Lisa Rossi came to Jefferson in 2005 after teaching 4th grade in East Oakland. She had the fortunate opportunity to student teach at Jefferson under Director of Schools Maggie Riddle, and decided then that she wanted to work with the superb students, parents, and teachers at this school. She has taught first through third grades at Jefferson, a majority of those as a second grade teacher.
Lisa received her Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from CSU, Chico, and later her teaching credential and Master’s Degree in Education from San Francisco State University. She was awarded San Francisco State University’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Academic Excellence and the College of Education’s Distinguished Student Award for her master’s thesis – a qualitative research study about the Open Court Reading curriculum. Prior to changing her career, she was a company spokesperson for Wells Fargo & Co., and Corporate PR Manager for Macy’s Department Stores.
Lisa’s classroom is always fun and engaging. Her classroom is a community where students work together to help gain perspectives and think critically about concepts and the curriculum, all while laughing, dancing, and sharing with each other. In 2007, Lisa was awarded Outstanding Teacher of the Year by Prudential Realty’s Education Foundation of Northern California. In recent years, Lisa has found creative ways to celebrate the power and struggle of women in our world through teaching a cross-curricular Women’s History unit. Her classes have made movies about Wilma Rudolph and Sylvia Mendez. “Persevere: The Wilma Rudolph Movie” won the 2016 Children’s Choice Award at the Bay Area International Children’s Film Festival and the 2016 Language Arts Award at PBS SoCal’s 50th Annual California Student Media Film Festival. The movie, “Class Action” about Sylvia Mendez and the desegregation of California’s public schools won the 2017 Children’s Choice Award at the Bay Area International Children’s Festival. Ms. Mendez is using the movie to lobby California legislators to get this important part of history as part of the curriculum in the public schools.
Lisa enjoys reading, swimming in natural waters, snowshoeing in the Sierras, and traveling with her husband, Josh, and her fourth grader, Lucy. They most recently spent three weeks traveling through Japan and ate ramen and soba every single day.
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