Faculty & Staff

YiOu Wang
Dean of Curriculum, Upper School Instructor

The students here embrace new concepts and challenges with eagerness and curiosity. They inspire me to be the best educator I can be.

YiOu Wang obtained her bachelor of science in biology and her masters in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After working in several biotech research labs, she relocated to Marin to pursue competitive marathon running and discovered a passion for teaching when she tutored area high school students in math and science. YiOu is thrilled to be a member of the faculty at GATE Academy and impart a lifelong love of math and science.  She creates daily challenge problems for her upper level math students that are beyond the normal scope and sequence of middle school math, and she teaches weekly science labs related to GATE's units of inquiry.

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Arin Wiscomb
Dean of Students, Lower School Instructor

Creating a classroom that is full of adventure and joy makes my job the best in the world.

Arin has taught at GATE Academy since 2003. His understanding that the academic development of gifted kids is intertwined with their social growth, makes his classroom a place of safety and community for our youngest students. Arin's teaching career began as in junior in high school with an internship position at the Exploratorium.  Before coming to GATE, Arin taught at Windrush School in El Cerrito. His education includes a degree from S.F. State, and master's work at Sonoma State University. A fine artist by training, Arin integrates and mindfulness into his teaching here at GATE.  Arin also directs our school's fine arts and mindfulness programs. 

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Sarah Ratto
Lower School Instructor

Young children learn best when offered interesting materials, ample time, and frequent opportunities to investigate, transform, and invent.  That's what happens at GATE and that's why I teach here.

Sarah ("Ms. R") came to GATE from Ashland, Oregon, where she served as the field trip educator for Science Works Hands-On Museum.  Sarah has her degree in Early Childhood Education from Southern Oregon University.  She has taught ages pre-K to 7th grade at Science Works, leading both small and large groups in project based science learning, and has also taught one-on-one at the elementary school level. Sarah loves science and learning, and brings a joyful and inquiring mind to GATE.

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Kristen Huang
Lower School Instructor

I enjoy teaching because it involves constant learning and exploring, and I thrive with balancing excellent plans and teachable moments in inquiry and project-based environments.


Kristen's background spans a wide variety of locations and experiences, from directing the Children's Discovery Center Preschool in Texas, to teaching in The Navajo Nation (Arizona), Wellesley, Massachusetts, and Novato, to being a Marin Master Gardener, to parenting two gifted children.  Kristen attended University of Texas, Austin and gained her bachelor's degree in Educational Psychology.  She obtained her master's degree at Harvard Graduate School of Education.  At every step of her career, Kristen has been involved with children and education, as a student, as a professional, and as a volunteer.

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Mark Gerhard
Upper School Instructor

It's thrilling to be teaching at a place where creativity and thinking are valued and encouraged. The GATE Academy is a one-of-a-kind school that most students, parents and teachers only dream of. 

A native New Yorker, Mark joined GATE's faculty after a lengthy professional career in art, 3-D animation, production, marketing and design. He earned his BA from University of California, Berkeley. Mark is also a professional musician, and plays the Indian tabla. He loves teaching kids and adults, spending his summers instructing animation in Sonoma's EXCEL enrichment program, specialty classes at Stanford summer camps, and college level design visualization for engineers and architects. Mark's formative years were immersed in science and math, winning science fairs, and taking college classes while attending middle school. Traveling West to attend Reed College, Mark realized his career passion was art, and went on to spend a number of years in India where he became fluent in Hindi and developed his expertise in Indian classical music. Mark is a father of four, a grandfather of five, and thoroughly understands the importance of differentiation in education.

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Roland Johnson
Physical Education & Aftercare

Our kids love the challenge of different PE activities, from dance and track and field to games like capture the flag.

Coach Johnson has over 20 years of experience with physical education in public and private schools, and in afterschool programs as well. He has an extensive background in hip hop dance form, teaching master classes and popular summer camps. Coach Johnson helps children understand that physical activity is important to lifelong health and happiness, as well as being a great way to stretch out their bodies after a morning exercising their minds. He mixes up his classes between the national physical education standards activity recommendations, dance performance, and outdoor exploration on the GATE campus. Coach Johnson is also well versed in mindfulness and believes that treating others with respect is one of the first steps to success in life.

