Faculty and Staff Directory

The La Jolla Country Day School faculty, administration and staff are strong, diverse and talented individuals who have been drawn together for a common purpose. Ours is a vibrant community with an exciting charge—to create a stronger, better place where our children and those of future generations can grow to become excellent individuals, citizens and adventurers of the world.

Below is a list of the administration, staff and faculty. To locate a member, click on the drop-down menus below to search by division, department or last name. Faculty and staff bios are also available below.

Faculty/Staff Directory

  • Photo of Matthew Bessler
    Matthew Bessler
    Educator, MS Science Grade 6
    (858) 453-3440 x401
    Bio
     
    “I inspire greatness for a better world by empowering students to take control of their own learning. I want to foster well-balanced, caring, and open-minded individuals. As a science educator, I encourage students to ask questions and be curious about the world around them.”

    Matt Bessler, M.A., joined LJCDS in spring 2021 as a long-term substitute teacher and started the 2021–2022 school year full-time. It did not take long for him to feel a connection to the students and his colleagues. Mr. Bessler loves teaching Middle School students because every day is a new adventure. Their needs change often, and he likes the challenge of figuring out how to empower them to be successful learners. 

    Mr. Bessler earned a B.A. in business marketing from Franklin College in Indiana and his M.A. in teaching from Point Loma Nazarene University. He has taught middle school science to sixth through eighth-grade students since 2010 and helped design and implement a successful STEM lab at his previous school. He was twice recognized as Teacher of the Year by The Greater San Diego Science & Engineering Fair. 

    Mr. Bessler loves to be in nature. He enjoys hiking, stand-up paddleboarding and golfing. He is also an avid sports enthusiast. During the fall, you can often find him cheering on his favorite football teams, the Cincinnati Bengals and Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Mr. Bessler has a 10-year-old son who shares his love of sports.
  • Photo of Piers Blyth
    Piers Blyth
    Educator, MS Science Grade 8
    (858) 453-3440 x243
    Bio
     
    “I inspire greatness for a better world by emboldening students to tackle the problems they’re interested in, combining their own unique perspectives with scientific principles. In our world of unfettered access to information, I encourage students to take the broad view of problems in society and to create their own solutions based on reason and mental discipline.”

    Piers Blyth believes education is the greatest opportunity to create change in our world. By serving the people who drive innovation in the future, and who will ultimately face societal problems head-on, his job is to equip these leaders with the foundational skills needed to help people across the globe.

    Mr. Blyth’s educational career began in Phoenix with the Teach for America program. It was there that he increased his impact beyond the classroom by working as an education consultant and chief academic officer who wrote the application curriculum for new charter schools in Arizona. He also drove the creation of smartphone applications to enable teachers to use Bloom’s Taxonomy and the common core in their classrooms. Mr. Blyth transitioned back into the classroom by working as a sixth and eighth-grade science teacher at the Denver School of Science and Technology. As a teacher and instructional coach in Denver, he created a website that enabled instructional coaches to save time and leverage their knowledge by sharing instructional techniques and resources with their teachers.

    Mr. Blyth is a voracious reader and is always looking for the next pedagogy book to better serve his students and fellow educators. His wife is also an independent middle school teacher so their household is all things education, all the time. Mr. Blyth proudly serves the LJCDS community and revels in the opportunity to shape the scientists of tomorrow.

La Jolla Country Day School

9490 Genesee Avenue
La Jolla, CA 92037
858-453-3440

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