Founder & 8th Grade Math and Science Teacher, Laura Kretschmar
Laura Kretschmar has taught middle school math and science for 6 years. She started teaching in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she saw the need for good schools and good teachers for all children. She then moved to Boston where she taught for 3 years at the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School. The Parker school provided her with insights into how schools can be different to serve students well. Laura received her M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1999. She joined the Lighthouse Community Charter School Development team in 2000 and is currently teaching middle school math and science at Lighthouse. Laura teaches with a commitment to providing students with a meaningful and purposeful education that will inspire and prepare them for any future they choose.

Founding Teacher & 8th Grade Language Arts and Social Studies Teacher, Geneviève DeBose
Geneviève DeBose is in her 5th year of teaching middle school. She taught for two years in Los Angeles and then relocated to teach in Oakland, where she has been for the last two years. She now teaches 7th grade Language Arts and Social Studies at LCCS. She received an undergraduate degree in Ethnic Studies and a Master's degree in Education from UC Berkeley. She also received her teaching credential from Mills College in Oakland. She teaches to create positive change in our community and to help students empower themselves to create that same change.

7th Grade Math and Science Teacher, Mallika Scott
Mallika Scott is in her fourth year of teaching middle school. She grew up in the Bay Area and went on to attend UCLA. She began her teaching career at a large public middle school in Los Angeles. She moved back to the Bay Area in search of a small community-based school with a focus on academic rigor and a high quality teaching staff and was happy to find these qualities at Lighthouse. Mallika currently teaches 7th grade math and science and works during the summer to provide teachers around the country with math professional development through Marilyn Burns Education Associates. She believes math can be engaging, fun, accessible and relevant for all students and works towards achieving those goals in her own classroom and in the larger Lighthouse school community.

7th Grade Language Arts and Social Studies Teacher, Becky Burrow
This is Ms. Burrow’s eighth year teaching in a middle school classroom. Before her arrival at Lighthouse, she taught Language Arts for five years in Houston, Texas and served as a Peace Corps education volunteer in the Pacific island nation of Kiribati. Her time in these settings taught her the value of teaching through adventure and experience, so she spent last year as a Master’s student at Stanford University researching how public school teachers are incorporating experiential learning in their classrooms. She is committed to developing literacy, self-efficacy and critical consciousness with the youth of Lighthouse Middle School.

6th Grade Math and Science Teacher, Jonas Juhlin

6th Grade Language Arts and Social Studies Teacher, Gerald Reyes
Gerald Reyes is a chaser of dreams, hope, and rising voices. This year, his chase eagerly brings him to the Lighthouse Community, after recently leaving Hayward. While he brings a Masters in Education and Teaching Credential from the Center of Teaching Excellence and Social Justice from the University of San Francisco, Mr. Reyes realizes that the true journey into teaching excellence is with life-long learning. And so this year, he is thrilled to venture into the exhilaration of discovery as the 6th grade teacher of the Art of Language and the Study of Society. Aside from running the new “Rhyme Light” Spoken Word Poetry after school program here, he could occasionally be found facilitating workshops with the Bay Area Writing Project. If you see him walking around the halls dazed, it is because he is still in awe of the dedication, commitment, love, and care within the entire Lighthouse Community.