Freshman Faculty

September 12, 2018

Faimie Kingsley | Admission

Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, Faimie comes to Cate School’s Admission team from with a unique background. After graduating from the Hotchkiss School in 2009, Faimie received her undergraduate degree in marketing and played Division I volleyball at the University of Denver. It was not even a month after moving back to New York post graduation that Faimie signed a one-year contract to play professionally in Poland. Even though she had a great experience overseas, Faimie found the opportunity to coach at Columbia University a compelling enough reason to return to New York. After three seasons, Faimie left Columbia and went back to school to pursue her Master’s in sport management while coaching high school volleyball at Trevor Day School and at the club volleyball level with New York City Juniors. Having loved her own boarding school experience, Faimie is not only very excited about her role in admission, but also her roles as an advisor, Schoolhouse dorm parent, and three-sport coach.

Tobin White | Mathematics

Tobin began his teaching career in the late 1990s at a boarding school in his native state of Maine. In 2000, he came to California to pursue a PhD in mathematics education at Stanford. He then spent fourteen years as a professor at UC Davis, where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in education and ran a research lab focused on the design of novel technologies for teaching and learning math and science. Family, mountains, and ocean recently pulled him toward Santa Barbara, where he was thrilled to discover an opportunity to return to his independent school roots by teaching mathematics at Cate.

Tobin swam competitively in high school and college and still spends as much time as he can in the pool. He lives off campus with his wife Melissa and three sons, Zach, Ben and Oliver.

Laura Moore | History

After studying Irish history in Dublin, Ireland and graduating from the University of California at San Diego where she played collegiate basketball, Laura received her doctorate in history from the University of California at Santa Barbara. While completing her PhD, she taught a range of undergraduate courses in gender and women’s history, U.S. history, world history, Black Studies, and writing. Most recently, she served as the Public History Fellow at UC Santa Barbara. It was through her research and teaching at the university level that Laura discovered her passion for sharing with students the compelling and often-forgotten stories of the past. She loves incorporating primary sources and archival materials in daily class activities with the intention of empowering students to form their own informed historical interpretations. At Cate, Laura teaches U.S. and world history, coaches the girls varsity basketball and swim teams, and is an adjunct dorm parent in ’25 House.

In her free time, Laura enjoys traveling, hiking, camping, trips to the beach, working out, playing basketball, and walks with her dogs. She lives in Montecito with her husband, Casey, and their two golden retrievers, Gracie and Charlie.

Julia McClenon | Modern Languages

Julia received her BA in interdisciplinary studies (East Asia) before going on to become a civil servant at the Naval Postgraduate School, where she worked on an international educational project. She later served as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer for the Department of State. While assigned to China, she specialized in public diplomacy and consular affairs. She is currently a full-time graduate fellow at UC Santa Barbara. At Cate, she teaches Mandarin Chinese 4 and has an open door for Mandarin learners of all levels.

A motorcyclist, outdoors enthusiast, and spoken word poet, Julia loves to study dog behavior and is passionate about building bridges across divides, interdisciplinary, East-West, and otherwise.

Vannessa Cruz Santana ’06 | Admission

Vanessa first arrived to Cate as freshman boarder from Santa Ana, California through the A Better Chance Program. She graduated from Cate in 2006 and ventured to Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. After graduating, Vanessa returned to Cate for two years to start her career in admission. In 2012 Vanessa moved to the New York City area to grow professionally and to pursue a graduate degree in education at the University of Pennsylvania. Though not new to Cate, Vanessa has recently come back to be Cate’s Director of Financial Assistance. What keeps her coming back? The community, the campus’ beauty, and Cate’s commitment to offering young people a quality education that includes so much more than academics without sacrificing academic rigor. In addition to her work in Admission, Vanessa is a dorm parent in Long House and serves as a student advisor.

Jose Vega | Human Development

Jose is a native of Santa Barbara and came to Cate after almost fifteen years of teaching in California, Thailand, Mexico, and most recently Colombia. Jose earned his undergraduate interdisciplinary science degree from St. Mary’s College of California and received his masters in education from Dominican University. Jose has experience serving on various committees, serving as science department head, and as an instructional coach. He is trained in and uses teaching methodologies such as Project Based Learning, Design Thinking, and Systems Thinking, in hopes to maximize student learning and impact. Jose enjoys working with students to make progress on sustainability initiatives at the school and community level. Jose lives at Cate with his wife, Bianca, and their two children, Santiago and Paloma. He is part of the Human Development Department at Cate, teaching both Freshman and Sophomore Seminars.

Katie Convoy | Cate Fund

Katie joined the Cate community in 2018, after six years of working in annual giving at The Buckley School in Los Angeles. As the Cate Fund Director, she manages Cate’s annual giving program, working with current parents, alumni, parents of alumni, grandparents, and foundations to fundraise for the school. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Katie graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a bachelor’s degree in communications and women’s studies. Prior to her work in fundraising Katie worked with LMU’s sports information and media relations department, where she continues to serve as a statistician for NCAA basketball, baseball, and softball.

An avid runner, Katie and her boyfriend Brandon live in Ventura where they enjoy beaches, breweries, and baseball.

John MacFarlane | Mathematics & Science

Prior to joining Cate, John MacFarlane founded and was the CEO of Sonos, a consumer electronics company. He also founded and was the CEO of Software.com. MacFarlane holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the University of California.

John teaches in the science and math departments and has two boys, Ian ’18 and Dylan ’20.