Award-Winning Executive Functioning Tutors
serving Riverside, CA

I hold a Bachelor's degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from Brown University and am currently completing a PhD in Psychology. My tutoring style is structured, supportive, and warm. I focus on breaking big goals into manageable steps, building realistic study routines, and helping students develop systems they can actually maintain. I emphasize executive function skills such as planning, time management, task initiation, and follow-through, while integrating mindfulness-based strategies to support focus, reduce anxiety, and improve confidence. Whether working with a younger student or an adult learner, my goal is to help students feel capable, organized, and increasingly independent in their learning.

Ten years ago, I started as an elementary substitute while attending Hanover College. As my interests in the education field changed and progressed, my philosophy stayed the same; education is something that can happen anywhere, not just in the traditional classroom. I went on to gain a Master's in School Librarianship & Facilitated Learning from Indiana University-Indianapolis. During this time I had started actually teaching, first with library sciences, elementary technology, elementary science, and tutoring. Over the past six years, I have tutored; homework help, organization, special education, exam reteaching, and mentoring for students from 3rd grade through adults taking professional licensing exams (ie. PRAXIS). While things have changed, my passion is still finding what a student needs for their best learning possible, and adapting content to work with them. My philosophy is simply that I think everyone can learn, sometimes we just have to look at the education differently.

I am persuasive and capable of developing rapport and trust, as well as experienced in influencing the attitudes and ideas of others.

Planning, prioritizing, managing time, and shifting between tasks — these executive functioning skills underpin academic success but rarely get taught explicitly. Derek tackles them as teachable skills, building concrete systems like task checklists, color-coded planners, and structured routines that students internalize over time. His doctorate focused on how curriculum design shapes learning behavior, which gives him a research-grounded toolkit for strengthening these cognitive habits.

Planning, prioritizing, managing time, shifting between tasks — these are the invisible skills that school demands but rarely teaches outright. Elise breaks executive functioning into concrete, practicable habits: using checklists to start assignments, setting timers to maintain focus, and building routines for organizing materials. Her special education training means she understands the neurological side of these challenges, not just the behavioral one.

Planning, prioritizing, and self-monitoring don't come naturally to every student — they're skills that can be explicitly taught. Cristiana breaks executive functioning into concrete habits: using checklists to initiate tasks, time-blocking to manage sustained attention, and post-session reflections to build self-awareness about what strategies are working. Her own experience managing a demanding dual-major course load gives her practical techniques to share, not just theory.

Planning a multi-step essay, breaking a semester-long project into weekly milestones, keeping track of deadlines across six classes — these are executive functioning challenges Gabby addresses directly. Her five-plus years as a tutor and writing coach have centered on building concrete systems for organization, time management, and task prioritization that students can actually maintain on their own.

Graduate training in school counseling means Katherine spends her days learning exactly how students get stuck — not on content, but on the invisible skills like task initiation, planning, and self-regulation that determine whether homework actually gets done. She connects those counseling frameworks to the real academic work students bring in, whether it's a stalled college essay or a psychology reading they keep putting off. Her background across subjects like writing, human development, and AP psychology gives her concrete material to anchor organizational strategies to.

Running a natural sciences department at a bilingual elementary school in Ecuador meant Joy wasn't just teaching content — she was building systems for planning, prioritization, and task completion across two languages and multiple grade levels. She applies that same structured approach to executive functioning skills like time management, organization, and breaking long-term assignments into manageable steps.

Hello! I am an Arizona State University graduate with a Bachelors of Science in Biological Science. My academic background is grounded in both technical problem-solving and a deep curiosity about how systems, whether digital or human, function. Outside the classroom, I've had the opportunity to work with students across a range of ages and abilities, from mentoring engineering and premed undergraduates at ASU to tutoring high schoolers in SAT/ACT prep, as well as K-12 students through Teach for America. I am comfortable with a range of subjects and am willing to work to meet your needs. Below are some of courses I have successfully tutored for in the past. K12 Subjects Elementary School (K5) Math (Basic Arithmetic, Word Problems) Reading & Phonics Writing & Grammar Science Social Studies Study & Organization Skills Middle School (68) Pre-Algebra Algebra I General Science (Life, Earth, Physical) English Language Arts (Reading, Writing) U.S. History & World History Intro to Coding / Computer Science High School (912) Algebra I & II Geometry Trigonometry Pre-Calculus Calculus AB/BC Biology (General, Honors) Chemistry (General, Honors) Physics (Conceptual, Algebra-Based) English Literature & Composition Essay Writing & Editing U.S. History & World History Psychology Economics & Government Health / Human Development Ethics / Philosophy Study Skills / Test Prep Standardized Test Prep SAT: Math, Reading, Writing & Language, Essay ACT: Math, Science, English, Reading, Essay PSAT MCAT (Content review & strategy) TOEFL / ESL (Certified ESL experience) AP Subjects AP Biology AP Chemistry AP Physics 1 AP Environmental Science AP Calculus AB AP Statistics AP English Language and Composition AP English Literature and Composition AP Psychology AP U.S. History AP World History AP U.S. Government & Politics AP Human Geography AP Macroeconomics / Microeconomics AP Computer Science Principles AP Seminar / Research College-Level Subjects STEM & Premed General Biology I & II Cell Biology Genetics Human Anatomy & Physiology General Chemistry I & II Organic Chemistry I & II Biochemistry Physics I & II (Algebra-Based) Calculus I & II Statistics (Introductory / Biostats) Humanities & Social Sciences Intro to Psychology Intro to Sociology Scientific Writing & Critical Thinking Medical Ethics Bioethics Philosophy of Science / Biology Research Writing & Academic Essays Business & Economics Intro to Macroeconomics Intro to Microeconomics Principles of Finance Financial Literacy / Budgeting Basics

The best part of tutoring is promoting students' long-term success through mastery of reading, writing, math, study skills, organization, and critical thinking. In particular, I enjoy helping students build test-taking strategies and core skills for the ACT, SAT, and other admissions tests. I also support pre-K and K-12 students learning math and ELA. Before joining Varsity, I tutored in a Reading and Writing Lab for university students with learning disabilities where I earned a College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA) certification. Since joining Varsity, I have completed continuing education through the Lastinger Center for Learning. I graduated from the University of Arizona in 2021 with a BA in Cultural Anthropology. In addition to tutoring, I have worked as an instructional aide for an art program, an applied anthropology researcher, and a nonprofit program coordinator. Out of all these experiences, I enjoy tutoring the most. I look forward to working with you!

Claire teaches concrete systems — color-coded planners, task-chunking methods, priority matrices — rather than vague advice about "staying organized." Her background across a wide range of academic subjects means she can tailor these executive functioning strategies to whatever coursework a student is actually struggling to manage, from essay deadlines to exam prep schedules.