Instructors

	Freddy Arroyo Head Coach – Boys' Soccer This is Coach Arroyo's seventh season as the head coach of the boys' varsity team and his tenth season with the Harvard-Westlake Soccer Program. He coached the girls' JV team from 1998-2000. Also an accomplished player, Coach Arroyo set the Van Nuys High School record for most goals (70) in a four-year span, then led the Nation in assists in 1998 and 1999 while starring for California State University, Northridge. In 1998, Coach Arroyo was named Independent Player of the Year and was a member of the All-American Scholastic Team in 1998 and 1999. His coaching experience includes serving as an assistant coach for CSUN, coaching numerous club teams in the area, and earning a United States Soccer Federation “D” license and a National Soccer Coaches' Association of America (NSCAA) National Coaching Diploma. Coach Arroyo teaches Physical Education at the Middle School campus.

	Anamaria Ayala Anamaría Ayala has been teaching Spanish at Harvard-Westlake since 2005. Previously, she taught Spanish to first and second grade students at Kingsley Elementary School in Illinois, seventh and eighth grade students at St. Clements School in Chicago. She has taught at Loyola University, De Paul University, Instituto Cervantes and at the University of Chicago where she is currently pursuing a doctorate in Hispanic Literature. She was also a Spanish instructor of summer courses at the University of Chicago from 2001 to 2005. Ms. Ayala was the coordinator for the 2002 University of Chicago Study Abroad Program in Buenos Aires where she taught Spanish and organized the trip. In addition, she has worked on the development of Spanish-teaching materials such as the video “Chicago habla” which is currently being used to teach Spanish at the University of Chicago.

	Darlene Bible Head Coach – Girls' Swimming and Diving Coach Bible, the Daily News 2006 Swimming Coach of the Year, has been Harvard-Westlake School's boys' and girls' Middle School head swim coach and JV and Varsity head girls' swim coach for 25 years. During her time at Harvard-Westlake, she has coached numerous All-Americans, including world class swimmer and 4-time Olympic swimmer, Dara Torres. Her career record at HW is 159-13. Under her leadership, the girls' team has won 19 league championships and one CIF championship. Two of the eleven girls' swim records in Divisions II and III are held by Harvard-Westlake alumni. In addition to her coaching duties, Coach Bible is also Harvard-Westlake's Athletic Director for Operations.

	Adam Black Head Coach – Girls' Volleyball Adam Black is the girls’ volleyball coach at Harvard-Westlake. Previously, Black was an assistant coach on the men’s volleyball staff at Pepperdine University. Black played volleyball at California State University, Northridge, and became an assistant there once his playing days were over. He then went on to coach boys’ volleyball at Chaminade College Preparatory High School and girls’ volleyball at Pacifica High School. In 2003, Black returned to the collegiate ranks and coached at Pierce College before heading to Pepperdine. While coaching at the collegiate level, Black looked to return to the high school level. “Coaching at the high school level, especially at a school like Harvard-Westlake, is a very rewarding experience,” said Black. “I get to run my own program and develop student-athletes for the six years they are here, which is unique at the high school level."

	Jen Bladen Jen Bladen has been a yearbook professional since 1998: first as a high school teacher, then as a sales representative for one of the nation's largest yearbook publishers and now teaching 7^th – 12^th graders at Harvard-Westlake. The 2008 Vox Populi is her second yearbook here, and it has already received recognition on a national level for excellence in design and photography. Ms. Bladen is an avid amateur photographer and hones her publishing skills by volunteering her time creating a monthly newsletter for a nearby non-profit organization. While she speaks about yearbook journalism at workshops and conventions throughout the country, she is thrilled to call Los Angeles home after living almost two decades in San Diego.

	Rosemary Elizabeth Clark Rosemary Elizabeth Clark is a member of the History Department at the Harvard-Westlake Middle School. She has been teaching Middle School History for five years. Rosemary received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in history from the University of California at Santa Barbara and her Master of Arts Degree from Claremont Graduate University, also in history. Rosemary’s emphasis and research was in British History. She currently teaches Civics and Europe and the World I at the Middle School.

