About our Educators

Our educators are highly skilled Foreign and Romanian teachers that are required to have an Academic Degree(s) in Education and at least 2 years full-time classroom teaching experience.

Through a rigorous hiring process, we evaluate educators across four areas of professional practice standards that align with the VIS approach.

Application information and background

We interview most staff on more than one occasion to ensure we have thoroughly inquired about their past endeavours and personal values, driving force and passion. After this stage we then explore and cultivate the following areas:

Interpersonal

The interpersonal domain requires leadership and collaboration. Verita educators must seek understanding through empathetic listening, work interdependently, communicate with clarity and precision, and demonstrate capacity for community building.

Instructional

The instructional domain requires critical thinking and self-direction. Verita educators must be responsive; practice informed decision-making based on data and observations; and work with intentionality and patience.

Cognitive

The cognitive domain requires curiosity and creativity. Verita educators must demonstrate capacity to respond with curiosity, question, apply past knowledge, pursue new knowledge, and innovate on their practice.

Empowering Educators

Once we hire exceptional educators, we empower them to facilitate the best education possible for your children.

Educators are supported by

  • A creative and constantly innovating development model of events and trainings
  • Opportunities for professional growth and development
  • The flexibility to create meaningful experiences for their students
  • A professional learning community from which to draw and share best practices

Employment

If you want to work on our amazing team of world-class educators, or be a part of the administration of staff of the school, check out our open positions below.

Go to: Senior Leadership Team | School Coordinators | Secondary School Teachers | Primary School Educators | Early Years Educators |Student Support, SEL & Special Educational Needs | Business Office | Administrative Tasks

Senior Leadership Team

Richard Makis Ioannidis

Founder/ CEO

Richard was born and raised in Athens, Greece. He graduated from Loyola Marymount University – Los Angeles, California with a degree in Early Childhood Education Master Degree from Oxford University in History. He has traveled and studied around the world: Los Angeles, Loyola University Rome, Marymount University Bonn Germany and Oxford University – Queens College.

As a full-time father of three boys, Richard is passionate about children and education and has been working for the last five years as a teacher and Director of Social Emotional Learning. Richard is also a play therapist with young children diagnosed with cancer at the Fundeni Hospital. He has over 10 years of experience with Mindfulness Parenting and teaching.

Verita 4 All Foundation

Our main focus is on Children Educational Programs for orphans and underprivileged families. Education is one of the single most vital elements in combating poverty and our goal is to freely offer and train teachers around the world with the SEE Emory University Curriculum. Other important projects include: Helping children with cancer, the Elderly and Hospice Centers. www.veritafoundation.ro.

“We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love” (Mother Theresa)

Lila Vasilescu

Head of School

Lila has a long passionate history with the development and growth of the school and of our nonprofit organization, Verita Foundation.
She is an authentic, living, breathing example of the values, mission and vision of Verita and a vibrant advocate of keeping Verita true to its word and promise. For years, she has been a pivotal bridge builder and support for the community of parents, teachers and students.

As co-founder of our Verita Foundation, she has launched in 2020 CERC – Compassion in Education Resource Center, a resource platform for social-emotional and ethical learning which is intended to share our school’s valuable SEL knowledge, results and resources with educators in the Romanian public educational system.

She is a certified trainer with an SEL ( Social Emotional Learning ) course certification from Rutgers University, USA and a Mindfulness Teaching certification from Mindful Schools in the USA.

Lila is also certified by Emory University, USA as an SEEL ( Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning) facilitator.
She is also a mother and believes in the power of kindness, trusting people’s ability to find inner balance and joy of living and she wishes to contribute to a kinder, more compassionate world for our children and for us all.

Tim Springham

Head of Primary & Early Years

Tim Springham has been an educator for over 27 years. Over the past 2 decades in educational leadership in 6 vastly different global settings Tim still firmly believes that the best learning environments are where everyone feels safe secure and valued. This is what Tim sets out to achieve everyday with the Verita learning community.

Tim started his educational journey in the United Kingdom attending state school and then the prestigious University of Exeter. He then went to Roehampton Institute, part of the University of Surrey, to complete his Teacher Training. After teaching in 2 different schools in England, Tim then took the position of Deputy Head of Primary at the British School in the Netherlands. Here Tim took the National Professional Qualification for Headship and helped guide the school through a very successful ISI inspection. Tim then served as Head of Infant School at the British School of Amsterdam where another successful ISI inspection was completed. Tim then served as Head of Primary for 2 different schools in the Middle East for 5 Years and for the past 3 years was Whole School Principal, ages 18 months to 18 years with a Boarding House, of Lae International School Papua New Guinea.

He is very interested in applying current understanding of brain development to create dynamic learning environments where the principles of Vygotsky scaffolded learning are applied to complex problem-solving activities enabling learners to take risks and try new theories without fearing failure.

Tim is a collaborative leader who believes in leading by example and creating a team ethos where everyone’s contributions are valued. He has an excellent track record in developing young leaders and identifying and nurturing middle leadership.

Tim, and his family, love travelling and immersing themselves into new cultures believing that the more you experience, the greater your tolerance and understanding horizon will be. Tim particularly enjoys watching, and occasionally participating, in most sports with football being his passion.

He is delighted to be part of an excellent team at Verita and is committed to delivering the Social and Emotional Learning philosophy to all students.

Ashley Peek

Head of Secondary

Prior to joining Verita, Ashley Peek was School Director at Berkeley International School in Thailand. With over 15 years of experience in international education and school administration, Ashley has moved seamlessly from classroom teacher to curriculum coordinator to principal and then to headmaster.

As a school leader, he designed and implemented their standards-based assessment and reporting system for both the primary and secondary schools and led a comprehensive curricular recording and review process for the first time in the school’s history.

Julie Dinca

Deputy Head of Primary & Early Years

Julie (or Iulia) was born and raised in Bucharest, Romania. She graduated from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreing Languages and Literatures with a double degree in both English and Spanish. She also holds the Certificate for Teaching from the Teacher Training Department of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences.

Julie joined Verita in its first year and has seen it grow and flourish into an amazing school that values kindness, inquiry, project-based learning and innovative teaching. Julie is a tech enthusiast and as a technology integrationist, she has tried to enrich and support teaching and learning while strengthening the technology skills of students, staff, and the community. She is a Google Level II Certified Educator and carries a certificate of Leadership of Educational Technology in Schools.

Julie values the relationships between students and teachers, between teachers and parents and between all the staff and considers them to be the foundation of great teaching and learning. She is passionate about gamification, mindfulness, social-emotional and project-based learning. She has always enjoyed learning, and she is determined to inspire students to love learning and to pursue their naturally curious minds through her teaching.

Roxana Din

Curriculum Coordinator KS1 and EY Campus Leader

Roxana graduated from the University of Bucharest with a BA in Foreign Languages (English – Italian) and an MA in English Linguistics part of which she has done at the Ca’Foscari University in Venice, Italy. During college she worked as a volunteer teacher at various NGO’s and as an Educational Therapist at a centre which offered educational and psychological assistance to children with learning disabilities such as Dyslexia or Specific Language Impairment.

Her desire to get involved in education and especially in emotionally based learning stems both from her own experience as a student/learner and from her observations of the methods children use in order to acquire certain information. She strongly believes that children need an environment which would allow them to express their needs and feelings, to know themselves in order to be able to absorb information from the outside. They only need guidance and a lot of understanding.

Irina Cazacu

Deputy Head of Secondary for Pastoral Care

Irina was born and raised in Bucharest, Romania. After more than 13 years working in the mobile telecommunication industry, in 2012, Irina moved to Saudi Arabia, where she worked as a Teaching Assistant at the British International School of Al Khobar, where she realised her passion for working with young children. In the summer of 2017, she and her family were relocated to Romania and joined Verita school.

Her teaching experiences range from nursery through year 2. She strongly believes that early childhood education is vitally important to prepare children not only for school but for life. Helping the children to reach their individual milestones and working closely with families is why she loves working in Early Years.

To bring balance to her life, Irina enjoys swimming, reading, coffee with friends, and travelling.

Doria Draghiciu

Deputy Head of Secondary for Academics

Doria is from Romania and has a Bachelors degree in Pure Mathematics from the University of Bucharest as well as a Masters degree in Secondary Education from Georgia College State University in the USA, where she lived and worked for ten years. She has taught various high school mathematics courses in the Seattle and Atlanta areas.

Doria also helped develop a competitive project-based learning STEM program at the last high school she worked at. She is passionate about building student leadership capacity and empowering educators. In her spare time, she likes to run with her dog, take pictures and travel.

Luiza Joita

Head of School Operations

Luiza graduated from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, specialized in Tourism & Services and she worked for 15 years in marketing and events management. Her professional journey helped her develop abilities to plan, organize and manage complex projects. The interest for education started when her  two daughters reached the age for schooling and because she truly believes in Verita School’s vision, she embraced a career change and accepted the challenge to join the Verita team. She loves to travel and spend time outdoors, as well as listening to music and reading a good book.

Cornelia Cacu

Head of Finance

Cornelia graduated Cybernetics, Statistics and Economic Informatics at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest. Being passionate about numbers she joined, while she was still a student, an accounting company where she developed her accounting skills for several yeas, growing from Junior to Senior Accountant. She moved forward by working as a Financial Manager for a Romanian Publishing House, blending in her passion for numbers with the passion for words, reading and writing.

Because she believes that people are multitalented and multidisciplinary and when there is an appropriate environment they can develop their inner beauty and skills, she joined Verita with the confidence that it provides the kind of space that allows children and grown ups as well, to meet the most authentic and harmonious version of themselves.

Gabriela Simionescu

Co-Founder

Gabriela graduated Languages from the University of Bucharest and worked for 1 year in a state school. Then she founded a private English Kindergarten and taught over 220 children English, Math, History and many others for 32 years. Her life went through schools, marriage, 1 son, lots of hobbies (reading, music, sports, travel, theatre, film, languages, sewing) and, lately, 2 lovely granddaughters. In 2014 Gabriela joined Richard in this beautiful project called Verita International School, a dream that she had for a long time… So she continues teaching with passion, in a new environment. Continuity and change!

School Coordinators

Roxana Din

Curriculum Coordinator KS1 and EY Campus Leader

Roxana graduated from the University of Bucharest with a BA in Foreign Languages (English – Italian) and an MA in English Linguistics part of which she has done at the Ca’Foscari University in Venice, Italy. During college she worked as a volunteer teacher at various NGO’s and as an Educational Therapist at a centre which offered educational and psychological assistance to children with learning disabilities such as Dyslexia or Specific Language Impairment.

Her desire to get involved in education and especially in emotionally based learning stems both from her own experience as a student/learner and from her observations of the methods children use in order to acquire certain information. She strongly believes that children need an environment which would allow them to express their needs and feelings, to know themselves in order to be able to absorb information from the outside. They only need guidance and a lot of understanding.

Amal Diab

IPC Coordinator

After graduating from Manchester University with a degree in Biotechnology, Amal’s passion for education led her to obtain her Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Sunderland University. She has spent the last 9 years teaching in various international schools around Europe and Asia. During her teaching career, she has worked as a Maths and Science coordinator.

