Rebekah Alarcon
Educator and Curriculum Developer
Christy Durham
Co-Founder
Sycamore School
Christy Durham is an educator with over 20 years of elementary and middle school teaching experience. She holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, as well as a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential. First beginning her career at the Walt Disney Company as a recruiter, she pursued her passion for teaching in 1998 and soon landed at the prestigious Buckley School in Sherman Oaks as a middle school teacher. Having increasingly developed a teaching philosophy around integrated, project-based learning, Christy left Buckley in 2012 to teach 4th and 5th grade at Los Encinos School, where this teaching philosophy is part of the daily curriculum. Christy is active in promulgating her vision for change in education by presenting to other educators. She has presented at Archer School for Girls STEM conference, Playful Learning Summit, Games in Education conference, IndieCade, Intentional Play Summit, Online Educational Symposium for Independent Schools conference, and local public charter schools. As a current co-founder and administrator at the revolutionary Sycamore School in Malibu, Christy continues her focus on humanizing education for the Twenty-first Century as a co-founder and member of the Leadership Team at Catalyst's Learning Hub.
AJ Webster
Co-Founder
Sycamore School
Innovator, educator, and cognitive architect AJ Webster brings more than a decade of classroom experience to Catalyst Education. He has taught science, Latin, language arts, math, and social science. AJ has his Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. He specializes in game-based learning and embraces the Maker Movement, in which students design, construct, and “think with their hands.” AJ’s work with the PlayMaker School was featured on PBS NewsHour. He is a frequent speaker and has conducted workshops at numerous conferences including the Game Learning Society, Progressive Educators Network, California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), Games in Education, the Institute for the Future, and the Playful Learning Summit. After the successful co-founding of the Sycamore School in Malibu, AJ continues his mission of revolutionizing education as a co-founder of Catalyst's Learning Hub, a future focused middle school in the west valley
Tedd Wakeman
Co-Founder
Sycamore School
Tedd Wakeman has been working with children in education, recreation, and research for over two decades. He worked locally with LAUSD in South Central LA, teaching at the elementary and middle school levels for 14 years, while concurrently traveling the country developing and implementing STEM curriculum for Nike/Eco Educators. In addition, Tedd taught extensively across the globe. He worked in the Republic of the Maldives, teaching English to groups of adults from over 25 nations while diving the local coral reefs as a PADI dive master. In Bali, he lived and worked among Indonesian farmers, learning permaculture practices while utilizing a distance education program created through Queensland, Australia, to educate local teenagers. Tedd went on to spend two years teaching in Costa Rica while exploring local rainforest ecosystems. After these varied approaches and experiences in culture and education, he returned to Los Angeles and joined the GameDesk team in founding the revolutionary PlayMaker School. PlayMaker gained notoriety for its unique approach to 21st Century learning and game-based curriculum. Tedd has delivered keynotes, spoken on panels, and presented at numerous conferences, including LA’s General Assembly, Progressive Educators Network, California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), Playful Learning Summit, and Game Learning Society. After successfully co-founding the innovative Sycamore School in Malibu, he brings his passion and expertise to the Leadership Team here at Catalyst's Learning Hub.
Lubna Iabichella
Head of School
Futures Academy
Lubna was born in Kuwait, but moved to the United States at the age of 4. She grew up in Valencia, California attending elementary, junior high and high school all in the Santa Clarita Valley. She played soccer for 13 years and made Varsity her freshman year. She had a full ride to Stanford for soccer, but an injury her senior year made that dream impossible. As the plans changed for the school to attend, she ended up at CSUN with a BS majoring in Biology and minoring in Anatomy and Physiology. Undecided about Med school, she attended UCLA and received an MS in Human Biology. In Gross Anatomy class, discussing the wave of depolarization with her lab partners, Dr. Rose overheard and observed that she did an amazing job teaching a confusing subject matter thoroughly and easily and asked if she could do that for her entire lecture class, and the teaching bug bit!
She also has a credential in Biological Sciences and Health, with a Master’s in Instructional Leadership. Teaching in the public system for 14 years was about to make her quit teaching all together until she found Fusion Academy. According to Lubna teaching at fusion has been a blessing and life saver.
Kerry Leikin
School Climate Director
Revo Academy
Mrs. Leikin has spent her career teaching a wide spectrum of students. Her breadth of experience with various ages gives Mrs. Leikin a unique knowledge of children's development and guides her bespoke curriculum. She specializes in project-based STEAM curriculum and social-emotional development skills building. She was given the prestigious opportunity to train as teacher facilitator for the RULER program, an innovative social-emotional curriculum by Dr. Marc Brackett, the founder of Yale University's Center for Emotional Intelligence. Her expertise guides her to create a classroom where kindness, teamwork, responsibility, and community service are at the forefront.
Tamara Sloboda
Co-Founder
Revo Academy
In response to her own daughter’s need for appropriate gifted education, Tamy has joined forces with leading gifted specialists to develop a high quality gifted education option for students and parents.
As a former public school educator, Tamy holds a Harvard Business School credential in Leading People and Leading Change, a Master's degree in Education and School Counseling from Florida International University and a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Alliant International University (Marshall Goldsmith School of Management), as well as
educator credentials from both Florida and California.
Her work experience includes over 20 years experience in education on both the east and west coasts as a School Counselor, Department Chair of Student Services, District-wide Program Evaluation Specialist, as well as Revo Academy Co-founder and School Director. Her years of developing and leading educational programs, provided her the opportunity to work with gifted students and gain an intimate view of the many quality gifted programs across the country.