Administration
Niyome Bello, M.Ed.
Co-Founder
Niyome Bello holds a B.S. degree from the University of Florida where she was awarded an academic scholarship, a M.A. degree in Education from Pepperdine University, and a Harvard Business School credential in Leading School Strategy and Innovation. Niyome has continued her professional development through California Association for the Gifted and William & Mary Center for Gifted Education and is sought after in our community as a gifted education specialist.
As a Multiple Subject credentialed teacher, with an additional expertise in Language Arts, Niyome’s teaching style integrates creative and appropriately challenging critical-thinking lessons that foster curiosity and in-depth comprehension.
Along with Niyome’s experience teaching gifted students privately, she has taught at Earth’s Science and Technology Magnet School and Campus Canyon College Preparatory Academy. Niyome has developed a reputation as a leading gifted educator in our community. She is described by the families she has served as having an intimate understanding of their children's needs and a remarkable expertise for meeting those needs.
Niyome is also the mother of a gifted child and is a gifted learner herself. As a gifted student, she experienced first hand the benefit of attending an excellent gifted program on the East Coast and is committed to bringing that opportunity to our community.
Tamara Sloboda, Ph.D.
Co-Founder
In response to her own daughter’s need for appropriate gifted education, Tamy has joined forces with leading gifted specialists to develop a high quality gifted education option for students and parents.
As a former public school educator, Tamy holds a Harvard Business School credential in Leading People and Leading Change, a Master's degree in Education and School Counseling from Florida International University and a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Alliant International University (Marshall Goldsmith School of Management), as well as
educator credentials from both Florida and California.
Her work experience includes over 20 years experience in education on both the east and west coasts as a School Counselor, Department Chair of Student Services, District-wide Program Evaluation Specialist, as well as Revo Academy Co-founder and School Director. Her years of developing and leading educational programs, provided her the opportunity to work with gifted students and gain an intimate view of the many quality gifted programs across the country.
Additionally, Tamy has founded several successful corporate operations, taking her first company from inception to acquisition to a Fortune 500 public conglomerate. She has also consulted for companies such as Disney, InterActive Corp, and Goodwill Industries, and taught as a professor of Organizational Leadership in Education at Boston's, William and James College. In addition she developed The Personal Change Capacity Measure, a psychometrically validated predictive analytics assessment for measuring one's capacity to drive change. Tamy infuses all of her life experience into Revo Academy, including her
cultural background from traveling the world and living in several countries - born in Costa Rica, residing a few years in Jamaica, growing up in the eclectic city of Miami, and studying abroad in
Florence, Italy.
With her expertise for building successful educational programs and organizations, as well as her tenacity to create a much needed gifted education program for our community, Tamy provides an unwavering dedication to recruit high caliber teachers and build a top quality gifted education program.
Kerry Leikin
School Climate Director
Kerry Leikin received her B.S. in Education from Ohio University and holds two teaching certifications; Child Development Site Supervisor and Elementary Multiple Subject Credential. She is an accomplished Educator with over a decade of classroom experience.
Mrs. Leikin has spent her career teaching a wide spectrum of students. Her breadth of experience with various ages gives Mrs. Leikin a unique knowledge of children's development and guides her bespoke curriculum. She specializes in project-based STEAM curriculum and social-emotional development skills building. She was given the prestigious opportunity to train as teacher facilitator for the RULER program, an innovative social-emotional curriculum by Dr. Marc Brackett, the founder of Yale University's Center for Emotional Intelligence. Her expertise guides her to create a classroom where kindness, teamwork, responsibility, and community service are at the forefront.
Outside of the classroom, Mrs. Leikin values being an active member of school life. As a school site supervisor, Mrs. Leikin has overseen specialty curriculum committees, advised faculty, facilitated accreditation processes, mentored child development practicum students, and took on administrative roles in the absence of school administration. She believes that a great educator possesses a dedication to the school as a whole, in addition to one's classroom.
Mrs. Leikin's inspiration and passion for teaching children was inspired by her mother who she grew up watching care and nurture children in her work. She also frequently draws on her education and early career path by utilizing her knowledge of Reggio Emilia curriculum to create outdoor education and learning opportunities that infuse art, inquiry, and the natural world. When she is not teaching, Mrs. Leikin enjoys creating art, organizing her planner, and cooking with her husband, Ben.
Haley Garcia
Administrative Assistant
Ms. Garcia earned her B.A. in English from University of California, Berkeley in 2016. Since then, she has held various positions in childcare and administration.
Ms. Garcia is thrilled to lead a writing enrichment class at Revo. An avid writer since her childhood, she aims to create a safe environment for students to share their ideas and broaden their creative horizons.