Amal believes that primary education presents an opportunity to shape the thinking of future generations. By instilling inquisitiveness, curiosity about the world, and the ability to think critically, she helps young students to gain the social-emotional skills necessary to cope with everyday challenges. She loves seeing the students in her class grow in confidence and develops a real sense of enthusiasm towards their inquiry based learning in a positive and kind learning environment. Taking every opportunity to provide learning experiences outside the classroom is very important to Amal as students put their skills to use in the ‘real world’.

Saskia Brookman

English and EAL Coordinator

Saskia was born and raised in South Africa. She obtained her Bed Teaching Degree at the Nelson Mandela University. She taught intermediate phase students in South Africa for 2 years when she decided to take the next step in her teaching career. Saskia loves to travel and explore new things, and this led her to complete a TEFL certificate and travel to China where she taught at an IB International School for nearly 2 years. She got to travel Asia and gain more experience on inquiry-based teaching and participated in IB training. She has a deep passion for teaching and strives to encourage her students to find their own passion, to reach further and continue to grow.

Irina Safta

Phonics Coordinator

Irina was born in Bucharest, Romania, but travelled the world due to her parents’ career as diplomats. This provided her a rich, diverse and multicultural education. She moved to Canada when she was in high-school; there she graduated from Glebe Collegiate Institute and later from Algonquin College from Ottawa.

Irina’s passion for children began from a very early age. Her first job right out of high school was as a part-time Kindergarten teacher in Ottawa, Canada. She then moved on to Teacher’s Assistant in Primary School in Ottawa, Canada.

Alin Nitu

Maths Coordinator for Primary

Full of joy and with a thoughtful disposition, Alin comes from a town at the foot of the Carpathian Garden. Alin worked for a Publishing House for a few years and there he discovered his love for children. Organizing various workshops with students, teachers and parents around Romania, represented Alin’s first stepping stone that supported him develop long lasting relationships and partnerships with all these individuals.

Alin decided to challenge himself and he decided to focus on a Customer Service career. He followed this path for more than 5 years and he developed his understanding about human relationships and communication. Further deepening his studies, Alin graduated recently from the Faculty of Primary and Preschool Pedagogy to have a better understanding of learning.

Georgeta Gherghinoiu

IMYC Coordinator

Georgeta graduated from the National University of Visual Arts in Bucharest, holding both a B.A. and a M.A. in Graphic Arts. She also trained in becoming an art teacher. During school years, she came across two wonderful art teachers that inspired her not just in the artistic field, but also in wanting to guide others understand art. She coordinated various workshops in Romania and the USA.

Doria Draghiciu

IB & IGCSE Coordinator

Doria is from Romania and has a Bachelors degree in Pure Mathematics from the University of Bucharest as well as a Masters degree in Secondary Education from Georgia College State University in the USA, where she lived and worked for ten years. She has taught various high school mathematics courses in the Seattle and Atlanta areas.

Doria also helped develop a competitive project-based learning STEM program at the last high school she worked at. She is passionate about building student leadership capacity and empowering educators. In her spare time, she likes to run with her dog, take pictures and travel.

Rona Luz Duran

Secondary Maths Coordinator

Rona was born and raised in the southern part of the Philippines which is also known as Asia’s Latin city. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education major in mathematics and a Masters of Arts degree with a field of specialisation in Mathematics.

She is an experienced Secondary Mathematics teacher with over 11 years (and counting) of practice and exposure to different curriculums from Ignatian Pedagogy, Cambridge, Common Core, to IB; and now IGCSE in a diverse community with global cultural awareness.

Before she started her journey to teach overseas, she first taught at the same Catholic University where she graduated from in the Philippines. Her first international teaching assignment was in Almaty Kazakhstan. She has also taught in South America and most recently in Kyiv, Ukraine. She is most passionate about exploring the complex realm of mathematics with young minds and values the social-emotional aspect of learning to accommodate all types of learners.

Diana Mihalache

World Languages Department Coordinator, Secondary English Coordinator, Extended Essay Coordinator

Diana has more than 15 years of experience in teaching Romanian, English and French in public and international schools. She started teaching at 19 years old, as soon as she graduated from Pedagogical Highschool. She has a vivid interest in using the most efficient teaching techniques and class management strategies, as well as learning about different education systems, curriculum and instruction programs, or teaching and learning philosophies.

After the Pedagogical Highschool, she graduated from Philology – University of Bucharest, Romanian – French department and she has a master degree in Linguistics and Communication. Previously she had a Literacy coordination position in an international primary school and she taught a wide range of ages. Besides teaching, Diana loves reading, cats, mountain trips, gadgets and new technologies.

Evelina Catoi

Primary School SEL Coordinator

Evelina has a Bachelor degree in English-German from the University of Bucharest and a Master’s degree in Management and Business Communication from SNSPA. She mostly worked in communication, PR, online management and content writing.

But after working as a volunteer within an NGO which offers psychosocial support for children and teenagers hospitalized in the paediatric oncology wards of various hospitals, she realized how much she enjoys working with children and that her childhood dream to become a teacher could still be possible. This experience made her understand that working with children is something that she wants to do on a regular basis.

Tommy Sheldrick

Special Educational Needs Coordinator

Tommy is originally from Hertfordshire, England, and spent part of his upbringing in Spain. After graduating from University with a Degree in Aerospace Engineering and briefly working in the industry, he discovered his passion for teaching while training others.

Starting out as a high school teacher in 2012, Tommy has since had the privilege of educating students of all ages, from 4 to 18, in the capacities of a teacher, coordinator, and more recently, a program lead. He has worked in England, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and more recently, Argentina. Transitioning to Special Education in 2016, he later established one of the first of its kind in South America – a Life Centered Education program for children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. This marked the foundation for his recently completed Master’s degree research. He joined Vertia School in 2024.

Beyond his commitment to inclusion, Tommy is a qualified Private Pilot who flies light aircraft whenever possible. He has a passion for the wilderness, camping, seeing the world, playing pool, and creating new friendships and connections.

Diana Maftei

Camps Coordinator

Diana’s passion for English made her think about how she can make use of it and, after seeing her aunt working in a school as a teacher, Diana decided to study to become a teacher. Diana has been working in education for 6 years now and loves every single day of it. She is very passionate about working with children and she wants to create for them a loving and inspiring environment where they can become independent thinkers with a loving and kind heart.

Secondary School Teachers

Hilary Conway

Y7 – Y8 Humanities Teacher

Hilary was born and raised in the northeastern United States and graduated from the University of Delaware with a BA in International Relations and a minor in History. Since then, she has 7+ years of experience teaching internationally and is an avid traveler with a passion for learning languages and learning more about other cultures.

In her free time, she enjoys struggling through children’s books in the language she’s currently learning, trying new flavors of ice cream, and kickboxing.

Claudio Guerra

IGCSE & IB DP Biology Teacher & IB DP ESS Teacher

Guerra was born in Rio de Janeiro. He holds a bachelor and a teaching degree in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Parana, Brazil, and a postgraduate diploma in Education (PG Dip Ed) from the University of Essex, England.

Guerra has worked with a wide range of students, from elementary school to post graduates. He started teaching Biology as a volunteer at an NGO for underprivileged teenagers 10 years ago.

Since then, Guerra has taught in international schools in Brazil and Morocco before joining Verita in 2022.

When he is not teaching, Guerra likes to draw, play the bass, and learn languages. He is always looking for new coffee shops and veg places to try, and memes to share.

Mariana Popa

Business and IB DP Economics Teacher

Mariana is originally from Romania and holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest. Her professional journey began in the banking sector, where she worked for 20 years across various departments. Eventually, she transitioned into training and teaching, driven by her passion for education and sharing knowledge.

For the past 12 years, Mariana has lived in the UK, where she taught business-related subjects at a college in London.

Mariana firmly believes that every child is unique in their own way, and has the potential to succeed in life through dedication and active involvement.

In addition to her professional interests, Mariana is passionate about traveling and personal development. She enjoys reading and attending workshops led by world-renowned speakers, to continuously expand her knowledge and skills.

Catherine Bailey

Y7 – Y8 Maths Teacher

Catherine always found maths and science to be her favourite subjects as a student, and works to foster the same love of learning in her classroom. She graduated with a BA in Primary Education. Realising her passion for maths education, she has spent 4 of her 8 years teaching, working as a maths teacher in primary and middle settings. Prior to joining Verita she was Head of Maths at a prestigious London prep school.

Outside of traditional school settings, she has volunteered at a riding therapy centre and rural farm school, in Austria and India respectively. She is an avid hiker and the allure of the beautiful Romanian countryside has drawn her here.

Leah Wahl

Year 9 Maths And Science Teacher

Leah graduated from the University of Minnesota in the United States with a Bachelor of Arts in Science in Teaching Mathematics and a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics. Recently, she graduated with a Masters in Educational Leadership and is enthused to create systems to support all students in their quest for learning and social emotional growth.

After five years of teaching Pre-Algebra in Oregon, she is incredibly excited for her first year of international teaching at Verita. She has a passion for helping students become problem solvers and collaborating. Leah enjoys backpacking, mountain biking, and skiing with her dog in her free time.

Anthony Corales Del Rosario

Y10B Maths & Y10 – Y13 Physics Teacher

Anthony is from the Philippines. He holds a Bachelor of Secondary Education Honours major in Physics and Technology and Masters in Management in Educational Management. He has more than 20 years of experience teaching middle and high school students. Prior to joining Verita International School, he taught in IB and Cambridge schools in Southeast and Central Asia. Anthony likes reading books and watching movies and he likes cooking during his free time.

Rona Luz Duran

Y10A, Y11 & IB DP Maths Teacher

Rona was born and raised in the southern part of the Philippines which is also known as Asia’s Latin city. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education major in mathematics and a Masters of Arts degree with a field of specialisation in Mathematics.

She is an experienced Secondary Mathematics teacher with over 11 years (and counting) of practice and exposure to different curriculums from Ignatian Pedagogy, Cambridge, Common Core, to IB; and now IGCSE in a diverse community with global cultural awareness.

Before she started her journey to teach overseas, she first taught at the same Catholic University where she graduated from in the Philippines. Her first international teaching assignment was in Almaty Kazakhstan. She has also taught in South America and most recently in Kyiv, Ukraine. She is most passionate about exploring the complex realm of mathematics with young minds and values the social-emotional aspect of learning to accommodate all types of learners.

Doina Lavric

Y7 – Y8 Science Teacher

Doina graduated from the University of Bucharest, Romania with a conjoined bachelor’s degree in Biology and Education. She taught middle school and high school biology in Romania for 17 years and middle school science in the United States for 14 years. She is a certified teacher both in Romania, where she reached the highest teaching certification level, and in California, USA, the Clear Single Subject Teaching Credential in the field of biological sciences. She completed many education-related courses and attended numerous science-related conferences in the United States. She returned to Romania in 2017 and joined Verita’s team in 2018 as a secondary science teacher.

Ahmet Salgur, PhD

IGCSE & IB DP Chemistry Teacher

Ahmet graduated from the Faculty of Science Education (Chemistry Teaching) at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. He obtained his masters’ degree in the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at University of Bucharest and completed his Ph.D. in the Faculty of Sociology and Social Assistance at the same university.

