Karla Lee Kuester, Child Development Specialist
Karla Lee Kuester has been working with young children and families since 1977. She has worked as a Certified Montessori Preschool Teacher / Supervising Teacher (1977-1995), a RIE (Resources for Infant Educarers) Associate (since 1989), an Infant Specialist / Program Coordinator (in a Reggio Emilia / RIE Program, 2000-2004), as an Early Interventionist, Social Skills and Behavior Interventionist (2000-present). She holds degrees in Early Childhood Education / Developmental Psychology / Fine Art. Since 2017, Karla has been a Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) certified by the BACB (Behavior Analyst Certification Board).
Karla currently works for the Step By Step EDU-Thera Play Child Development Program in Santa Monica, CA. She also sees private clients for Behavior Intervention, Social Skills Intervention (ages 3 to 10) and Early Intervention (ages 0 to 3), on the Westside of Los Angeles (2000-present). Karla has also worked in the capacity of the Early Intervention Field Supervisor / Teacher Trainer for the Step By Step EDU-Thera Play Program and as the in-house Child Development Specialist at the UCLA Krieger Center (2009-2015).
Since 2003, she has taught Infants & Toddlers: A Class for Caregivers at UC Irvine each year. She was also invited to teach this specialized course work as the foundational part of the IMPACT: Urban Teacher Residency Program for the UCLA Graduate School of Education during the summer of 2012. Karla completed the initial pilot program of ‘Inner Kids’ Mindful Awareness Training, taught by founder, Susan Kaiser Greenland, at UCLA in 2012.
Karla is a published author, presenter and consultant for teacher training programs. She utilizes an engaged coaching / critical thinking approach in exploring developmental patterns, methodology, respectful caregiving / intervention practices, special needs, observation, parenting issues and other related topics. In 2017, she was invited to sit on the Executive Committee of the Association of Child Development Specialists (ACDS-LA), Los Angeles.
Karla has served as a private tutor, specializing in enrichment / remediation / mindfulness, from Kindergarten to adult ages from 1988 to the present. She currently resides in West Los Angeles, CA.
Ms. Kuester can be reached at:
Cell: 310-579-7614 karla.kuester@gmail.com www.karlakuester.com
Photo by M.Rosen
Karla Lee Kuester has had extensive background with schools, teacher training facilities, families and children professionally for over 40 years. In this time she has worked with and combines various methodologies, systems and practices such as:
-American Montessori Society Pre-primary Credential, taught by Joy and Charles Turner
-Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE®) Associate practitioner, taught by founder Magda Gerber
-Reggio Emilia Coursework, taught by Elyse Schaeffer and Trisha Hunter McGrath
-’Inner Kids’ Mindful Awareness Training, taught by founder Susan Kaiser Greenland
-Sensory Integration and self-regulation theory (Jean Ayers PhD / G. Gordon Williamson, Ph D)
–’Brain Gym’ International ™/ Educational Kinesiology Foundation (Paul Dennison)
– Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) certified by the BACB (Behavior Analyst Certification Board).
She has taught college courses for adult learners of Child Development at UCLA and UCI, through the University Montessori Teacher Training Program, and through Montessori Western Teacher Training Program.
She has written articles for RIE’s ® Educaring ® newsletter (to read articles, see articles tab). Karla is a member of The Los Angeles Poets & Writers Collective and has studied with Author Jack Grapes since 2009.
Karla has been an Executive Committee member of the Association of Child Development Specialists – Los Angeles (ACDS– LA) from 2017 to the present.
“I have known Karla Lee Kuester since she was a very young child. She is the daughter of two dedicated and talented master teachers, who helped influence me to become an educator myself and to become a life-long learner. An enthusiasm for students and teaching was imbued in Karla who, in becoming an educator herself, is dedicated to understanding how children best learn and implementing the methods for achieving that learning. For many years, Karla has devoted her personal research and creative thinking to the topic of Early Intervention. I was able to hear one of her lectures on Special Needs and was impressed with her ability to make her insights concrete, with illustrations from her personal, classroom and intervention experiences. In sum, Karla is a cutting edge teacher and practitioner of new ideas in educational theories. I recommend her as a teacher, interventionist, consultant, lecturer, panelist, or in any other capacity of Early Childhood Education or corresponding fields.”
— D. J. ROSS, ED.D, PROFESSOR/ADMINISTRATOR, COLLEGE OF DUPAGE, WEST CHICAGO, IL.
“Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein