With nearly 25 years of experience teaching and leading in various educational settings, Mrs. G’s career launched at SCORE! Learning Inc. where she opened and operated five learning centers in Orange County. Realizing she wanted to impact students from within rather than outside the school setting, she pursued her teaching credential and then taught 6th grade at Ocean Knoll, where served on the EUSD’s committee to enhance and renovate its GATE program.
Prior to joining JCS, she was Executive Director of a small, private, accelerated preschool-8th grade school in Orange County. In 2012, Cari joined the JCS/PLC Mountain Oaks team and taught 6th-8th grade math and Spanish, while co-leading the academy and helping develop the middle school program. After adopting her first child, RJ, she spent a year working at his Montessori preschool before returning “home” to JCS as a middle school math teacher and home study facilitator. She home schooled her son during the pandemic and couldn’t be more thrilled to be back in her ideal role as a school leader at Cedar Cove Academy.
In addition to a multi-subject and bilingual teaching credential, she holds a masters degree in School Leadership and Development from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California, San Diego.
When not working, Mrs. G can be found spending time with her family camping, swimming, traveling & hiking. She is a Southern California native (Camarillo) and lives in Carlsbad with her husband, Fred, a Sage Creek high school math teacher and New Yorker (Brooklyn and Schenectady). They have an active 8 year old son (RJ), a spunky 5 year old daughter (Sadie), and an 11 year old 3 legged poodle mix dog named Lucie.
In her pre-mom life, Cari had the opportunity to visit 30 countries and once lived in Santiago, Chile and San Sebastian, Spain. She dabbled in taekwondo, hiked Machu Picchu in Peru, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, and ran the Chicago marathon in a heat wave (which she will never do again!). As a life-long learner and educator, she pours this same adventurous spirit into her work with students and families!
What she loves most about JCS is watching scholars and families grow over time throughout their journey in our programs.