He has had many years of experience as an international teacher, mentor, academician, supervisor, director and manager in various international schools from different countries since 1994. He has done a lot of scientific research focused on education, communication, internationalism and multiculturalism. Ahmet took part in some educational European Union Projects. Furthermore, he has participated in many scientific international conferences. In his free time, he enjoys reading. Basketball has been his other passion from childhood. He played for many years and still plays when he has time.

Béla Zoltán

Middle School Art Teacher

Béla is a known contemporary artist. Although he graduated from UAD (The University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca) specializing in painting, he has been active in the Bucharest art scene for over 15 years. His works range from painting to objects and installation.

Georgeta Gherghinoiu

IGCSE & IB DP Visual Arts Teacher

Georgeta graduated from the National University of Visual Arts in Bucharest, holding both a B.A. and a M.A. in Graphic Arts. She also trained in becoming an art teacher. During school years, she came across two wonderful art teachers that inspired her not just in the artistic field, but also in wanting to guide others understand art. She coordinated various workshops in Romania and the USA.

Diana Mihalache

IB DP Romanian Language Teacher

Diana has more than 15 years of experience in teaching Romanian, English and French in public and international schools. She started teaching at 19 years old, as soon as she graduated from Pedagogical Highschool. She has a vivid interest in using the most efficient teaching techniques and class management strategies, as well as learning about different education systems, curriculum and instruction programs, or teaching and learning philosophies.

After the Pedagogical Highschool, she graduated from Philology – University of Bucharest, Romanian – French department and she has a master degree in Linguistics and Communication. Previously she had a Literacy coordination position in an international primary school and she taught a wide range of ages. Besides teaching, Diana loves reading, cats, mountain trips, gadgets and new technologies.

Ximena Reyes

Year 7 Spanish Teacher

Ximena is an Intercultural trainer for global leadership and intercultural management.
She has been leading the intercultural activities at Verita, has been a speaker for the Families in Global Transition summit, is Mentor in the PWN mentoring program, and has a Studies at Swedish International Red Cross Institute on Children’s rights and Intercultural Communication at Shanghai International University.

Rocio Martin-Jimenez

Y8 – Y10 Spanish Teacher

Rocío was born and raised in Spain and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of Sevilla and a Master’s in Spanish as a Second Language from the University of Cáceres. She has lived in Italy, Ireland, Singapore, and South Korea, where she taught for the last six years in the latter two countries. Rocío is passionate about sharing her love for languages and cultures, especially with her students, inspiring them to explore and appreciate diverse perspectives. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, spending time outdoors, and sewing.

Astrid Bourland

IB DP French & Spanish Teacher

Astrid was born in France and grew up in Burundi, central Africa. She graduated from the university of Rouen, France with a Masters in French as a foreign language and then went on to study at the University of Sheffield where she got her teacher degree.

She first taught languages in the remote Orkney islands, north of Scotland and then taught most of her career in IB schools in different African countries. She has a passion for languages and strives to share it with her students. She is an outdoor enthusiast and goes hiking whenever she can.

Elizabeth Reed

Y7 – Y8 English Teacher

Elizabeth is from Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. She has a Master of Arts degree in Education and a K-12 teaching license in ESL/EFL. She has worked as a teacher for 8+ years, teaching English at international schools in China, Honduras, and Ecuador. Her passion for teaching began when she worked with non-profit education organizations in the U.S.

She has a desire to help students to build vocabulary and grammar skills, strengthen their reading and writing skills, while supporting their social and emotional development. Elizabeth enjoys traveling to new places and meeting new people.

Matthew Werth

Y9-Y11 English Teacher

Matthew has had a passion for languages from a young age, ever since he attended French immersion school as a child. After graduating from the University of Delaware in 2013 with a degree in French, Spanish, and Mandarin, Matthew spent two years in Taiwan as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. He then earned his Masters and teaching license from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Since then, he has taught in both the US and abroad sharing his love of language learning with others. In his spare time Matthew also enjoys reading, climbing, and playing board games.

Tesal Sangma

IB DP English Language & Literature Teacher & IB DP TOK Teacher

Tesal brings over a decade of teaching experience, drawing primarily from his time at an international boarding school in the Himalayas, where he connected deeply with students from diverse cultural backgrounds and educational needs. He specializes in teaching literature and the English language, having taught a wide range of age groups from elementary to college level.

Tesal holds a Master of Arts in English and a Master of Education in Advanced Teaching at the Secondary Level, providing a solid foundation in both subject expertise and instructional strategies. He is adept at designing curriculum and resources using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework to ensure accessibility and inclusivity in education for all students. Outside of education, Tesal enjoys the mountains, going for long walks, traveling, learning languages, and capturing candid moments through photography.

Malina Montois

Y7 – Y11 French Teacher

She is both French and Romanian and she has always had a way with words and languages. It was only natural for her to choose languages for her higher education (Japanese and French for her BA and French linguistics for her MA).

She equally developed a passion for the learning and teaching process, which she finds ever exciting and inspiring. She has always been grateful for everything she learned from the interaction with her students and considered herself privileged to have been offered all the opportunities that she had during her teaching years.

She is committed to early second language acquisition as an integral component of education, so she decided, after working in higher education, to take up the challenge of teaching to a younger population – Y3 to Y8. So she has been doing her best to put herself in the students’ shoes and has learned precious lessons about the importance of building relationships, engagement, diversity in activities, adaptability and flexibility. She also has been constantly encouraging students to become aware and use their prior knowledge of languages and especially to learn from each other. She loves how this brings forth her inner child and never forgets the words one her mentors told her one day: you cannot really call yourself a teacher if you are not able to teach children.

Andrei Hultoana

Y7 – Y8 Romanian Teacher

Andrei is a certified teacher with a bachelor’s degree in Geography and English, as well as a master’s degree in Journalism. He graduated from the Teaching and Leadership program offered by Teach for Romania, during which he taught at several rural and urban schools. Following this experience, he took on the role of recruiter and mentor for new teachers until joining Verita in 2021.

Andrei is a passionate reader, with a deep love for literature. He strives to inspire his students to read, guiding them in understanding and learning from stories. He firmly believes that literature is a unique pathway to personal development.

Luciana Rusu

Y9 – Y11 Romanian Language Teacher

Luciana´s passion for literature has begun since the highschool years when she discovered To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Since then she pursued her devotion in the domain by attending two different bachelor programmes obtaining degrees in both Romanian and Spanish Language and Literature and in Comparative and Universal Literature at the University of Bucharest.

During her college years Luciana developed her writing skills by publishing a few papers and studies related to various subjects such as modern poetry, baroque literature and contemporary novels. After obtaining her bachelor´s degree, Luciana started a master´s program in Literary Studies and she is currently a PhD student in Literature and Cultural Studies.

Jake Male

Y7 – Y8 PE Teacher

Originally from Weymouth, England (also known as the English Bay of Naples) Jake has had a passion for sport from a young age, especially football. In his early career he focused on football coaching having worked with professional clubs in England. Once he had graduated Bournemouth University with a degree in sports science Jake turned his attention to teaching, working as a primary sports coach in an all through academy teaching the British curriculum.

More recently, while working as a football coach in Bucharest Jake has completed his iPGCE with Verita and is excited to be a permanent fixture at the school.

Hanan Kreiker

Middle School ICT Teacher

Hanan, a Lebanese national born in Kuwait, has been passionate about school activities since her early years. As a student, she actively participated in the school folklore group, proudly representing Lebanon at various festivals. She pursued her higher education at the Lebanese University, earning a bachelor degree in Physical Education and a Master’s degree in Education.

With over 22 years of experience in teaching, Hanan’s true passion lies in educating children, particularly in introducing them to the latest advancements in technology. She is especially dedicated to teaching ICT and STEM subjects, recognizing their critical importance in preparing students for the future. Her enthusiasm for these fields has driven her to create engaging and innovative learning experiences that spark students’ curiosity and foster a deep understanding of complex concepts.

Hanan began her career as a teacher, quickly advancing to become a trainer and coordinator for both curricular and extracurricular activities. Her dedication to education led her to coach robotics teams, guiding them to compete in international competitions in Denmark, Germany, Qatar, the UK, Spain, and the USA. In 2016, her team achieved remarkable success, earning the title of World Championship runner-up at the FLL competition in St. Louis.

Hanan’s expertise extends beyond coaching; she has also served as a judge for the international FLL competitions in USA, Spain, South Africa, Germany, Hungary, Austria and Egypt. These opportunities have enriched her understanding of diverse cultures and reinforced her commitment to education.

Recently, she and her husband co-founded ROBOSTEAM in Romania, a company committed to advancing STEAM and Robotics education. Their mission includes organizing local robotics competitions, such as MakeX and RoboG, to inspire and engage the next generation of innovators.

Driven by a deep desire to share her knowledge and experience, Hanan is committed to teaching and training the next generation of innovators. She continues to inspire her students by establishing and mentoring robotics teams that compete in national and international competitions, fostering a love for learning, technological exploration, and a strong foundation in ICT and STEM disciplines.

Ioana Vlad

Lab Assistant

Ioana is from Romania and she is a dedicated person with an academic background in biotehnology because she graduated the Faculty of Biotehnologies and has joined Verita as laboratory tehnician. Ioana has gained experience working in a pharmaceutical laboratory before Verita. Her educational journey and practical experience reflect her passion for innovation and excellence in the pharmaceutical field.

Anca Marina Hultoana

Librarian

Anca, born and grown-up in Romania was fascinated by books and libraries since childhood and later she decided to pursue her education in the same field. After studying at the University of Borås in Sweden, her librarian career began in Spain at an international B-school.

Anca’s passion for traveling, learning new cultures, and working with diverse nationalities took her to Dubai, where she continued her librarian career and worked with students and colleagues from more than 55 nationalities at a well-known British B-school for 3 years

Anca enjoys being a lifelong learner through continuous reading and traveling, as well as working in a field that allows her to be active.

As a librarian, it was a privilege to be a part of the incredible journey that children experience as they grow, learn, and achieve. She is passionate about the opportunities available for children at Verita, but more specifically with its truly international outlook.

Boboc Daniela

Y9 Humanities & Cover Teacher

Born and raised in Moldova region, Miss Daniela discovered her passion for teaching 6 years ago while given the opportunity to work with children. She holds a PGCE in education from Sunderland University, UK and gained experience by working with children from across the world in all these years, ages 6-15.

She is passionate about travelling, cooking and all the things that enrich one’s mind and soul. Also, she aims to inspire her pupils in becoming their best version.

Ioana Visinescu

Cover Teacher

Ioana has been studying music since she was 9 years old, therefore singing, composing music and playing different instruments are all important parts of her identity. She also enjoys poetry, drawing and wearing colorful socks. Ioana graduated from Dinu Lipatti Art School in Pitești – classical guitar and her Bachelor’s Degree is from the National University of Music Bucharest in Jazz Composition, vocal training.

She also completed a Master’s Degree in Jazz and Pop studies and her second module in Music Teaching. She enjoys new experiences and she thinks it’s very important to learn new things from everyone you meet. Working with children inspires her everyday to be more creative, to appreciate the little things in life and to spread some kindness every now and then.

Primary & Early Years Educators

Adina Costea

Primary & Early Years Teacher

With a caring and approachable nature, Adina has more than 18 years of experience as a teacher, a Degree in Early Childhood and Primary Years, and a Bachelors at Babes Bolyai University. She is known as Adina Albina by an entire community of parents and children, as she is always making sure that her classroom is the ideal environment for learning, and her main focus is ensuring the social and emotional growth of the child.

