Our People – Verita International School

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.

Check open positions

Senior Leadership Team

Damian Ward

Superintendent of Verita Group of Schools

Damian originates from Coventry in the United Kingdom. He has an honours degree in English with Qualified Teacher Status from the University of Warwick and he also holds a National Professional Qualification in Headship (NPQH). His teaching career took him all around the West Midlands where he was previously a head in a small primary school with 210 students and then Head of a much larger primary school of over 600 students.

He has a very clear sense of purpose and the necessary determination to make that a reality, he wants every child to truly enjoy learning – a key skill we need to pass onto our children. His special areas of interest are in the development of language and Mathematics. He passionately believes in challenging and supporting the staff at Verita to ensure that the quality of teaching and learning improves year on year.

Most importantly he sees his role to enhance the Verita curriculum, celebrate the successes and achievements of students and staff and truly raise aspirations in the whole community to strive to ‘be the best that they can be’. Every person is precious in his eyes, their talents and gifts are there to be honed and improved upon so that they can truly achieve their dreams.

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.

Ashley Peek

Principal 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.

April Wuest

Principal of Primary & Early Years

April Wuest brings over 25 years of teaching and educational leadership, having most recently served as Director of Primary Education at American School of Asuncion in Paraguay. April began her career in America as a classroom teacher, followed by Gifted/Talented Instructional Coach and District Coordinator before serving as Assistant Principal of Middle School.

She has been serving as Director of Primary for the past 16 years, leading educational teams in America, Thailand, China, Japan, and Paraguay.
April’s leadership successes include: increased student achievement through optimizing budget and resource allocation to maximize programming for all learners (both gifted and challenged), improved data analysis processes to inform strategic planning, and instructional coaching that upscaled differentiated approaches and critical thinking skills.

She believes the best learning environments honor the known natural process of development and provide constructed understanding through inquiry and discovery. April is committed to supporting and protecting a community where all members are equally valued, enjoy autonomy, and are challenged appropriately.

The core values that guide her leadership are the inherent right of belonging for every child, and the truth that thinking and learning is a social and emotional experience that ought to result in joy.

The Vertia ethos of relationship building and serving through loving kindness along with the Social Emotional Learning Curriculum directly aligns with April’s educational philosophy.

Her mission is to safeguard a future of happy, emotionally intelligent and socially responsible global citizens through the development of wisdom, compassion and self/other awareness. She is happy to serve the community of learners at Verita.

Julie Dinca

Assistant Principal 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.

Irina Cazacu

Assistant Principal for Secondary

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.

Luiza Joita

School Operations Director

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.

Marco Fick

IB DP Coordinator & High School Chemistry/ Physics Teacher

Marco’s love and interest in science from childhood led him to obtain his BSC degree in Microbiology and Chemistry at the North-West University in South Africa. He wanted to inspire young minds to appreciate and understand the wonderful world of science. Which is why he obtained his PGCE in Natural Science and Physical Science at the University of South Africa. He has experience as a Mathematics Teacher as well as a Science Teacher in South Africa. He has taught in an IB school in Moscow, for nearly two years, and gained experience in teaching MYP science, mathematics and DP Chemistry.

While he was teaching the IB he wrote the year 7, 8, 9 and 11 curriculums for the MYP science and for the year 7 and 8 MYP Mathematics. He has also written the curriculum timings for DP chemistry and physics. He was also ATL coordinator and believes that the ATL skills are an extremely important part of a students development in and outside of the classroom.

As a teacher, Marco’s aim is to walk the educational journey with each student and believes that education is about forming students as a person and teaching them life skills that will benefit them long after they graduate. Marco believes that science is a verb and it can only be properly learned by doing it.

Marco is extremely passionate about sport and has attended several courses to broaden his knowledge such as an International High Jump Athletics Course and a World Rugby Coaching Course. Marco is a World Rugby Level 1 Officiate and also a World Rugby Level 1 Coach. He coached his own Rugby team for 2 years at High School level in South Africa. He was also the referee for several Rugby tournaments throughout the year.

Nomfundo Such

Head of Curriculum & Coaching

Nomfundo has a dynamic career in and outside of education, spanning across South Africa, Qatar, the UK and Romania. Her qualifications and experiences encompass teaching with a student-centred approach that empowers learners to take ownership of their own learning. As such, she is ardently committed to fostering independence,

cultivating leadership skills and instilling the all-important quality of compassion among her students. With a BEd Honours degree in Curriculum Inquiry from Stellenbosch University, she wholeheartedly embraces a mindset of agency and continuous learning — always curious — a self-proclaimed perpetual student of the ever-evolving field of education.

