JOIN OUR TEAM! WE'RE HIRING
License #: 493010450
Meet our Team
Inspired & Passionate
Sarah Welton
Director and Teacher
Sarah has been teaching young children since 2015 and holds her bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education from Sonoma State University. She started teaching dance to preschool age children in Sacramento before furthering her teaching career in a Reggio-Emilia Inspired and Jewish value based program. During her time there, Sarah held several positions: floating teacher, classroom teacher, and after care lead, before she became the mentor teacher-guiding new staff in teaching young children with the Reggio-Inspired philosophy through Jewish Values. Later on, Sarah became the interim director before leaving in 2022.
Sarah believes that the teacher's role is to scaffold children's natural curiosities and wonder, allowing the child to develop a love of learning that will impact them throughout their life. She enjoys going on hikes with her fiancé, Michael, and their dog Peanut, as well as working on puzzles!
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"Truly wonderful the mind of a child is." - Yoda
Makayla Smith
Aravot (Willows) Teacher
Makayla earned her Associates Teacher Certificate at American River College and has been teaching for nearly 15 years. She is extremely passionate about teaching and thinks that it is the most rewarding job there is. Makayla believes in the value of creating close relationships with both the children in her care, as well as their families. She has a deep love for social emotional work with small children and is very passionate about the Reggio Emilia Approach. She finds that there is value in giving children the freedom to be creative, get messy, experiment with ideas, and have open ended, provoking environments that foster wonder and imagination. She loves to build a connection with Mother Earth and the natural world with children, by bringing natural elements in whenever she can.
Makayla is excited to bring her Jewish background and values into the classroom and share them with the children. L’dor V’dor (From Generation to Generation). When she is not teaching, she spends her time outdoors, exploring national parks with her fiancé Josh and their fur baby Luna.
Ellie Okin
Alonim (Oaks) Teacher
Ellie is a SoCal native, transferring to Sonoma State University in 2022. She will earn her BA in Early Childhood Education in December 2024, and is looking forward to having more time to serve the community that has warmly welcomed her in. She has been passionately working with children since 2016, gaining experience in multiple early learning contexts, including summer camps, preschool, elementary school, and most recently, as a K-1st Religious School teacher at Congregation Shomrei Torah. She is passionate about providing care that meets each child's specific needs, as well as working closely with families to create a cohesive and supportive early care team. She loves music and the arts, and utilizes these loves in the classroom whenever and wherever she can, to inspire early music and art appreciation.
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Ellie appreciates the importance of letting children be active participants and advocates in their learning, making sure to use the children's interests to guide lessons and projects. She is a big believer in nature as a second classroom, and often spends her weekends within the beautiful nature that Sonoma County has to offer. She is beyond excited to join the JCC SoCo team and build upon her experience in a Reggio Emilia inspired environment.
Amanda Burwasser
Substitute Teacher
Morah Amanda has been a preschool teacher and nurturing children ages 2 through 5 for over a decade! She is originally a New York City Native who has lived in northern California for the last 9 years with her husband and their sweet Aussie shepherd, Jolene. She is a graduate at the Pratt Institute, with a BFA in Writing and a certification in Early Childhood Education from UCLA. She is an author, as well as a teacher, and has written a published 6 book children's series titled, "Project Droid", for early readers. She really enjoys thoughtful art and crafts projects with children, making up songs and stories, gardening and just simply playing in nature!
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Celia
Substitute Teacher
Morah Celia has been an Early Childhood Educator for over 40 years, and involved in Jewish Early Childhood Education for almost 20 years. Along with a Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education, she holds a Graduate Certificate in Jewish Early Childhood Education. She believes working with young children is Avodah and is delighted in the magic of seeing the world through the eyes of a young child. Along with the joy of working with young children, Celia is an artist, creating mixed media mandalas. And having had the good fortune to spend much of her early years in her grandmother’s kitchen, she also enjoys baking Sephardic dishes.
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Jordana Green
Substitute Teacher
Morah Jordana has lived in Sebastopol for a little over 3 years. She has worked in a variety of settings for over 30 years with infant through kindergarten children. Jordana holds a Master's Degree in early Childhood Special Education and is an infant massage instructor. She enjoys traveling and learning about various cultures, cooking - especially with young children, and volunteering to clean up beaches, replanting native plants, and helping wildlife.
Kaiya Shepard
Jewish Resource Specialist
Kaiya has been teaching children for over 20 years, and has been a Jewish educator for the past 15 years. With a background in early childhood education, she has spent her career providing education, resources, and trainings to educators and families. She was a fellow in the JCCA's Sheva Center, traveling to Reggio and Israel to learn about their schools. She believes that all children should have access to high quality education, with social emotional development at the forefront. She also believes that lifelong learning is the key to an educator's successful journey and enjoys sharing professional development opportunities. Her passions are strengthening and supporting families in their learning journeys, mentoring other educators, and building community and belonging through equity, inclusion, and Jewish values.
She is excited to help guide the JCC SoCo preschool and to broaden her roots in the Jewish community. She currently lives in West Oakland and is the parent of an almost 5 year old. In her free time, she enjoys reading in the sun, dancing, and volunteering with organizations providing food security for the unhoused population.
Additional Team Members
Heather Muntzer
JCC SoCo Programs Manager
Heather has spent the past two decades working with social impact organizations at the intersection of education, the arts and community development. She obtained her BFA from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and her Secondary Teaching Credential from Mills College in Oakland before leaving the nonprofit sector she'd grown to love in Oakland for New Orleans, LA.
Heather spent ten years in New Orleans, immersing herself in nonprofit development. In the course of a week Heather could be found writing STEAM curriculum (Pre-K - 12th), and then teaching it to up to 300 public school students. She'd be coaching educators in their classrooms, leading professional development in workshops and university settings. Back at her desk, or in board rooms, she'd be focused on organizational communications, programmatic evaluation, fund development and strategic planning.
After meeting her husband in a classroom full of 41 first graders, and co-founding a youth literacy nonprofit (826 New Orleans) with him, they relocated with their new baby, Greyson, back to Northern California. Heather is now back in the County she grew up in raising her two sons.
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In her role as Project Manager at the JCC SoCo Heather is currently focused on leading a new strategic plan cycle for the organization. In the day to day, this includes managing operations for the preschool, and fundraising for the JCC.
Preschool Advisory Committe
Deborah Burg-Schnirman
JCC SoCo Board President
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Prior: ECE Program Leadership​
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Jacob Bocklemann
JCC SoCo Board Co-Vice President
Preschool Committee Chair
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Sarah Welton, Makalya Smith
& Heather Muntzer
JCC SoCo Staff (see above)
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Carolyn Metz
Fundraising Committee Lead
Prior: Nonprofit Leadership
Des Shapiro
Local Synagogue Board Member
Prior: Jewish Day School Founder
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Elisette Weiss
Local Synagogue Board Member
Nonprofit Operations & Management
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Lara Brown
Prior: ECE Program Leadership
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Nicole Novach
PJ Library Parent Connector & Educator
Local Synagogue Board Member
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