Staff
Binon, Susan
Education Specialist
I graduated from Sacramento State University with a BA in liberal studies and immediately pursued a multiple subject teaching credential through National University. I spent my first years teaching second, third, and fourth grades along with a multi-grade level class. The challenge of meeting each student’s needs led me to pursue a personalized learning approach. It is my goal to continue to identify a child’s learning style and challenge them to reach their highest potential. Working in a personalized learning program with Forest allows me to make this goal a reality.
Engel, Leanne
Education Specialist
I graduated from California State University, Chico with a degree in liberal studies. After starting my own family, I realized that traditional education was not meeting the academic or personal needs of my own children or myself. Looking for alternatives, I left the traditional classroom and started working as an education specialist. It was here that I learned how much I loved working with families and students across the entire K-12 spectrum. Making education a center of my own family, I began to educate my own children and went back to school myself and earned my Masters Degree in curriculum and instruction in 2001. Whether traveling, singing in musicals, swimming together at the lake, cheering at soccer games, or researching curriculum, I join my families in the trenches! My life is children and children are my life.
Erin Hunt
Education Specialist
I graduated from UC Irvine with a Bachelors in Social Ecology and a Teaching Credential (to fall back on). I didn't plan on teaching, but after a 4 year job working with the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project (a government grant) ended, I thought I'd teach just to keep my credential current. To my surprise, I loved it…immensely. I taught in Sacramento for three years, then in Roseville for 8 years. I was set up on a blind date by a teacher friend in Roseville—I married the wonderful fellow, and we had 3 kids. I decided to quit my job to raise my kids and home school them. The day after my teaching job ended, I learned of this job with Forest Charter School. It is a perfect fit for me to teach in a cooperative program in my new home town of Foresthill. I LOVE teaching, and I am invigorated after each day with my students.
Holbrook, Gina
Education Specialist
I graduated from Sacramento State University's Multiple Subject/Learning Handicap program in 1994. My first teaching position was in a Special Day Class at Sutterville Elementary in Sacramento, CA. From here I taught in the Citrus Heights School District, and after having children decided I wanted to be more of an "at-home" Mom. I was so excited to discover that I could use my credential as an Education Specialist and yet, have more quality time with my children. I love working at a school that fosters the individual learning styles and passions pf its students. My own children are part of the Forest School and I have the privilege of seeing them flourish in the personalized education setting.
Manuola, Colleen
Education Specialist
I received my single subject credential for mathematics from California State University, Hayward, in June of 1984 after earning a BA in psychology with a minor in statistical mathematics from CSU, Sacramento. Through all of my varied experiences, I have enjoyed the learning process of being a teacher. I pursue getting to know my students and their learning styles and matching their curriculum appropriately. I believe that one of our primary missions as educators is to teach the student how to learn for the rest of their life. That is what teaching and supervising students as an Education Specialist is to me.