The other half of her is a passionate illustrator, a talent that she uses to mix art, joy and learning not only in her classroom, but also at her extracurricular workshops.

”Hello friends!” is her morning salute to the young children of her classroom and ”enjoy the little things” is her motto.

Laura Ivanov

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Laura has a Bachelor Degree in English and History and also holds a Certificate for Teaching Profession, from the Teacher Training Department and a TKT Young Learners Certification. She discovered her passion for teaching young children as a student and she worked as a Secondary and High School teacher in a state school for 3 years and has 5 years’ experience in working with young children both in state and private kindergartens. She believes in teaching with kindness, patience and joy.

Madalina Farcas

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Mădălina is a young psychology graduate who loves children and has chosen to study modern education and teaching methods since her university years. During her university studies, she attended several courses on educational counselling and educational psychology, and during her master’s studies she had the opportunity to work as an educational assistant in a kindergarten,

which uses the Montessori method, to see for herself the advantages of this teaching method. She also participated in the workshop “Creative techniques of psychological intervention in personal development programs for children and adolescents”, a training program approved by the Romanian College of Psychologists.

Passionate about this field, she chose to continue her studies in the field of education and believes that any teaching method must be based on the principle of respect for the child and the idea that the child is capable of learning by himself, if given the necessary opportunities and resources. Children must also be encouraged to explore and experiment, to think critically and to develop their creativity.
She has always been concerned about children and education. She knew from an early age that she wanted to work with children and help them learn and develop naturally and harmoniously. At the same time she believes that every child deserves to receive a quality education that helps them to become independent, more creative, problem solvers and at the same time empathetic and cooperative

Andreea Balan

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Andreea was born in Bucharest and graduated Romanian Language and Literature from the University of Bucharest.
She has had various job experiences including restoration at the National Art Museum, eight years of advertising, and another eleven years of owning a floral design studio, but has realised her true calling lies in a more human-oriented domain, a professional path that reflects her values.

Andreea believes in a healthy, safe and secure environment, where children’s individual needs are met and positive relationships with adults lead to a better learning process and progress. Freedom, patience and open-mindedness are the key elements which she has passed on to her children, and which she hopes to keep sharing on this exciting journey working with children in Verita school.

Roxanne Dela Cruz

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Roxanne was born and raised in Manila,the Philippines.Her great passion is interacting with children so her studies are in the Education field. She worked for 5 years in Singapore, taking care of children, playing with children and teaching children. Being an assistant teacher in Verita International School and working in the Early Years setting is a dream come true.

Sabina Onet

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Sabina graduated Communication and Public Relations (SNSPA, Bucharest), worked in advertising for a while and is now a Nursery Teacher Assistant in our school. She has several communication trainings as well as the First Level Psycho – Pedagogical certification.

Roxana Din

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Roxana graduated from the University of Bucharest with a BA in Foreign Languages (English – Italian) and an MA in English Linguistics part of which she has done at the Ca’Foscari University in Venice, Italy. During college she worked as a volunteer teacher at various NGO’s and as an Educational Therapist at a centre which offered educational and psychological assistance to children with learning disabilities such as Dyslexia or Specific Language Impairment.

Her desire to get involved in education and especially in emotionally based learning stems both from her own experience as a student/learner and from her observations of the methods children use in order to acquire certain information. She strongly believes that children need an environment which would allow them to express their needs and feelings, to know themselves in order to be able to absorb information from the outside. They only need guidance and a lot of understanding.

Fedora Torok

Primary & Early Years Co-Teacher

Fedora  graduated from the Romanian American University, International Tourism Economy faculty. She is an optimistic person and loves working with people. During her childhood she practiced gymnastics for 8 years.

Her first connection with teaching children was when she was 15 years old, when she had the opportunity to teach other children gymnastics. She worked in sales and in the administration field for a while. However when she had her two boys she discovered her passion for working with kids.

She believes that teaching children is one of the most rewarding and enjoyable jobs in the world. It’s a great pleasure seeing them learn, evolve and become the brave, caring and responsible leaders of tomorrow.

Irina Safta

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Irina was born in Bucharest, Romania, but travelled the world due to her parents’ career as diplomats. This provided her a rich, diverse and multicultural education. She moved to Canada when she was in high-school; there she graduated from Glebe Collegiate Institute and later from Algonquin College from Ottawa.

Irina’s passion for children began from a very early age. Her first job right out of high school was as a part-time Kindergarten teacher in Ottawa, Canada. She then moved on to Teacher’s Assistant in Primary School in Ottawa, Canada.

Alexandra Virban

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Alexandra hails from Craiova, Romania, where she was born. In 2019, she successfully obtained her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Bucharest. Notably, Alexandra holds accreditation from the Romanian Psychologists College since 2020. Her journey into the world of working with children with special needs began during her second year at university, igniting a profound passion for engaging with youngsters.

Over the course of the past 3 years, Alexandra has assumed the role …

of a therapist, primarily focusing on children with autism and diverse developmental challenges. As she embarks on this fresh chapter of her professional life, she firmly believes that her prior experiences will serve as an invaluable asset in forging connections with children and adeptly discerning their unique requirements. Her dedication to this field is underpinned by a genuine enthusiasm for working with children, which she strives to channel into her endeavours.

The vision of Verita lies in its innovative approach to education, which resonates with Alexandra. The school’s commitment to providing students with a solid foundation for cultivating independence and compassion is what drew her to be a part of the community. With her rich background in psychology and her steadfast passion, Alexandra Virban eagerly anticipates contributing her skills to Verita’s ethos of nurturing young minds.

Valentin Usturoi

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Vali is the eldest of 4 children. He loves working  with children and taking care of their needs. He is undertaking a pedagogical module in his university studies at the academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest. Seven years ago he lost his younger brother to cancer.

He was undergoing treatment at  Fundeni hospital and that is how he met Richard and Lila who were volunteering to play with the children in the oncology section. A beautiful friendship started and their common love for children brought him working together now in school. He is passionate about football, cooking and music and he wishes to be a good model for his siblings and the children he works with in school.

Ranu Peek

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Born in a small city in central Thailand, Ranu moved to Bangkok at the age of 18 to pursue studies in English and humanities. She soon took a position as a teaching assistant at an international school there, where she found her calling in working with young children.

Ranu spent over a decade supporting young learners across primary school before accepting an opportunity to return to university to pursue an advanced degree in management. She joined Verita shortly after moving to Bucharest with her family, and was excited to return to the classroom and to join a school that places kindness and compassion at the forefront of everything they do.

Georgiana Tat

Primary & Early Years Teacher

For the past years, Georgiana has taught in International schools in Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest. She studied at Babes-Bolyai University and she has a master degree in British Cultural Studies. She knew from a really young age that she wanted to become a teacher. Her grandmother was a teacher and she inspired her a lot, as she did her teaching with lots of love for her students.

Georgiana loves teaching because the children’s enthusiasm for learning makes every day they spend together and each topic they explore a new adventure. She believes children learn best when their natural curiosity is fostered and creativity is encouraged. Her goal is to encourage the students to love learning, to strive to achieve their highest potential, to be compassionate and responsible citizens, and to actively pursue a healthy lifestyle.

Ana Zugravu

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Ana is an expert in Early Childhood Education and Behavioral Therapy with extensive experience in evaluating, planning and applying interventions for counseling children and families in need. Her intuition guided her to choose Psychology and this changed her life path for good.

She was fascinated by people and their stories and this is how she started her journey towards herself.

Ana loves children and she feels like every child she has worked with has helped her grow and become a better version of herself.

After 10 years of working with children and their families, after many programs of personal development and individual therapy, she considers herself a balanced adult that can offer support to children in their development. She understands the child in his complexity and she never forgets she was a child as well.

She thinks she can offer them a safe model to follow and all the support they need to grow up and develop as confident, independent, socially adapted individuals, ready to enjoy their lives.

Evelina Catoi

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Evelina has a Bachelor degree in English-German from the University of Bucharest and a Master’s degree in Management and Business Communication from SNSPA. She mostly worked in communication, PR, online management and content writing.

But after working as a volunteer within an NGO which offers psychosocial support for children and teenagers hospitalized in the paediatric oncology wards of various hospitals, she realized how much she enjoys working with children and that her childhood dream to become a teacher could still be possible. This experience made her understand that working with children is something that she wants to do on a regular basis.

Saskia Brookman

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Saskia was born and raised in South Africa. She obtained her Bed Teaching Degree at the Nelson Mandela University. She taught intermediate phase students in South Africa for 2 years when she decided to take the next step in her teaching career. Saskia loves to travel and explore new things, and this led her to complete a TEFL certificate and travel to China where she taught at an IB International School for nearly 2 years. She got to travel Asia and gain more experience on inquiry-based teaching and participated in IB training. She has a deep passion for teaching and strives to encourage her students to find their own passion, to reach further and continue to grow.

Andreea Cosma

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Andreea Cosma has been an educator for more than 13 years. Prior to joining Verita, she worked at a British International School in the Rhein Ruhr area in Germany for the last 7 years. Before that, Andreea studied and worked in UK schools. Her career started after graduating from the University of Bucharest and experiencing the vast educational landscape in Bucharest. Andreea is passionate about teaching and believes in respectful, kind and creative classrooms.

Andreea is originally from Bucharest and is happy to have returned home with her husband and two young children. She is excited to start her journey at Verita and be a part of The Verita Family.

Vlad Coraci

Primary & Early Years Co-Teacher

Vlad has dedicated his life to working with children, driven by a passion for nurturing young minds and fostering a love for learning. His journey began with earning a Bachelor of Education from NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands, where he developed a strong foundation in educational theories and practices. Throughout his career, Vlad has had the privilege of experiencing various curriculums, including the IB-PYP, British National Curriculum, and Cambridge, which has enriched his understanding of diverse educational frameworks and methodologies.

For the past three years, he has worked as a Grade 3 class teacher in the Cambridge Curriculum at an international school in Bucharest. This role has provided him with valuable insights into the academic and developmental needs of primary-age children within an international context. He has honed his skills in creating engaging and effective lesson plans that cater to the unique learning styles of each student. His approach emphasizes integrated methods that not only help students reach their learning objectives but also encourage them to take control of their own learning. By fostering a supportive and inclusive classroom environment, he aims to empower students to become confident, independent learners.

He is now looking forward to joining the Verita community, where he can bring his diverse experience and continue to grow as an educator. He is excited about the opportunity to contribute to Verita’s mission of providing high-quality education and to collaborate with a dedicated team of professionals. He believes that his background and teaching philosophy align well with the values of Verita, and he is eager to learn from the community while sharing my insights and expertise. Vlad believes that together, we can create a dynamic and nurturing environment that supports the holistic development of every student.

Luísa Lima

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Luísa Lima was born in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She graduated in Pedagogy from the Federal University of Belo Horizonte, with the enriching experience of a semester of university exchange in Finland. She also holds a postgraduate degree in Psychology of Learning and Development. With six years of teaching experience in the primary years at an IB International School, she has become passionate about the inquiry-based learning model.

