Design-Based Learning Lead-Trainer
Jen Sorbara
Jen is a math teacher and program coordinator at Walnut High School in Walnut Valley Unified School District. She led the development of the Academic Design Program, implementing Design-Based Learning (DBL) in a year 10 through 12 setting, integrating math, social science, and language arts.
She was part of a team that expanded a one-classroom DBL program at Chaparral Middle school into a 3-year program now occupying a state of the art wing at the school. She earned her Master’s degree from Cal Poly Pomona in DBL in 2007 and has experience in grades 6 through 12 in math, science, social science, technology, and credit recovery. Jennifer has been a lecturer teaching DBL through the Cal Poly College of Education and Integrative Studies and Art Center.
Director, Design-Based Learning at Center X Project
Jessica Heim
Jessica Heim, one of our highly experienced trainers, a student of Doreen Nelson’s at Cal Poly, Pomona, who completed the M.A. program in 2016, was recently chosen to be the director of the DBL Project at UCLA's Center X.
Originally from San Diego, Jessica completed her B.A. in Journalism from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2004 and her Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from the same university in 2005. She has 15 years of teaching experience at multiple schools and grade levels within the Los Angeles Unified School District. Jessica is the right person to take Design-Based Learning into the future, to ensure this work we have struggled to build will have a solid footing for years to come.
As a classroom teacher working with diverse groups of students, she will apply her expertise and knowledge of current teaching standards and curricula to advancing Design-Based Learning. Jessica is an accomplished teacher, a unique thinker, and fiercely devoted to DBL. Doreen Nelson, the Founding Director of the Center X Design-Based Learning Project, will provide guidance as we move forward.
Design-Based Learning Fellow Level II
Daphne Chase
Daphne Chase has been teaching for over 15 years and is currently a second grade teacher in the San Gabriel Unified School District.
Daphne began her Design-Based Learning (DBL) journey in the summer of 2015 at the Summer Instittue for Teachers (SIFT) at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. She then completed her Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Design-Based Learning offered at Caifornia State Polytechnic University, Pomona in 2017.
In addition to being a classroom DBL teacher, Daphne is a DBL coach at the SIFT and for a cohort of teachers in her district. She has taught a Design-Based Learning Introduction class as a guest lecturer a at Cal Poly Pomona, for an Induction Consortium, and on her district's 'Voice and Choice' professional development days. She is proud to have introduced Doreen's innovative DBL methodology to her district and is amazed and inspired by the San Gabriel teachers who have taken DBL to new heights in their classrooms.
Design-Based Learning Fellow Level I
Araceli García
Araceli Garcia has been teaching for 22 years and is the English department chair at her alma mater -Workman High School in La Puente.
She received her B A. in English literature from UCSD and her Masters in Education from Cal Poly Pomona. She has taught all levels of English from ELD to AP Language and AP Literature using the Doreen Nelson Design based learning methodology. Because of her work with English language learners, Ms. Garcia was invited to present at the annual Advaced Placement Forum. She is an instructional coach and a facilitator for the Summer Institute for teachers at Art Center.
Design-Based Learning Fellow Level I
Stephanie Na
Stephanie Na is a high school English and Special Education teacher. She is currently working at Workman High School in the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District and will be entering her 6th year of teaching.
She recently completed her M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Design-Based Learning (DBL) from California Polytechnic University, Pomona. Stephanie began implementing the Doreen Nelson Method of Design-Based Learning in her second year of teaching after attending the Summer Institute for Teachers (SIFT) at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Stephanie has applied the methodology in a range of courses from Special Education English classes (grades 9-12), general education English classes (grades 9-10), Advanced Composition, study skills, and in AVID 1 and 2. Stephanie has also been a DBL coach at SIFT in Pasadena and in Pomona. In addition to her background in Design-Based Learning, she holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles and a M.A.T in Secondary English from the University of Southern California. She is also a Link Crew advisor and is on the AVID site team at her school.