	Jarron Collins Center - Utah Jazz Jason Collins Center/Forward - Memphis Grizzlies Jason Collins and Jarron Collins starred at Harvard Westlake High School from 1993-1997. They led the Wolverines to a 119-9 record during their four seasons while winning Division III State titles during their junior and senior seasons. Both Jarron and Jason were Parade Magazine All-Americans and played in the McDonald's All-Star game. They were inducted into the Harvard-Westlake Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003 and are two of only seven Wolverine student-athletes to have their jerseys retired. Jason and Jarron each broke the California State Rebounding high school record with over 1,500 rebound during his high school years. After graduating from Harvard-Westlake, the Collins Twins enrolled at Stanford University where they led the Cardinal to the Final Four in 1998 and were named Honorable Mention All-Americans and All-Pac 10 Conference First Team in 2001. Jarron was a finalist for the John R. Wooden Award. Additionally, Jason finished his career at Stanford ranked first in school’s history in career field goal percentage and fifth in blocked shots Their professional lives were separated after college. Jason was selected with the 18^th pick in the 2001 NBA Draft. Jason participated in the 2002 NBA Finals with the New Jersey Nets and played against the Los Angeles Lakers. The New Jersey Nets repeated their stellar statistics and played in the 2003 NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. Jarron was selected in the second round in the 2001 NBA Draft.

	Shawn Costantino Shawn Costantino teaches all levels of Jazz Performance at Harvard-Westlake Upper School. He holds degrees from The University of Miami, DePaul University, and has started a Doctoral degree at the University of Northern Colorado. During his college years he performed with many jazz luminaries including Jim McNeeley, Wynton Marsalis, Phil Woods, and Kenny Werner. He was also a fixture with Royal Caribbean Cruises, where he was hired as a full-time Musical Director at only 22 years old. As a jazz educator, Shawn Costantino revitalized the jazz program at Naperville Central High School in Naperville, Illinois. It was there that he honed his teaching and jazz directing skills, sending numerous students to all state, honor bands, and numerous top music schools. In addition to his teaching career at Harvard-Westlake, Shawn also enjoys a very active career as a saxophonist/woodwind expert, writer, studio player, and is a Yamaha sponsored clinician.

	Erin Creznic Head of the Field Hockey Program Head Varsity Coach 7th & 8th Grade Coach Erin played high school Field Hockey at Kentucky Country Day School, where she was captain of her varsity team and was selected to both the All-County and All-State Teams. She went on to play at Davidson College and graduated in 2002. Erin has coached at Harvard-Westlake since that time and last year led the Freshmen Team to their first league championship. Erin currently participates in the Field Hockey Federation programs.

	Vic Eumont Head Coach – Football Coach Eumont is beginning his third year as the leader of the Harvard-Westlake program. In his first season, he led the Wolverines to a 10 win season and an undefeated Del Rey league championship. He is a veteran coach with an impressive resume. He started his career at Tulane University as a student assistant coach in 1968 and made stops at the University of Kansas, the University of New Mexico and the University of Louisiana-Lafayette before settling at Jesuit High School in New Orleans in 2001. At Jesuit, he led the Blue Jays to the state playoffs four consecutive seasons and posted a 20-4 record over the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Hurricane Katrina cut short the 2005 season and led Vic to Los Angeles, where his daughters live. While on the West Coast, he became a volunteer coach for the Wolverine freshman football team and made his mark in an astonishingly short time. This brief relationship with Harvard-Westlake established him as the top candidate to direct the future of HW football. He also teaches physical education at the Upper School.

	Paula Evans Paula Evans is Chair of the Math, Computer Science, and Economics Department at the Harvard-Westlake Upper School. She has been teaching Upper School Math and Computer Science courses for nine years. She has led workshops for elementary and middle school math teachers since 1992. As an adjunct faculty member at Los Angeles Valley College, she has taught math courses designed for elementary school teachers. She is primarily interested in developing curriculum and teaching methods that develop strong math skills in the early years. She received a Master of Arts—Mathematics from the University of Missouri and a Master of Arts—Math Teaching from the University of Florida.

