Charlie Gray

he / they

Charlie grew up in the Arizona desert, dreaming of the beach and the Redwoods! After moving to Oakland in 2006 to study Illustration and Printmaking, they discovered a love for urban gardening and foraging, and assisted in the creation of two public food and dye gardens during their time at California College of the Arts. He delights in finding loquats, nettles, wild radish, nasturtium, and other urban edibles while out walking, and knows where the good secret cherry trees are. 

Charlie has worked with young children for 20 years, providing private childcare and teaching in after school and summer programs. Their first job was as costume designer for children's theater in high school. Much later in life he worked as an after school Drama teacher for Kindergarteners in San Francisco. They were thrilled to rejoin the team at Berkeley Forest School in summer 2020 after 4 years away, fondly remembering previous dreamlike summers as a substitute teacher, digging in the mud and observing caterpillar friends. A proud non-binary trans person, Charlie believes in building and holding a safe, fun container for children to freely explore who they are, applaud one another in all their successes, hold one another through difficulties, and embrace that human beings are never through with our joyful labor of growth. 

After three years heading up the BFS Kindergarten program and two as BFS Summer Camp lead, Charlie is now looking forward to new collaborative opportunities to build programming, and lines of communication, as part of the school's administrative team. They feel lucky to be working with a school that values a balance of administrative tasks and opportunities to continue working closely with the children and families we serve.