Kaja was born and raised in San Diego, CA where she spent most of her free time at the beach or playing sports. She moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2008. In 2014, she graduated from Trinity Lutheran College with a BA in Intercultural Studies and a minor in Visual Communications.
Over the last 17 years, she has worn many hats including nanny, preschool teacher, youth advocate for kids in the juvenile justice system and Colville tribes, park aid for WA State Parks, ESL and Art teacher for refugee students, gymnastics coach, and soccer coach. Recently, she was a character in an outdoor film highlighting the stories of 12 BIPOC Women in the outdoors. This experience lit a spark in her to find a way to combine her love for teaching and advocacy with her passion for being in nature.
As a teacher, she has always enjoyed fostering imagination, sense of self awareness, critical thinking, and independence, so naturally, she was drawn to Magnolia's out of the box approach to education.
Most days you will find her spending quality time with her husband and German Shepherd puppy or being an aunty and Godmother. She enjoys hiking, farmer's markets, reading, watching sports games, cooking, bonfires, swimming, lifting weights, snowshoeing, sitting on the dock and taking deep breaths, and watching trees dance in the wind.