Taylion High Desert Academy Board of Directors

We thank the members of our Governing Board for their dedication to upholding the mission and values at Taylion. The board of directors and staff at Taylion pursue excellence in all they do, working hard to support students and families in becoming college and career ready through personalized learning.

Tadios Belay

President

Dr. Tadios Belay has over ten years of experience in education, academic research, advocacy, human rights, immigration, legal service, teaching and non-profit management. As President, he serves as an advocate and liaison between the school and community and supports students in achieving their goals in the classroom and beyond.

  • L. B. in General Law from Hawasa University
  • L. M. in International and Comparative Law from University of San Francisco
  • Completed Executive Education program at Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government
  • Doctor of Education from University of Southern California

Kimberly Tucker

Secretary and Treasurer

Kimberly Tucker works as a globally certificated IB teacher in the Primary Years Program at Casita Center for STEM.  After nine years teaching in various grade levels throughout North San Diego County, she is happy to have found her current position as a 1st grade teacher and will be starting her 4th year in this grade level this Fall. Kimberly is passionate about giving her students tools and strategies to be independent learners who embrace people and cultures from around the world through inquiry.

  • BA in English from Brigham Young University
  • K-6 Teaching Certificate from University of Richmond, Virginia
  • Global IB Certificate from California State University, San Marcos

ELIZABETH HULSEY

Board Member

Destiny Irons

Board Member

Destiny Irons is a passionate storyteller and digital content strategist with two decades’ experience in digital media. Her unique background has brought her into a variety of industries, from science and technology to literature and academia.

Destiny appreciates the combination of creativity and data, specifically the ability to measure the results of a piece of content to see how it resonates with an intended audience in the short and long term. She is a talented long form content writer, and able to break the content apart and strategize it for different audiences across multiple platforms. She has led teams to success and enjoys learning from her teams as well as mentoring them.

She’s worked as the senior marketing director of a health tech startup, the senior editor of a major deals and shopping website, and before that ran her own SEO content creation and strategy consulting business for fifteen years, working with solopreneurs to mid range clients in the defense, IT, hedge fund and adult learning space as well as ghostwriting nonfiction titles for Forbes and Ocean Cloud Media.

She attended her undergraduate schooling at UC San Diego, and completed her Masters in Fine Arts, Creative Writing at Chapman University.

Destiny enjoys hiking, backpacking and rock climbing as well as trail running and yoga. A rebel to her core, she refuses to pay full price for anything and is an avid bargain hunter, scouring estate sales and thrift stores for vintage treasures, and gets a rush from finding a deal.