We are deeply grateful to Kate O'Hanlan, MD and Léonie Walker Study.com
Ollie's American Cheese + Provisions Town School for Boys
Katherine Delmar Burke School
Bob Hougheling and Elizabeth Fishel for their generous support of this year ' s Innovating for Impact Awards.
2026 Innovating for Impact Honorees
Natalie
Babcock, Xochi Batlle, and Matt Wyatt
The Innovating for Impact Awards bring our community together to honor the educators who embody BATTI’s commitment to joyful, purposeful, and engaging learning.
h Honorees! h Honorees!
Natalie Babcock, Founder and CEO, Balancing Acts
While many schools have SEL curricula, mental health is often unaddressed directly. Natalie responded by creating ing Acts, a groundbreaking mental health curriculum that wers both students and teachers to navigate the mental health crisis young people face today.
mpact is already transforming classrooms. Schools have ted increased student use of coping mechanisms during tress times like test-taking season, heightened empathy uring peer-to-peer interactions, and boosted teacher idence when discussing sensitive topics with students.
e has dedicated herself full time and wholeheartedly to ing Acts, working tirelessly to implement this program in ls across the nation. Through professional development, pires educators to bring critical mental health tools back eir school communities, creating ripples of change that students when they need it most. Her work embodies the ower of seeing a need and doing something about it.
Meet theHonorees!Meet theHonorees!
Xochi Batlle, Teacher, Children's Day School Xochi leads with curiosity, empathy, and action. During Children's Day School's multi-year transition to a competencybased learning framework, a shift that reimagines how students demonstrate mastery and growth, Xochi joined the "early adopter" team, piloting new practices in her classroom and sharing honest reflections that helped build teacher confidence and normalize risk-taking. Her leadership fostered collaboration and strengthened community across the school. Now, as Farm & Garden Program Manager, Xochi has created a cohesive PK-4th curriculum rooted in experiential learning and ecological stewardship. Each week, she teaches approximately 300 students through bilingual, inclusive, hands-on approaches that connect children to nature, sustainability, and each other. Students show greater curiosity, hands-on problem-solving, and a stronger sense of responsibility for their community and the natural world. Beyond CDS, Xochi extends her impact through afterschool programming with the Boys & Girls Club, broadening access to joyful outdoor learning for the wider community.
Meet theHonorees!Meet theHonorees!
Matt Wyatt, Teacher, Town School for Boys
When Town School for Boys launched its Engineering Thinking program, Matt didn't just help design a maker space—he reimagined what engineering education could be for K-8 students. He approached the design not from an adult perspective, but from the eyeline of students at every age, asking: "How should supplies be organized in a way that would make sense to our youngest, pre-reader students and also be usable to a 7th grader?"
Through tireless research, Matt connected with educators nationally and internationally to build a curriculum that embeds high-level educational design principles with engineering concepts typically taught in high school and college. The program he created isn't just a place for fun projects—it's a transdisciplinary experience where students engage with writing, problem-solving, math, resilience, innovation, and data visualization all at once.
The impact is measurable: over 10% of the entire student body now attends morning "Open Studio" sessions, that means students are making their parents bring them to school early!
As one colleague notes, Matt “embodies the principles he strives to teach: curiosity, deep thinking and resilience in the face of a complex challenge."
Legacy of Impact Award
Judy Gilson, Retired BATTI Instructor
Judy Gilson's impact as a teacher educator has been both deep and wide, transforming not only how emerging teachers understand math and science, but also how they understand themselves as learners and leaders. She has reached hundreds of BATTI residents over the years, each of whom has gone on to shape classrooms grounded in inquiry, equity, and confidence.
Many multi-subject credential candidates enter the program with limited confidence in math and science, subjects that often carry emotional residue from their own K-12 experiences.
Drawing on her graduate research into math anxiety, Judy built a learning environment where vulnerability and curiosity were the starting points for learning. She modeled experiential activities—measuring the world through movement, exploring natural phenomena, uncovering patterns through play—that reconnected adults with their innate sense of wonder.
The results were immediate and enduring. Alumni of her cohorts describe newfound confidence and a willingness to take intellectual risks, qualities that now ripple through their own classrooms. Her influence extends across schools and generations of learners: classrooms that once emphasized right answers now celebrate exploration, process, and joy.
Through her mentorship, research, and unwavering belief in her students, Judy has catalyzed a quiet revolution in teacher education, one that continues to echo through classrooms across the Bay Area and beyond.
Legacy of Impact Award
Inaugural Honoree 2026
Judy Gilson
Thank you for joining us!
ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM
Ashlee Gutierrez
Executive Director
Ana Zamost
Director of Curriculum and Instruction
Raleigh Zwerin
Director of Programs and Operations
BOARD
Jalen Allen
4th-6th Grade Science, Technology, and Engineering Teacher and Summer Camp Coordinator, San Francisco School
Kristi Farnham Thompson
Learning Specialist, SF Bay Area
Kristen Goggin
Assistant Head of Middle School, Head-Royce, Oakland
Terri Hamer, Board Chair
Interim Chief Financial Officer, Black Pine Circle, Berkeley
Luís Hernandez
Lead Teacher-3 Grade, San Francisco Friends School rd
Kaili Hwang
Associate Head of School and Director of Teaching and Learning, San Francisco Day School
Brooklyn Joseph
Lead Program Facilitator, Mills College, Oakland
Alice Moore
Associate Head of School, Katherine Delmar Burke School, San Francisco
Leslie Powell
Assistant Lower School Head/Dean of Students & Programs, Head-Royce School, Oakland
Quise Rodriguez
Supervisor, BATTI, Oakland
Jimmy Santosa
Lower School Makery Facilitator & Technology Integration
Specialist, Katherine Delmar Burke School
Corbett Simons
Director of Teaching Learning and Innovation, Town School for Boys
