KLS Welcomes New Teachers

Khan Lab School has new teachers joining the community in the Lower, Middle, andHigh Schools. Learn more about our newest team members:

Arden Simone, Associate Teacher

Arden is thrilled to join KLS's student-centered learning environment. Arden is originally from Philadelphia and graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina. Her professional experience centers on experiential education. She has spent extended periods of time in India; and led Field Studies programs in Tanzania, Cambodia, Vietnam, France, and the US. She also worked for the School For Field Studies in Cambodia, where she facilitated environmental science research, managed student life, and led experiential learning opportunities. Next, Arden also enjoyed her role as the Lead Teacher and Program Coordinator at The Traveling School, a nomadic U.S. school that travels throughout Southern Africa: where students learn from the world around them, camp every night, and become change-makers. There, Arden taught Global Studies and History. Most recently, Arden was an Associate Teacher at Greene Street Friends School in Philadelphia, a school grounded in social justice and Quaker values. Arden enjoys traveling, hiking, camping, and just about anything outdoors! She also loves ramen and making dumplings.

Emily Storms, ELA Specialist

Emily grew up in Minnesota and earned her B.A. in Political Science & Communications from Loyola University Chicago. Before becoming a teacher, she worked in journalism at the Chicago Sun-Times and then as the Director of Marketing & Admissions at a school in Chicago. She received her M.Ed. through the University of Notre Dame's ACE Teaching Fellows program and taught social studies in Washington D.C. for two years before moving to California.

Emily has spent the last three years teaching 5th grade at St. Peter's School in San Francisco's Mission District. Her classes piloted the school's transition to the rotational model for blended learning, which made Emily passionate about the power of personalized instruction. When she's not teaching, Emily loves to read, run, and bake all kinds of desserts.

Hannah McDonald, Associate Teacher

Hannah McDonald was born and raised in the Bay Area, and has had the honor of being a coach and instructorfor over 10 years. As a new team member to Khan Lab School, she is excited to continue working in the South Bay's school programs. She graduated from San Jose State University with a BA in Behavioral Sciences. Her love of teaching began with coaching swim lessons, and she was soon inspired to get certified in a concentrated area of teaching. As a lifelong horseback rider, she decided to become certified as a P.A.T.H. therapeutic horseback riding instructor in 2010, teaching horsemanship & riding to students with variousmentaland physical abilities. Most recently, Hannah has been teaching music lessons for the past 5 years at a community center, both private lessons and band classes. She has also spent the past year working as a teacher's aide and is thrilled to continue this journey in education. In her free time, Hannah loves to spend time on the trails with her horse, Lily, swim, write songs, and play music with the band.

Jenn Sutherland, Spanish Specialist

Jenn is a passionate Spanish language educator dedicated tofostering a language-rich environmentof Comprehensible Input (CI). Born in the Bay Area and raised in the greater Boston area, Jenn prefers iced coffee all 12 months of the year. Inspired by her outstanding teachers and unique opportunities to study abroad early on in her career, she went on to earn her B.A.S. in Spanish and secondary education from Salve Regina University, a small coastal institution in Rhode Island. In her teacher preparation program, she experienced a variety of educational settings where she began to research second language acquisition and implement strategies such as Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) to bring interpersonal communication to the forefront of world language classes. Jenn first studied abroad in Spain in high school, which sparked her enthusiasm for the Spanish language. She later sought out the opportunity to spend a semester in Salamanca, Spain and continued to grow her language expertise at the country's oldest university,Universidad de Salamanca. She later pursued her M.A. in Spanish with a concentration in hispanic literature with Middlebury College, Madrid before beginning her teaching career in 2019. Outside of the classroom, she is an avid traveler and enjoys musical theatre, tap dance, and the great outdoors.

Natalie Johnson, History Specialist

Natalie is an educator, researcher, and education technology enthusiast with 15 years of experience creating innovative curricula. Before joining Khan Lab School, she worked at Stanford University as an instructor, writing fellow, and undergraduate thesis mentor in the Department of History. At Stanford, she taught students how to tackle big and important questions and conduct original archival research. Her Ph.D. dissertation explores how U.S. scientists influenced democratic thought during the Second World War. She also has worked with several technology companies, including Google and wikiHow--most recently serving as a project manager for ClioVis, an edtech startup helping students to visualize historical connections. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, Natalie taught high school in the Pueblo of Zuni with Teach for America. As a high school instructor, she was a recipient of a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching, which took her to Athens, Greece. With her students in Zuni, she coordinated local museum exhibits and an oral history initiative.