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!

Secondary School Teachers

Marco Fick

IB DP Coordinator & IB DP Chemistry Teacher

Tom Maracsko

Y11 Business + Y13 Economics & Career Counseling

Tom is from Hungary with a Master’s degree in Economics from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and a PGCE from the University of Cumbria. He has spent the past 12 years living and working around the Asia Pacific region. In the past four years, he worked in Beijing, China, where he taught IBDP and AL Economics and Business Studies. Tom has specialized on inquiry-based learning and has researched the effects of instructional humour on high-quality teaching and learning in a classroom environment He is also an AQA A levels examiner with experience in UCAS and Oxbridge interview preparation and college counselling. He loves motorcycle racing, geopolitics, history and travelling.

Nicol Fernandes

Y10-Y13 English Teacher + EE Coordinator

Nicol was born and raised in India. He has a Master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Mumbai. Nicol has been a teacher for 9 years and has taught the IBDP, A Levels, and IGCSE curriculum. He has supervised extended essays in English and World Studies. Nicol has also served as an A Levels Coordinator and an Extended Essay coordinator at his previous organizations. He is an IBDP examiner for English A and Extended Essay. He is currently undertaking a PGCEi from the University of Nottingham. He loves reading, travelling, and binge-watching shows on online platforms.

Anthony Corales Del Rosario

Y10 – Y11 Chemistry, Y10 – Y13 Physics & IB DP TOK 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.

Georgeta Gherghinoiu

High School 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.

Doria Draghiciu

Instructional Coach for Secondary, Year 8A & Year 9 Math Teacher

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.

Diana Mihalache

Languages (Mother-Tongue, MFL & ELL) 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.

Irina Cazacu

Y9 SEL Teacher

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

Evelina Catoi

Y7-8 SEL 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.

Ilinca Vlaicu

Secondary School Counsellor

linca has graduated from the University of Bucharest with a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and shortly after, she obtained degrees in counselling and psychotherapy from the Romanian Institute of Experiential Psychotherapy. She started working as a shadow during her years in college and after getting her license, she began working as a family counsellor in different associations, volunteering in children’s hospitals and teaching medical psychology at a community college.

Ilinca came to Verita because she wanted to focus on child development and also wanted to be part of a multicultural environment, having been brought up abroad, in Czech Republic and Sweden. She believes a healthy individual is the result of balance between one’s own biology and the environment they are in – it is in this school environment she takes the responsibility to take care of children’s mental health in any way she can. Her role here at Verita is to provide a comfortable, secure and resourceful space for both children and parents when it comes to school difficulties.
She is passionate about science and remains active in the academic community through various methods – she has published 5 scientific papers, is the co-author of a psychodynamic psychiatry book, and she has also spoken about occupational therapy at the National Congress of Psychiatry.
Currently, Ilinca divides her enthusiasm between Verita, her private practice where she offers psychotherapy and psychological evaluations, and her own association dealing with learning difficulties in children and teenagers.
She spends as much time as possible driving, getting exercise, traveling to exotic places where she can scuba-dive, and being out in the mountains with her friends, family and pets. She is a hopeless coffee enthusiast, a big fan of horror movies and bad TV shows.

Catherine Bailey

Year 7 Math and Science & Year 8B Mathematics

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.

Rona Luz Duran

Y10-Y13 Math + IGCSE Coordinators

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.

Claudio Guerra

Y10-Y13 Biology & IBDP 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 he is currently undertaking a Master of Education at the University of Essex.

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.

Bruno Gerard Menez

High School French & Spanish Teacher

Bruno is French and he has always been interested in French language, etymology, philosophy and literature. He graduated from the University Charles de Gaulle, Lille, France. He had the privilege to teach French in many countries such as: Finland, Latvia, Italy, Ethiopia, India and more recently Poland. His permanent home is in Riga, Latvia and he likes strolling around cities, visiting the marketplace, cooking, reading, walking along the beach, and forests. Sharing ideas and experiences.

Marucia Fick

Y10 Business Studies & Y8-Y9 Humanities Teacher

Marucia’s passion for Business Studies and Economics led her to complete a Bachelor of Commerce. Even though she also holds a law degree, her heart has always been set on education and this led her to complete a PGCE and TEFL certificate.

