About the Team

Alicia Cacace
Co-Founder & Head of School

Alicia is a California native and earned her BA from the University of California, Berkeley in International and Area Studies, Latin America. Having spent her college years running tutoring programs, leading birthday parties, nannying, and volunteering with children in Guatemala, she knew she wanted to be a teacher and received her bilingual multi subject K-5 teaching credential from California State University, East Bay. She taught Spanish bilingual and Reggio Emilia inspired arts integrated Kindergarten and first grade in the Oakland Unified School District for five years.

Inspired to learn more about best practices in education, Alicia moved to Boston to complete her masters degree in Educational Policy and Management at Harvard University. Alicia continued to teach and lead in schools for another three years in Boston and D.C., until her first son was born. Alicia served on the board at Silver Spring Nursery School for four years, where both her sons attended and she found inspiration for co-founding Silver Oaks. In her spare time, she enjoys reading science fiction, gardening, and hosting living room dance parties with her husband and two sons.

Annette C. H. Nelson
Co-Founder, Education Director & Art Teacher

Annette graduated with a BA from the University of Mary Washington and taught in Howard County Public Schools as an elementary classroom teacher for five years. Once she received her Masters of Library Science from the University of Maryland she became an elementary school library media specialist.  After 12 years in the county she had her son Jack and transitioned to being a stay-at-home mom.  In 2015, she returned to work as a school library media specialist for Prince George's County School. From 2016-2018 she worked as a school library media specialist for Montgomery County Public Schools.  Annette is a Nationally Board Certified Media Specialist, holds a Maryland State Certification for grades 1-6,  and has co-authored two books for school librarians. 

Annette lives in Silver Spring with her husband and two sons and she is passionate about creating Silver Oaks to provide a unique educational experience for her own children and those in the community.

Kendall Sethna
Middle School (5th-8th Grade) Social Studies & Literacy Teacher

Kendall has a dual BA in French Language & Literature and Linguistics from the University of Maryland, College Park. In addition, she has a M.Ed. in TESOL from UMD. Kendall is a published education researcher with Outstanding Master's Student recognition from UMD and was an adjunct Instructor at Prince George's Community College. The bulk of her academic work has been on second language acquisition and linguistics. Kendall has been teaching science, literacy, and social studies to upper elementary school students for the past seven years in Prince George's County Public Schools. In addition to Kendall joining Silver Oaks in the Fall of 2023, her Kindergarten son Isaac is also enrolling next year! Kendall lives in Riverdale with her husband, two kids, and dog. 

Katie Friedman
Middle School (5th-8th Grade) Science & Math Teacher

Katie has a BS in Elementary Education from the University of Maryland at College Park. In addition, she has a MA in Education and Curriculum Instruction from UMD. Katie's interest in education began in high school, when she was summer camp counselor and folk dance teacher, then department head. In college, she served as an AmeriCorps member for City Year, providing push-in services for students in Title I schools. Katie has been an upper elementary math and science teacher for a Prince George's county public school for the past five years and is excited to begin her new journey with Silver Oaks Cooperative School! 

Rebecca Rapoport
Fourth Grade Teacher

Becca discovered her love of teaching early on, while volunteering and working with children during high school and college. After four years as a project coordinator for the  World Wildlife Fund, she knew teaching was her calling. Becca began teaching secondary math in DC Public Schools in 2009. She spent five and a half years teaching in DC, with a year-long break to be a stay-at-home mom (with some tutoring mixed in) when her first son was born.  Since 2017, Becca has worked in a private school setting as a first and second grade teaching assistant, K-5 math specialist, and summer camp Assistant Director. Becca joined Silver Oaks Cooperative school as a lead teacher in 2019.

Becca earned her BA in International Studies from Dickinson College and her masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction from American University.  Becca is originally from Massachusetts but has lived in the DC region since 2005.  She currently lives in Hyattsville with her husband and two boys, who both attend Silver Oaks.

Erica Kraybill
Third Grade Teacher

After earning her B.S. in History from Eastern Mennonite University, Erica spent a year teaching ESOL to refugees in South Dakota and two years teaching ESOL to secondary school students in Tanzania through WorldTeach at Harvard University. Upon returning to the U.S., Erica taught ESOL to adults at UMD while earning her Master's of Education in Curriculum and Instruction. Erica fell in love with teaching children and discovering the magic of learning with them. For the past 8 years, Erica was an ESOL teacher, then a fourth grade classroom teacher at a local public elementary school. Erica is excited to join Silver Oaks and share her love of teaching and learning with our students. In her spare time, Erica enjoys running, hiking, and spending time with her husband and two children.

