Staff

Dave Childers, Principal

Dave comes to ACEL with over 10 years of experience in public education, including
the last year as an administrator with Fresno Unified School District.

Dave was born in Fresno and spent almost his entire youth in Madera, graduating from Madera High School in 1993.  From there he attended the University of Southern California as a broadcast journalism major before transferring back home to Fresno State in 1996.

When he moved back to the area, Dave took a part-time job as a library/computer lab assistant at Lincoln Elementary in Madera. His experiences working with students were so overwhelmingly positive that he changed his major to Liberal Studies to become a classroom teacher.

Dave completed his degree in Liberal Studies in 1998, becoming the first member of his family to graduate from college.  From there he enrolled in Fresno State’s Block A credentialing program, an accelerated cohort that allowed him to study off campus in an actual school setting.

Dave’s first teaching position was at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Madera, where he began teaching 7th grade Language Arts and Social Studies.  In his third year teaching he added an elective to his schedule – Video Production – where his students produced the daily news announcements on the school’s closed-circuit television system and created other video projects.  He also coached softball, tennis, basketball and baseball and served as an academic coach, EETT grant lead, and one year as the advisor of the school’s Asian Club.

After six years at King, Dave was chosen to be a part of the leadership team that opened Jack G. Desmond Middle School in Madera in September of 2005. He served as the school’s Technology Coordinator and taught Video Production, Computer Literacy, and Careers Awareness. At Desmond he also served as the first School Site Council President, coached track, was a BTSA mentor teacher and advised the school’s Technology Club. In the Spring of 2007 his students submitted their first-ever entries to the Slick Rock Student Film Festival in Visalia, taking home two of the five prizes in the Middle School division and producing a finalist in a third category.

In late 2007, after completing his administrative credential and receiving his Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction – Educational Technology from Grand Canyon University, Dave was hired as Vice Principal/Program Manager at Rowell Elementary School in Fresno.  He served in that position up until accepting the offer to become the founding principal at ACEL in December of 2008.

Dave teaches Curriculum and Instruction part time at Fresno State and served the last two years as the President of Central Valley Computer-Using Educators (CVCUE), a local non-profit organization that works to increase technology integration in classrooms. He is a member of Leadership Fresno’s Class 26 and was named to the 2009 “40 Under 40″ list of Fresno professionals by Business Street Magazine and the Fresno Grizzlies.  He is also a member of the State Center Consortium Board, TICAL, and Creative Fresno.

Karen Oppenheim, Language Arts/Health/ACEL 101

Karen is veteran of both public and charter high schools who joins the ACEL-Fresno team after serving most recently as an English teacher at Crescent View Charter High School in Fresno.

Karen began her teaching career at Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California – which has been ranked as one of the top 100 high schools in the nation by U.S. News and World Report two of the last three years.  There she taught Language Arts but was also involved with several progressive programs such as “Facing History and Ourselves.”  Following a relocation to the Central Valley, Karen joined the staff at Crescent View where she worked for several years.

Before going into education, Karen graduated from the University of Nevada-Reno with a degree in Journalism and worked in marketing and pubic relations in the Bay Area before coming to education.

Chris Durham, Social Science/Technology/ACEL 101

Chris is a first-year teacher who brings a versatile skill set to the ACEL-Fresno team.

Chris holds a single subject credential in Social Science, but his degree from California State University, Fresno is actually in Entrepreneurship – making him an ideal faculty member for implementing the Entrepreneurial program at ACEL down the road.  In fact, prior to student teaching, Chris actually ran multiple businesses of his own but decided to let those go to pursue his passion for working with young people.

Chris spent the majority of his formative years in Fresno, graduating from Clovis West High School while also attending CART – the Center for Advanced Research and Technology.  He did his student teaching at Clovis East High School and next door to ACEL at Tehipite Middle School – meaning that some ACEL students will already have worked with him.

Nancy Ferraro, Math (photo coming soon)

Mrs. Ferraro comes to ACEL after previous stints teaching math in both Fresno and Madera Unified School Districts. In fact, Mrs. Ferraro got her start teaching at the same place Mr. Childers began – Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Madera (though years apart).  Mrs. Ferraro also taught at UC Merced while pursuing her doctorate in Math.

Jermaine Lewis, Physical Education/Lunch Supervision (photo coming soon)

Mr. Lewis will serve double duty as an employee at ACEL as well as with the Boys and Girls Club Zimmerman Center.  While a first year PE teacher, Mr. Lewis was a scholarship football player at both Arizona State and Fresno State. He continues to play semi-professional tackle football for the Clovis Wolves of the Central Valley Football League.

Maria Adame, Spanish/Independent Study (photo coming soon)

Ms. Adame joins the ACEL faculty after most recently teaching at Fresno Christian High School.  Prior to that, Ms. Adame taught in the state of Nevada – including prior charter school experience.  She has experience in teaching both French and Spanish – including English as a Second Language. In addition to teaching Spanish, Ms. Adame also assists with school recruiting and operations.

Isabel Chavez, Office Manager (photo coming soon)

This is Isabel’s first experience in a school environment, though she has years of management and supervisory experience in the private sector. She has a background in recreation and leisure businesses, as well as experience with special event planning.  She has been a Fresno resident for almost 20 years, and her background in customer service and her bilingual abilities are a huge asset for ACEL.