TeachUNITED

Adrienne Luczkow was born in Boston and has lived and worked in Tanzania since 2014. She received her BA in International Relations from the University of St. Andrews and has taught in public and private schools in both the United States and Tanzania, specializing in ESL and EFL teaching. She is passionate about impact-driven organizations and the power of global education.

Armando José Bello Guzmán joins Costa Rica as Junior Coach and M&E Assistant. He previously worked for the Ministry of Education as an English Teacher and Publisher / Designer. Armando studied at the Trinidad Educational Center and Latin University of Costa Rica, and he has degrees in Secondary Education and English. Armando brings his experience to support our Costa Rican team on critical projects, coaching, and data collection.

Chesco is the TechUNITED Champion Teacher at Oldeani Secondary School where he also serves as Academic Master. Chesco teaches full time at Oldeani, while also assisting Monitoring & Evaluation programs led by Adrienne Luczkow.

Eligi Tairo was born in Tanzania and works with schools in the Karatu and Monduli districts. He received a Bachelor of Arts in History and English language from the Saint Augustine University of Tanzania. Tairo has experience in teaching history and agriculture science, and he was one of the first teachers to use TabLab’s mobile technology tablets and Rachel plus server with his students at G. Arusha Secondary School. Now, as a TeachUNITED Coach, he is inspired and motivated to share his experience and knowledge about transforming teaching to learner-centered classrooms in Tanzania’s rural schools.

“I have been teaching for 7 years including one year as a teacher trainer. My mother who was a teacher inspired me and I am the 5th teacher in the family. I personally love teaching and want to save kids across Tanzania to access equal opportunity to education which promotes justice to them. I wanted to help other teachers to grow and improve their teaching through professional development which will transform especially rural schools by supporting teachers, implements student centered strategies, and engagement. This also paves the way to leveraging technology by the use of apps which suits teaching and learning. I work with TeachUNITED as an instructional coach because TeachUNITED supports teachers through school visits and make follow up to teachers for implementing new knowledge which finally produces high performing teacher in teaching and learning.”

Hannah joins TeachUNITED as the Development & Operations Manager. She is passionate about improving educational outcomes, eliminating disparities, and expanding opportunities for youth – and experienced in supporting and connecting donors with community issues. Hannah has nearly a decade of experience in supporting grantmaking functions for a family foundation focused on local, state, national, and global initiatives. A Colorado native, Hannah enjoys the outdoors and seeking new adventures with her husband and children.

Heather Hiebsch is the Executive Director of TeachUNITED, and international non-profit dedicated to reducing inequality through education. With a passion for supporting great teachers and learning opportunities, Heather brings two decades of experience to professional development and innovation design at partner schools around the world — including US, Central American, and East Africa. Prior to joining TeachUNITED, Heather was the founding principal at PSD Global Academy, an innovative K-12 hybrid school in Colorado whose mission is to provide a “Global Education in a Local Community.” A pioneer in the field of blended and personalized learning, PGA became a nationally recognized proof points school, with student outcomes and academic growth featured in case studies by the Christensen Institute, Evergreen Education, Fuel Ed, iNACOL, District Administration Magazine, and Forbes. She earned her degree in Education and Secondary Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Master’s degree in Education Leadership, Renewal, and Change from Colorado State University. Heather is passionate about connecting personalized learning and global awareness, and she is inspired to be part of positive transformation for schools and students. When she is not visiting partner schools, she is based in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she enjoys the outdoors with her husband, children, family and friends.

Jenny Boyd joined TeachUNITED after almost 20 years in non-profit, start-up and professional environments, including diverse experience in marketing, fundraising, operations and systems development, international partnership management and program development. As a veteran of many young, start-up organizations including Kiva and TechStars, Jenny has a deep understanding of early-stage operational needs and works easily in resource limited environments to help them grow and thrive. Jenny is passionate about helping impact-driven organizations grow.

Kim has served school districts throughout the US as an education strategist. Where she collaborated with district leaders on high level systemic organizational initiatives: Blended Learning, STEM, and teaching & learning in a successful 1:1 implementation. She relies on her experiences as a former Director of Educational Technology, where she led a team of Educational Technology facilitators, who were responsible for delivering professional development services to teachers and principals. As a district leader she collaborated closely with Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment as well as with the Professional Learning departments. Strong partnerships between the learning departments and Information Technology ensured the technology supported educational needs. She successfully wrote, received and managed several federal Education Technology Information Learning grants as well as the Morgridge Family 21st Century Classroom grants.

As a passionate educator, Kim believes in connecting people with the resources and skills needed to transform education. She spent ten years serving on the leadership board for Innovative Education Colorado (InnEdCO). This organization is the affiliate to the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) where Kim serves on the ISTE faculty and facilitates professional learning throughout the US as well as past experiences with US Virgin Islands, Singapore and Malaysia ministry of education.

Meghan Casey was born in Vancouver, BC, Canada and currently lives with her Costa Rican husband Davis Azofeifa and 3 young children Lluvia, Aedan and Kiara in Chilamate, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica where since 2006 they own and operate a family run conservation and sustainable tourism project called Chilamate Rainforest Eco Retreat (CRER). They believe that sustainable conservation is only possible if the local community perceive a benefit from the conservation efforts and thus become guardians and proponents themselves of local conservation. Meghan has been working as a coordinator in Costa Rica for World Leadership School since 2009 and has also facilitated a number of global partnerships between US classrooms and local students in Chilamate. She is thrilled to be part of TeachUNITED and hopes to deepen and expand the partnerships between TU and Costa Rica!