	George Fecske Varsity Assistant Coach – Boy's Basketball George has been coaching basketball for over twenty seven years. He has coached high school basketball for the past sixteen years with fourteen of those at Harvard-Westlake. George assisted Coach Hilliard in each of seven CIF Championships and two State Championship seasons. In his high school years, George was the starting point guard on the Montclair Prep team and won the CIF Championship. “It’s no accident that we have won so many titles since George arrived,” says Coach Hilliard. “He works tirelessly and patiently with our players and truly has a passion for the game.” In addition to his duties at Harvard-Westlake, George runs his own mortgage company, and is enthusiastically supported by his wife Jackie, son Max and daughter Paige.

	Joaquin Fernandez-Castro Joaquín Fernández-Castro is a native speaker, originally from Spain. He has over fourteen years of experience teaching Spanish both at college level (Harvard University) and at high school level in public and private schools. He has been teaching at Harvard-Westlake for the last three years and is the team leader of Spanish II at the Upper School campus. He uses a variety of dynamic teaching techniques to help the students with the acquisition of the four basic language skills (speaking, listening, writing, and reading) with which they can build a strong foundation to develop their knowledge and skills of Spanish further as they advance through the more advanced levels.

	Cheri Gaulke Cheri Gaulke has been teaching Video Art at Harvard-Westlake for 20 years and her students have won numerous awards. She is also faculty advisor for the Harvard-Westlake Film Festival. As an artist, her work has been exhibited in museums, galleries and film festivals worldwide.

	Simona Ghirlanda Simona Ghirlanda is a native speaker of both French and Italian. She moved from Europe to the States 13 years ago and has been teaching French IV and V, and AP French Language at Harvard-Westlake for 12 years. She also teaches Italian for the Summer School Program and the Italian Directed Study 2006-07. Simona graduated from the University of Padua (Italy) and double majored in French Literature and Art History.

	Christopher Gragg Christopher Gragg has been Director of the Technology Center and taught senior-year Mathematics at Harvard-Westlake for the past ten years. He has also offered Introduction to Programming and Web Design during the past five years and has taught both during summer school. A graduate of Occidental College, where he earned his teaching credential in Math and double majored in German, and of USC, where he earned a Master of Arts. Chris worked at Occidental for 21 years before coming to Harvard-Westlake. Being a graduate of Frankfurt High School in Frankfurt, Germany, he speaks German fluently and also oversees the Harvard-Westlake Language Laboratory.

	Mark Haddad Mark started playing lacrosse when he was 14, and he represented his state in Australian national competitions at the age of 23. In 1982 when Mark turned 25, he began to play international lacrosse with the Australian National Team. He continued with the Australian National Team for the next eight years. After the 1990 season, Mark moved to the United States where his playing career came to an end. While living in Australia, Mark coached high school students at club and state levels and toured with the junior state teams. Since coming to the United States, Mark has continued to be involved with international lacrosse. Most recently, Mark was a team scout and special assistant to the head coach of the 2006 Australian National Men's team. That year, Australia won the Bronze medal behind USA (Silver) and Canada (Gold).

	Melissa Hearlihy Head Coach – Girls' Basketball Melissa enters her eighth year as head coach at Harvard-Westlake, where she has taken girls' basketball to new heights. She started her coaching career at the University of California, Los Angeles as a graduate assistant in 1983, followed by a season as JV coach at Alemany High School. In 1985, she was named head coach at Alemany and for the next fifteen seasons led one of the most successful girls' basketball programs in Los Angeles. She compiled a record of 370-83 while winning 11 league titles, 3 CIF-SS Championships and reaching the State Finals. In 2000, Coach Hearlihy joined Harvard-Westlake and continued her winning ways. In four years, her teams won 3 league titles, one CIF-SS Championship and notched a record of 88-40. Melissa earned a basketball scholarship to the University of San Francisco, where she received her bachelor's degree in 1983. She has also received her master's in physical education from California State University, Northridge.

	Karen Hutchison A physics teacher at the Upper School, Karen has been at Harvard-Westlake for almost three years. In that time, Karen has assisted with the JV girls’ volleyball team and currently acts as the faculty advisor for the Robotics Team. Before moving to sunny Los Angeles, Karen taught at Saint Ann’s, a small private school in Brooklyn, where she had the privilege of teaching both high school and sixth grade students. In her spare time, Karen enjoys cooking and taking walks around her neighborhood.