What Luísa loves most about teaching is seeing the world through the children’s lenses and learning from them every day. Outside the classroom, she enjoys traveling and learning about different cultures, as well as dancing, watching movies, and spending quality time with family and friends.

Alexandra Popescu

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Alexandra was born in Pitesti but she eventually moved to Bucharest where she graduated from the faculty of Sociology and Social Work with a degree in Sociology in English. She is currently studying a master’s degree in Advanced Sociological Research at the same university.

Alexandra is also involved in volunteering, currently she volunteers at Greenpeace Romania where they work hard to create a greener and more peaceful future.

The reason she came to Verita was because she always wanted to work in a diverse, open-minded environment where all cultures are appreciated and embraced.

Ioana Mustatea

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Ioana has been a teacher for 10 years now. Throughout the years she taught children with ages between 2 and 10 and at the end of each day of school she asked herself one question “ Would I still come into my classroom the next day if I was a student?”. This is the way she learned how to improve, auto evaluate and grow as a person and a teacher.

She comes from Buzau and she graduated from “Spiru Haret” Pedagogical Highschool with a level 3 teaching diploma, she has an IELTS certificate C1 level and currently she is finishing her TEFL Certification. She is very excited to start at Verita School and she is confident it’s all going to be great!

Mihaela Andrei

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Born and raised in Bucharest, Mihaela has been part of the Verita Team for six years already. She has always been interested in the wellbeing of children and keen to discover their unique world. Therefore she followed the path of education after her first child was born and specialised herself in this domain. She has a Psycho-pedagogical Course for the Teaching Staff’s Training, a specialised education certificate, Attachment and Early Childhood education course, First Aid course and Child Safety course.

She also used to live in Jersey Channel Island, UK and could get a glimpse of british life. Her Master and Bachelor Degree in Management gave her the skills to work with groups, facilitate communication and support those in need. She enjoys traveling with her family, doing yoga and participating in different volunteering programmes.

Matthew James Dimos

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Before teaching, Matthew was a photographer and graphic designer, so he grew into teaching using art to understand the world around him. Now, he sees his students as a canvas in which they collaboratively create a life of teaching and learning how to experience, analyze, evaluate, and critically think about the world.

As a result, Matthew brings a passion for art, philosophy, social work, and a deep desire to partner with students to develop their agency and a future where they have an influence and an ability to make the world a better place.

Matthew’s passion for education is grounded in a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education & Social Policy alongside a Bachelor’s Degree in Art/Photography. Matthew has 19 years experience educating and mentoring students from diverse backgrounds with diverse needs while teaching in Chicago, USA; Jakarta, Indonesia; and in Miami, USA.

The Vision, Mission and belief statements of Verita International School matches Matthew’s ideals, dreams, and hopes for what teaching and learning can and should be. Matthew’s pedagogy and practice adheres to constructivism through continuum based, differentiated learning; recognizes the importance of balancing cognitive health alongside social and emotional health; and harnesses his students’ creativity, imagination, curiosity and cognitive abilities as the primary vehicles for agency and enquiry.

Bianca Oancea

Primary & Early Years Co-Teacher

Bianca is 25 years old and she is an English teacher. She graduated from Valahia” University of Târgoviște, Faculty of Political Sciences, Letters and Communications and she also has a certificate of completion of the psychopedagogical module. She loves working with children and she thinks that we, as adults, have so much to learn from them. She loves the fact that every child is different, yet so special and has so much to offer. Being an emphatic and caring person, she has always tried to be there for every student who needed her advise or support in every situation. Twenty years from now on she can still picture herself as an English teacher, helping, encouraging and guiding students to learn this beautiful language and be there for them whenever they need, with all the love and support that she can offer!

Sabina Lefter

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Sabina graduated from the University of Bucharest with a degree in Social Work in 2012. She first started working with children as a facilitator in non-formal education. Her workshops focused on human rights education and urban education. Since 2016 she has worked as a primary school teacher in a Waldorf school and completed a bachelor’s degree in Primary and Preschool Education.

Eliza Tudor

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Eliza graduated from Bucharest University with a degree in Journalism and Communication. She has built a career in finance before switching to what she truly loves, teaching. She lived abroad with her family in London and later on in Hyderabad. She worked with children for several years through a number of non-profit organisations, helping the disadvantaged communities.

She is passionate about young children’s social and emotional development and feels that Verita values are very much aligned to what she believes in. She feels very fortunate to be part of this amazing community.

She loves sports and pretty much every outdoor activity and she likes to be surrounded by friends. She loves animals and dreams of having a dog of her own.

Adrian Zanfiroaica

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Adrian is a graduate of the Pedagogical Highschool, where he discovered his passion for working with children.
He graduated University of Bucharest majoring in Foreign and Romanian Language and Literature and from the age of 20, his desire materialized when he started working in the educational system. He’s a passionate young man eager to excel and bring joy to his classroom through his instructive-educational process. His passions are reading, hiking, and travelling.

Alin Nitu

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Full of joy and with a thoughtful disposition, Alin comes from a town at the foot of the Carpathian Garden. Alin worked for a Publishing House for a few years and there he discovered his love for children. Organizing various workshops with students, teachers and parents around Romania, represented Alin’s first stepping stone that supported him develop long lasting relationships and partnerships with all these individuals.

Alin decided to challenge himself and he decided to focus on a Customer Service career. He followed this path for more than 5 years and he developed his understanding about human relationships and communication. Further deepening his studies, Alin graduated recently from the Faculty of Primary and Preschool Pedagogy to have a better understanding of learning.

Maria Petre

Primary & Early Years Co-Teacher

After earning a degree in Early Years and Primary Education, Maria has embraced her passion for teaching through diverse roles in kindergarten, primary education, and middle school art over the past three years. She believes that primary education is a vital opportunity to inspire curiosity and a love of learning in young minds. With a background in Korean and English language studies,

as well as Special Education Pedagogy, Maria is dedicated to creating a warm and supportive environment where students feel safe to explore and grow. Watching her students develop confidence and enthusiasm for inquiry-based learning brings her immense joy. Maria values the importance of connecting lessons to real-world experiences, encouraging her students to apply their knowledge in meaningful ways.

Diana Maftei

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Diana’s passion for English made her think about how she can make use of it and, after seeing her aunt working in a school as a teacher, Diana decided to study to become a teacher. Diana has been working in education for 6 years now and loves every single day of it. She is very passionate about working with children and she wants to create for them a loving and inspiring environment where they can become independent thinkers with a loving and kind heart.

Alexandra Ionescu

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Alexandra is a highly motivated person and determined to have a significant impact on the future through early years education. With the knowledge she acquired thus far, along with her passion for teaching, working with children, listening to them, coaching, being there for people and continuous personal development, she is dedicated to bringing and keeping the positive and fun element into the field of education. She finds pure joy in being around young minds that she finds fascinating and believes that by nurturing their potential, we can create a much better future for us all.

Her approach to education is centered around an entertaining and stimulating environment for children to strive in. She believes in fostering a love for learning and encouraging curiosity, as she considers these are very important pillars of the foundation for lifelong learning. By providing a safe and inclusive space, she aims to empower children to explore their interests, develop their skills and build their self-confidence.

Irinel Constantin Manole

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Teaching young special need minds is a task that cannot be taken lightly. It is full of challenges, frustrations, and responsibilities. However, it is a task that is also full of excitement, wonder, and joy. Irinel strongly believes that all children are capable of learning, if they have the proper motivation and direction from their teachers. His philosophy of education is that all children are unique and must have a stimulating educational environment where they can grow physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially.

Irinel is certified by Oxford, Cambridge & Royal Society of Arts, United Kingdom in Information and Communication Technologies, English, Mathematics, Communication and professional relationships with children, young people and adults. In the UK Irinel worked for 12 years under the British Curriculum with students from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 with different backgrounds, including those with learning disabilities, such as Autism, Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Emotional Behavioural Difficulties, Mild Learning Difficulty, Down’s Syndrome and Global Delay, preparing activities, lessons and helping the teacher to implement them.

Adelina Oprea

Primary & Early Years Co-Teacher

Adelina has a BA in Romanian-English Language and Literature from Valahia University from Târgoviște and Phycho-pedagogical Course for the Teaching Staff’s Training from the same university. She always dreamed of being a teacher, that’s why immediately after finalizing her studies, she worked as a Romanian teacher in the public education system for 2 years.

In the present, she’s volunteering for ”Atelierul de Joacă”, a place for strengthening and building healthy and harmonious relationships between parents and their children.

Adelina believes that education must be done in a safe child-oriented environment, being intentional about the child’s emotional wellbeing.

Yoana Vastree Estevez

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Yoana was born in Spain and raised in the Netherlands, always feeling ‘international’ wherever she goes. With both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Education, she lives and breathes the teachers’ life with passion. Yoana has taught languages since 2012 and made a switch to international primary school teaching in tropical Thailand (2019) where she worked for 3.5 years before joining our Verita family in Bucharest in 2022.

Ever since Yoana joined Verita, she has shared her passion for the environment and living sustainably. Apart from being a primary homeroom teacher, she is the ECO coordinator and runs our student-driven Verita ECO team. Yoana invites all who are interested in supporting the Verita ECO Team to reach out!

Ocha Dimos

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Ocha Dimos is originally from Indonesia and has dedicated her life to teaching. She embodies a commitment to bring the ideals of education to life, both in Indonesia and in the USA. She holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership and a graduate certificate in Special Education from the University of Central Florida, USA.

Her passion for teaching is evident by the diverse roles she has had throughout her career, from teaching DP and IGCSE, to serving as an MYP Service As Action Coordinator, to supervising MYP personal projects, to being a primary homeroom teacher. She has also developed language programs for 1st graders integrating the Indonesian National Curriculum with the IPC.

In addition to education, Ocha has a passion for exploring new ideas and new experiences. From her home village in the mountains and rice fields of Indonesia, her big dreams of exploring and learning about the world around her became integrated into her passion for teaching through her entrance into international education. This became a gateway for pursuing her dreams of learning everything possible about the world while pouring her passion for life into her students, thus fulfilling the meaning of her name as ‘one who explains and helps others understand’.

Ocha empowers students to engage in self-initiated learning, believing in the integration of her personal and professional life to motivate and prepare her students as long life learners to be successful members of society who strive to make the world a better place to live. Her interest in the world and belief in the power of personal stories to shape history drive her transdisciplinary approach to teaching, integrating her classroom with the broader world and aligning with Verita International School’s mission and vision.

Tania Menon

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Tania was born and raised in a small town in central Sri Lanka. She has 22 years of experience engaging with people from all walks of life from all over the globe, as her previous career was with an international airline as a flight attendant. There, Tania discovered her love of engaging with children and she wants to be there for them whenever they need her, with all the love and support that she can offer.

She is very adaptable and patient, and she greatly values kindness. She is very happy to be a part of the wonderful team at Verita and looks forward to being a great support to everyone around her.

Larisa Colonelu

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Larisa is 24 years old and has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from SNSPA. She has been working as a learning intervention focused tutor for 2 years at AISB. She chose to change her workplace because she is looking forward to advancing her career and finishing her module with the Moreland University to become a certified international teacher.

She discovered her passion for teaching children by chance, and ever since then, she has been discovering the wonders and secrets of teaching, building connections with children and herself. She enjoys reading, listening to music, self-development and spirituality. She is really looking forward to being a part of Verita International School this new academic year.

