Ninebark Learning
Book a free assessment
Wide view of an open planner, a mug, and a pen on a light wooden desk by a window with a plant

Our teachers

The four people your child will actually sit with

Four instructors, each teaching the subject they trained in. Your child keeps the same one for the whole term, which is what makes the progress notes worth reading.

Who teaches here

  • Black-and-white portrait of a smiling woman with glasses and shoulder-length curly hair, seated in a classroom

    Dr. Maren Okafor

    Founder and director; mathematics, grades 6–12

    Maren taught middle-school mathematics in public schools for eleven years and holds a doctorate in education. She opened Ninebark in 2016 and still teaches two groups a week, on the grounds that a director who stops teaching stops knowing what the job is.

  • Black-and-white portrait of a smiling man with glasses in a cable-knit cardigan, seated in a classroom

    Jonah Feldman

    Mathematics, grades 8–12

    Jonah is a state-certified mathematics teacher with an M.Ed. and nine years in the classroom, most of it teaching algebra to students who had already decided they were bad at it. He runs the pre-calculus groups and the Saturday morning session.

  • Black-and-white portrait of a smiling young woman in a cardigan, seated at a classroom table

    Priya Nair

    Reading & writing, grades 3–8

    Priya is a state-certified teacher with a master's in reading instruction and twelve years of teaching, six of them as a reading specialist. She does most of our assessments, because finding the exact place a reader comes unstuck is a particular skill and hers is the best here.

  • Black-and-white portrait of a smiling older man with a gray beard in a tweed jacket, seated by a chalkboard

    Tomás Reyes

    Study skills and test prep, grades 8–12

    Tomás taught high-school English for seven years before moving to test preparation full time, and is state-certified in secondary English. He is the one who will tell your child, kindly, that the problem is the last ten minutes of the paper and not the algebra.

How our teachers are qualified

All four instructors are state-certified teachers who taught in schools before they came here, and three hold a master's degree in education or in their subject. Ask what any of them is certified in and what they taught before; we will tell you plainly, including where someone is still building experience in a subject.

Every adult who works with students has a current background check on file, renewed every two years. You are welcome to read the policy. It is one page and there is nothing in it we would rather you skipped.

An instructor stays with a group for the whole twelve weeks. If yours is away, the session is covered by one of the other three rather than by someone your child has never met.