	Ted Katzoff Head Coach – Fencing Ted has been at Harvard Westlake since 1980. He has been teaching Fencing since 1962. Ted received a diploma at San Jose State University as a Fencing Master in 1986. He is a Co-Founder of the Southern California Fencing League. Under Ted's guidance, the Wolverines have won four consecutive league titles.

	Kanwal Kochar Kanwal Kochar has been with Harvard-Westlake for ten years. Over the years he has taught Algebra II, Precalculus and Geometry at the Upper School. Although this is only the third year that Harvard-Westlake has offered a summer Geometry course, he has taught Geometry through the UCLA Extension for the past nine years. Kanwal holds a degree in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics from California State University Dominguez Hills.

	Jonas Koolsbergen Head Coach – Boys' & Girls' Track and Field Coach Koolsbergen enters his eighteenth season as Head Coach, with an overall record of 194-59-2. As an athlete, Coach Koolsbergen was a collegiate decathlete at UCSB and still participates in Masters Track & Field. Coach Koolsbergen is also an History and Physical Education teacher at Harvard-Westlake. Coach Koolsbergen is an alumnus, having graduated from the Harvard School in 1983.

	Jeff Kwitny A graduate of UC Berkeley majoring in comparative literature, with an emphasis placed on Milton, Shakespeare and Chaucer studies, Jeffrey Kwitny later earned his master’s degree in English. His master’s thesis: “The Duality of Body and Soul in Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.” Using his literary and writing skills as footholds, Jeff entered the entertainment industry, where he subsequently worked as a professional screenwriter for 15 years. After earning scores of credits in television and film (and an Emmy for daytime-television animation writing), Jeff returned to his first love: teaching literature and writing. Finding his “home,” he never looked back. He has taught English for eleven years now—seven years at Harvard-Westlake School—focusing on sophomore and junior English courses.

	Matt LaCour Head Coach – Baseball Matt LaCour enters his second season as the leader of the Harvard- Westlake baseball program. Coach LaCour is widely regarded as one of the top baseball coaches in Southern California and has developed an impressive resume. He came to Harvard-Westlake from El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, where he compiled a five-year record of 127-32. The Conquistadors won the Los Angeles City Section Championship in 2005 and reached the semi-finals in 2004 and 2006. He was twice named Coach of the Year by the Daily News and Los Angeles Times (2002 & 2005) and his 2005 team was named the California State Team of the Year by Cal-Hi Sports. Before taking over at El Camino Real, he was assistant coach at Chatsworth High School, where the Chancellors won two Los Angeles City Section titles.

	Andrew Laugel Andrew LauGel is the Middle School Visual Arts Department Chair and has taught the Harvard-Westlake Summer School Photography course for 16 years. During his those years at the Middle School, Andrew has taught Introduction to Photography, Introduction to PhotoGraphics, Introduction to Yearbook, and Visual Arts 7. Previous to teaching at Harvard-Westlake, Andrew was a District Art Technician for Culver City Unified, teaching at CSUD’s four elementary schools. He has also taught art at various private elementary schools and pre-schools in the West L.A. area. Andrew earned his Masters degree in Visual Arts (Sculpture) at the University of Minnesota, and was awarded his BFA (Intermedia) at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He also studied sculpture with Peter Ruddick and Marc Cooper at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. Andrew has exhibited as an installation and mixed media artist using kinetic, filmic, and video assemblages.

	Suzanne Lee Suzanne Lee has over 20 years of wide-ranging teaching experience. She has taught every level of math ranging from Algebra 1 to AP Calculus BC in both college level classes and private and public schools. She has also taught math and SAT Prep for the UCLA Extension Program. She has stayed close with UCLA, earning her BS in Mathematics from UCLA. She has also earned her Masters in Education Technology. Besides her excellent credentials, Suzanne has a passion for ensuring that her students get the best learning experience, not only learning the material, but also learning how to learn.

	Michael Mori Michael Mori has been a math teacher for 33 years. During that time, he has had the opportunity to teach at Harvard-Westlake, LA Unified, UCLA Extension, Pierce College, and Valley College. He possesses a California Teaching Credential for both high school and community college. He has had the opportunity to be involved with SAT Math Preparation for the past 22 years. With his varied background, he is in a unique position to be able to prepare students for the SAT examination. He has been involved with the SAT at the Harvard-Westlake Summer Program for four years. He is looking forward to working with students who are interested and learning how to approach the Math Portion of the SAT in a logical and more efficient way.