Andrei Pauna

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Andrei is an ambitious, hardworking and organized individual, with broad skills and experience in teaching, as well as technology related topics, having led projects related to teaching using the latest technologies and applications.
His passion and will to teach started when he was working for Cambridge, supervising exams and understanding how students are able to grasp a foreign language.

After graduating from the Foreign Languages University, he has worked for three years as a teacher, continuously improving and being in touch with the latest technologies and skills, in order to provide the best teaching experience for my students.
Some of his key strengths are communication, adaptability and patience; building strong relationships with his students in order to deliver the best results, as well as being adaptable to change and patient.

Amal Diab

Primary & Early Years Teacher

After graduating from Manchester University with a degree in Biotechnology, Amal’s passion for education led her to obtain her Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Sunderland University. She has spent the last 9 years teaching in various international schools around Europe and Asia. During her teaching career, she has worked as a Maths and Science coordinator.

Amal believes that primary education presents an opportunity to shape the thinking of future generations. By instilling inquisitiveness, curiosity about the world, and the ability to think critically, she helps young students to gain the social-emotional skills necessary to cope with everyday challenges. She loves seeing the students in her class grow in confidence and develops a real sense of enthusiasm towards their inquiry based learning in a positive and kind learning environment. Taking every opportunity to provide learning experiences outside the classroom is very important to Amal as students put their skills to use in the ‘real world’.

Andreea Potlog Vasilescu

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Ms Andreea has been working with children for a very long time. She first started when she was 15 years old working as a volunteer with disadvantaged children. Then, she realised how happy she felt being around children. From that moment on her journey in teaching had started. Ms Andreea has a great passion for History, Music, Art, culture in general,

therefore she studied History, being specialized in History of Art . In 2010 when she lived in London for a year, she noticed how beautiful and amazing the British Culture was. Returning to Romania, she became a teaching assistant at British School of Bucharest embracing all the knowledge and experience and enjoying every bit of her learning journey. She worked there for more than 8 years , having
different age-groups from prenursery up to year 4 . Right now, for her continuous learning development , she has started The Pedagogy of Preschool and Primary Education in order to understand more the children ‘ s physical , social , emotional and cognitive development .

Sam Taylor

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Sam is from Kent, also known as ‘the garden of England’ and as might be expected, he has a lifelong fondness for nature and the great outdoors. He can often be found hiking, wild camping, kayaking, rock climbing, SCUBA diving & snorkelling. When not pursuing adventure, you will find Sam immersed in music, a DJ that makes his own drum & bass tunes, plays the guitar and attempts to sing! He is also a self-professed film & football geek. He has experience working with children in a variety of roles from ESL teacher, Occupational Therapy, football coach and climbing instructor. Sam is excited to further develop his teaching skills at Verita International as an ESL and PE teacher.

Cristina Marcovici

Homeroom Teacher

With over 10 years of classroom experience in Early Years and Primary education in Qatar and Romania, Cristina is a dedicated educator and lifelong learner. She is constantly exploring new research and instructional practices to enhance her teaching methods. Cristina is deeply passionate about creating a safe and nurturing environment that supports each child’s holistic development.

Irina Dumitrascu

Cover Teacher

Irina is an experienced international teacher with over 11 years of teaching students from diverse cultural backgrounds and age groups around the world. After earning her bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Communication, she pursued further studies in Education with a focus on Early Years learners.

Irina also holds a qualification in Special Educational Needs (SEN) and is an accredited Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) facilitator through  Irina also holds a qualification in Special Educational Needs (SEN) and is an accredited Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) facilitator through Irina also holds a qualification in Special Educational Needs (SEN) and is an accredited Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) facilitator through an internationally recognized program. She has also completed her International Postgraduate Certificate in Education (iPGCE), further enhancing her expertise in global education standards.

Her passion for teaching began during a life-changing volunteer program, inspiring her to explore innovative teaching strategies and techniques to keep her students motivated and engaged.

Simona Manole

Cover Teacher

Teaching is her life’s passion. She has been working with children since she graduated and qualified with a BAGR (Bachelor of Agriculture, British Bachelor Degree Agricultural Engineer – Technology in Agriculture Specialization) degree from Ion Ionescu de la Brad University Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine Iasi, Romania in 1996. She started her teaching journey in a college in Romania. After a few years Simona was interested and challenged to start teaching on a different level and she left Romania for UK where she went on to study Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools at Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examination, United Kingdom.

This course and many others offered her more confidence and new knowledge in working with children. She has gained over eleven years (2007 – 2018) experience in the English education system, teaching throughout Early Years Foundation Stage, Key Stage One and Key Stage Two following British Curriculum.

She has worked with students from EYFS, KS1 and KS2 with different backgrounds, including those with learning disabilities, such as Autism, Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Emotional Behavioural Difficulties, MLD (Mild Learning Disorder), Downs Syndrome and Global Delay, preparing activities and lessons.

She was also in charge of teaching small groups and teaching on a one-to-one basis which is aimed at individuals who needed additional support to develop their spoken and written English, numeracy and different skills for life. There were also several opportunities to share and discuss any individual matters with other teachers and produce accurate records of progress on the grades achieved by each student.

She has been part of the team for school accreditation by National Autistic Society, United Kingdom. In 2018 she returned to Romania and started to work at International School of Bucharest as a Teacher Assistant and she supported positive discipline approach at all times as directed by the class teacher, mutual respect as continually fostered. Simona supported pupils’ progress in all areas and prepared resources creatively and imaginatively, following the planning.

Started with 2020 she worked as a Learning Support Teacher for Counselling and Learning Support Department. As a Learning Support Teacher, she helped children to improve the academic achievement by one or more interventions: teach either individuals or small groups of pupils inside or outside of the classroom, prepare lessons and teaching resources, mark and evaluate work, adapt conventional teaching strategies and creating individual interventions to meet pupils needs. She can describe herself as friendly, enthusiastic and respectful.

Primary Specialist Teachers

Andreea Manea

Year 2 & Year 3 ELL Teacher

Andreea believes that education begins the moment we see children as innately wise and capable beings and that educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all. She is a certified English language teacher and holds a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in specialized translations.

She discovered her passion for teaching in 2011 when she was asked by a friend to be supply teacher for a few days. Although she was working as a translator at that time, she realised that teaching children is more dynamic and fulfilling. She left for Coventry where she pursued a Master’s degree in English language teaching and worked as a support teacher and language register volunteer in primary schools in the West Midlands. Since her return to Romania, she has grasped every opportunity to improve her teaching skills and turn learning into a meaningful, joyful, challenging and inspiring experience.

She joined Verita because she found here a distinct approach to curriculum and a different teaching environment where educators understand the need for differentiated instruction and help children get the most out of their education without overlooking the social-emotional skills involved in learning.

Ana Maria Stanciu

Years 4 – Year 6 ELL Teacher

Ana graduated from Foreign Languages at the University of Bucharest, where she studied English and Swedish. She has been keen on teaching since she was a pupil herself, and she loves sharing her knowledge and learning from others. As soon as she graduated from University, she started working as a teacher and in the meantime, she enrolled for a Master’s degree in Communication and Public Relations at SNSPA, in Bucharest.

Passionate about reading and travelling, she couldn’t imagine her life without books or without the chance of visiting new places, discovering different customs and enjoying life. She truly believes that children can become everything they dream about if they are encouraged to believe in their dreams, and seeing them doing it is one of the most rewarding experiences.

Andra Merfu

Romanian Teacher

Andra is a creative Letters graduate with a major in Romanian and English and she has always had a passion for languages and cultures. She is fond of Art – literature, cinematography, music, dancing, photography, painting and so on – and she really does believe that it speaks to the soul. Andra also believes in the power of human expression and that we can learn a lot from and through Arts. This is why she pursued a Master’s Degree in Visual & Cultural Studies still at the University of Bucharest.

She found her passion for teaching when she was in her second year of BA and she hopes she can make a positive change around her. She is an empath and she is very concerned with fighting inequality and injustice, protecting humans` rights and she is also concerned about the environment and leaving a better world for the next generations.

Cristina Săraru

Languages Teacher

Cristina has a PhD in literary theory and 6 years of experience in public schools. She loves reading and writing and is keenly interested in finding the best methods and ideas to create a safe, interactive teaching space. She is also very passionate about neuroscience and the impact of the environment on children’s development.

She found her passion for teaching when she was in her second year of BA and she hopes she can make a positive change around her. She is an empath and she is very concerned with fighting inequality and injustice, protecting humans` rights and she is also concerned about the environment and leaving a better world for the next generations.

George Ciprian Dragan

EY – Year 3 PE Teacher

Ciprian is a graduate of Spiru Haret University with a degree in physical education and management in sport. He spent 8 years teaching physical education in the public sector before joining us here at Verita. In that time Ciprian was responsible for teaching PE, establishing partnerships with local authorities, and organizing competitions at school, sector and municipal levels. Ciprian leads physical wellness and education to students at Verita from Reception all the way though to year 9.

Nuria Losa

Year 4 – Year 6 PE Teacher

Nuria was born and raised in Barcelona, Spain. She has a bachelor’s degree in Sports Science and physical education and a master’s degree in Sport Management and Education. In her previous career, she worked as a personal trainer and group fitness teacher. She is passionate and dedicated to working with children and inspires them to approach an active and healthy lifestyle.

Oly Saldinger-Marinof

ICT Teacher

Originally from Suceava, in the northeastern part of Romania, Olivian (Oly, as he likes to be called) has discovered his passion for working with children soon after graduating from the Faculty of Sociology and Social Assistance with a B.A. in Sociology.

The first five years of his career saw him work with children of all ages as a computer lab assistant and theatre manager at the American International School of Bucharest, honing his craft and developing his skills as an educator in an international school environment. Over the following years, he would travel, work as a sound engineer in various contexts (the entertainment industry, corporate events, broadcast TV), grow as an individual and ultimately return to his first love – helping youngsters make sense of the ever-growing, all-encompassing world of technology. He sees technology as more of a partner in education than a tool, and is continuously striving to find new and exciting approaches to teaching ICT.

Marina Balabas

Reception Art & Music Teacher, KS1 and Y3-Y6 Art Teacher & Y1, Y2A,B Music Teacher

Marina Balabas graduated Musical Interpretation from the Bucharest University of Music, having completed the teaching degree and with a ten year experience in teaching both violin and piano, as well as group music lessons . Between her collaborations with professional orchestras and playing in various chamber music groups and alternative formulas, she has always kept her focus on exploring accurate ways of explaining the learning process to both children and adults.

Luca Jebeleanu

Art Teacher

Luca is a Romanian-born, third-generation visual artist. After graduating the Bucharest University of the Arts, he travelled to the UK for his master’s degree, where the first seeds of his love for the educator’s path were planted. A firm believer in the idea that Art is essential to our lives, Luca strives to instill this idea into his students by fostering their imagination, and their confidence in their ability to express themselves.

Teona Rusu

Y2-Y6 Music Teacher

Teona has experienced music from three different perspectives: performing, teaching and composing. Music University and Romanian-English Philology graduate, she studied classical piano for sixteen years and later pursued a songwriting career, in order to exploit the creativity she says could never be met through the study of classical repertoire.

