Though she is a young woman in her 6th year of teaching, Charissa is already a master teacher who has earned the respect and admiration of her colleagues. Raised in Shrewsbury, MA, she got her B.A. in Psychology and Sociology at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She went on to receive her masters from Worcester State College in Middle School Education with a concentration in Mathematics. After teaching for 4 years in Shrewsbury, she came out to California two years ago with her husband, Dr. Neill Korobov, who is a professor of Developmental Psychology at UC Santa Cruz. They live in Santa Cruz and Charissa commutes over highway 17 everyday to teach math at Miller Middle School.