Calla joined the CCNS community as a parent in 2017, served on the Board of Directors in 2018, and became the Pre-K class teacher in 2019. Her professional motivation has always been to understand how people learn, and to use that understanding to help people along their journeys.

She has a BA in Biology/Neuroscience and an MA in Developmental Psychology, both from the University of Chicago. She has continued her training beyond her degrees with coursework in birth and postpartum doula support, childbirth and parent education, and early childhood education. She is passionate about the benefits of CCNS's community-based model of preschool, and strongly believes that the most effective way to learn (at every age!) is to play. 

Calla was born in Ohio, raised in Kansas, and schooled in Chicago -- a Midwestern girl at heart. Transplanted to California 3 months before her first child was born, she sent down roots in Sunnyvale where she lives today with her husband (since 2005) and her three children (born in 2013, 2014, and 2021). Calla spends her personal time in voracious engagement with any and all fiber arts, cooking, amateur photography, reading, writing, playing piano, and yoga.