Khabral joins Atlanta’s education community by way of Oakland CA. As an experienced educator, he brings a wide variety of skills in tech, the arts, the sciences and math, as well as a deep understanding of how important it is to instill a love of learning in children. He credits his mother, a recently retired teacher in Auburn, AL, with giving him a strong and varied academic foundation, which helped him fall in love with learning too.

He has a B.A. degree in English from California State University Hayward, minoring in International Writ and Psychology, and to this day remains passionate about nation-building, community organizing and education. 

Daly discovered a love for mathematics while studying engineering in his early college years. It was then that he began tutoring whenever the opportunity arose. After college, Daly worked for several years in construction, which provided him first hand experience with the practical applications of math. He possesses an enthusiasm for solving difficult problems and a love of teaching. Daly is a graduate of the Mississippi University for Women, in Columbus, MS.

Sachiko Kogure was born and raised in Japan and has been teaching in the U.S. since 1997. She has taught for “Irasshai”, the Japanese language program on Georgia Public Broadcasting and has also taught Japanese in a variety of schools and private language learning institutions. She likes to incorporate hands-on cultural activities, such as making crafts and cooking authentic food, into her classes.  

Before coming to the U.S., she worked in Tokyo, Paris and Dakar (Senegal) in embassies and companies. She holds a B. A in French Literature from Rikkyo University in Tokyo. Her hobbies include classical music on piano, origami, organic pottery, gardening and writing.

Katherine Martinez was born in Chile and then moved to Boston in 1999 to become a Modern Languages teacher. She has been teaching Spanish and English since 2003 in the U.S. as well as the United Kingdom, Chile and currently in France. She likes creative, hands-on activities where students can learn by doing. She has worked in a variety of companies such as the BBC News, PwC, AngloAmerica, private schools and universities in New York, London and Paris. She has created immersion language programs for universities as well as written educational books as an author.
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She holds a B.A. in English and Spanish from Universidad Católica de Chile, an English degree from Harvard University and a Postgraduate Degree in Education from London School of Management Education. Her hobbies include reading, writing, traveling, visiting museums and doing yoga.

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Khayla is an Atlanta-based 3D artist who has exhibited public work in spaces throughout Georgia, including The Illges Gallery, Art Lab Gallery, and Light up Columbus Showcase. She is an awardee of the Nexus Grant presented by The Atlanta Contemporary as well as the recipient of the Midtown grant for the Light up Columbus show.

She plans to prepare her students for careers and other artistic endeavors by providing professional exhibition and gallery experience, and developing multifaceted artists with a variety of interdisciplinary skills and interests.

Khayla values the influence an educator can have on students, crediting her own as having helped cultivate her understanding of what It means to be an artist, and advancing her passions into a career she loves.

Khayla received her B.F.A in Studio Art from Columbus State University, with a focus in Body Casting, Textiles, and 3D Animation.

Anissa Picard, born in the United States, showed a passion for French at a very young age after her family hosted a foreign exchange student from France. Upon graduating high school, she continued to study French at the Ohio State University and decided to become a French teacher. She was lucky enough to study in Lyon, France and afterwards to live and teach English there for several years. Later, after moving to California to teach, she earned a Master's Degree in Teaching from the Grand Canyon University. Anissa has been teaching and tutoring students in public schools, both in the brick-and-mortar and in the online setting for nearly 20 years.

She likes to integrate projects that include cultural activities, music, art, and cuisine from Francophone countries. In her free time, she enjoys teaching meditation and energy work, yoga, writing, editing, listening to music, drawing and painting, reading, swimming, traveling, and caring for elders.

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Saamra Mekuria-Grillo is the Founder and CEO of Formation Ventures, a startup that is dedicated to dramatically increasing the number and success of Black entrepreneurs starting in high school. Prior to founding Formation Ventures, she was the Chief Operating Officer at the Pahara Institute, where she oversaw Program and Institute Operations, and was a facilitator for Pahara’s leadership programs. Previous to Pahara, Saamra was a consultant at Bain & Company, where she worked with clients in education, private equity, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals. Saamra started her career at Google, and spent over a year in India, as one of the founding team members of Google’s Hyderabad office, where she focused on training and growth of Google’s customer service sales and operations team.

Holding a deep belief in the power of education to provide transformative opportunities to young people, Saamra has served on multiple charter school boards, including the Mission Preparatory School in San Francisco, CA and the East Bay Innovation Academy in Oakland, CA, and she currently serves on the board of Compass Rose Public Schools in Texas. She holds an MBA with a certificate in Public Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, where she double majored in History and International Studies. She is also a proud graduate of the Boston Latin School, the first public school in the United States. Saamra lives in San Antonio, TX with her husband and her two sons.