Leadership

Elif

Elif Kalkan

Director

Elif is an early childhood educator with 20 years of teaching and administration experience . She has a B.A. in Business Administration and worked in the banking sector in Turkey for 2.5 years. In a short time, Elif decided to return to university to study Early Childhood Education. She has her M.S. and PhD in Early Childhood Education, and specialized on Socio-Constructivist Theories and the importance of play in children’s growth and development. She worked as a teacher and director in preschools in Turkey and in the USA. Elif has been a part of KLA Schools since 2013 and a director at Walnut Creek since 2016.

Elif believes in the effect of play-based learning and adult scaffolding in early years, and is very happy to be able to share her passion and ideas with her colleagues and families at KLA. She is also a board member of California for Quality Early Learning (CQEL) and has been an advocate for high quality community based child care programs in California. Elif has 3 children on her own, all of whom have the chance to spend their early years at KLA Schools Walnut Creek!

Roxana

Roxana Acevedo

Assistant Director

Roxana has been in the field of Early Childhood Education for 12 years. Her passion for education started early on, while taking care of the children of family and friends. She became fascinated with child development and how children learn. She pursued her passion in the field and obtained her Associates in Early Childhood Education from Solano Community College. She then acquired her Bachelor’s in Human Development from UC Davis, with an emphasis in the early years of development. Through her college years, Roxana worked in the lab schools and discovered the impact that child-centered curriculum can make in education. She continued working as a teacher in the field for six years.

Inspired to make a difference in the larger school setting, Roxana transitioned to administration. She joined the KLA team in 2013 and loves working for a school that parallels her beliefs in education.

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