	Kathleen Neumeyer Kathleen Neumeyer has taught journalism at Harvard-Westlake’s upper school and advised The Chronicle for 16 years. As a United Press International reporter, she covered murder trials, airplane crashes, brush fires, the Academy Awards and White House dinners. As a freelance journalist, she has written hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles and authored several books. She has been honored by both the Dow Jones Newspaper Association and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association for excellence as a high school newspaper adviser.

	Katie Palmer

	Lisa Rado Lisa Rado has taught English for the past ten years at Harvard-Westlake Upper School, where she currently instructs seniors in AP English Literature and Composition and English IV. Prior to that, she taught at Cranbrook-Kingswood Upper School and the University of Michigan. Holding a Ph.D. in English and American literature, Dr. Rado has taught a wide range of texts at both the high school and university levels and has extensive experience in the teaching of composition. Author of The Modern Androgyne Imagination (UP of Virginia, 2000), she has edited two volumes of scholarly essays and published approximately a dozen articles and reviews in leading journals of literary criticism.

	Carmen Roberts Carmen Roberts is in her first year coaching Softball at Harvard-Westlake School. She has fifteen years experience of coaching the game of Softball in which the game has become her passion and it drives her to fulfill girls with the same desire.She has coached girls from all skill levels from beginners to Division 1 prospects. She has run Softball Camps for four years in the city of Burbank. She was selected All-Star Coach for ten consecutive years, and has coached eleven championships teams in ASA.

	Ashley Satterthwaite

	Richard Simms Head Coach – Girls' Soccer Born in Manchester, England, Richard has lived in the Southern California area for the past twenty-six years. Richard has spent the past seven years as a head coach for the Westside Breakers Soccer Club in West Los Angeles. In his first season at Harvard-Westlake, he led his unseeded team on an unprecedented run to the CIF Division I Finals. For the Breakers, Richard has coached every age level from U11 to U19 and currently coaches the Girls under 11, Girls under 12 and Girls under 17 White teams. Richard coached teams to several Coast Soccer League Titles and has earned league promotions for a team in every season that he's coached for the Breakers. In addition to his time with the Breakers, Richard was the Head of Boys' Soccer for Westmark School, Head of Girls' Soccer for Immaculate Heart High School and spent two seasons as the Head of Girls' Soccer at Crossroads School in Santa Monica. Richard holds a USSF National License and resides in Culver City, California.

	Dianne Tritica Dianne Tritica has taught all levels of Spanish language to a wide range of students, from elementary school through the university level, both in the United States and abroad. She has spent a good deal of time in various parts of the Spanish-speaking world which has enriched her background and experiences as a teacher. She currently teaches Spanish at the Upper School at Harvard-Westlake and taught Spanish I in the summer program here last summer.

	Ryan Wilson Ryan Wilson is an advisor to the Upper School’s literary magazine, Stone-Cutters, and a Dean Coordinator at the Upper School. Before arriving at Harvard-Westlake, Ryan led something of a double life teaching Creative Writing and English at John Adams Middle School, while going out most nights to play his songs in the clubs of Los Angeles. Ryan’s works of fiction and poetry have been published in a number of independent presses, including The Painted Bride Quarterly, and his essays on Modern Literature won the T.S. Eliot Prize. He holds a BA in English/Creative Writing from the University of Missouri and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the University of Miami.

	Cyndy Winter

	Ian Ulmer Ian Ulmer teaches history at the Middle School. Before joining the Harvard-Westlake faculty, he was a teacher at Pacific Boychoir Academy, an independent school in Oakland, where he taught history, science, and physical education in grades four through eight. Prior to that, Ian spent his five years at Drew School, an independent college preparatory high school in San Francisco, where he taught history, physics, and mathematics. He also assisted the Director of Technology with technical support services and filled in for the Summer School Director when needed. He is a triathlete and competed in the Escape from Alcatraz. Ian has a BA from UC Berkeley with a double major in history and religious studies.