Kate joined CCNS as a working parent in 2017 and served on the CCNS Board of Directors in 2018-2019.  She loved the supportive community and profoundly child-centered program that had her daughter begging to go to preschool every day.  She then joined CCNS to start up the toddler program in 2019. 

Kate grew up in south Louisiana and trained as a marine scientist in Florida and then in environmental government at Indiana University before working in air quality planning with the State of Texas for many years.  During that time her goal of saving the world shifted to a more personal scale, so she trained as a mental health counselor with St. Edwards University in Austin. A sudden move to California and the birth of her special needs daughter again shifted her path unexpectedly.  When her daughter was ready for preschool she sought out a play-based co-op school and ended up teaching there for 6 months before joining the CCNS community the next fall.

As a teacher, Kate uses a lot of her counseling training, skills, and lessons to help her students build the foundations of the resilient, secure, creative, and confident adults they can become one day. You know, once they learn to pee in the toilet and wash their hands afterwards.  And dry their hands.  And put the used paper in the trash can.  Kate’s counseling training focused on attachment, resiliency building and trauma recovery, neurobiology and self regulation, and generally helping adults recover from the things that went awry in their childhoods.   

Kate, her husband of more than 20 years, her precocious daughter, and their charming albeit grumpy dog call Sunnyvale home.