Mikel joined the TeachUNITED team in 2017 to have a greater impact on the schools in his home community. With a background in elementary and secondary teaching, he is eager to engage with school leaders, teachers, and students to support personalized learning in rural Sarapiqui schools. Mikel has also worked in customer support for some of Costa Rica’s largest technical companies. He enjoys time with his daughter and working to serve his home community of Puerto Viejo, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica.

“Something that inspires me to be a teacher was that when I was a high school student I proposed to generate a change, being a teacher of education is a challenge and, if your field of action is the rural area, it is even more. Therefore, the value of a teacher of this career and its impact on the formation of the person and the future citizen is decisive. No doubt there is no better way to impact the new generations than through education. I studied in a rural area and always thought we were at a disadvantage in urban education. I think the only way to reduce a gap and improve the education that both benefits young people and adolescents is to build alliances with others and together create strategies to generate a big change for the benefit of the students and the community they saw me believing. When I met the goals and objectives I fell in love with the idea, that TeachUNITED is interested and concerned about education and professional improvement and as people to teachers and students was a dream come true in our communities. And I wanted to be part of that change.”

Modesta was the Tanzania TeachUNITED Teacher of Year 2017, and was the Champion Teacher at Bashay Primary School. She has experience in both primary and secondary education, and has been working as the Second Head Teacher for several years.

“I have about ten years of experience as an educator in Tanzania. Something that inspired me to be a teacher is just my willingness and intrinsically I like teaching, indeed nothing or no one forced me to be a teacher, I love it. I would like to help other teachers grow and improve to help our children learn as easily, be interested in their learning, and finally pass their final examinations. I wanted to work with TeachUNITED because the team works hard to improve the teaching/learning to both teachers and students since I am a teacher I learn a lot and modified ways of teaching. Through the team of TeachUNITED as I learn the topics of improving learning, now I can see a new image of successes in my students performance (growing academically).”

Nadene Klein M.Ed. is currently a high school science teacher at an alternative high school in Colorado working with at-risk youth and professional development consultant. She has been passionate about science education as a professional educator for over 20 years. Areas of focus include S.T.E.M., integrating technology in a meaningful way in the classroom, teaching the joy of science for all, and encouraging girls to pursue science at a higher level.

Nadene speaks at state, regional, and national conferences regarding methods for teaching, professional development, and technology usage in the classroom.

Sam Stevens has led operations and program management alongside great minds in higher education, foundation management, and government agencies for over a decade. Sam’s passion for community and culture led her to receive Bachelor of Arts degrees in Anthropology and Political Science at Colorado State University where she later returned to complete her Master’s degree in Business and Project Management in 2015. She has worked in research operations at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, academic program management for an international online university, and recently managed operations for a philanthropic foundation. Sam is passionate about equity in education, and is eager to support outstanding teachers making a global impact. She lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with her adventurous wife and sweet pets. She loves to travel, garden, and explore the beautiful state she calls home.

Saida Ramadhani joins us as Student Assistant in Tanzania. Saida participated in our program as a student, and her hard work and ambition became clear. She received Student of the Year at G. Arusha Secondary School. Saida assists the team, with a focus on M&E data entry and assistance at workshops. Because of her high exam scores, she will be attending upper school later this year.

Steve and Matt are passionate about using the Salesforce platform to solve business problems and create elegant solutions.

Tim was born and raised in Tanzania. He received BA in Tourism Studies at Open University of Tanzania and a diploma in Wildlife Management in Arusha. He and his wife, Bernice, are blessed with two children: our son Amani and our daughter Upendo. They are both in primary school. He has been working in the tourism industry and for the conservation of natural resources since 1998. I worked as Assistant Ranger at Rungwa Game Reserve, Operations Manager with Green Footprint Adventure Outfit, Program Director for Oversees Adventure Travel, and as an Independent Safari Guide across East Africa.

Yohns Willians Solís Delgado was born in Ciudad Quesada in central Costa Rica, where his family produced ornamental plants and bananas. Yohns studied at the University of San José and the University San Isidro Labrador where he received a degree in Mathematics and Primary School Teaching. He moved to the Sarapiqui region of Costa Rica, where he now lives with his wife and daughter and volunteers for the Costa Rican Red Cross. He has over a decade of experience teaching for the Ministry of Public Education in Costa Rica, and he enjoys using technology and innovation in his teaching practice. Yohns is excited to be part of the TeachUNITED team to help support local schools.

“I have 13 years of experience as an educator. I was inspired by teachers and professors who believed in me and motivated me to pursue a university career in which I could return the enthusiasm, dedication and example with which my trainers treated me as a student. During my experience as an educator, many fellow teachers taught me very good tools to facilitate the learning of children, youth and adults. As they helped me to grow, I want to contribute my grain of sand and be able to help many teachers who do not feel safe in the use of ICTs, which have many fears and, above all, they need someone to inspire them to change their form of instruction in order to adapt to the changing globalized world and improve the quality of education; mainly in the most needy rural communities of Costa Rica.

TeachUNITED is more than a job, it is a commitment with thousands of children, youth and adults from very poor areas of Costa Rica and several parts of the planet. TeachUNITED represents love, passion, courage, confidence, tolerance, patience and above all, teamwork. These reasons and many more, made me approach the project and be happy to observe how students and teachers are seeing technology as an ally in the teaching-learning processes. The community of cooperation and global learning that this project represents, allows us to grow professionally day by day and it is thanks to this; that educators like me, we see that it was worth studying education.”