Leadership Team and Presenters

Janice Toben, M.Ed.

Janice Toben coordinated Nueva's Social and Emotional Learning Program for nearly 30 years. Her teaching efforts have focused on gifted children, ages 5-14, generating a model for curriculum design and comprehensive lessons to creatively foster inter- and intrapersonal skills. Janice facilitates parent education programs and leads training institutes for teachers at public and private schools in the Bay Area and around the country. She has conducted teacher-training seminars at Wheelock and Columbia Teacher's College; consulted for eight years with the Center for Advancement and Renewal of Educators, providing an innovative program for emotional and intellectual renewal for educators in the San Francisco School District; and presented at conferences such as NAIS and CAG. Janice appears in the video Emotional Intelligence: A New Vision for Educators (based on Emotional Intelligence [Bantam, 1995]) and is the author of many lessons used in this institute for the early and mid-elementary grades, including The Open Session student-generated discussion format. On the strength of the SEL program, Nueva was recognized by the Templeton Foundation as a National School of Character in 2001. Janice derives tremendous joy from promoting the importance of SEL and initiated the ﬁlm Constructing Learning: The Nueva Forts Experience, based on the imaginative, cooperative outdoor play that has ﬂourished for years through student agreements and sensitive supervision. Janice now consults with schools across the country, supporting the development of social and emotional learning in both private and public school settings.

Rush Sabiston Frank, M.S.

Rush Sabiston Frank brings ﬁfteen years of social work and counseling experience with youth and families to her work as the SEL teacher for Nueva's 5th through 8th grades. She has a master of science degree in professional counseling and her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Before coming to Nueva, Rush supervised the School Safety Advocate Program in the San Mateo Union High School District and coordinated groups for Kids' Turn, an educational program that offers hope and optimism to children during divorce. Rush has added many facets to the curriculum-the interface between SEL and media literacy, body image and gender issues, nutrition, psychological research on forgiveness, and proactive support for new students and parents-and is an enthusiastic facilitator of her students' Open Session discussions.

Nicholas Haisman, MA

Nick Haisman, M.A., is a teacher and researcher in the fields of educational psychology and social and emotional learning. He has conducted research on a range of topics, including HIV education in South Africa, the development of social and emotional learning programs, and most recently the effects of in-school yoga classes on students' self-perceived competencies. Nick holds his undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford and his master's degree from Stanford University. He currently teaches 5th and 6th grade SEL and Future Problem Solving classes, and directs summer programs at the Nueva School in Hillsborough, CA. Nick has developed new curricula in Brain Science and Mirror Neurons, Personality and Identity, Mindset, Team Work, Sports and Competition, and Body Image and the Media.

Nick's master's thesis was titled "Guidelines for Success: A Case Study Investigation of Guidelines for Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs in Two Northern California Schools" and was accepted for presentation at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in 2008. This past summer, Nick was a facilitator at the Nueva School's Social and Emotional Learning Teacher Training Institute - leading sessions about purposeful play, media and the middle school student and emerging themes for middle school SEL. Nick is also a school coach for the Stanford University-based Challenge Success program – a group working to redefine the notion of success in education though school, curriculum and assessment reform.

Elizabeth McLeod, M.Ed.

For the past twenty years, Elizabeth McLeod has been creating safe learning environments as a classroom teacher, wilderness instructor, yoga teacher, and teacher trainer. Elizabeth graduated from Boston College, holds single and multiple subject credentials from San Francisco State University, and earned her master's from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Elizabeth co-founded Girlventures, a Bay Area nonproﬁt, which empowers adolescent girls to discover and express their strengths through outdoor adventure, creative arts, and group experiences. In addition to her classroom teaching experience at Live Oak School and Nueva, Elizabeth has worked for Outward Bound, Peninsula Conﬂict Resolution Center, and Planned Parenthood.

Alisa Andrews, MA

Alisa Andrews has worked to implement Social and Emotional Learning practices in the classroom, and within larger school communities. As a third grade teacher, Alisa integrated social curriculum with academic learning and most recently served as Director of Social and Emotional Learning and Service Learning at Phillips Brooks School in Menlo Park, California. She developed and implemented curriculum and programs at the classroom and school-wide level, and promoted these practices with parents. Alisa’s deep commitment to service learning and education grew even stronger through her work with the beginning stages of the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. She also worked in a local health clinic with uninsured populations at the Open Door Clinic and started a tutoring clinic for immigrant farm workers. Alisa is currently pursuing her Masters in Education at Stanford University, with a focus in Policy, Organization and Leadership Studies. She holds an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College. In 2003, Alisa received the Middlebury Public Leadership Award for leadership and community outreach.

Guest Presenters

Dr. Meryl Lipton

Dr. Meryl Lipton is the executive director of RNBC. Her background as a special education teacher and educational psychologist combines well with her current clinical work as a behavioral pediatric neurologist. Dr. Lipton diagnoses and treats children with brain based social, academic and behavioral problems. Interventions include pharmacology, case management and school consultations. Beyond her clinical work Dr. Lipton has been instrumental in creating the social emotional learning research at RNBC