Faculty & Staff Directory

Began at CAIS in 2010

Head of School Jeff Bissell came to CAIS after 11 years as Director of School Year Abroad in Beijing, China. Prior to that he served as Adjunct Professor of Chinese Language at Marquette University and teacher at Shenyang University of Technology in Liaonin Province, China; Nicolet High School in Milwaukee, WI; and Waupun High School in Waupun, WI. Dr. Bissell currently serves on the boards of the California Teacher Development Collaborative; Keystone Academy in Beijing, China; Chinese Early Language Immersion Network at Asia Society (CELIN); and the 1990 Institute. Past board service includes The Mandarin Institute, Western Academy of Beijing and the JUMP! Foundation.

He was named to the task force for the 1 Million Strong initiative spearheaded by Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping to expand to 1 million the number of US K-12 students studying Mandarin by 2020.

HONORS AND AWARDS

THE ASIANWEEK FOUNDATION, ASIAN HERITAGE STREET CELEBRATION SCHOOL AWARD, 2012 For dedication, excellence and achievement in promoting cross cultural diversity
US DEPARTMENT OF STATE, BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS, FULBRIGHT FELLOWSHIP, 1994-1995 For doctoral research in Taipei, Taiwan
US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND AREA STUDIES (FLAS) FELLOWSHIP, 1993-1994 For doctoral research
US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, FLAS FELLOWSHIP, 1993 For graduate studies
US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FLAS FELLOWSHIP, 1993 For intensive summer session Japanese study
COMMITTEE ON INTERCOLLEGIATE COOPERATION FELLOWSHIP 1992 For intensive summer session Japanese study
US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, FLAS FELLOWSHIP, 1991-1992 For graduate studies

ADDITIONAL EDUCATION

TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY 清华大学, Beijing China
Senior Scholar Program at Inter-University Program (IUP) for Chinese Language Studies, Summer 2014

LIAONING NORMAL UNIVERSITY 辽宁师范大学, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China Advanced Chinese language studies, 1989

Began at CAIS in 2021

Hailing from Taiwan, Ms. Chiang is a veteran immersion educator with 17 years experience, including four years in her previous role as Chinese Academic Dean at Silicon Valley International School (formerly known as International School of the Peninsula). She holds a bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature from National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan; credentials from National University of Tainan and University of California San Diego; and a master’s degree in TESOL from San Jose State University. As she joined CAIS, she reflected on the strong community, “This resonates with the motto I have always lived by as a leader: 一个人走，走得快；一群人走，走得远 (If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together).”

See School Spotlight—Cindy Chiang

Began at CAIS in 2018

Proud of her mother’s Shanghai and Hong Kong roots, Mrs. Kaz studied Chinese at Brown University and at the Beijing Institute of Education. She earned her master’s degree in education from Harvard Graduate School of Education and is a National Board Certified Teacher in Early/Middle Childhood Literacy: Reading­-Language Arts. At Tsinghua International School 清华大学附中国际部, she taught English and music and started a golf team. At Sheridan, an independent school in Washington, DC, she taught second grade, fourth grade, and 8th grade geometry, and she helped develop curriculum, including a social studies unit on the Silk Road. At Georgetown Day School, another independent school in Washington, DC, she was a third grade lead teacher and the Chair of the national Asian Educators Alliance Conference. Mrs. Kaz is an experienced practitioner and mentor with Readers and Writers Workshop as well as with Responsive Classroom. In her practice as a teacher, she has shown deep commitment to engaging with issues of social class, gender, race, and social justice.

A Chinese and German speaker, she is also a:
• soprano with the International Orange Chorale and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus
• golfer
• triathlete
• skier
• SCUBA diver (PADI-certified rescue diver)
• certified emergency first responder

Began at CAIS in 2021

Wei joined CAIS from the BASIS Independent School in Fremont, California, where she served as Early Years Dean of Students. There she continued to build on her strength from Yuming Charter School in Oakland, developing and implementing multi-tiered academic and behavioral support systems for all students. Wei holds a bachelor of arts degree in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language from Shanghai University and a master’s of education in Foreign Language Curriculum and Teaching from DePaul University.

Excited to begin at CAIS this coming school year, she shares, “It is an honor to join this extraordinary school community with such persevering students, an extremely dedicated staff, and a supportive school community! I am committed to uniting my experience, my openness to learn, and my student-centered approach to support every student at CAIS and to build strong relationships with students, staff, and parents. Together we will empower our Firedragons to shape their future and the future of our community and our nation!”

BEGAN AT CAIS 2020

(See also, School Spotlight—Chu Hsi Tseng)

Hailing from Taiwan, 曾竺西 Chu Hsi Tseng has been working in the Early Childhood Education field for almost twenty years. As a second-generation mainlander in Taiwan, a woman with a lesbian identity, and a family member involved in caring for someone with a disability, she grew up with an understanding of multiculturalism and diversity. She has been passionate about bringing DEI to the school setting and providing an inclusive culture that allows all community members to feel respected and valued in the school.

Growth-oriented and well-versed in educational research, she is the embodiment of a life-long learner. She holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the field, with a second master’s degree in STEM Curriculum and Design. She passionately believes in child-centered pedagogy and adopts a play-based, inquiry-driven approach in Chinese immersion early years classrooms. Her research interest centers on Chinese immersion teaching and instruction and on teacher education. She would like to support early years teachers to build “the image of teacher,” someone who has teachers’ agency and is engaged in continual renewal and readjustment informed by reflection, experimentation, and practice. She believes that only when teachers have awareness of the importance of a growth mindset and engage themselves in the learning process will their students see the model and benefit from it.

Outside of the educational sphere, she enjoys spending time outdoors. She has visited 27 national parks in the United States and has been on many backpack trips. Her greatest accomplishment was hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Began at CAIS in 2014

After working for several years in management in the telecommunications industry, Mr. Williamson realized his lifelong dream of becoming an educator in 1989 when he was hired at Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton in the position of Part Time Primary Grades (1-3) P.E. Teacher. The following year, Mr. Williamson found his true calling when he was offered a full-time position in the middle school where, in his sixteen-year tenure at SHS, he taught every course in the middle school catalogue except science and the arts. In addition, he coached both boys’ and girls’ basketball, coached the Sacred Heart Preparatory men’s rowing team, and served for nine years as the lower school/middle school yearbook moderator. Most importantly, Mr. Williamson was a sixth grade homeroom teacher for each of those sixteen years – the genesis of his belief that sixth grade is the finest year of human existence. He moved to St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School in San Mateo in 2005, and after two years as a sixth grade lead teacher, was promoted to his first Middle School Director position in 2007. In 2011, Mr. Williamson moved to Orange County to become the Middle School Director at The Pegasus School in Huntington Beach for three years. A fifth generation northern California native, Mr. Williamson was delighted when Head of School Jeff Bissell invited him to return to the Bay Area in 2014 to become the Director of the Middle School at CAIS.

Mr. Williamson holds a B.S. from the University of Santa Clara, a B.S. from the University of San Francisco, and an M.Ed. from Notre Dame de Namur University.