt of her children! She says "The most difficult job I have had to date is being a mother to my 4 children. Still looking for that instruction book!"

Dr. Roger DeSesa

Homeschooling Father and local chiropractor, Dr. DeSesa is very exciting to bring the world of human biology and physiology - health and wellness - to our kids!
www.scvhealthcare.com

Nora Frolick

A home schooling educator for the past 6 years, Nora Frolick has taught group classes in reading/ writing, math games, history, art, creative problem solving, magazine making, writing skills, and Photoshop. At HuckleBerry, Frolick is responsible for bringing play into all classes, the Inventions Lab, Mentoring Program, Seminars and the Books & Games Store. A graphic designer for 16 years, Frolick created movie posters for the entertainment industry. Currently principal of Nora K. Design, Frolick designs and produces a wide range of functional fabric art including one-of-a-kind handbags, clothing and dolls. She holds a BA from Art Center College of Design and Loyola Marymount University.

Sharon Koppenhaver

Sharon Koppenhaver joined the Huckleberry staff in January of 2008 as a Physical Education Teacher. She graduated with a BS in Physical Education specializing in Exercise and Fitness from James Madison University in Virginia. Sharon has been a Personal Fitness Trainer in Delaware and Minnesota. She taught PE in Massachusetts for 2 years and in California for 1 year. Sharon has an extensive background in many team sports as well as total body wellness. She lives in Stevenson Ranch with her husband Dave and their two children Paige (15 years old) and Davis (12 years old).

Lisa Melcombe

After a decade working in television animation for Disney and Warner Bros., Lisa Melcombe earned her California State teaching credential and has taught in the Santa Clarita Valley since 2002. She has a degree in Art from Cal State University, Northridge and an appreciation for creative and performing arts. Ms. Melcombe has a special passion for literature and storytelling, and loves to introduce children (including her two young daughters) to beautifully written and classically illustrated books.

Jody Nalian

Homeschooling mother for 16 years and much loved teacher, Jody brings her passion for learning into all of her classes!

Patt Pandolfi

Patt Pandolfi has been teaching in public & private schools for over 15 years. At the same time, she is a devoted homeschooling mom of her two daughters, ages 15 & 16. She began taking Spanish classes when she was 12 & continued throughout college; her minor equivalent from UCLA is in Spanish & Linguistics. She was employed by UCLA as a Spanish transcriber/translator for several studies. She also lived in Mexico many years ago & returned just last year on a church youth mission trip. During that trip she served as translator between the family & the youth workers. She has a B.A. degree in English from UCLA. She loves teaching & has always believed in using games & fun as an important part of the learning process.

Sarah Peterson

Graduated from Concordia College with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Religion. Sarah has been a Home Educator for the past six years and has been a well loved teacher of Elements and the Periodic Table, Forensics and Biology, Cooking, and Math Games to the homeschooling community. Sarah's teaching philosophy is to approach each class with interesting hands on activities and games that keep the kids wanting to learn more!

Brenda Ramirez

Brenda Ramirez is a native Californian with a love and curiosity of people who came be-fore. Ramirez is a credentialed teacher with over 20 years teaching experience who has chosen to become a part of the alternative education movement in order to help facilitate a life long love of learning. Ramirez seeks opportunities to be creative in the learning process and help history come alive for all her students. She also desires to learn from the insights her students may have about the past and what can be applied to the present. Ramirez believes in a hands on interactive approach to any subject, including as many field experiences as possible. Teaching as well as learning about California History is an opportunity she has been looking forward to since she began homeschooling her own children.

Ann Rees

Ann Rees has a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering. She has tutored in several math levels, including basic math, algebra and beyond for several years. Rees enjoys working with children to make math fun and to help them see connections between mathematical concepts and the real world usage of math.

Carol Ring

Carol Ring has enjoyed teaching for many years. From preschool developmental classes though adult computer training courses, Ring has experience with a wide range of students' needs and abilities. She holds an Associate of Arts degree in Fine Arts and a Bachelors degree in Liberal Arts with emphasis in Business and Psychology. Mrs. Ring had her own graphic design business for 15 years where she worked with top advertising and design studios in Los Angeles. After having her two children, Mrs. Ring has been homeschooling for over 10 years. She has a passion for gifted children and those with learning disabilities. Mrs. Ring has attended many educational conferences and workshops concerning these amazing kids. Mrs. Ring hopes to get a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology.

Cathy Riso

Cathy has worked world wide as a soloist and background vocalist for internationally renowned artists (i.e. Placido Domingo, Julio Iglesias, Charles Aznevour, etc), and now brings the joy of music, singing, and her love of cooking to HuckleBerry!

Penny Sande

Penny Sande has a passion for making music. As an accomplished violin and viola player, her playing credits date back to the mid 70's. At the request of a local elementary school, she began teaching students to play violin and recorder. Sande has a loyal following, and soon added cello to her repertoire, and is the current director for 2 local string orchestras. Sande's peformance groups have performed at many weddings, charity & local events, including being a featured playing group at Universal City Walk during 2006 Holiday season. She is both a dedicated homeschooler, and a well loved private string teacher, with 35 current private lesson students.

