Tony Cruz brings to Great Hearts Roosevelt over 15 years of leadership experience within for-profit and non-profit sectors, including the past seven years within the Great Hearts network. Mr. Cruz holds a B.A in Theatre and a Masters in Biblical and Theological Studies, with an emphasis on Critical Interpretations of Texts in Hebrew and Greek. He recently moved to the West Valley with his family and looks forward to serving the families of Great Hearts Roosevelt in Buckeye.

Kenzie Roberts is new to the Great Hearts network this year! Kenzie has a diverse background in leadership and team collaboration through her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Social Work from Arizona State University. Ms. Roberts found her passion working within the school system throughout the valley over her degree progression. Ms. Roberts is originally from Pennsylvania but attended most of her education in North Phoenix. Kenzie is eager to work with the community and families in the Buckeye area! In her free time, Kenzie enjoys reading and spending time with her friends and family. Ms. Roberts is looking forward to a great year serving Great Hearts Roosevelt! 

My name is Hailey Gandee. I am part of the ESS team, here at Great Hearts Roosevelt Prep. I have my bachelor’s in psychology with a minor in child development. I then pursued my Master of Education in special education with an emphasis in applied behavior analysis. I am currently pursuing a master’s in educational leadership from ASU. Not only do I love education myself, but I have a passion for teaching. Before teaching at the prep level, I was a preschool teacher, paraprofessional, and special education interventionist K-5. My true calling and passion lie in special education. I am incredibly grateful to be a part of the scholars at Great Hearts educational journey, big or small. My goal is to inspire the student body and help them pursue truth, beauty, and goodness. Outside of education, I spend a lot of my time with my two daughters, baking, and reading. 

My name is Alexandra Ahlfinger but I go by Storme (e is silent). I recently Graduated University of Arizona with a Bachelor’s in Classics with an emphasis on Greek Civilization and a minor in History. I’ll be teaching 7th-grade Ancient History for the 24/25 academic school year of Great Hearts Roosevelt. This is my first year teaching, but I have held lectures both in person in Arizona and Austria as well as online about ancient Greece and ancient Egypt. Ancient Egypt is my most knowledgeable subject and one that I’d like to get a PhD in. I volunteered at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science back in 2016 for a year before I moved to Arizona where I got to learn about storing artifacts both real and replicated. I even had the opportunity to help with the temporary mummies exhibit and was asked by name by the curators of the museum to focus on the Egyptian mummies and help prepare them for public viewing.  

  My journey with Egyptology started very young and progressed through the years to include a variety of other historical loves. Many people who have heard me discuss history have stated that with my passion it was almost as if I had lived through those times and described the memories to them. Inadvertently bringing history to life. I’m very excited to be able to bring that to the students of Great Hearts and to show that history can be exciting and valuable information to take in.  

I graduated from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, TX with a degree in Mathematics and a minor in Music. I went on to earn my first Master’s Degree in Mathematics from University of Iowa and my second Master’s Degree in Mathematics at Texas Christian University, with a focus on Number Theory. I’m currently finishing my Ph.D in Mathematics at Texas Christian University. In my ten years as an educator, I’ve worked with various tutoring agencies, and, most recently, have worked as a teaching assistant for middle and high schoolers at Cakir Academy. I have also taught at the college level, most recently at Texas Christian University. Interested in the accessibility of mathematics, I have continued my passion for teaching mathematics by engaging with experienced instructors from all walks of life.  

Brittany Reed is ecstatic to be joining the Great Hearts Roosevelt Prep team to teach 6th Grade Music. Originally from Arizona, she is a 2016 Magna Cum Laude graduate from Southern Utah University, obtaining her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre. While at SUU, she performed in over 15 productions, from musicals to Shakespeare. Some of her favorite productions being “You Can’t Take It With You” by Moss Hart, “The Fantasticks” by Harvey Schmidt & Tom Jones, and “Oklahoma” by Rogers & Hammerstein. Brittany also formed a working relationship with the nearby Utah Shakespeare Festival in both performing roles and in their Educational Outreach Department. She traveled to schools around Utah to teach grades K-12 how to read, analyze, and perform Shakespeare. One of the most rewarding projects Brittany would work on each year was the High School Shakespeare competition, where schools from across the country would come and compete in monologue and scene work competitions, with a final performance at the end of the week with all the winners.  

