Straight outta Bishop, California, and on her 26th year here at Heritage Christian, we will go beyond the traditional teacher feature and present our beloved Assistant Principal of Academics—Mrs. Peterson.

Of course like many others, her first job was not being an Assistant Principal of Academics. At 17, she worked as a forklift operator at the LA Department of Water and Power. Ten years later, when she had her first two children, Casey and Ryan, she stayed home to raise them. She created an at-home daycare business that took care of other children as well as her own.

After a little while of working at Hillcrest, she eventually taught P.E. and computer classes simultaneously at the elementary.

Once her children were old enough to attend kindergarten at Hillcrest, she began working for our north campus as a redshirt (playground monitor)—putting the daycare days to rest. While not having many initial aspirations in teaching before working at Heritage, she believes that God called her to a position that was contributing financially at home and allowed her to be around her children.

After working with us for some time, she went back to college to get her bachelor’s degree in liberal studies with an emphasis in linguistics; as something new was developing in her heart, a desire to teach.

Mrs. Peterson claims she was drawn to students that struggled academically, so she switched from general education to special education. In 2012, she went to school to obtain her Master of Arts and Teaching with an emphasis in best practices at National University online. She had taught middle school math towards the end of her schooling, and from 2002-2018 she was a Discovery Teacher.

In her special ed program position, Mrs. Peterson helped athletes keep their grades up and improve student learning outcomes school-wide. Her main passion above all else is “being able to impact in a positive way the lives of the people around me for Christ…how many people can I get into heaven with me?” And truthfully, in her position, she does a darn good job.

And of course, she wouldn’t be a true teacher at heart if she didn’t have her beloved hobby of reading. “It [reading] transports me; I am literally in another place… if the book is good. It’s a gift to be able to do this.” Her genre of choice is historical fiction and historical nonfiction. Her first favorite series was Little House on the Prairie, as the simpler way of life made an appeal to her from a young age. Mrs. Peterson is always in the middle of a book and she always has at least one novel going at a time.

Aside from her most well-known hobby, she does in fact have other interests in the chamber. She also takes delight in writing, crocheting, camping in Carpinteria, spending time with family, all while taking care of animals (she’s a huge animal fan [specifically dogs]). As much as she loves these hobbies, including reading, her favorite will always be spending quality time with her children. She enjoys going to amusement parks, playing board games, and traveling with them.

Mrs. Peterson has been married for 31 years (32 in February 2026) and has five adult children. Casey, Ryan, and Bella are her biological children, while Stevie and Sean were adopted. No matter how they became part of the family, one thing is clear—Mrs. Peterson loves them all deeply and equally. It’s a kind of love that’s truly beautiful to see.

She also fostered three other children throughout the years— all of whom returned to their original homes— and keeps in contact with them all.

Beyond her occasional trips to Carpinteria, Mrs. Peterson doesn’t travel much, but she spontaneously decided to move to Las Vegas when she was 18. This didn’t last very long since she couldn’t find much work in Vegas because most jobs require you to be 21. Fast forward to an outdoor ed trip years into the future, she went into the lava tubes in Mammoth and repelled off the side of a mountain on a rope. Yeah, she definitely got over Vegas. Everyone knows the crazy life is here in California.

Now that you know what she has done, let’s delve into what she will do (or at least hopes to do).

Although she isn’t much of a traveler, Mrs. Peterson would like to visit Italy or Spain, as she claims them to be her “roots” considering that’s where her ancestry dates back to (her family also resides there). But she does have one major goal for her future— given she’s already checked her metaphorical boxes of adopting children and becoming a mother— to write and publish a book.

Starting in 2004, she indulged in being a freelance writer for about 10 years. She wrote for pleasure, not money, even though she got paid for some of her work. She wrote for the Valley News; the column was called Valley Mom. Valley Mom was a satirical column, so it was mostly humorous; she also wrote a piece on Father’s Day for Southern Living Magazine eventually, though this piece was not humorous.

Given this, she’s relatively qualified for the task of writing a book (I say relatively because I don’t know what it takes to be 100% qualified to write a book), especially with all the homework (leisure reading) she’s been doing to prepare for this kind of particular subject that not everyone can master.

Needless to say, without Mrs. Peterson, our academic support system would not be even remotely close to what it is now. It is because of her love and support that kids who struggle academically end up thriving. She offers the best possible solutions when life in the classroom gets difficult; and even I can attest to this. She stands by students and helps us take our problems by the jugular. Not everyone is built for the job. It takes someone with optimism, patience, and a heavy dosage of loving encouragement: someone like Mrs. Peterson.