Alicia Saunders Angeles
Second Grade Teacher

Alicia Saunders has her Bachelor's in Music from Columbia Union College and her Master's in Flute Performance from the Catholic University of America. She began her teaching career in 2008 as a music teacher, private flute tutor, and choir director for children ages 3 to 15 in a variety of public and nonpublic schools, and in her private studio. In 2016, Alicia moved to Peru, where she became a classroom English teacher for three years in first and second grade. Upon returning to the United States, Alicia taught third grade math, science, and health in a local public school district for three years. Alicia loves accompanying students as they explore life, making connections and new discoveries everyday. Her goal is to teach students in a diverse way, while prepping them with strategies and skills that will allow them to thrive in their academic endeavors and promote a love of learning.

Alicia is mom to two students here at Silver Oaks.

Ariel Rivers
First Grade Teacher

Originally from South Carolina, Ariel began her teaching journey as a volunteer at an elementary school while she was in high school. She discovered a deep love of working with young children and watching them grow, learn, and play. Ariel then earned her Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education at Spelman College. During this time, she was a teacher intern for two years at a local public elementary school. Ariel found her way to Maryland, where she earned her Masters of Arts in Teaching, Learning, Policy and Leadership at the University of Maryland, College Park. Ariel has taught Kindergarten and First Grade at a local nonpublic school for the last two years. She is excited to join Silver Oaks and inspire individualized and fun learning for our First Graders.

Caitlyn Navikas
First Grade Teacher

Caitlyn Navikas, is currently a long term substitute in first grade. She has a Masters degree in education and a Bachelor's Degree in psychology, both from Towson University. She is a mom of four children, and before she had her eldest, was an Early Childhood Educator for 7 years. She also homeschooled two of her children for three years during their Kindergarten through second grade years. Cailyn also has two students a Silver Oaks.

Kate McCaffrey
Kindergarten Teacher

Kate has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh where she majored in writing and history. From 2003-2010 she worked as a jack-of-all-trades and cub reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Then, in 2010, her husband got a new job in DC and her son was born and she hung up her reporter’s notebook to become a full-time mom. Thankfully her family, with the addition of a daughter in 2012, landed at Silver Spring Nursery School and it was there she discovered her love of guiding young learners and her second career. 

After a few years of being a stay-at-home mother to two and volunteering at SSNS, Kate began working as a PreK aide in 2016. In 2020, she joined the staff of SOCS, aiding and abetting the crazy/funnest outdoor school year ever. Kate is devoted to play-based, social-emotional learning and firmly believes that, in order to learn, children must first touch, smell, hear, smoosh, break, share, hammer, squeeze, etc. Sticks, mud, playdough, books, water, sand, pebbles, chalk, wood blocks and music are her favorite tools of learning. Kate’s favorite place to be is outside around a campfire. She loves reading, hiking and cooking soup on chilly days. She lives in Silver Spring with her husband, two kids and puppy.

Alex Rayo Jones
Instructional Aide

Alex Rayo Jones has been practicing Taekwondo since he was five years old and teaching it to children for over 10 years. In 2020-2021, Alex was a pod teacher for a group of children enrolled in Remote Learning, which sparked an interest in teaching children academic subjects as well as martial arts. Alex joined Silver Oaks as our Instructional Aide and Taekwondo teacher in 2021. He loves skateboarding, collecting retro games and records, and, of course, practicing martial arts.

Lizzie Garcia
Spanish Teacher

Lizzie Garcia was born and raised in Colombia, South America. She came to the United States at the age of 17 and studied at Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, Maryland, where she earned her B.S. in Business Administration. After living in Maryland for a few years, Lizzie moved to Lexington, Kentucky with her family, where she taught Spanish in a private school for 14 years. She returned to Maryland in 2020 and joined the Silver Oaks team.

Lizzie loves spending time with her three boys and enjoys sharing the rich Spanish culture and language with her students. 

Priscilla Lima-Ledesma
Music Teacher

Priscilla has been a fine art, photography and music teacher for the past 18 years. She did her fine art studio studies while attending Parsons New School in New York and has a BFA from Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington DC. Additionally, Priscilla has a Certificate in Music from Golden School of Music in Bethesda. She specializes in teaching grades K-12, but also has experience with pre-K & adults. Priscilla has a passion for real-life learning applications and a talent for seeing and cultivating each individual child's contribution to a classroom environment.

Priscilla is multi-lingual, speaking English, Spanish, and Portuguese. She is also mom to a student at Silver Oaks.