Matthew Gabard, also known as Mr. Matt, is very excited to be a part of The Village Children's Center team, as he sees it as a perfect fit with his vision of kindness, cooperation, and understanding.

He has been a preschool teacher, supervisor, and administrator for 15 years and is always learning more from those around him. The play-based curriculum is his favorite. He enjoys facilitating how children communicate with one another and fostering problem-solving skills and a general love of school. Some of his favorite daily activities are reading, singing, movement activities, open-ended art and science activities, and posing questions to the children.

Mr. Matt attended San Francisco State, where he studied history. Eventually he developed a love for early childhood education and continues to study it to this day. He lived in San Francisco for many years before moving to the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. He now resides in Gardena and is happy to be a part of the South Bay community. His hobbies include playing bass guitar, collecting records and old comic books, reading, exercising, and fantasy football.

Shizuka Kaga is very excited and pleased to be part of The Village Children's Center and to work with the Big Hearts. Shizuka received her B.A. in Business Administration and M.A. in Early Childhood Education from the University of Central Oklahoma. In her past work experience, she worked for 6 years as a preschool teacher in Torrance, California.

Shizuka has a lifelong passion for nurturing children in their growth and has focused on providing a variety of open-ended learning materials and activities, where she feels children develop lifelong skills from play and hands-on experiences. She always strives to provide a purposeful and mindful environment and learning materials for children at these early ages.

In her spare time, Shizuka loves to develop children's toys and publish children's books. She takes great delight in watching children interact with her creations. Shizuka also enjoys spending time with her family doing fun activities such as crafting, hiking, baking, and teaching Japanese.

Junghwa Jung Choi feels so blessed to be a part of the beautiful school of The Village Children's Center. Most of all, she has a strong passion and mission to help children learn and grow, a promise she made to herself to serve God's children on an airplane above JFK airport in New York in 2001. Now, with almost 30 years of experience in the education field, she continues to follow her mission to touch children's hearts for learning.

Junghwa received a B.S. in Library and Information Science, worked as an ESL teacher in Korea, and finished a master's degree in Childhood Education at Sage Graduate School (NY) in 2004. Since 2001, she has actively participated in a variety of programs at private schools, public schools, charter schools, an academic enrichment camp, and a summer camp for Korean adopted children as a volunteer instructor and student teacher in upstate New York. After graduation, she worked as a bilingual instruction coordinator, as director of a company-owned learning center, and as an education franchise specialist in New Jersey and the Northeast.

As a preschool teacher and an early adopter of the newest international education resources, Junghwa loves to explore a variety of technology tools and online education services for young children. Her favorite hobby is collecting good books for children and unique educational resources. She always believes that "Learning must be linked to daily life." Effective learning should be linked to success and become a lifelong skill. Junghwa loves to sing and play with the children, in the midst of all the laughter. She thinks a relationship built on love and trust is important when being with children.

In her spare time, Junghwa is deeply passionate about her creative project, the Multilingual Picture Word Book Series, JH & KH's Magical Picture Word Books. She recently released JH & KH's Magical Picture Word Books 1 (English–Spanish), designed to help children learn and explore new concepts in a fun, engaging, and accessible way. Junghwa also cherishes time with her amazing daughter and her funny, supportive husband, who bring so much joy into her life. As a family, they love camping and traveling together, exploring the world and creating lasting memories.

Laura Santy is happy to be joining the wonderful team at The Village Children's Center. She is currently studying child development at Long Beach City College and has four years of experience working with children of all ages, especially young children. She originally went to school for mathematics, but realized through her experiences with children that she has a passion for early childhood education. Her goal is to provide quality care and meaningful experiences for the children she works with. She hopes to create a safe environment for children to explore and learn. Laura looks forward to building new connections with the families and children at The Village Children's Center.

Laura's favorite pastimes are all things artistic. She loves knitting, crocheting, painting, and spending time with her two rabbits. She enjoys doing art activities with children, particularly process art, and loves exploring different mediums with them. She also has an immense love for animals and has worked in an animal education program where she taught children and teenagers about the proper care and treatment of pets and urban wildlife.