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Nichole Bond
Upper School Instructor

​Teaching at GATE is so much fun!  The kids are inquisitive and interested.  With freedom to explore deeply and go to the next level of questions, nothing ever gets boring or repetitive.
We are thrilled to have Nichole Bond at GATE, where she uses her diverse scientific background to educate and inspire GATE's kids -- our next generation of thinkers, scientists, and leaders.  Nichole obtained her PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and comes to us after five years of postdoctoral work at the National Institutes of Health and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.  A teacher for most of her life, Nichole has received awards from UNLV and NIH for many things, including her instructional abilities, and she loves learning new things, too.  Along with teaching core class, weekly lab, and algebra, Nichole is in charge of keeping our state of the art science lab ready for fun experiments and stocked with great stuff like baking soda and vinegar.  Nichole's enthusiasm for fun is infectious.

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Sandy Jacklin
Administration & Operations

GATE Academy's students, teachers, and parents create the most wonderful community of learners.  The students are enthusiastic, engaged, and most of all they are happy.  This is truly an amazing school.
Sandy heads our front office, where she does everything. Everything extends from school administration to enrollment, and tours to our lunch/snack program. If you have questions about the school, admissions, and/or testing, call us and you will mostly likely get Sandy on the phone. Sandy has an extensive background in early childhood education. Before joining GATE, Sandy taught preschool for many years, mentored many budding teachers, and served as President of Marin Association for the Education of Young Children. Currently, Sandy is an appointed commissioner serving on the Marin Childcare Commission and has guest lectured on early childhood education at venues around California.  Sandy graduated from San Francisco State, majoring in Early Childhood Education.  With years of experience running a large pre-K classroom at Marin Day Schools/Bright Horizons, Sandy knows how organization and communications can help make everything run smoothly at a small school.

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France-Laude Gohard
French Instructor, Lower School

Madame Gohard, a native of Paris, France, has lived and taught in the U.S. for more than two decades.  Mme. Gohard teaches our lower school children French.  As well as daily exposure to spoken and written French, Madame Gohard infuses her program with rich French cultural and historical context. Children cook French cuisine from time to time and through the prism of another country they learn relevant and significant social studies appropriate to the overall theme studied in their other classes. 

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Zphyna Caldwell

Theater Instructor

Zphyna comes to GATE from teaching theater at Marin Theater Company, Performing Arts of Marin, and Mill Valley's Throckmorton Theater.  Zphyna is producer of The Swing Shift, a regular dance event in Southern Marin County and host of The Last Dance with Dizzy Jones on Radio Sausalito. She focuses on improvisation and theater arts skills with GATE kids, including dramatic expression, audience connection, use of volume, diction, enunciation, and timing, all of which are useful during inquiry presentation week!

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Dawn Madole
Music Theory, Lower School

Dawn Madole is an accomplished violinist and graduate of U.C. Berkeley's music program.  She teaches our lower school music enrichment classes on Mondays.  In addition to playing with the Marin Symphony and Vallejo Symphony, Dawn teaches at the Marin Music Conservatory, the Crowden Music Center, and to other private students. Dawn loves teaching the joy of violin to young students.

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John Metz
Music Theory, Upper School

John holds a Bachelor 
of Music in Piano Performance from Lawrence Conservatory of Music as well as a B.A. in Philosophy from Lawrence University. He has studied extensively with Catherine Kautsky, chair of the Lawrence Conservatory piano department, as well as with Dmitri Novgorodsky, current professor of piano at the Rubin Academy of Jerusalem. John has performed in masterclasses for esteemed pianists Simone Dinnerstein and Natalya Antonova and  acclaimed soprano Measha Brueggergosman as well as the members of the long respected Guarneri String Quartet.

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