Meet the Team

Email: Nicole Ofiesh

Nicole Ofiesh, PhD is a cognitive behavioral scientist with expertise in the intersection of learning and adulthood. With a focus on “the missing middle”, the time between high school and retirement, she believes an understanding of how cognition and the brain is associated with learning and performance is critical to preparing people for the needs of the 21st and 22nd centuries.

She has been in hundreds of K-college classrooms and corporations over the years teaching and mentoring educators, administrators and professionals from line workers to medical doctors. She is Director of the Schwab Learning Center at CHC. Dr. Ofiesh has taught classes on assessment, instruction, design thinking and neurodiversity, and universal design for learning at the University of Arizona, Stanford University, Cal State East Bay and Providence College.

For general inquiries, please email slc@stage.chconline.org

Make an appointment on Nancy’s Calendar

Prior to joining the The Schwab Learning Center at CHC as Associate Director, Nancy was the manager of marketing, user experience and outreach for the Schwab Learning Center (SLC) at Stanford. Her focus for the past 4 years has been to increase awareness and market the SLC to campus groups that interact directly with undergraduate and graduate students and to measure and analyze student feedback on SLC services.

Nancy loves helping young adults with learner variability to maximize their potential in school, the workplace and beyond. Before joining Stanford, Nancy held positions in marketing, logistics and strategic planning for Sun Microsystems, Inc. (now Oracle Corp.) and leadership positions in the community at the Menlo School, Common Ground speaker series, and as a member of the Duke University Northern California alumni board and Peninsula Women’s Forum. During her free time, Nancy loves to play tennis, cook, read and spend time with family and friends.

Lisa Lavaysse is a clinical psychologist specializing in assessment and evaluation of learning disabilities and attention deficits. Dr. Lavaysse completed post-doctoral training at California Pacific Medical Center’s Kalmanovitz Child Development Center where she had the pleasure of working with adolescents and young adults for nearly two decades.

Dr. Lavaysse was diagnosed with dyslexia in college which ultimately led her to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology with a specialty in assessment. She encourages students to build upon their strengths rather than dwell on perceived short-comings. Dr. Lavaysse is a first generation college graduate and is passionate about working with “first gen” students. She enjoys training and mentoring next generation psychologists interested in assessment. Dr. Lavaysse has also maintained a private practice in San Carlos for the past 17 years. Dr. Lavaysse loves parenting her adolescent son and regularly enjoys having a house full of teenage boys.

Kimberly Bausback, PhD joins the SLC@CHC in October 2022 as an Assessment Psychologist. Dr. Bausback specializes in assessment and evaluation of learning disabilities, attention deficits, and co-occurring medical conditions. Her post-doctoral training was completed at Kaiser Permanente.

Sharmila Roy, PhD, has served as the Program Chair of the Educational Therapy certificate program at UCSC Silicon Valley Extension since 2014. She also teaches classes on Educational Therapy, Culture and Cultural Diversity and Neurodivergent Learners. Sharmila has over 25 years’ experience in special education – primarily in teacher training, classroom interventions and curriculum development. She is committed to providing services to the underserved and has worked in private practice as an Educational Therapist, as well as in the non-profit sector and helped many families to navigate the special education system for their children. She has extensive experience working in K-7 classrooms and one-on-one with exceptional students especially in the area of multi-sensory mathematics learning for students with learning differences and executive functional skills.

Mandy works as a learning specialist with the Schwab Learning Center at CHC. Mandy cares passionately about getting to know every individual person. Helping each person become self-reflective, and therefore self-aware, enhances their ability to learn, as well as serves their future lives. She creates strategies for each individual based on their particular strengths and interests. Previously, Mandy worked in the public school system for over eleven years. Her time there taught her to value collaboration, the impact of families on learners, and the beauty in cognitive diversity.