Our Staff
Mindy Myers, Founder, Director
Miss Mindy has dedicated her life to helping children embrace that which is different. Through exposure to cooking and eating international foods, learning about cultural nuances, and understanding world-wide celebrations and practices, children leave a Cooking Round the World experience with a broadened palette, and a desire to explore the world.
Stefen Thompson -Southern California Regional Manager/Company Researcher
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Stefen is a dedicated employee of Cooking round the world of 5 years. She enjoys traveling with her 4 kids and Military husband. Loves to roll up her sleeves and cook for the homeless in her spare time.
Ryann Hai - Program Director
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Ryann is a mom of two teenaged boys and two very active French bulldogs. She has a passion for animals and children, and in her spare time she likes to cook and garden.
Bella Bramell Administrator
Chef Bella has been cooking for more than 15 years, finding a passion for cooking through making family dinners. She has worked with children from ages 1 – 12 and loves their creativity and excitement.
Christol James
Executive Assistant/Teacher
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Christol is the mother of a a beautiful 8 year old princess. She was raised by 3 chefs who all own restaurants throughout the city of Oakland. When she is not busy being a cool mom she often picks up shifts to help out at each restaurant. Not only does she love to cook she enjoys eating the food more :)
Karl Vonmecklenburg - Director of Technology
I have twenty five years experience working as an IT professional.
I enjoy the outdoors and camping.
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Cooking Teachers
Pooja Damani
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Pooja is an avid home chef. Until recently, she has been a preschool teacher for many years. She collects cookbooks, loves different kinds of cuisine, and has an intense desire to try and make new dishes. Food is her way of making friends. She loves to make coconut cakes and salted chocolate chip cookies for dessert. In her free time, as a mom of two, (what free time??), she is often seen hanging out with her cats, cooking with her kids (mostly for), reading a good book with a cup of tea, or laughing with her husband, (who is also kept around by his desire for good food.)
Valeska Schultz - Lafayette
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I’m currently a Spanish Language teacher and Academic Instructional Assistant for the Orinda School District, Orinda, CA. I have worked with students TK- High School for 20+ years, including my own children (ages 24 and 26 years old) and their friends. I have also worked for Cooking Round the World as a Chef Educator teaching and sharing the history, wonders and joy of cooking with youth!
Tracy Long
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She is from Beijing, China and loves cooking. She is kind, patient, responsible and a happy, educated successful mother. She loves travel and has been to forty more countries
Maria Lund
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Maria grew up in Marin and currently resides in Oakland. She has a Business Degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and is back in school to study Early Childhood Education. She has a son in elementary school and currently volunteers there. Growing up, Maria spent a lot of time at her families' restaurants. You could say cooking is in her genes!
Hannah Robinson
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Hannah is a San Diego native who is getting ready for her first quarter at UCSD. She spends her time studying Biology, playing video games, spending time with her pets, and listening to Taylor Swift. She loves cooking; favorite thing to cook is pasta and her favorite thing to bake is cake.
Nylla Gipson
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Nylla is a lover for the cooking arts and an advocate for students inside and outside of cooking around the world. She's happy that she's able to make a difference on this team!
Shihab Noman
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Shihab has a lot of volunteering experience working with children of all disabilities and backgrounds. He is attending college to become a school counselor.
His hobbies are producing music, drawing and most importantly cooking and baking.
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Tiana Dikilato
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Tiana was raised in the South of Georgia and is a mother of two handsome boys. Tiana enjoys cooking, eating, and being with family. Tiana is currently in school to become a pharmacy technician. In her free time Tiana likes to take her kids to the park or beach.
Chef Manina
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Chef Manina is a retired Army veteran who loves spending time with her great nieces and nephews.
She also enjoys traveling, baking and cooking with her littles.
Maya Ashorobi
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Maya is currently attending college as a sophomore studying communications. Maya enjoys learning new languages, spending time with her family and cooking new dishes
Jeralyn Dayon
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Jeralyn is currently a Pastry Chef at Facebook. She also enjoys creating a variety of desserts through her own business called In The Mix Bakery.
Ivy Xu
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Ivy is a current graduate student at The Wright Institute. She enjoys pilates, spending time with family and friends, and of course, cooking!
Janette Fernandez
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I am a dentist from Peru that has worked as an office manager, assistant manager , dental assistant in The United States. I stopped working when my daughter was born and during that time I took ESL and English classes at City College of San Francisco. I had volunteer at The Breakfast Project at Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy for 5 years teaching the children how to cook healthy food that it’s related with Social Justice.