ADVISORY BOARD

St. Mark Community Preschool is governed by a volunteer advisory board, which reports to the Session of St. Mark Presbyterian Church. Most advisory board members are parents of past or current students. The board is currently comprised of the following individuals:

Dana Flood, Advisory Board Chair
A graduate of Loyola Marymount University and a certified financial planner, Dana worked as a Sales Manager for John Hancock prior to staying home with her children. Dana has served as a deacon at St. Mark Presbyterian Church. Her hobbies include tennis, volleyball, skiing and tournament poker. She has been married to her husband Brian since 1994 and all three of their children, Tyler, Adam and Allison, have attended St. Mark Community Preschool.

Anne Christensen, Treasurer
Anne has served as advisory board chair and treasurer of St. Mark Community Preschool since 1999. She is also the grandmother of a former Preschool student. During her career, Anne worked as a controller for several small companies. Now semi-retired, she currently runs a small bookkeeping service. Anne has been a member of St. Mark Presbyterian Church, where she has served as treasurer, a deacon and an elder, for more than 30 years. She currently sings in the church’s choir.

Lois Butler
Now retired, Lois Butler spent 30-plus years in the preschool field, working as a teacher, director, and consultant. She has chaired child care committees for the City of Irvine and has been involved with the National Association for Education of Young Children, among other organizations. Lois also chairs the board of directors for the Newport Community Counseling Center.

Shari Ciko
A graduate of California State University, Fullerton (B.A.) and Pepperdine University (M.B.A.), Shari is president of the Dow’s Daughters Stock Club. She serves on the board of directors for the Children’s Bureau, and is also involved with a variety of other organizations benefiting children, including Discovery Science Center and the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Her son and daughter, Baron and Sterling, are graduates of St. Mark Community Preschool.

Karen Green
Karen earned a B.A. degree in Art History from Occidental College and worked in the fields of advertising and fashion design prior to becoming a stay-at-home mom. She and her husband, Scott, have three children: Madeleine and Cooper,  graduates of St. Mark Community Preschool and Brady, a current St. Mark student.  Karen has been a member of St. Mark Presbyterian Church for more than 15 years and has enjoyed her role on the preschool advisory board for the past seven years.

Kristy Kiper
A certified nurse practitioner in women’s health, Kristy earned a Masters of Science in Nursing from California State University, Long Beach. Kristy and her husband Mike have two sons, Michael and Matthew, each an alumnus of St. Mark Community Preschool. Kristy enjoys staying home with her children and has served on the preschool’s advisory board for the past five years. 

Heather Manchester, Session Representative                                                                                                
Heather is in her second year as an elder on Session.  She teaches Sunday School. at St. Mark and chairs the FCAT (Families with Children and Teens) Commission.  After nine years of teaching upper elementary school, she took some time off to raise her two boys, Owen, 8 and Elton, 5, but is now back in the classroom part-time, teaching 6th grade.  Both boys attended St. Mark Community Preschool and benefitted greatly from their time there, for which she is grateful. 

Nikki Wood
A native of Orange County, Nikki attended UC Santa Barbara, where she earned a B.A. in Psychology with an emphasis in child development. For ten years, she worked for an executive search firm, placing executive-level sales managers in the technical field. Members of St. Mark Presbyterian Church, Nikki and her husband David have three children (Paige and Caroline are alumna of the school and Matthew is a current student).  She is also actively involved with Eastbluff Elementary School. 

DIRECTOR AND TEACHERS

Mrs. Hornbuckle (Mary) is the Preschool Director.  She has been employed by the preschool since 1978, first as teacher of the three-year-old class.  She became the Director in 1988, while serving on the Costa Mesa City Council and as Mayor. She left that position in 1996, and in 2005 she was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Coast Community College District.  She has a Nursery School Certificate from Orange Coast College, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Organizational Management from Southern California College/Vanguard University.  She and her husband, Jerry, have two daughters, Shelley Chretin and Amy Simko, who helped at the preschool as teenagers, and four grandchildren who are all St. Mark Preschool graduates. 

Ms. Coudé Du Foresto (Maureen) is the teacher in the younger three-year-old room, Room 1.  We call her Miss Coudé for simplicity.  She began her work with us in 2005 as an assistant teacher, and when we added our youngest class in 2008, she became the teacher.  She has an Early Childhood Certificate and AA degree from Orange Coast College, and has a BA degree in Child Development from National University.  She and her sister, our other Miss Coudé, live in Huntington Beach. 

Miss Martinez (Micaela) is the assistant in the younger threes room.  She joined our staff in November, 2007 and helped us with the move to our new facility.  She is acquiring her Early Childhood Education units at Orange Coast College, and has attended architectural school. She also helps with her younger sisters at home in Westminster.

