is a rockstar-explorer-astronaut. Well, she wanted to be, but her six-year-old self was shattered when she learned that was a touch too ambitious, so she picked the closest career to that and became a rockstar-explorer-teacher. Kayla received her undergraduate degree in molecular, cell, and developmental biology from UC Santa Cruz, and is currently pursuing her master’s in literacy education from Arizona State University. Kayla has served as a classroom intern, after-school teacher, academic specialist, and dyslexia specialist in her spare time. For the last five years, Kayla has focused on working one-on-one with struggling students on a variety of topics, but her love of teaching math earned her the title “Common Core Ninja”.
Kayla lives in Mesa, Arizona with her boyfriend who owns the local reptile shop. She shares her home and yard with emus, rattlesnakes, goats, scorpions, tortoises, centipedes, her dog, and her Amazon parrot. She enjoys searching for reptiles and invertebrates out in the desert and going to her local library to pour through the books. Her go-to fun fact is that she was born in Yokosuka, Japan!
