About Us
Rose Ann Cerofeci
rcerofeci@elcamino.edu
Rose Ann has been teaching English at El Camino College since 2007. She holds a BA in English literature from UCLA, an M.Ed. in Counseling from George Mason University, and an MA in English from Dominguez Hills. Her tenure at El Camino has been primarily dedicated to teaching developmental courses where she was an early supporter of accelerated education and helped to develop many of the compressed English courses. Her background in accelerated education made her a natural fit to work with faculty during the AB705 transition as a co-coordinator of the SITE program. In addition to teaching, Rose Ann has always had a passion for professional learning which has been instrumental in helping grow SITE into a campus-wide program focused on scholarly learning and equity. Before teaching, Rose Ann spent many years working as a corporate trainer. Her love and experience for training has always been a part of her identity at El Camino. Rose Ann developed and coordinated the Faculty Inquiry Partnership Program (FIPP). She also spent many years as a member of the Faculty Development Committee where she worked to create campus change by training faculty during New Faculty Academy and various other programs across campus. She has presented at many national conferences on acceleration, professional learning strategies, and student-centered teaching. She currently teaches in the First Year Experience program and is a member of the CAP leadership team. Rose Ann is a long-time south bay resident. She has two active and adventurous teenage boys. Her eldest is studying writing and literature at UCSB where he continues his daily practice of surfing. Her younger son plays volleyball on the beach and indoors. Her family has truly embraced all that the south bay has to offer, and she is grateful to be a part of the community.
Lars Kjeseth
Lars Kjeseth is a SITE coordinator and once went nose to snout with a Great White Shark and survived. He has been teaching at El Camino College since 2000, and has served as SLO Coordinator and Curriculum Chair. His current passions are student voice in course design and curricularizing social justice action. His Ph.D. in Mathematics was earned in 1996 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also bakes bread when he finds time.
Rhea Lewitzki
rlewitzki@elcamino.edu
Rhea Lewitzki has been a full-time English instructor at El Camino College since 2015. A native of the South Bay, she earned both her BA in English Education and MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from CSU Long Beach, having taken classes at El Camino College along the way. She recently received an MS in Education with an emphasis in Online Teaching and Learning from CSU East Bay. Rhea has taught a range of basic skills and transfer level courses, but "home" is English 1A, 1A/1AS, and 24A: Introduction to Creative Writing: Poetry. Currently, Rhea is co-chair of the Creative Writing committee, chair of the Distance Education committee, and a division representative for the Distance Education Advisory Committee (DEAC). While her recent focus has been on improving teaching through distance education and fostering the ECC creative writing community, she also holds a strong interest in professional development, hence why she joined SITE as a co-coordinator in Fall 2019. Her role in SITE is community design: This year, she aims to strengthen community engagement by uniting SITE faculty, counselors, and staff in both face-to-face and online settings, providing professional opportunities for all to engage, share, and explore their pedagogical interests, make rich, long-lasting connections, and ultimately facilitate an ongoing space to "transform our environment and identities so that powerful learning can take place in our college courses."
Art Martinez
armartinez@elcamino.edu
Art Martinez was born and raised in the immigrant neighborhood of Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from USC, a Master of Science degree in Applied Mathematics from CSULB, and a Doctorate in Education from CSULB. While working as an engineering technician at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he realized his calling was elsewhere. He wanted to give back to his community and pursued a career in education. He began his teaching career with students on court-mandated probation in South Central Los Angeles, Pico Union, and East Los Angeles. He later taught alongside his high school math teachers in Boyle Heights before teaching at El Camino College. He is passionate about learning and promoting student-centered instructional strategies that promote equitable access, deep learning, and student engagement in a safe and welcoming learning environment. As a co-coordinator for SITE I seek to collaborate with STEM faculty to examine and improve our teaching practices, build an understanding and expertise of how students learn, and incorporate strategies that support student learning in STEM courses. I believe we can all benefit from reflecting on our teaching practices and implementing evidence-based learning practices. His professional learning includes a specialist certification from the National Center of Developmental Education, the Basic Skills Initiative Leadership Institute, and UC Berkeley’s Transforming STEM Teaching Faculty Learning Program. He is an avid traveler of Europe and Asia, and backpacks Sequoia and Yosemite national parks several times a year. His other hobbies include cycling centuries, martial arts (Aikido), and zombie apocalypse movies.