When she is not working, you may find Ms. Garcia thrift shopping, watching cartoons, or spending time with friends and family.
Advisory Team
Barbara Swicord, Ed.D.
Executive Director of National Society for the Gifted and Talented (NSGT)
President of Summer Institute for the Gifted (SIG)
Barbara Swicord, a leading expert in the field of gifted education, serves as Executive Director of the National Society for the Gifted and Talented and President and CEO of Summer Institute for the Gifted (SIG). Dr. Swicord is responsible for all programs and operations, including curriculum design, program development and evaluation, and campus relationships.
Dr. Swicord, a member of the National Association for Gifted Children since 1976, was the founding president and a trustee for the New Jersey Association for Gifted Children from 1997 to 2007. During her tenure in Salt Lake City’s gifted programs in the 1980s, she was co-founder and program director for the Intermountain Center for Gifted Education, a non-profit educational corporation in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Dr. Swicord has more than 30 years experience working in gifted education and was the supervisor of gifted and talented programs in East Orange, N.J., responsible for identifying gifted students, staff development and establishing district wide programs.
Dr. Swicord received a master's degree in gifted education/educational psychology from the University of Georgia and a bachelor's degree in early childhood education from Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. She also earned a doctor of education degree in Administration, Supervision and Curriculum from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.
Angela Tanner, Ph.D
Neuroscientist, Founder & Director, The Knox School of Santa Barbara
for Gifted and Talented Children
Angela Tanner is Founder and Executive Director of The Knox School of Santa Barbara for Gifted and Talented Children. She was born and raised in southern California, attending Montessori in the early years and then Viewpoint School in Calabasas, California from 3rd through 12th grade, graduating with full Honors as Valedictorian. She went on to UCLA to study Psychology and Business, again graduating with College Honors, magna cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. Before returning to graduate school, she interned at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii, conducting behavioral research studying cognition and communication in Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. She returned to UCLA for her doctorate to explore the use of functional brain mapping techniques (specifically functional MRI) to examine the functional and structural topography of the cognitive processes of learning & memory.
The journey that led her to the opening of The Knox School began as a very personal one, born of the frustrations and heartbreak of advocating for her own gifted children. Angela’s experiences have fueled in her an enduring passion for creating an educational environment that honors both the intellectual, academic needs of gifted students, as well as the equally important, and often overlooked, social and emotional needs of this unique population.
Angela is excited to support endeavors that meet the varied and often complicated needs of gifted children and is thrilled that Revo Academy will be serving this population!
Daniel Rosenberg, M.Ed, MBA
Principal, The Pegasus School for Gifted Students
Daniel Rosenberg is the Middle School Principal at The Pegasus School, a PK-8 school in Huntington Beach for bright and gifted students. Prior to assuming the role of Middle School Principal, Dan served as Pegasus’s Lower School Principal and as the Interim Head of School at The Lippman School in Akron, Ohio.
Dan has extensive background and experience working with gifted students. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Orange County Council for Gifted and Talented Education (OCC GATE), having previously served as Vice President for the Pennsylvania Association of Gifted Education (PAGE) and as a member of the Awards Committee for the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC).
He has presented at several gifted education conferences, including NAGC, PAGE, OCC GATE, and the California Association for the Gifted. He founded gifted programs at two independent schools, one in Pittsburgh, PA, and one in Baton Rouge, LA, and he taught at Carnegie Mellon University’s center for gifted children for 15 years. Dan graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics. He also has an MBA from The University of Pittsburgh and a Master’s degree in education from Duquesne University.
Linda Powers Leviton, M.A.
Director, Gifted Development Center - West Coast
Linda Powers Leviton, Director of the Gifted Development Center (GDC- West Coast), began her career as a GATE specialized school educator. In partnership with Dr. Michael Moss, Linda currently maintains a private counseling and assessment practice that specializes in working with gifted and creative children and adults (www.giftedandcreativecounseling.com).
Since 1974, Linda has worked with Dr. L.K. Silverman, GDC director and international expert on gifted and exceptional children, and visual spatial learners. After co-authoring (with Dr. Silverman) the article “In Search of the Perfect Program,” which provides an expert's guide for parents of gifted children, she began helping parents find appropriate educational environments for their children.
Also, mentored by Dr. Annemarie Roeper, pioneer of gifted education, Linda became one of only two practitioners of Qualitative Assessment (QA), a unique evaluation technique that identifies a child’s gifts and challenges using interview, observation and play. Along with her partner Dr. Moss, the Gifted Development Center offers both the Qualitative Assessment approach as well as traditional gifted I.Q. testing.
In addition, Linda is an accomplished author. Published by Science and Behavior Books, her book Peace Within, Peace Between: Your Relationship Toolkit was released in 2014.