She gradually shifted from concert halls to music studios, introduced technology in her creative process and collaborated with producers and artists from many different music genres – jazz, pop, electronic and traditional world music, to name a few. The stage was never absent in her journey. She is convinced it was the audience who helped her build the self confidence and experience she can now pass on to her students. Teaching has been a part of Teona’s life since university. Passionately sharing a part of each stage of her journey, her goal is to encourage creativity and artistic identity in young spirits, for she believes this would be her life’s work.

Irina Perca

Y4 – Y6 Romanian Teacher

Irina was born and raised in Roman, Neamt. She has from a very young age a passion for history, arts, museums and everything related to past times. Irina discovered her passion for teaching after she graduated from University of Bucharest with a degree in History and started working with children of different ages. She is very optimistic and with a great love and passion for education and children.

Cristina Turbatu

Romanian Teacher for non-native

Cristina Turbatu was born in Alexandria, Romania, studied and worked for most of her life in Bucharest where she returned after nearly 11 years  spent on the island of Cyprus.

Cristina has done her B.A. in Foreign Languages and Literatures, specializing in English Language Teaching. She also holds the Certificate for Teaching Romanian and French  from the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest and  in 2005 she earned the Qualified Teacher Status  (PROFESOR I – LB. ȘI LIT.ENGLEZĂ).

With over  15 years of  experience in education, Cristina began her teaching journey as a private tutor, giving lessons of French, Romanian and  English mainly to young learners. Since then, she  worked in public schools and prior to joining Verita, she taught English at Genesis Private School.

While  teaching at Genesis,  she prepared  and encouraged  young learners to participate in Cambridge Exams (Starters, Movers, Flyers, KET, PET), and  has also been  an examiner in various school boards, assessing students’ papers for admission to 5th and 9th grade (Colegiul Național Caragiale, Școala Gimnazială Tudor Arghezi, Școala 39 București).

Cristina  attended numerous  conferences and workshops and completed many courses such as METTEXT for Primary School Teachers, NLP for Teachers,  another EFL methodology course of forty hours entitled METTEXT with tutor Mihaela Andrei, DALF C1 Exam Preparation Course with Prof. Aristița Negreanu, Institut Français de Bucharest, Transactional Analysis 101 Course , The Berne Institute, UK.

Her other fields of interest are Understanding Human Behaviour, Autism, children coping with learning difficulties and non-violent communication.

In addition to her knowledge, her professional qualifications and the years of teaching English, Cristina  brings to Verita her dedication to working with children and a proven ability to build children’s confidence and ensure their success in learning.

Cristina joined Verita this year and looks forward to her new role as a Romanian Teacher.

Loves: coffee and books, rainy weather and long walks, good stories and happy endings.

Student Support, SEL & Special Educational Needs

Andreea Alexandrescu

Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning Facilitator

Andreea Alexandrescu is a Social Emotional Learning Programs Facilitator, with more than 10 years of experience working with children, parents and teachers in various roles: DIR/Floortime Provider, Learning Support Teacher, Social Emotional Learning Teacher.

Andreea holds an Advanced Diploma in Special Education from the College of Allied Educators in Singapore and has a bachelor degree in Special Education from Bucharest University, with a certification in Communication and HR Management.

She is also certified in DIR/Floortime: DIR 203 – Coaching Caregivers, Teachers, or Other Care Providers (with ICDL – Interdisciplinary Council on Development and Learning). Andreea is passionate about Floortime, Social Emotional Learning and Mindfulness, holding certifications from Rutgers University (Foundations of Social-Emotional and Character Development), Mindful Schools (Mindful Educator Essentials) and Emory University (Social Emotional and Ethical Learning). She is the proud mother of two wonderful teenagers and a passionate gardener :)

Marius Luca

Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning Facilitator

For more than 10 years he traveled far and wide in pursuit of climbing and human experiences through which he could get a glimpse of purpose and make meaning in life.

The quest outside turned out to be a quest inside. He started the inner journey through individual psychotherapy. He then joined a personal development group using the method of psychodrama to find balance and make sense of past experiences.

Marius explored various aspects of the mind by taking Consciousness Quotient Institute’s course on human consciousness and development.

He graduated a 4-year Psychodrama group training program to throw more light on the human psyche, to understand and work with group therapy methods and to use the insights in supporting human well-being endeavors.

He found inspiration, a renewed sense of purpose and drive in life by graduating servicespace.org’s 6 week Laddership program.

Marius is certified by Emory University, USA, as an SEEL (Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning) facilitator, who can train other educators in this state of the art curriculum, with the aim of introducing it to public schools in Romania.
Marius also holds a certification from Mindful Schools, USA, after completing the Mindful Educator course.

Marius taught Social Emotional Learning from 2016 to 2021 to children aged 5 to 16 and is presently engaged in Verita’s mission to promote quality integral – mind and heart – education in a kind and compassionate school environment.

He is part of the Social-Emotional Learning team.

Evelina Catoi

Primary School SEL Coordinator

Evelina has a Bachelor degree in English-German from the University of Bucharest and a Master’s degree in Management and Business Communication from SNSPA. She mostly worked in communication, PR, online management and content writing.

But after working as a volunteer within an NGO which offers psychosocial support for children and teenagers hospitalized in the paediatric oncology wards of various hospitals, she realized how much she enjoys working with children and that her childhood dream to become a teacher could still be possible. This experience made her understand that working with children is something that she wants to do on a regular basis.

Sheida Enayati

Middle School SEL Teacher

Sheida grew up in a multicultural family. Born in France, she holds German citizenship and has Iranian heritage, but was raised in Romania. She has been dedicated to the field of education from a young age, with experience in both Romania and Germany. Sheida is particularly passionate about empowering students and young people to become global citizens. She earned her degree from the Universitatea Politehnica București, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications, and Information Technology, and also completed the Teacher Training module.

Tommy Sheldrick

Special Educational Needs Coordinator

Tommy is originally from Hertfordshire, England, and spent part of his upbringing in Spain. After graduating from University with a Degree in Aerospace Engineering and briefly working in the industry, he discovered his passion for teaching while training others.

Starting out as a high school teacher in 2012, Tommy has since had the privilege of educating students of all ages, from 4 to 18, in the capacities of a teacher, coordinator, and more recently, a program lead. He has worked in England, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and more recently, Argentina. Transitioning to Special Education in 2016, he later established one of the first of its kind in South America – a Life Centered Education program for children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. This marked the foundation for his recently completed Master’s degree research. He joined Vertia School in 2024.

Beyond his commitment to inclusion, Tommy is a qualified Private Pilot who flies light aircraft whenever possible. He has a passion for the wilderness, camping, seeing the world, playing pool, and creating new friendships and connections.

Julie Dinca

Primary Student Support Team Lead

Julie (or Iulia) was born and raised in Bucharest, Romania. She graduated from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreing Languages and Literatures with a double degree in both English and Spanish. She also holds the Certificate for Teaching from the Teacher Training Department of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences.

Julie joined Verita in its first year and has seen it grow and flourish into an amazing school that values kindness, inquiry, project-based learning and innovative teaching. Julie is a tech enthusiast and as a technology integrationist, she has tried to enrich and support teaching and learning while strengthening the technology skills of students, staff, and the community. She is a Google Level II Certified Educator and carries a certificate of Leadership of Educational Technology in Schools.

Julie values the relationships between students and teachers, between teachers and parents and between all the staff and considers them to be the foundation of great teaching and learning. She is passionate about gamification, mindfulness, social-emotional and project-based learning. She has always enjoyed learning, and she is determined to inspire students to love learning and to pursue their naturally curious minds through her teaching.

Irina Cazacu

Secondary Student Support Team Lead

Irina was born and raised in Bucharest, Romania. After more than 13 years working in the mobile telecommunication industry, in 2012, Irina moved to Saudi Arabia, where she worked as a Teaching Assistant at the British International School of Al Khobar, where she realised her passion for working with young children. In the summer of 2017, she and her family were relocated to Romania and joined Verita school.

Her teaching experiences range from nursery through year 2. She strongly believes that early childhood education is vitally important to prepare children not only for school but for life. Helping the children to reach their individual milestones and working closely with families is why she loves working in Early Years.

To bring balance to her life, Irina enjoys swimming, reading, coffee with friends, and travelling.

Ilinca Vlaicu

Secondary School Counsellor

llinca is a clinical psychologist, psychological counsellor and psychotherapist. She came to Verita because she wanted to focus on child development and also wanted to be part of a multicultural environment, having spent a third of her life abroad, in the Czech Republic and Sweden. She is passionate about science and remains active in the academic community through various methods – she has published over 10 scientific papers, is the co-author of a psychodynamic psychiatry book and she remains an active member of the Romanian Institute of Experiential Psychotherapy.

Currently, Ilinca divides her enthusiasm between Verita and her private practice where she offers a wide variety of mental health services.

Mirela Lefter

Primary Learning Support

Mirela graduated from the Academy of Economics Studies in 1997, in Bucharest, Romania. Driven by a passion for education, she furthered her professional development by enrolling in specialized courses at the College of Allied Educators in Singapore. She completed training in Phonics and Phonetics and Learning Disorders Management and Speech Language Development.

Mirela worked as a Teacher support and Teacher Assistant in both local and international schools in Singapore. Her dedication to empowering students, fostering inclusivity, and promoting holistic growth sets her apart as an educator who can positively impact the lives of students in a diverse and multicultural setting.

Ada Cojan

Secondary Learning Support

Ada Cojan is a psychotherapist and a clinical psychologist and has joined Verita as teaching support. She studied for a bachelor’s degree in pscyhology, graduating in 2012. Following graduation, she was keen to gain more specialised knowledge, so she completed a two year course in Adlerian psychotherapy, which is known as the most advanced course in the field of pscyhology.

After those two years, she was able to work for a year as a psychotherapist under supervision in various clinical settings, with children as well as adults.

Special needs
With her qualification as a clinical pscyhologist she is able to apply tests and evaluate children and adults according to a range of pscyhological metrics. As a result, she can identify individuals who are suffering from developmental challenges such as autism and ADHD. In connection with this, she attended a course organised by the ICDL Foundation from the USA where she learned the specialist skills that are required for working with children with special needs.

General experience in therapy
Over the years, she has worked in a private capacity with parents and children, including teenagers, in both individual and group therapy sessions. Overall, her goal is to use her knowledge and experience to build positive and supportive relationships with children and help them to reach their potential.

Andreea Neagu

Counselling & Special Educational Needs Collaborator

Andreea Neagu is the former School Counsellor from Verita, but remained as a collaborator for our Counselling and Special Educational Needs Department. Currently she works in her private practice as a clinical psychologist, integrative psychotherapist and play and drama-therapist. She has extensive expertise in child, adolescent, adult and family clinical evaluation and psychotherapy interventions.

She is also a psychotherapy trainer and supervisor at the Romanian Association for Integrative Psychotherapy.

She graduated from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Bucharest. She  holds a Masters Degree in Evaluation, Counselling and Therapy of Children, Families and Couples but also has numerous post-graduate trainings in Integrative Psychotherapy of Adults, with a specialization of Integrative Psychotherapy for children and young people (graduated in a Romanian-British Training School), Systemic Family Therapy, Play Therapy and Drama-therapy (one training graduated in a Romanian-British PlayTherapy school and one training graduated in Canada) and other numerous short-therm trainings in parenting and child, adolescents and family mental health.
Because she is passionate about Social Emotional Learning and Mindfulness, she holds a Certificate in SEL and Character Development, at Rutgers University in USA and different trainings in Mindfulness in Education.

