Lisa VanDamme
Director

Miss VanDamme obtained her BA in philosophy from the University of Texas (Austin) in 1995. She then took classes at Penn State University, with the intention of earning a masters in education and teaching literature to high school students. She abandoned this pursuit when she was offered an exciting opportunity to move to California and develop a curriculum for a gifted child who was not being challenged in traditional schools. She found that the program she developed worked equally well for students of all levels of ability, and ran a successful homeschool for six years. Convinced that the principles behind her homeschool could be successfully translated into a school environment, she founded VanDamme Academy—where they have been.

Email: missvandamme@vandammeacademy.com

Andrew Lewis
Assistant Director

Mr. Lewis obtained his Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and has pursued graduate studies in philosophy in Australia and America, completing Graduate and Post-Graduate Diplomas. He has 20 years teaching and tutoring experience across a wide variety of subjects, from 4th grade to the college level. He has a special responsibility for developing the school's history curriculum.

Email: mrlewis@vandammeacademy.com

Lori Beach

Mrs. Beach obtained her BS in Early Childhood Education from the University of Missouri (St. Louis) and is certified in Primary Montessori by the American Montessori Society. She taught a Montessori Primary classroom for five years before joining the staff at VanDamme Academy four years ago. She and her husband Kelly have two daughters, Bianca (8) and Talia (5), who currently attend VanDamme Academy.

Email: mrsbeach@vandammeacademy.com

Sarah Biddle

Mrs. Biddle holds a BA in History from Mary Baldwin College and is a registered nurse. Before moving to California to teach at VanDamme Academy, she worked in Richmond, Virginia as an RN at St. Mary’s Hospital and as an assistant teacher in both primary and upper elementary classes at Richmond Montessori School. Her daughter Darcy (4) currently attends a local Montessori preschool. Mrs. Biddle teaches vocabulary and elementary literature.

Email: mrsbiddle@vandammeacademy.com

Mike Black

Mr. Black obtained his BA in Mathematics from Texas A & M in 1996. He then took time off and traveled around Central and South America surfing. After starting a graduate degree in Artificial Intelligence at the Colorado School of Mines he moved to Santa Barbara where he obtained his Master of Art Degree in Pure Mathematics from the University of California Santa Barbara.

UCSB provided Mr. Black with his initial teaching opportunity. He was a teacher's assistant charged with Calculus sections. Upon graduation in 2000 he moved to Huntington Beach where he was employed by Long Beach Unified School District and Golden West Community College. He taught Gifted and Talented education Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry classes at LBUSD and Statistics and Algebra at Golden West. Mr. Black has been teaching at a small private school in Los Angeles most recently.

Email:
mrblack@vandammeacademy.com

Tonya Fingerhut

Mrs. Fingerhut is an experienced teacher and one of VanDamme Academy’s founders. She obtained a BS in Elementary Education from William Jewell College and an MA in Montessori Education from Loyola College, Maryland. She is also certified by the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI). She taught for three years in the St. Louis public school system and taught her two sons Josh (12) and Owen (9) for four years before moving to Southern California so that they could attend VanDamme Academy.

Email:
mrsfingerhut@vandammeacademy.com

John Krieger

Dr. Krieger obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, both from the University of Iowa. He spent several years teaching and tutoring physics, mathematics, and engineering, during which time he decided that an overhaul of the traditional math and science curricula was necessary to give students a fuller, more meaningful, and more personal grasp of the world around them. He is now devoted to developing a systematic new elementary and junior high science curriculum.

Email: mrkrieger@vandammeacademy.com

Edwin Mizrahi

Mr. Mizrahi obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in History at the University of Albany in New York. He loves teaching, and was a certified water safety and swim instructor for children and teenagers for 10 years at Hofstra University in New York. He teaches vocabulary, spelling and mathematics at VanDamme Academy.

Email:
mrmizrahi@vandammeacademy.com

Scott Mulder

Mr. Mulder is currently pursuing degrees in both Mathematics and Philosophy. He has overseen the education of his three boys, Bailey (10), Stanton (8), and Cole (6), and has long been frustrated with the quality of their schooling. He was thrilled to discover VanDamme Academy through a close friend and immediately committed to sending his children. Mr. Mulder will be taking time from his partnership managing a small business to work as a math teacher at VanDamme Academy.

Email: mrmulder@vandammeacademy.com

Elizabeth O'Brien

Mrs. O'Brien earned her B.A. in Elementary Education with a minor in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from the University of Wisconsin (Eau Claire). She and her husband David were delighted by VanDamme Academy when they visited three years ago, and moved to Southern California shortly thereafter. Mrs. O’Brien teaches grammar and literature at VanDamme Academy.


Email: mrsobrien@vandammeacademy.com

Luc Travers

Mr. Travers earned his B.A. in Art History at the University of Memphis. He also pursued graduate studies in Classical art. He has had a passion for teaching since he worked as a substitute in elementary and junior high schools. He was a tour guide at the Brooks Museum of Art for two years and has recently started giving his own museum tours. He teaches an after-school French class (he is a native speaker) and will be taking a group of students to Paris this summer. Mr. Travers teaches art appreciation, literature, and writing at VanDamme Academy.

Email: mrtravers@vandammeacademy.com