Alyssa Dossat IC/Mathematical Systems
As a sixth generation teacher, Alyssa Dossat has education in her blood. After graduating Cum Laude with a degree in Mathematics, she taught at the innovative project-based Marin School of Arts and Technology. At Northwest Prep she has found a long awaited chance to bring innovative education to her hometown of Santa Rosa. Ms. Dossat is a strong proponent of educational reform and enjoys helping her students see the beauty and relevance of mathematics. This year at Northwest Prep she is looking forward to implementing the project-based learning model that she views as the best way to prepare students for college and beyond. She welcomes the opportunity to infuse her students with the desire and capability to become autonomous learners, self motivated designers, and active participants in our changing world.
adossat@pousd.org
Adam Napoleon Director & IC/Social Systems
Adam Napoleon is currently in his twelfth year of teaching. He grew up in New York and has lived in Sonoma County for the last ten years with his wife and pets. He received his bachelors degree in Secondary Education with a Social Studies 7-12 focus from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in 2000. In 2006 he received his Masters degree in Teaching with a focus on Critical Environmental and Global Literacy from New College of California in San Francisco. He is now in his seventh year at Northwest Prep. During the 2013-2014 school year he will be teaching LENS: Exploring, Analyzing, and Synthesizing Information from Multiple Perspectives. He will also have a Geography and US History themed focus, incorporated into project work. His elective this year will be heading the Global Student Embassy class. This class focuses on student and community action education, youth development and leadership, cross-cultural exchange, and environmental restoration and sustainable agriculture. He enjoys snowboarding, kayaking, hiking, playing softball, and anything to do with music.
anapoleon@pousd.org
anapoleon@pousd.org
Jessica Hadid IC/Language and Communication
As Northwest Prep’s English teacher, Jessica Hadid strives to cultivate in her students a deep and critical understanding of the power that language wields. She is impelled by the complex and ever-evolving nature of language, and by its inexhaustible capacity to persuade, inform, express and entertain. As a key player of Northwest Prep’s collaborative Lens team, Ms. Hadid helps design and implement core semester projects and creates curricular material in response to the varying needs of NWP students. In the classroom it is Ms. Hadid’s steadfast goal to generate in her students an inquisitive state of mind, a robust ability to self-reflect and analyze, and a true sense of efficacy and purpose in the world. She is a daily facilitator of collaborative, student directed, and meaningful classroom activities that demand cognitive rigor and higher order thinking. Over each semester these activities aide students in the generation of a cohesive array of real-world competencies, original and quality academic products, and a collective as well as a personal sense of pride.
Ms. Hadid graduated Cum Laude from Sonoma State University with a degree in English and a single subject credential in the same discipline. She enjoys hiking and backpacking with her four kids; making things of many forms and functions; reading a wide array of books, blogs, and letters; and renewing her perspective through the experience of travel whenever possible. Ms. Hadid thoroughly enjoys being a part of the exceptional Northwest Prep team of educators.
jhadid@pousd.org
Ms. Hadid graduated Cum Laude from Sonoma State University with a degree in English and a single subject credential in the same discipline. She enjoys hiking and backpacking with her four kids; making things of many forms and functions; reading a wide array of books, blogs, and letters; and renewing her perspective through the experience of travel whenever possible. Ms. Hadid thoroughly enjoys being a part of the exceptional Northwest Prep team of educators.
jhadid@pousd.org
Brad Edmondson IC/Natural Systems
Brad Edmondson received his degree in Biology from CSU Channel Islands before graduating from UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School of Education with an MEd in 2015. As Northwest Prep’s Natural Systems instructor, he strives to bring as much hands-on instruction as possible into the classroom, introducing much-needed lab experience and exposing students to how science is done in the real world. In addition, he focuses as much as possible on the truly integrated nature of the scientific system, as well as examining the trial and error necessary to make even the most trivial-sounding of historical discoveries. He enjoys all things music and sci-fi.
bedmondson@pousd.org
bedmondson@pousd.org
Amber McKinney IC/Mathematical Systems
Amber McKinney has been a classroom teacher since 2015, and has worked in the education field
since 2005 in various positions such as teaching piano, working at the Boys & Girls Club, and as a
Denver Math Fellow. She grew up in Petaluma and currently lives there with her husband, their dogs,
and (as of June 2019) with their first child. She earned a B.A. in Liberal Studies with a concentration in
Physical Science from Sonoma State University through the Hutchins Program. She has been a Khan
Academy Ambassador since 2017 and is passionate about teaching math as an integrated subject,
using Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) together to spark student interest and
deepen their understanding of the world. She is a proponent of Growth mindset and teaches students
that they are all capable of learning, growing, and being successful. In her free time she enjoys reading
fantasy and non-fiction, hiking, camping, kayaking, biking, drawing, baking, writing, playing music, and
gardening.
amckinney@pousd.org
Joyce Hamilton School District Counselor
Joyce Avignon-Hamilton has her M.A. degree in Counseling with an emphasis on School Counseling and earned her B.S. degree in Wildlife Biology and Management from U.C. Berkeley. She also has her Single Subject Teaching Credential in Life Sciences and Social Sciences. She loves counseling and guiding students at Northwest Prep in College and Career Exploration and Awareness. Along with counseling at Northwest Prep and other district schools, Ms. Hamilton is a Work Experience Instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College. She lived and worked overseas as a High School Counselor and Teacher at a multi-national school in Cairo, Egypt before coming to Northwest Prep and she enjoys working with diverse populations. Ms. Hamilton’s experience in education is wide and varied and includes working with teens and college students as a Counselor, Health Advocate, College Advisor, Park Naturalist, and Health and Biology Teacher, but all focus on one thing; that of guiding, nurturing and inspiring students, helping provide them with the tools necessary to be successful in their lives. She has a passion for educating students about good mental and physical health and regularly takes students outside for mental and physical health building, helping students gain an appreciation for and a love of the outdoors.
jhamilton@pousd.org
jhamilton@pousd.org