Ana Maria Abatacesei

EYFS & Primary School Counsellor

Ana-Maria graduated from the Faculty of Psychology in 2018. She has been working with children ever since, part of her work experience involved working with children with special needs. She can gladly affirm that being a teacher is the job that fits her like a glove. She loves working with children because it gives her a deeper sense of responsibility in helping grow and develop the younger generation.

She strongly believes that the teaching process should be approached in a holistic manner and involve a lot of kindness. She sees kindness as “doing what you can, where you are, with what you have.” She also has a lot of interests and hobbies besides Psychology like sewing, gliding, dancing, sports, reading and painting.

Ximena Reyes

Ambassador for Intercultural Global Citizenship

Ximena is an Intercultural trainer for global leadership and intercultural management.
She has been leading the intercultural activities at Verita, has been a speaker for the Families in Global Transition summit, is Mentor in the PWN mentoring program, and has a Studies at Swedish International Red Cross Institute on Children’s rights and Intercultural Communication at Shanghai International University.

Business Office

Luiza Joita

Head of School Operations

Luiza graduated from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, specialized in Tourism & Services and she worked for 15 years in marketing and events management. Her professional journey helped her develop abilities to plan, organize and manage complex projects. The interest for education started when her  two daughters reached the age for schooling and because she truly believes in Verita School’s vision, she embraced a career change and accepted the challenge to join the Verita team. She loves to travel and spend time outdoors, as well as listening to music and reading a good book.

Olivia Musat

Admissions and Parents’ Relationship Coordinator

Olivia graduated from the University of International Relations and has a masters degree in European Policies. Throughout the years she has worked for many important companies in the Sales and Marketing field as well as in Customer Care.

Cornelia Cacu

Head of Finance

Cornelia graduated Cybernetics, Statistics and Economic Informatics at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest. Being passionate about numbers she joined, while she was still a student, an accounting company where she developed her accounting skills for several yeas, growing from Junior to Senior Accountant. She moved forward by working as a Financial Manager for a Romanian Publishing House, blending in her passion for numbers with the passion for words, reading and writing.

Because she believes that people are multitalented and multidisciplinary and when there is an appropriate environment they can develop their inner beauty and skills, she joined Verita with the confidence that it provides the kind of space that allows children and grown ups as well, to meet the most authentic and harmonious version of themselves.

Alexandra Sare-Alba

Financial Officer

Alexandra was born in Breaza and she came to Bucharest for studies. She graduated Finance and Banking at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest and she also took her second degree in Marketing. She has 15 years of experience in working with clients, loans and also with numbers, mostly in financial banking institutions. As a hobby, she likes to take long walks in nature, travel and enjoy new experiences with her loved ones.

Oana Mihai

Financial Controller

Oana graduated Finance and Banking at the Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest, began her career as accountant, continued with tax advisory and audit before starting the role of Controller over the last 20 years. As Controller she had the opportunity to be involved in reporting, internal control, project management, KPIs, business analysis. Besides “number things”, to bring balance to her life Oana enjoys spending time with the family and friends, gardening, trekking, observing nature, philosophy, art. Also, periodically she is involved in volunteering activities with children or senior people.

Roxana Marchidanu

Accountant

Roxana was born in Braila, Romania, and she has been living in Bucharest for more than 15 years.

She graduated from the Law and Public Administration Faculty at the University of Spiru Haret. Before joining Verita, she worked as a substitute teacher and also held various administrative positions.

Roxana has a great 10 years old son, and she believes that parents can learn to be children with their children, and every day she gets a lot of joy out of learning new things as a mom.

Laura Salcianu

Junior Accountant

Laura was born in Bucharest and graduated from Dimitrie Cantemir University with a degree in Finance, Banking, and Accounting.

However, after completing her studies, she took a different path and chose to pursue her passion in the fashion industry, working in a creative workshop for four years in Marketing. And now, for almost two years, she decided to return to what she chose at 19 years old, namely accounting.

Ruxandra Radulescu

Social Media Specialist

Ruxandra is a Fine Art Photography graduate of the University of Derby (BA Hons). She enjoys creating art, as well as reading about it. She is an empathetic person, with a passion for film and the aesthetics of beauty. Ruxandra uses photography, digital graphics, and social media to create images that remain in the viewer’s mind.

Cristina Mica

Project Coordinator

Cristina graduated from University of Bucharest, Faculty of History. After graduation, she worked for 7 years in the IT and digitization industry where she was responsible to deliver on time, scope and budget for the projects she managed. History is still one of her great passions, but she discovered that she also loves the work that project management entails.

Among her passions there are reading and traveling, especially she loves to discover the mountainous area of ​​Romania and spend time in nature.

Alexandra Ivan

HR Specialist & DPO

Alexandra graduated from the Law University in Bucharest. After graduation, she worked as a freelancer with a German IT company. She is a continuous learner, always seeking out new information and best practices to stay current in the field of HR. However, her approach goes beyond technical knowledge. Alexandra believes that creating a culture of kindness, acceptance, empathy, and inclusion is essential to building a workplace where people feel valued and supported.

As an HR specialist, Alexandra is dedicated to creating a workplace that fosters a sense of community and belonging. She believes that empathy and kindness are crucial in creating an environment where people feel respected and supported.

Ana Buzatu

HR Consultant

Ana has worked for 16 years in the legal field, specializing in corporate law, authorizations, and immigration. She is a graduate of two faculties – the Faculty of International Financial Banking Relations and the Faculty of Law.

Her professional activity has been focused on the legal field, with a special emphasis in the last three years on expat management and the hiring process for expats within organizations.

The decision to transition to HR was driven by her desire to deepen and expand the knowledge she acquired in the field of law and legal procedures. Currently, at Verita, she is responsible for the expat hiring process (excluding recruitment), including immigration procedures and their integration within the organization.

Her role involves ensuring a smooth transition that complies with the applicable legislation while also providing necessary support tailored to each individual’s needs.

Ana is a dedicated person, always looking for new challenges. Within the HR department, she aims to fully leverage my legal expertise, contributing to the development of a diverse and efficient team, while offering strategic and tailored solutions for both expats and local staff.

Iulian Dragne

Facilities and Resources Administrator

Iulian is the Facilities and Resources Administrator at Verita International School, bringing over 20 years of professional experience across various fields. A graduate of the Faculty of Food Product Control and Expertise at Bioterra University, Iulian has also gained significant experience in the construction industry, previously serving as a Technical Director at a company specializing in construction solutions.

In his current role, Iulian is responsible for the efficient management of facilities and resources, ensuring a well-maintained and functional educational environment. His practical approach and dedication contribute to addressing operational challenges and implementing innovative solutions.

Outside of his professional commitments, Iulian is passionate about travel and finds relaxation in nature, which helps him stay focused and energetic in his daily work. His commitment to operational excellence and proactive approach are key to fulfilling his role at Verita International School.

Vladimir Vrinceanu

IT Support

Vladimir has always had a passion for video games and history, it was his passion for video games that has led him to a path in various IT fields, with a great eye for graphic details and technical issues in games, he starts his first job as game tester at Ubisoft, followed by a QA role at Ea Games in the live team. From there, he developed and improved his skills in hardware, which helped him in the upcoming it fields roles he had.

Mari Matei

Front of the House Officer

With 18 years of experience in the workforce, including 11 years in the field of hospitality, and the remaining years in customer care service, she has honed a diverse set of administrative, communication, and relationship skills. She wanted to join the Verita team to share the skills acquired throughout these years and to cultivate new ones.

As the mother of an 8-year-old boy, she has always aspired to work in an educational environment, alongside children and highly trained and professional colleagues, who value the workplace and make it an enjoyable place to be each morning. She loves long walks in nature, reading, and traveling.

Tamara Eftene

Front of the House Officer

Tamara has always wanted to work in a place in which she like what she does, something that motivates her to become a better person, somewhere where she can feel at ease, surrounded by well-bred people and not feel a pressure on her shoulders when she comes to work.

Her first contact with Verita School was like “A love at first sight”, she felt from the begging that is the place where she wants to carry out her daily activity. “Why? Because I found an optimistic environment, with beautiful people and a relaxed atmosphere that made me feel like at home.”

She believes that all the staff are very communicative and helpful, “when you face a problem that you don’t know exactly how to solve, you always find answers. All children, whether they are very young or big, are very well raised and the teachers every day make sure that they are also very well educated.”

During the break, she likes to listen to some of the children playing the piano. “I am still impressed when you see that a child sings so well at the piano at such a young age and that they all speak English at an advanced level.” She hopes that her journey at Verita International School to be a long-term one.

Ciprian Bulmaga

Tech Coordinator

Cip was born in Curtea de Arges, Romania and has been living in Bucharest for more than two decades. He graduated from the University of Bucharest with a BA in Communication and Public Relations and drove inspiration from working with children. He has been a substitute teacher and held various assistant administrative roles in a school environment. Cip is happy and passionate to help people around with troubling less over the use of technology, a huge math and science fan, a lover of fiction, and also a very proud father of three wonderful kids.

Viorel Cervis

Site Supervisor

Viorel is a longer serving member of the Verita family as he has been working with our Foundation for the last 3 years. During this time he was also supporting our Verita Organic brand handling both the customers and suppliers.

Administrative staff

Ionela Obreja

School Nurse

One of Ionela’s passions is to help people in need. That was the reason that made her study Sanitary School and become a nurse. Since she had her daughter, Ionela wanted to focus more on children and she joined Verita’s team. She just loves to see children with a big smile on their face every day.

Tanta Dragoi

School Nurse

Tănțica is not just a very experienceed nurse (she worked more than 20 years in a public hospital) but she is also very passionate about her work and her personal development which made her leave the country and work for 3 years in Germany. After returning back to Romania she decided to provide her experience exclusivelly to children because she loves to be around them and see their joyfull faces.

Lucian Tanasa

Driver & Security

Lucian is our guardian and driver, being trained as a gendarme. He enjoys serving and supporting, being a proactive and well organised person who enjoys being around children and fulfilling rigorously the tasks that he is offered.

Magdalena Cosma

Cleaning Staff

Before joining Verita, Mady worked in a joinery factory. She believes that work enables people. This belief makes her happy to be part of the Verita team cleaning department who work hard to enable us all. She has no children of her own, but loves them and hopes that one day she will have some. She loves to make sweets and cakes and she is very good at it.

Alexandrina Pena

Cleaning staff

Dana Iascenco

Cleaning staff

Ionela Sandu

Cleaning staff

Elena Stan

Cleaning staff

Nicu Stan

Security & Maintenance

Ion Oprea

Security & Maintenance

Dorinel Toader

Security & Maintenance

Marius Pantea

Security & Maintenance

Florin Huivan

Security & Maintenance

Ready to send your child on
the learning adventure of a lifetime?

We develop your child’s talents, build friendly relationships in a safe environment, and make learning enjoyable. Verita is the best fit for you if you believe that your children are part of a generation that needs to be independent, creative and ready for a changing world.