Meet Our Team!
Notre Dame Summer Programs are staffed with experienced, enthusiastic faculty. Learn a little bit about them in the biographies below.
John Amarillas
Coach Amarillas, Notre Dame’s strength and conditioning coach since 2002, brings more than three decades of experience training junior high and high school athletes. His passion for strength and conditioning is evident as he helps young people become the best they can be. He will meet the athlete where they are and move them forward in a planned and safe manner. Coach Ammo holds two certifications (CSCS, USAW 1) from the only two nationally-accredited institutions in the country.
Nicholas Carrillo
Nick is a veteran digital media teacher in the San Mateo Union High School District, having taught there since 2011. He received his B.A. in studio art with an emphasis in graphic design from Long Beach State University. Nick continues to work in his free time as a freelance graphic designer and amateur filmmaker, while also spending time with his two children and wife in the garden.
Kira Conte
Kira is a master's student at Stanford where she is studying the sociology of education. She completed her undergraduate degree in psychology, data science, and education. Kira is passionate about empowering students through adaptive mindsets and new, fun ways of approaching math.
Alexandra Cunningham
Alex lives in South Africa during most of the year and travels to her alma mater, Notre Dame High School in San Jose, for the summers. She studied urban community development and art at New York University and has a masters in fine arts from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She is the managing director and founder of Boundless City.
Eran DeSilva
Eran is the director of teaching and learning at Notre Dame and a social studies teacher. She holds degrees in international relations and art studio from UC Davis, as well as a masters in teaching from the University of San Francisco.
Aidan Ferrer
Tanisha Fitzgerald
Susana Garcia
Elliott Gavino
Hafsa Khan
Hafsa is a premier golf coach in the Bay Area offering her services to beginners, student athletes and advanced players alike. With 21 years of golf experience, and 8 in private coaching, her coaching style will improve your performance and enjoyment of the game.
With more than eight years of coaching experience, her philosophy has been coach-player adaptability, using a player's unique body and build to develop their golf game.
Jennifer Johnson
Jennifer is the director of summer programs and a high school English teacher for students with mild to moderate disabilities. Jennifer is passionate about helping students feel successful in their learning. She holds a bachelor's degree in French with a minor in history, a master's degree in international policy studies with a certificate in gender and development, a master's degree in education with an emphasis on teaching, and an education specialist teaching credential.
Paul Lapke
Brea Paillet
Cecilia Perkins
Bryan Ringsted
Bryan is passionate about student leadership in the arts, and through his classes and productions he keeps that passion central. The theater is a living organism with a thousand moving parts, all of which must work copesecticly in order for the show to dazzle and amaze. Each strong student leader is therefore able to take on their own part of that whole, and through their effort and creativity they are able to create something bigger than themselves. Notre Dame is a perfect place to train the theatrial leaders of tomorrow.

If you have questions about
Notre Dame Summer Programs,
please email summer@ndsj.org.
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