Rachel Stephan

Rachel currently lives in Wyoming with her husband of 21 years, two daughters (15 and 17), two dogs, a cat, and several chickens. Rachel earned her BA at the University of Northern Colorado in 2000 in Sociology/Criminal Justice, her Multiple Subject teaching credential from CSU, Bakersfield in 2003, her clear teaching credential in 2008 from UCLA, and her MA in Education with a focus in Online Instruction in 2023 from SNHU. Rachel began teaching 4^th and 5^th graders in a classroom at a private school, then taught 7^th-12^th graders at a public independent charter school. She joined the California Virtual Academies staff in August of 2006 and worked as a K-8 teacher and Community Day teacher before going into leadership as a Regional Lead in 2010. In 2016, Rachel began her journey into Instructional Coaching while still holding the Regional Lead position. She and Kat Laag started their partnership and helped to train leadership on the basics of instructional coaching until 2017, then became full-time instructional coaches for over 60 teachers each in the Elementary Department. In 2019, Rachel and Kat were given an opportunity to lead their own department of instructional coaches. As of 2025, California Virtual Academies has 31 instructional coaches who support over 800 teachers and 20,000 students in grades TK-12 and two Coordinators of Leader Development and Instructional Coaching (Rachel and Kat). In this current role, Rachel and Kat provide professional development to all leaders at California Virtual Academies, offer individual leadership coaching, and continue to grow the instructional coaching program.