Mrs. Wyer (Stacy) is the teacher in the three-year-old room, Room 2 and has been employed by the preschool since the fall of 2000.  She is a favorite with all the children on Sundays when she works for the church in the toddler and infant rooms.  She received her AA degree and Early Childhood Education certificate from Orange Coast College.  She lives in Costa Mesa with her husband Howie and baby Lilyann, born in 2009.

Ms. Coudé du Foresto (Elsa) is the assistant teacher in Room 2.  After taking child development classes at the University of Toulouse in France, she moved to Huntington Beach to be with her parents and her sister, our other Ms. Coudé.  She joined our staff in fall, 2007, and she is taking Early Childhood Education classes at Orange Coast College.

Mrs. Walker (Dianne) is the teacher in the four-year-old room, Room 3.  She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton, and a Masters Degree in ECE, as well as Special Ed Credential Units.  She taught 3rd grade and special ed, then owned and operated a child care facility in Irvine for 4½ years.  She returned to Orange Coast College, where her higher education began, to renew her skills in Early Childhood Education.  She joined our staff in 2006.  She is the mother of three grown children and she lives in Irvine with her husband, Christopher.

Mrs. Martinez (Olga) is assistant teacher with the four-year-olds.  She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature from Chernovtsy State University in Chernovtsy, Ukraine, and seven years teaching experience with older children and adults.  She has Early Childhood Education units from the ECE program at Orange Coast College, and she joined our staff in 2005.  She and her husband, Steven, live in Costa Mesa.  They have a daughter, Sophia, in fifth grade and a son, Landers, in the second grade who was a student here at the preschool.

Ms. Carsrud (Jenni) joined our staff in the fall of 2007, and after helping us make the move to our new campus, teaches the older four-year-old class (youngest Pre-K) in Room 4.  She has a Bachelor of Science in Child Development and a Master of Science in Education from California State University, Fullerton.   Her previous teaching experience was at St. Anne’s School in Laguna Niguel.  She is a reading and literacy tutor and lives in Mission Viejo.

Miss Morris (Stephanie) is the assistant teacher in the older fours room.  She helped us move when she joined our staff in November, 2007.  She has completed 12 units of Early Childhood Education at Orange Coast College for a certificate in ECE.  She has experience in child care through her church and through working at a summer camp for disadvantaged children.  She lives with her parents in Santa Ana.

Mrs. Buffa (Tarra) teaches the Pre-K class in Room 5.  She began her work with young children when she joined our staff in 2004, after working in the restaurant industry.  She has an AA degree in Liberal Arts from Santa Ana College, and has continued her education with ECE classes at Santiago Canyon College.  She lives in Costa Mesa with her husband, Nick and baby Vincent, born in 2009.   
  
Ms. Schirmer (Elizabeth) was first employed at the preschool in the spring of 2009 as a substitute teacher for Mrs. Buffa, then for Mrs. Wyer (Room 2) in the fall of 2009.  She is now the assistant teacher in Room 5.  She earned her ECE units from Irvine Valley College and is continuing her education in early childhood teaching.  She has 11 years of experience teaching preschool at all levels, including operating her own day care in Northern California for a time.  She now lives in Irvine.

Mrs. Bryant (Toni) teaches the Pre-K class in Room 6.  She was first employed by the preschool from 1981 to 1985 and joined us again in the fall of 2002.  During her absence, she was busy raising her two daughters, Kate and Sarah, who were both St. Mark Community Preschool students.  She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Humanistic Studies from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and a teaching credential from the University of California, Irvine (UCI).  She enjoys tutoring elementary school children and lives in Newport Beach. 

Mrs. McCormick (Kim) assists in Room 6.  She has been employed by the preschool since 1990, first as a substitute, then as an assistant teacher.  She has worked with all ages.  She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Comparative Culture from the University of California, Irvine (UCI). She and her husband, Steve, live in Newport Beach and have two children: Kelsey, a graduate of USC, and Chris, a graduate of UCLA who has a Masters Degree from Stanford.  Both are former St. Mark Community Preschool students.   

Mrs. Simko (Amy) is our office assistant and general all-around-useful-person!  She has worked for the preschool since she was a teenager.  As the daughter of the Director, she really had no choice!  She has been a summer aide, an assistant teacher and a classroom teacher at St. Mark.  She has an Early Childhood Education certificate and an AA from Orange Coast College, and a Bachelor of Science in Child Development from California State University, Fullerton.  She and her husband, Brian, live in Costa Mesa and have two children, Hayley in fifth grade, and Jake in third grade.