Marucia’s aim in life is to be a lifelong learner and aspires to teach students how to love to learn. Marucia believes that all students are unique and have individual learning styles. Her aspiration as an educator is to encourage students to be critical thinkers, problem solvers and self-directed learners.

Growing up in the countryside in South Africa, Marucia used to be a horseback riding instructor. She loves the outdoors, hiking, traveling and learning about different cultures and languages. She believes that students in international schools are provided with the opportunity to develop a deep understanding and appreciation for different cultures and backgrounds.

Elizabeth Reed

Y7-Y8 & Y9 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.

Malina Montois

Middle School 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

Y7A, Y8, Y9 Romanian Teacher

After ten years of work in a multinational company environment, Andrei has decided to put his effort in the benefit of the educational system. Meanwhile, in 2019 he graduated from the teaching and leadership program by Teach for Romania.

During the two years of program he taught Geography and English in several rural schools and he understood why the public educational system is as it is today. Therefore, knowing that the quality and training of the teachers have a huge impact in the lives of children, he continued with Teach for Romania as a staff member and in the last two years he helped build the next two generations of teachers in the program, as a recruiter, selector and guide.

Georgiana Craciun

Middle School Spanish Teacher

For Georgiana, teaching involves more than a vocation, it involves emotion and dedication. She fondly remembers the moment when she chose to become a teacher of Romanian and Spanish, in the 5th grade, inspired by her aunt. Since then, she continued her way to the University of Bucharest, where she graduated from the Faculty of Letters.

She has built her lessons as facts of life, in the sense that, first of all, she tries to take into account the particularities of each student, the aspects that emphasize their uniqueness, and then focus her attention on the notions that her students will learn. She builds the grammar lesson as a story, giving students a more accessible knowledge, but also a fun ideology in learning Spanish grammar.

During her journey at Verita International School she hopes to convey to the students, using her passion for Spanish and Latin American languages, culture, music and traditions, to inspire them with their cultural magic and colors. She is sure that at the same time this will also be a new experience for her, where she will use the opportunity to learn and further develop her skills and knowledge for a better understanding and collaboration with children.

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), Painting, he is been active in the Bucharest art scene for over 15 years. He’s works range from painting to objects and instalation.

Ioana Visinescu

Middle School Music 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.

Jake Male

Middle School & High School 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.

Doina Lavric

Years 8-9 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.

Marin Leca

Lab Technician

Cristina Turbatu

Year 7 Romanian Teacher

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.

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

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.

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.

Raluca Radu

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Raluca began her career as a communication specialist. Excelling in her role, a sense of longing for something more led her to make a bold decision. Four years ago, she transitioned to become an Early Years teacher, embracing her true passion. She currently holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Primary and Preschool Education from the University of Bucharest.

Integrating her communication skills with her teaching role, Raluca creates a nurturing and imaginative learning environment. Beyond textbooks, she focuses on nurturing curiosity and empathy in her students. Her story underscores the power of self-discovery and the courage to pursue one’s authentic path.

Outside the classroom, Raluca enjoys learning new ways to teach science to young students, reading about child psychology as well as exploring nature. Her transformative journey serves as an encouragement for others to follow their hearts, regardless of life’s stage.

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

EYFS Coordinator and Primary 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 Teaching Assistant

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.

Doris Nastase

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Doris graduated from Foreign Languages, at the University of Bucharest, where she studied English and Spanish literature. She also holds a Master’s degree in European law and specialized translations, in English and Spanish. She discovered her love for teaching while doing an internship at the British Council so as soon as she graduated from University she started working at the Cambridge School of Bucharest.

She believes that the most important is for a child to be happy and to enjoy learning, and since learning starts when we’re children, there’s no better time to foster a love of learning.

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

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.

Julia Kaverinskaya

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Julia is a reliable, proactive, accountable, empathetic and adaptable person. With a degree in Asian Studies and a background in media, Julia brings a unique perspective to education. After working with children, Julia’s transition to education reflects her passion for making a lasting impact on young minds.

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!

Irina Neagu

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Irina was born and raised in Romania, but she lived a couple of years in Spain, where she studied and experienced a multicultural environment. She completed her studies in Romania, and she has a BA in Literature and Linguistics. After graduating she taught English in Romania and in a few African countries.

She loves volunteering, and since 2019 she has been part of an association that fights against human trafficking. In her free time she loves hiking and surrounding herself with lovely people and good food.

Mihaela Andrei

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Born and raised in Bucharest, Mihaela has been part of the Verita Team for four 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 son was born and specialised herself in this domain. She has a Certification for teaching profession, 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.