For the past 8 years, she has been working in the Entertainment Department at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA. She has had many roles within Entertainment which involved performing and stage-managing various shows and offerings at the Resort. While this was one of the most special jobs she had, it was time to make her way back home to the desert to re-explore her love for sharing the art of performing with kids. The pillars of love and beauty that Great Hearts is based on resonated with Brittany and she hopes to bring these values into the classroom. Music and performing are Brittany’s great passions, especially when they are used to develop confidence in the next generation. To see a young scholar discover the joys in music, the arts, and performing, and foster that love in the classroom is what Brittany is looking forward to the most in her first year of teaching. William Shakespeare understood the beauty in music best when he said, “The earth has music for those who listen”. 

My name is Hailey Gandee. I am part of the ESS team, here at Great Hearts Roosevelt Prep. I have my bachelor’s in psychology with a minor in child development. I then pursued my Master of Education in special education with an emphasis in applied behavior analysis. I am currently pursuing a master’s in educational leadership from ASU. Not only do I love education myself, but I have a passion for teaching. Before teaching at the prep level, I was a preschool teacher, paraprofessional, and special education interventionist K-5. My true calling and passion lie in special education. I am incredibly grateful to be a part of the scholars at Great Hearts educational journey, big or small. My goal is to inspire the student body and help them pursue truth, beauty, and goodness. Outside of education, I spend a lot of my time with my two daughters, baking, and reading. 

Joshua Gibbs is from Lexington Kentucky and comes to Great Hearts Roosevelt after serving more than twenty years in the United States Army. While serving he worked as an Intelligence Analyst for the National Intelligence Agency. In addition, He taught at the United States Army Intelligence Center of Excellence in Fort Huachuca Arizona as an Advance Leadership Course Instructor. As a Service Member, he was given the chance to travel to 48 of the 50 states and 5 different countries and train on many multi-million-dollar equipment. Some hobbies of his include fishing, shooting, camping, and reading. His love for the outdoors is almost as strong as his love for learning. He is completing a degree from Western Governors University for Secondary Education in Science. His plans are to complete his degree plan before the end of 2025. He is married to the love of his life Renee, and has two children, Shea and Kaydence. 

I am Matthew DeHass, and I teach 7th and 8th grade Latin at Great Hearts Roosevelt. I graduated from the University of Missouri with a BA and MA in Classical Languages. In undergrad, I tutored students in Latin for the Eta Sigma Phi honors society. In graduate school, although I had responsibilities as a TA, I continued to tutor because I wanted to stay in touch with beginner Latin students. While I was a TA, I assisted classes in Greco-Roman mythology and iconography, and I taught a beginner Latin class of my own.
 

It is important that students understand Latin was a language used in real communication. Students should have opportunities to work in groups, so they can hear each other speak Latin, work through difficult assignments together, and ask and answer questions about passages. Group work also allows students of different abilities to be addressed separately. I try to ensure that, in group work or examination, students have options between activities or questions. While the options must all target the same objectives, students should have some power over how they get there. Latin is not just an opportunity to learn new grammar, but to join a new community.  

Rosemary Stradling brings a love for teaching classical literature. One of her favorite works is Shakespeare’s Hamlet. That play examines the challenges of finding the truth amidst a web of lies and deceit. Helping students grapple with life lessons through the lives of well-written characters brings joy to Mrs. Stradling’s heart. She also understands the importance of assisting her students in writing well. One of her former students wrote about his learning in her class: “I have improved my grammar and paragraph structure by adding supporting facts, and my ability to analyze the works of various authors.” For the teaching of grammar, Mrs. Stradling reviews (or teaches anew) parts of speech and sentence structure. One way she does this is through diagramming sentences. Mrs. Stradling has taught in large city schools and most recently taught in a very small rural school in Arizona. She values the uniqueness of each of her students and deeply loves her profession. Mrs. Stradling is married. She and her husband have four grown sons and six grandchildren. 

Tammie Willis recently retired from a 20-year career in higher education where she served as a student affairs administrator and taught college courses including music theory, creative writing, literature and composition and leadership development.  She spent ten years working with the University of Alaska at both the Anchorage and Kenai Peninsula campuses.  She also worked at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. 

Originally from Virginia, Tammie earned a master’s degree in education as well as a master’s in music composition from Virginia Commonwealth University and bachelor’s degrees in music composition, creative writing, and biology from the University of Mary Washington and Old Dominion University. 

Since moving to Arizona in June 2023, Tammie has enjoyed exploring bike trails and paths around the Phoenix area.  She also started working on a collection of coming-of-age short stories.  She teaches public speaking, debate and creative writing for Little Loudspeakers Academy, which is an after school co-curricular program based out of California.  In addition to cycling, teaching and writing, Tammie enjoys spending time with her fur babies and cooking.