Sandra Sarrouf is a cultural consultant and educator committed to building environments of belonging. She received her MA in Cultural Sustainability and BA in Environmental Studies and Political Science with a minor in Global Peace and Security. As a professional dancer, she harnesses the power of creativity and movement as tools to embrace diversity, build just communities and learn about our multicultural world. As a Middle Eastern woman who immigrated to the U.S. at a young age she works to build bridges across differences, cultivating a deeper understanding of the varied ways we participate in culture. Working at the intersection of culture, art and justice, she recently founded Cultural Creations to support organizations who want to build inclusion, equity and belonging into their framework. Her radiant joy and deep cultural pride are most evident in the vibrancy she brings working with children and adults as a workshop facilitator, educator and dancer.  Sandra especially loves her summer work with PASA engaging children to open their minds about the incredible diversity in our communities and world through movement, art, story and dialogue! 

Mariana Carlon is a Kindergarten classroom teacher for the Santa Maria Bonita School District, where she has taught for the past 7 years. Originally from Northeast Portland, Oregon, she and her family now reside in Santa Maria, California where she teaches. Mariana Carlon received both her teaching credential and master’s in curriculum and instruction from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. She is an educator of social and racial justice with an emphasis on anti-bias anti-racist and praxis framework usage in the classroom. She is known for taking social justice topics and making them understandable and relatable for primary students. Some of the topics she has engaged young children in are desegregation, civil rights, systemic racism, queer topics, colorism, Indigenous rights, and more.  Her passion for educating students of color stems from her own experience at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary in N.E. Portland where she was engaged in a culturally relevant environment. She sees her place in education as a catalyst to continue the legacy of empowering and uplifting students of color so they will one day thrive. 

Beela Elghandour earned a bachelor’s in Biochemistry from UCLA, as a step closer to achieving her career goal in Dentistry. At UCLA Beela served on the committee for the Academic, Mentorship and Professional Development Project. She worked for the UMMA Volunteer Project, Global Medical Training in the Dominican Republic, and Food Drive Initiative Project. She also served as a Sports Medicine Intern for three years. She also took part in nanoparticle research at Cal Poly State University. She currently is a dental assistant and will be starting Dental School this upcoming school year. 

Beela loves working with kids. Her experience as a gymnastics coach at Central Coast Gymnastics, and teacher at Bright Life Playschool positioned her to become a teacher and coordinator for Peace Academy’s summer programs. Beela remains to be very active in her community and is excited to continue working with the Peace Academy as she progresses in her career.

Tasneem Elghandour was born and raised in San Luis Obispo California. Upon graduating with a degree in Philosophy from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Tasneem took courses in Computer Science and is currently earning a Master’s degree in Linguistics at Cal State Long Beach. Tasneem loves hiking, creative writing, and learning about the world through shared experiences, traveling, and reading. She is inspired by nature, the beautiful and fundamental differences and values each person has to offer. In studying language sciences, her goal is to continue research in areas of bilingual education and how it applies in the classroom, as well as work on software technologies that enhance speech recognition for languages across the globe.  

Tasneem believes the quality of education and interaction provided for children improves the quality of their life mentally and socially, as well as the quality of life for future generations. Tasneem has spent many years interacting with children of all ages through various modes of activity and finds inspiration in the way children explore life. She has found a great deal of joy and passion in working with the kids at Peace Academy of Sciences of Art and is always in awe of the level of intelligence, enthusiasm, and creativity each kid brings to the table.