Evan Wilson

Evan has worked with children as a coach, tutor, mentor, and attorney for the last twenty years. He has a B.A. in the History of Science from Harvard University and a J.D. from the Washington College of Law. As an attorney, he has worked with children involved with the juvenile justice system—something he gave up to be a part of the FS community as a spouse. He has worked with students in primary school all the way to graduate school, both in the U.S. and abroad. He has been a college chemistry and math tutor and taught kindergarteners to read. Empowering young people (including his own two children!) to succeed has become his life’s goal.

Evan teaches math through advanced high school levels (including AP BC Calculus and IB HL Math), physics, chemistry, and writing.

Alex Schumann

Alexandra (“Alex”) has spent her entire career of nearly twenty years working with adolescents and young adults in the education and mental health fields. Alex has been an academic advisor, mental health counselor, a college success skills instructor and is currently working as an executive function coach and an ADHD parent coach.  

Alex excels at supporting students to overcome personal and academic challenges by helping them to identify goals, design plans, and build confidence.  She addresses executive function gaps through tools and strategies that can be practiced both at home and school.  Alex especially enjoys working with students who have special education needs, those on the spectrum, those with ADHD, and twice exceptional students.  Alex believes that connection and mutual respect are essential for success when working with young people.  She is a mom to two boys who keep her active, engaged, and challenged - daily!  

Alex has a BA in Political Science from Tufts University and an M.Ed. in Psychological Counseling from Teachers College, Columbia University.  

Alex teaches study skills, executive functioning, and writing to students in middle school, high school, and college.

Eric Laurits

Eric has a B.A. in Music, an M.F.A. in Acting, and an M.Ed. in Elementary Curriculum and Instruction. Chances are very good that he will continue collecting degrees for some time as he has yet to come close to curing his case of Curiosities. His current research interests include how we teach elementary students to communicate both in person and over technology, reforming the methodologies for the teaching of systematic action research to pre-service teachers, and culturally responsive education practices through the lens of formalized prosody instruction. His past experiences include work with George Mason University, Fairfax County Public Schools, the Denver Center, the AmeriCorps, and the photography industry. In online tutoring instruction, Eric fosters personalized learning environments, and guides and coaches his students through problems and challenges while helping them to build systems of self-support and problem solving strategies for the future.

Eric teaches a love of learning, first and foremost. He addresses needs for elementary students and enjoys utilizing STEM and art to improve students’ communication. In a general sense, he teaches writing, problem solving, science and math at the elementary level.

Nazia Quraishi

Nazia has taught math and science in both private and public schools in Montgomery County, MD. She is pursuing her masters in distance education at the University of Maryland Global Campus.  She completed her bachelors in chemistry at Barnard College and went on to work as an organic chemist for Merck and GE Healthcare in the US and UK all before earning her teaching certification.  Currently, Nazia is researching the long term affects of chemistry simulations versus benchtop chemistry in terms of both student motivation and mastery of concept.

Nazia is bilingual and speaks fluent Urdu/Hindi as a child of Pakistani immigrants.  She has taught English language learners as well as those students who find math and science to be a foreign language 😉.  As a female in science, Nazia firmly believes all students are critical thinkers who are able to solve non-routine problems in a globally competitive society.  As a member of the chemistry team at Kennedy High School when the IB diploma program started, Nazia helps bridge the gap between grasping theoretical concepts and mastering timely standardized subject tests.  Finally, as a new member to the foreign service community with four children from three and a half to fourteen, Nazia sees how balanced students’ skills support healthy academic and social integration.

Nazia teaches chemistry through advanced high school levels (IB HL Chemistry), physics, math, and Urdu.

Vanessa Benedetti

Vanessa is a dyslexia therapist having completed two years of training to become a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT), achieving the highest level of competency in the field of dyslexia education. As a CALT, Vanessa provides diagnostic, explicit, systematic Multi-sensory Structured Language intervention which builds a high degree of accuracy, knowledge, and independence for students with written-language disorders, including dyslexia. Vanessa has a BA from Middlebury College and a Master’s of Education from Marymount University.

Vanessa grew up a third culture kid in South Asia and Africa.  She has been a trailing spouse for the past 20+ years, most recently in Dakar, Senegal. Her kids are also TCKers who have lived in Africa and Europe.

Vanessa teaches study skills and executive functioning, and she provides diagnostic, explicit, systematic Multi-sensory Structured Language interventions. She provides dyslexia therapy to students with a dyslexia diagnosis using a Structured Literacy program. Dyslexia therapy differs from tutoring because it is diagnostic and prescriptive, intensive, result driven, and long term. The minimum commitment for dyslexia therapy is a 1 hour session, 3 times a week.

Sabrina Huffman Cohn

Sabrina Huffman Cohn completed her Master of Arts degree in French Studies at American University, then saw her plans to teach sidetracked after landing a job at The World Bank. The job turned into a career of over twenty years in international development. She picked up a second Master’s degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins along the way, all the while traveling to countries across francophone West Africa and later on Eastern Europe. Since retirement, she has focused on rekindling old passions, including ballet, which she teaches to children; and, of course, her lifelong study of the French language and literature. When not dancing or reading, you can usually find her planning her next trip to France. 

Sabrina teaches French Language and Literature from the beginner level all the way through AP, Dual Enrollment, and IB French.

Greg Heubner

Greg Huebner is a bilingual (Spanish and English) school psychologist who has worked in Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. for 10 years. As a school psychologist Greg has helped hundreds of children unlock their learning potential through psychological evaluations and counseling. Through his work, he has developed a comprehensive understanding of special education laws and Individual Education Program (IEP) services. His interest in helping children extends back to the Peace Corps where he volunteered as a Youth Development Specialist in Ukraine in 2008.

He is a psychologist working in Fairfax Public Schools and in a private practice based in Fairfax, Virginia. He specializes in psychoeducational evaluations. Greg is skilled in providing consultations, academic progress monitoring, and writing attainable goals for a range of problems.

Consultation services include parent consultation to answer questions about learning disabilities, mental health challenges, special education, and parents’ rights, or to provide parent coaching. As well as consultation with a teacher aimed at supporting students with learning challenges. Initial consultations can be a “sanity check” or used as a sounding board to advise on the challenges of educating students of nontraditional educational backgrounds. Assessments are completed to determine the student’s individual cognitive, academic, behavioral and social emotional strengths and needs. Assessment results are used to write a psychological report that describes the individual and their levels of functioning in detail and provides recommendations for both parents and educators.

Peter Marsden

Peter has spent his whole career in education supporting students of all ages. He tutored students in New York City in a variety of subjects and test prep curriculums before moving to Washington, DC to teach 5th-8th grade public school students in geography, history, and social studies for years. Peter later became a college coach and admissions counselor, supporting first-generation-to-college students in Montgomery County, MD. He recently moved to London, England, and is continuing his work in US college admissions advising there.

Peter enjoys connecting with students on their level and leaning on his teaching background (as well as his experience as a summer camp counselor!) to get creative in finding what strategies and styles work for each student. He has a bachelor's degree in Film Studies from Emory University.