Rene Urbanovich

Rene Urbanovich has been teaching singing and creativity for over 20 years, as an instructor for private studios, the City of Santa Clarita, churches, high schools, colleges and is also a state vendor for local charter schools that support the home schooling community. Rene holds her Bachelor's in the study of Creativity and performs Creativity workshops through local venues as well.
http://www.withsong.com/

Marlowe Weisman

Marlowe Weisman has written and consulted for every animation genre - from irreverent sci-fi to classic character slapstick; heartwarming preschool tales to action-packed westerns to educational satire. A former Disney staff writer, he earned an Emmy nomination for his work on Warner Bros.’ Baby Looney Tunes, and recently contributed to Cartoon Network’s My Gym Partner’s A Monkey. He co-wrote the European animated feature Letters From Felix 2 and the upcoming DVD feature The Sound of Silent Night. Prior credits include WB’s Emmy-winning historical parody Histeria, Cartoon Network's raucous Ed, Edd & Eddy, Sci-Fi Network’s cult hit Captain Simian, Universal’s New Woody Woodpecker and international preschool hit Pocket Dragon Adventures. Marlowe’s short for WB’s Animaniacs starred original characters created beyond the cast. It featured just one word - spoken 120 times.
http://thebiz.variety.com/people/marlowe-weisman

Partners in Learning

Movies By Kids

Movies By Kids is a creative program designed for teaching young students the exciting process of movie making and animation. This unique "Hand's On" program offers children the opportunity to conceive, write, produce and direct their own animated movies, live action shorts and special effects segments. Movie By Kids has been running programs successfully to an expanding number of cites inside and outside of California. The Movies By Kids web site is an extensive, interactive site that allows everyone access to program information, on-line registration, or simply to view some of our favorite student projects on the web site. Our goal is to enable children to "experience their imagination" in a safe, nurturing environment, with an age appropriate curriculum taught by industry professionals who know what they're doing and love what they do.
http://www.moviesbykids.com/

Play-Well TEKnologies

At Play-Well TEKnologies we strive to build problem-solving skills, provide an opportunity for creative expression, foster a greater appreciation of how things work, and encourage the qualities of inquisitiveness, self reliance, and self confidence in children. We do this in the context of fun-filled engineering and architectural projects, activities that both the children and the instructors enjoy!
http://www.play-well.org/

Director

Stephanie Berry

Founder & Executive Director of HuckleBerry. A home schooling educator for the past 6 years, Stephanie Berry has taught group classes in reading, writing, history, geography, Latin / Greek roots and biology. She is a trained PhonoGraphix reading instructor and provides 1:1 reading instructional play with children ages 5 - 11. Prior to embarking in the educational arena, Berry was a software and business consultant for major corporations in the Silicon Valley. Her projects ranged in scope from re-organizing businesses for success to bringing in software and interpersonal communication tools to help organizations achieve profitability. She has developed both in-house and commercial grade software and holds 2 patents on Novel Gene Clustering Algorithms and Genomic Visualization tools.
http://www.huckleberrycreativelearning.org/

Elizabeth Johnson

Director of Community Outreach. As a Harvard graduate, Elizabeth Johnson is a woman of many passions, including visual arts, the human condition, animal training, and French. Her love of beauty stems from a childhood on Maui, one of the most inspirational places on earth. She has painted and gardened since childhood and studied with successful artists like Betty Hay Freeland and Harvey Quoitman. Possessing a lifelong interest in psychology and philosophy, Mrs. Johnson has read extensively and worked with several spiritual teachers for over 25 years. At Harvard, as a psychology major, she worked in BF Skinner's lab, which lead to her subsequent degree in Exotic Animal Training and Management. Her love of animals developed as a child, raising farm stock, galloping horses bareback across Haleakala, showing English and Western, and playing polo. Johnson trained wild and exotic animals for the entertainment industry, then moved to France, where she refined her prior knowledge of the French language through immersion. Currently, in addition to homeschooling her sons, Johnson trains horses, teaches riding, shows and sells paintings, designs and installs gardens, and teaches French and other classes professionally.
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/5johnsons/index2.html

Elizabeth Rydall

Director of Arts & Performing Arts. Elizabeth Rydall has a BA in Art and Theatre from Moorhead State University and has taught various subjects for over 20 years. She was a professional actor for over 15 years, appearing in commercials, television, industrial films, feature films, and live in-house trainings for large corporations such as Disney, American Express, ABC TV and Carrier. She won a "Best Actress" in Los Angeles Theatre and has taught acting to adults and children for 18 years. After having children, she started a new art business focused on teaching private and group art lessons, painting commissioned works and painting murals in homes and businesses. You can visit her teaching website at http://www.theartmom.com/, or her art website at http://www.wheretheartis.com/