Faculty & Staff Directory

BEGAN AT CAIS 2011

Born and raised in Beijing and a graduate from Teacher-training colleges in Beijing, Sui Laoshi also earned both her bachelor’s degree in Asian American Studies and her Master’s degree in Chinese at San Francisco State University. After teaching in China since 1988, Sui Laoshi began teaching in San Francisco in 2004 and joined the CAIS team in 2011. Sui Laoshi is as passionate about teaching as she is about modeling being a lifelong learner. She is known among our team as an innovator when it comes to student-centered learning.

Berkley joins CAIS from Meals on Wheels where she served as Senior Director of Individual Giving.  She has spent her entire professional career in advancement, in both educational and other nonprofit settings, and her wide-ranging experiences include comprehensive campaigns, annual giving, events (including galas), major gifts, and planned giving.

Outside of work, Berkley coaches high school girls lacrosse; she was a decorated Division I lacrosse player at Temple University, being named to several regional and national academic and athletic teams. 

Began at CAIS in 2017.

Susan Sun is a Certified Public Accountant and has over 22 years of excellent accounting experience, most recently as the Vice President of Finance for Micro Lambda Wireless, Inc. She leads the school’s finance/accounting functions and team.

Began at CAIS 2024

Fourth Grade Bilingual Teaching Assistant Mingjiao Sun is from China. A passionate learner and educator who thrives on project-based and inquiry learning, she loves sparking curiosity in her students and guiding them to think critically. Outside of teaching, you’ll find her hitting the trails. 

Began at CAIS 2024

Third Grade English Teaching Assistant Lance Tam is a San Francisco native but has lived in places like Hong Kong and Canada for a few years. His hobbies include fencing, watching movies, swimming, and learning new languages (currently trying his hand at French, Russian, and Japanese). 

BEGAN AT CAIS: 2020

Ms. Taylor is a San Francisco based artist and experienced elementary school teacher. Her two greatest passions are education and art. She gets to fuse them together to teach art to young students here at CAIS. Ms. Taylor’s main goal is to create a safe space for each and every student to grow as an artistic life-long learner. When she isn’t teaching, she enjoys water coloring, collaging and making mixed media sculptures. She also loves spending time with her son Forrest and her dog Claude.

BEGAN AT CAIS 1998

Teng Laoshi is our most veteran teacher, having taught at CAIS for 34 years! Her classroom experiences span from preschool through fifth grade, including a decade with the second grade curriculum. Most recently, Teng Laoshi has worked with Wang Laoshi as teaching associate for the fourth grade, incorporating tech tools such as the learning game Kahoot! in Chinese class. A graduate of Taiwan Provincial Taipei Junior College, Teng Laoshi earned the Freeman Foundation Teaching Scholar Award and holds certification as an ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester.

Christine is the proud mom of two CAIS kids (Caroline and Woods). After spending nearly two decades in tech, she decided that she needed a career change. Since she loves mentoring, learning, and helping others, teaching seemed like a natural fit—she cannot wait to support kids on their educational journey! In her free time, she works on one of her numerous hobbies, including knitting, sewing, cross-stitching, ceramics, and beekeeping (feel free to ask her about any of these!).

BEGAN AT CAIS 2016

Agnes Tong has been working in Early Childhood Development for the last 20 years as a teacher and an assistant director. She is fluent in Chinese and English. She shares, “It is my pleasure to work at CAIS. I heard a lot of great things about CAIS. I am very excited to join the Auxiliary team and to be a part of this community!” Please feel to contact her if you have questions regarding Auxiliary Programs at Alice A. Carnes Campus.

BEGAN AT CAIS 2022

Tsai Laoshi came to CAIS from Avenues: The World School, where she was a head teacher in Kindergarten for the past 8 years. Prior to that, she also worked at the Global Montessori International School (Berkeley, CA) as a head teacher in Chinese sections of the kindergarten through grade five. She has taught Mandarin and English as a Second Language (ESL) at many other educational institutions, including Germantown Friends School (Philadelphia, PA), Lutheran Children and Family Service (Philadelphia, PA) and Russell Byers Charter School (Philadelphia, PA). She also taught English for three years at various schools in Taiwan.