People

S T A F F

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Bianca Estrada is a passionate thespian, arts advocate, human rights activist, mother, and community organizer dedicated to uplifting marginalized communities. Born in Boyle Heights and raised between the United States and Mexico, Bianca holds several social science degrees, including a Social Welfare degree from UC Berkeley.

Peter

Peter Olson has taught high school English and Social Studies for over two decades and comes to Alcove inspired by his own kid’s unschooling journey. He has an MA in Education from UC Berkeley and a BA in History from Oberlin College. Currently studying social work, he is passionate about the intersection of mental health and social justice.

Corinne

Corinne Taylor-Cyngiser finds joy in creating community. As a nonprofit administrator, consultant, board member, parent educator, PTA president, and leader of an all-gender scout troop, she sees the gifts in each person and loves to connect people and opportunities. She has a BA in Women’s Studies and certificates in nonprofit admin and parent education.

Hayden

Hayden Daigle is a poet, musician, and artist from Burbank, CA. A recent Alcove alum himself, Hayden now attends Pierce College, but comes back once a week to teach, mentor, and help facilitate the program. He plays guitar, drums, bass, and keys; and loves to share his knowledge of music composition and theory.

In addition to this core body of administrative, operational, and teaching staff, Alcove pays a living wage for ad hoc specialist instructors to offer weekly classes and workshops. These are mainly people from our personal and professional networks who appreciate our mission, and love working with kids who are showing up because they want to. The full roster of teachers is way too long to helpfully list here; and the current crop is evolving too quickly to keep updating. But over the years we've recruited experts in everything from music production to political science, 3D animation, geology, debate, aviation, cinematography, etc, etc, etc...

B O A R D

Jade

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jade Adia is a reader and writer. She's the author of the YA novel, There Goes the Neighborhood, among other upcoming works. She holds a bachelor's degree in Ethnicity, Race & Migration, and a certificate in Human Rights. She recently survived law school, graduating with a specialization in Critical Race Studies.

Iris

Iris Chen is an author, unschooling mom of two, anti-oppression activist, and founder of the Untigering movement whose work centers on shifting from power-over to power-with relationships with children, especially among Asian communities. After sixteen years of living and raising her kids in China she now resides with her family in the Los Angeles area.

Haiwen

Haiwen Chu is an educational researcher focused on expanding educator expertise to enact quality mathematics instruction for students who are learning English as a second language. He was head counselor at the Ross Young Scholars Program in mathematics. And Haiwen is also interested in the pedagogy of apprenticeship in the transmission of classical Japanese sword arts.

Martha

Martha Escudero is a homeschooling mother of two daughters. She has a Bachelor's of Science in Gender, Ethnicity, and Multicultural Studies from Cal Poly Pomona University. As an activist, Martha works on housing as a human right, food justice, and prison abolition. She lived for two years among Mapuche people in a rural community in Wallmapu (Chile).

Adriana

Adriana Rincon is the newly appointed Director of the Family SourceCenters at El Centro Del Pueblo in Echo Park and Cypress Park. Before that, she was a coordinator for the Gang Reduction and Youth Development Program for the city of Los Angeles. She also serves on the Community Policing Advisory Board for LAPD. Adriana's passionate about serving her community in Northeast LA.

Alexi

Alexis Burgess is chair of the Math department at Sequoyah High School in Pasadena. He co-founded Alcove in 2020, and co-directed it for five years. Educated at Harvard and Princeton, Alexi taught in the philosophy department at Stanford University from 2007 to 2015. He's also held visiting appointments at schools like UCLA, Pomona College, and NYU.

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