Sonam Vajpayee

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

Sonam was born and raised in Orai, a small town in North India. She has a Bachelor Degree in Food Science and Masters in HR & Marketing. She is also a Cambridge advanced certified English speaker. Sonam started her career as a recruiter but soon realized her love for teaching after becoming a mom and helping her kid with his learning.

Since then she has more than 4 years of joyride teaching young kids. She always finds interesting ways to engage with kids and work with them. Sonam has a passion to learn different languages. While she learned Hindi and English in India, moving to Frankfurt, Germany helped her to learn German. When she moved to Bucharest, Romania 6 years ago, she expanded her language horizon by learning Romanian and further improving on German.

Bianca Oancea

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

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 Teaching Assistant

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.

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 & 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.

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.

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.

Fatima Farhoud

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Fatima is of Romanian nationality, born in Bucharest, with ancestral roots tracing back to Jordan. Joining the Verita community in 2023, she brings with her a Master’s degree in Linguistics from the University of Bucharest. Currently, Fatima is immersed in her pursuit of a PhD in Linguistics at Ovidius University in Constanța. Embarking on her teaching journey 8 years ago, Fatima has been …

privileged to guide and educate diverse groups of students. Since her integration into Verita, she has seamlessly blended into the environment of passionate educators who collaborate with a profound commitment to nurturing education, all underpinned by love and kindness.

Deeply convinced that the synergy of teachers, students, and parents drives effective education, Fatima envisions a successful classroom as one where each child eagerly anticipates the school day, greeted by a positive and stimulating atmosphere.

With great anticipation, Fatima Farhoud looks forward to the collective effort dedicated to fostering every child’s growth and development. Her hope is that your experience at Verita will be brimming with cherished moments and noteworthy achievements.

Adelina Oprea

Primary & Early Years Teaching Assistant

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 her pocket, 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 Phuket, Thailand (2019) where she worked for almost 4 years before joining our Verita family in Bucharest.

She looks forward to immersing herself in our school’s ethos about kindness as she believes that it is the base of any good education and upbringing of children.

Apart from teaching, Yoana’s second passion is the environment and living sustainably. She ran a charity and sustainability organisation in Thailand and hopes to continue with the same idea in Bucharest to actively support the Romanian community.

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.

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.

Patrick Hearn

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Patrick grew up close to Cambridge in the UK, moving to London to study History at King’s College. His first experience in education came during his summer whilst at university, working with remote schools in Kenya and Uganda.

After graduating he completed his PGCE and Masters in Educational Leadership at University College London whilst teaching in Tottenham. He then moved to Nigeria, teaching for 3 years at a dual Dutch/English school, before moving to Romania. When not in the classroom he loves to travel, read, cook and enjoys football and rugby.

Irina Dumitrascu

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Irina, an international teacher who has spent the last 7 years teaching students of different cultures & ages around the world. After completing her bachelors and masters in Communication, she pursued her studies in Education with a focus of Early Years learners. Having a passion for teaching that she discovered after a volunteering program, she continues to learn innovated strategies and applies new techniques to keep her students motivated and engaged. “

Amal Diab

IPC Coordinator and 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 .

Samantha Nikole Cirino

Primary & Early Years Teacher

Samantha is an enthusiastic and energetic educator. Since she was a young child, she knew she was meant to be a teacher, and has pursued her passion in every way possible since. Samantha is from the United States and graduated from Missouri State University with a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education in 2017. She is certified to

teach in Illinois, Scotland, and England, and is currently pursuing her TEFL certification. This will be her 7th year teaching. She has taught 2nd, 3rd, and 5th grade, and spent the last year teaching all ages online whilst traveling Europe with her dog, Hank. She is very excited to plant some roots in Romania and join the Verita team!

Sam Taylor

Primary & Early Years Teacher

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nicoleta Tiloi

Y3 – Y6 French Teacher

Nicoleta got in touch with the French Language when she was 8. She was deeply impressed by the musicality of the French language and by the way in which the access to another language and culture can enlarge your world.

At the age of 19 Nicoleta had the opportunity to work as a substitute teacher in the rural area. Then and there she experienced the impact of a teacher’s empathy and dedication in the children’s lives.

She graduated the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the University of Bucharest and she was certified as Qualified Teacher. For more than 20 years she has had the chance to work with different age categories of students: as a KG Teacher at La Petite Maison (French KG), as a French and Romanian Teacher at Cambridge School of Bucharest and as a project based FLE Lector at USAMV Bucharest.

