Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
-William Butler Yeats
Alise Cayen is currently an award-winning English Teacher, Dance teacher and Police Academy Magnet Coordinator at Reseda High School in Southern California, where she oversees a successful magnet program that partnered the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Unified School District, designed to educate and prepare high school students for careers in law enforcement.
She began her teaching career at her alma mater in 1993 and was announced Most Inspirational Teacher in 1997 and 1998 and was recognized as Who’s Who Among American Teachers in 1998, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007. Alise also received the California League of High Schools Award in 1997 given to professionals who demonstrate exemplary teaching and outstanding dedication to their field. She quickly expanded her teaching talents to become the After-School Program Coordinator for the 21st Century Community Learning Grant for 1999-2004; an after school enrichment program designed to keep disadvantaged teens off the streets and reduce juvenile crime, one of the many causes for which Alise continues to campaign.
In 1994, Alise’s vast dance experience and her passion for the performing arts drove her to expand Reseda High’s dance program as the school’s dance teacher, where she established the school’s first boys’ and girls’ dance teams, and created/produced the ever-so-popular spring dance concert. In 2001, as part of the principal’s leadership team, Alise helped create The Principal’s Unity Council (now known as HEART); a student mediation group that uses natural leaders to help defuse race-related and gang-related tensions. In 1998, Alise became the English teacher for Reseda High School’s newly developed Police Academy Magnet, a program that she took charge of in 2004. Under her leadership, Reseda’s Police Academy Magnet’s attendance rate, graduation rate, college acceptance rate and CST scores hit all time highs. Today, Reseda High’s Police Academy Magnet remains the largest of the six “PAMS” in the Los Angeles Unified School District. In 2009, Alise was made coordinator of Reseda High’s newly formed Law and Public Service Magnet. She is currently working with the Department of Education on specialized secondary curriculum and is part of the PAM Foundation team, developing the first ever POP@ARCTC Program.
Alise continues to be an advocate for under-privileged youth, arts programs and law enforcement programs (such as Reseda’s PAM), where on top of teaching, she serves as a program consultant and coordinator.
A Southern California native, Alise graduated with honors from California State University, Northridge in 1993, with a Bachelor’s Degree in English and a Secondary Teaching Credential. She is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree in Educational Administration. Alise resides in the San Fernando Valley.
