Linda Carr- Dance

Linda Carr has been teaching Modern Dance at Berkeley High since 2000. She graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Visual Arts and has spent many years creating multi-disciplinary performances that combine dance, drama, music and visuals.

Alicia Zakon- Spoken Word

Alicia Zakon, dance and spoken word teacher, moved from Oakland to Berkeley when she was nine and attended several Berkeley schools, including Berkeley High School.  At BHS she began to see herself as both a dancer and a poet, as she was involved with Afro-Haitian all four years of high school and wrote her first poems after Youth Speaks visited her English class.  As a high school student, Ms. Zakon was a finalist in Youth Poetry Slams and has had several of her first poems published.   She is currently working on a book.

After graduating from BHS, Ms. Zakon attended UC Berkeley.  Although she majored in Social Welfare, with a minor in African American studies, she continued to be involved with her artistic passions.   She was a student teacher in the acclaimed June Jiordan’s “Poetry for the People” spoken word classes.  In addition, Ms. Zakon choreographed fusion dance, integration the skills she learned through Afro-Haitian with hip-hop.  Both of these interests, along with her academics, allowed her to study abroad in both Costa Rica as well as Barbados.  While at UC Berkeley, Ms. Zakon also was accepted to the world-renowned West African professional dance troupe Diamano Coura, with whom she still performs.  

Ms. Zakon became a Dance and Spoken Word teacher because she is inspired by the creativity and energy of youth.  She says “they push me to be more creative as an artist.”  She dreams of infusing dance with spoken word, and taking that artistic vision abroad with her students.  

Miriam Stahl --- Visual Arts

Miriam Stahl is originally from Los Angeles and moved to the Bay Area after high school. She attended San Francisco State University where she earned a degree in Arts with an emphasis in print making and sculpture.. She began her teaching career at BHS at the age of 23, and has been teaching at BHS ever since.

Ms. Stahl chose BHS because she appreciated the schools diversity and saw the potential for change in the school. During her time at BHS she has created a curriculum that gives students experiences they might not otherwise have in high school. She is an accomplished artist and is drawn to print making because of its populous appeal.  She states “one image can make many images making the art widely accessible”.

Among Ms. Stahl’s accomplishments are serving as artist in residence at the Blue Mountain Center in upstate New York, and a fellowship from the East Bay Community Fund to create an exhibition at the Berkeley Art Center and most important, helping to create AHA. Her artwork has been published in numerous books, and she also has an essay in Unfinished Business by Pedro Noguera and Jean Wing. In her spare time she enjoys watching her daughter grow up, listening to wild punk and folk music and gardening.

Ms. Stahl's favorite artists include Nikki McClure, Swoon, Kathe Kolowitz and Emory Douglass.

Shannon Erby-- History

Shannon Noelle Erby is a dancer, traveler, avid reader, and History teacher.  Originally from Ohio, she attended the College of Wooster in her home state before moving to California and pursuing her teaching career.  She is currently in her fourth year at Berkeley High and her third year teaching 9th and 11th grade History in AHA.

Shannon thinks of history as a tool for students to learn critical thinking skills in a society where people tend to jump on bandwagons and behave as robots.  She wants to show future generations what it means to think about consequences of their actions, challenge the status quo, and effect change on the world.

Shannon appreciates AHA because of the energetic students and supportive staff who are committed to solving issues of social justice and inequity.  What she enjoys most about teaching is the opportunity to inspire students to become engaged and excited about their own futures.

She is currently pursuing a masters degree at San Francisco State University, where she also received her teaching credential.

Ray Cagan-- History/ Lead Teacher

Ray is a Bay Area native who grew up in Oakland and Berkeley and graduated from Berkeley High School.  He went to the wilds of Ohio to attend Oberlin College, where he majored in Sociology and African-American studies, and became involved with prisoners’ rights activism.  From there, Ray continued on to Boston, where he began his teaching career at the very young age of 21.  Back in the East Bay fold, he is thrilled to be returning for his 7th year teaching at BHS.

When asked about AHA, Mr. Cagan emphasized how wonderful it has been as a teacher “to be able to see the results of arts integration in the classroom in a very real way,” adding that the community of teachers and students in AHA is exactly what he hoped for when he went into the teaching profession.  Ray loves the artist Egon Schiele, who draws “incredibly weird people—the most expressive I’ve ever seen.”  These days, most Tuesday evenings will find Cagan playing softball with his team the Smokin' Salmon, though if he were an Olympic gold medalist, he would compete in Ping Pong. Ray is also an aspiring print maker.

Biko Eisen Martin-- History

Ben Neumann- Student Support

In addition to being the AHA Resource Specialist, Ben Neumann was the original White Rapper, claiming the title long before such things were even thought of by television executives.  Some might even say it was destiny, because Mr. Neumann was born in the same Long Island town that spawned the illustrious Flava Flav.  Through fate or free will, Mr. Neumann found his path early in life.  Though not without missteps (his very very first tape: C&C Music Factory), he showed his true judgment in the first purchase he made with his own money: the hot-minted Low End Theory, by A Tribe Called Quest. 

In another touch of destiny, Mr. Neumann comes from a long and well-established line of teachers.  Try though he might to become the black sheep, after college he found himself irresistibly drawn to the field of education.  He got his teaching credential and started in East Oakland, joining the AHA family in 2007.  These days, when not providing vital support to students, he can be found balling at Strawberry Creek Park on Sundays, willing to smash all challengers.  He hopes to someday retire to the South Island of New Zealand, a place he describes as his “favorite place on Earth.”

Devon Brewer - - Science

Born and raised in Turlock, CA, Devon Brewer Belcher is a 4^th generation country girl turned science teacher extraordinaire.  AHA is very excited to have Devon as our 10^th grade Honors Human Anatomy and Physiology teacher.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in Biology from UCLA, and a teaching credential from Humboldt State University, Devon went on to seven years of teaching Biology, AP Biology, Integrated Science and Life Science in South San Francisco.  This is her first year teaching at Berkeley High School and she looks forward to spending the year getting to know the AHA community while her students spend the year getting to know about how the human body works.

When she’s not teaching, Devon loves exploring the outdoors.  Hiking, camping, or chasing after her dog and her 14-month-old daughter, Devon is always on the go.  If you watch carefully, you might see her running to catch BART or riding her bike to school in the mornings. She even prefers her music in the outdoors.  A big fan of live concerts and summer festivals, Devon admits to a love of “Hippie Music.”

Devon appreciates large-scale art pieces and bright colors and was excited by the recent exhibit of one of her favorite artists, glass blower Dale Chihuly, at the de Young Museum.  Though she describes herself as primarily a scientist, Devon is also a dabbler in the arts and looks forward to an academic integration of art and science in her AHA Anatomy classes. 

Mat Glaser -- Science

Mat Glaser has lived in the Bay Area for 10 years. He has been an educator for 6 years and is starting his first year teaching at Berkeley High School. He comes to AHA with a background in Molecular Cell Biology and is also interested many of the Sciences. He has been interested in Science since he was a small boy playing with bugs. Mat began studying Medicine but became more interested in teaching after his first experience teaching Chemistry in the Upward Bound program at UC Berkeley. He has taught Science and Health Education ever since. Mat hopes to connect his students to the outside world and teach critical thinking skills through Science.

Mat’s love for Science and the outdoors extends beyond the classroom. He enjoys biking and mountain climbing. He recently climbed El Capitan in Yosemite. Climbing up is no easy task, especially when you are hauling food and 250 pounds of water. At night he slept hanging and suspended on the side of the mountain face. After six days of climbing he reached the summit. It has taken him years of conditioning to be able to complete this climb. The diversity of Mat’s other interests are wide. He has just returned from traveling for the last year to Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. He spent a year as a mountaineer in India. He also likes crossword puzzles, reading, music, and dabbling with different instruments. His favorite artist is Miles Davis and is currently reading “Three Cups of Tea”.

Teri Goodman- Counselor

AHA is extremely lucky to have Teri Goodman as our counselor.  She is an amazing counselor and an integral part of our team.  Ms. Goodman is also the team leader for the counseling department at BHS.

Teri grew up in Los Angeles and came to the Bay Area to pursue her studies in biochemistry at Cal.  After completing her undergraduate work, she received her teaching credential and her masters in counseling and psychology at Cal State Hayward.  Teri taught Math for eight years and has been in counseling for nine years, three of those in AHA.

Including being a mother to all the students in AHA, Teri has two boys of her own.  Kelvin is a freshman at Howard University and Dylan is a junior at BHS.  In her free time Teri enjoys biking.  For the last two years she has participated in the AIDS ride, where bikers ride over 500 miles from San Francisco to LA in seven days and is now a training ride leader.

Teri’s favorite artist is Andy Goldsworthy because she loves his integration of art and nature.  She really appreciates the beauty that people can create in his world without destroying it.

Vernon Walton- Administrator

Vernon Walton is stepping into the role as administrator for AHA this year.  Vernon is no stranger to the arts as he was in two professional Ballet companies before he started his career in teaching.

Vernon grew up in Sacramento where his father raised catfish as a hobby on an acre of land.  Always being near water gave Vernon a love for both fishing and the life sciences.  He went on to study life science at UC Davis and later got his teaching credential in science and had a 7 year career as a middle school science teacher. 

Vernon is balancing his new job as an administrator with going out on his boat every chance he can.  We at AHA are happy to be working with Vernon Walton and hope he will someday bust out some ballet moves.