She is highly interested in personal development and she has become a certified Personal Development Counsellor and Trainer and an IANLP Certified Counsellor.

Nicoleta has a deep feeling that Verita School is the perfect garden in which she can use her abilities and plant the seeds meant to become in time beautiful flowers in her students’ minds.

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.

Jeni Susanu

Y1 – Y3 Romanian Teacher

Jeni is always open to discover something new and exciting in every encounter of her everyday life and has a natural gift for teaching children and creating a special bond with children of different ages. This passion led her to begin a career in teaching. Jeni discovered this through the Teach for Romania program.

She holds a BA in Primary Education from Dunărea de Jos University of Galați, România, and has a wealth of experience and development from the Teach for Romania teaching and leadership program. She is an avid volunteer and has years of experience teaching in rural schools in Romania.

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.

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

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.

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.

Ruxandra

Cover Teacher

Ruxandra is a passionate Social Emotional and Ethical Facilitator, and an advocate of contemplative practices that enhance well-being. Human development, brain and mind, cultural diversity, and intercultural relationships are some of her interests too. She has spent over 15 years in the Middle East and India.

Having successfully earned an iPGCE from the University of Derby, UK, she holds a strong passion for cultivating the growth of young minds into successful adults. With a vision to make the world a better place for all, she strives to improve every day so she can pass it forward to the generations to come.

Student Support, SEL & Special Educational Needs

Andreea Alexandrescu

SEL & Learning Support Coordinator

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.

Julie Dinca

Primary Student Support Team Lead

Irina Cazacu

Secondary Student Support Team Lead

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

Ilinca Vlaicu

Secondary School Counsellor

Tom Maracsko

University/ Careers Counselor

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

School Operations Director

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

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.

Mariana Radu

Senior Accountant

Born and raised in Bucharest, Mariana graduated from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, specialized in Accounting in 1998. She has an experience of more than 20 years in the field of Accounting. Passionate about learning and very curious by nature, she also studied Tourism and Spanish and translated theatre from Spanish into Romanian. She has many hobbies: hiking, going to concerts of classical music, crocheting, reading, dancing tango.

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.

Claudia Vasile

Junior Accountant

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 and Purchasing Specialist

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.

Laura Vilceanu

Front of the House Officer

Laura was born in Romania, but raised in Canada for more than 8 years. She has decided to return to Romania because it is her native country and she wants to know more about the culture and see more of Romania touristic areas.

She is a person that enjoys helping other by offering her kindness and support in any way that she can, she likes it when she sees the smile on people’s face after offering her help and the gratitude that they have.

Laura is a person who appreciates kindness and loyalty, and she offers her trust to people that know the true value of life and to people that she can always rely on, that’s what trust means to her knowing she can have someone back her up when she needs help. She values very much 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 learning new things, she always loves a good challenge and she never backs down when things get hard and most of all she never gives up be it if she likes to do something that can be beneficial for her or something that can be of great help to others, she likes to accomplish her task until it is completed. Nevertheless, she can say that she is a very considerate and social-emotional person and wants to have decent and honest people she can work with and also be around.

Iulian Dragne

Purchasing Coordinator

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.

Nicolae Iani

IT

Nicolae is a newly qualified Cisco network associate, recently moved from abroad to Romania, looking to expand his IT networking knowledge and to provide long term positive impact to the workplace and society, happy to work with Verita and to provide great support for teachers and students.

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.

Gheorghe Mocanu

Chef

Gheorghe, or ‘’ domnul Gicu” as we call him, worked for 12 years in Eurohotels and is passionate about international cuisine, handball and soccer. Father of a 23 year old boy who he cooks for at home with the same dedication as he does in school for our children and staff. He enjoys working in an environment where people are supportive, communicate openly and collaborate to find the best solutions.

Cristian Ionescu

Chef

Cristian is our Chef Assistant, passionate about Romanian cuisine and helping our team with preparing the necessary ingredients for our healthy meals, maintaining cafeteria organised and serve the meals. A father of two himself is enjoying being around children and is looking forward to pursue his Chef accreditation.

Ana Gaspar

Pastry Chef

Before achieving 18 years of experience in the kitchen, Ana worked in a clothing and knitwear factory. She preferred restaurants where she prepared salads and desserts. Verita is the first school where she can give her input as a Chef and she finds cooking for the little ones is very interesting.

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.