Our People

Jeanne Corbett has been an educator for 33 years. She worked as a gifted teacher and then as the Director of Learning of a full-time gifted magnet program in Miami, Florida for thirteen years where she was responsible for teacher training and admissions. Ms. Corbett was honored with the "Teacher of the Year" award during this time. Ms. Corbett also worked at a college preparatory school in Tallahassee, Florida with a student body of 1,100 students, Pre-K through twelfth grade. She worked as a classroom teacher and teacher trainer before becoming the Director of Distance Learning for all grades. In addition, she was in charge of coaching education students from Florida State University (FSU), Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU), Flagler College, and Tallahassee Community College during their internships. While working on her masters in school psychology, Jeanne Corbett recognized the importance of providing gifted students the opportunities they need to address their intellectual capacity.

Mrs. Leech is the Director of Operations at HYSA and looks forward to strengthening and expanding the bonds between HYSA and ASU.  She has been with HYSA since 2010 having returned to HYSA after a two-year adventure living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and traveling throughout the Middle East.  Kathy looks forward to contributing to the international flavor of the school in this new capacity.  She feels very fortunate to have been provided with this opportunity and the have opportunity to return to HYSA.  She graduated from ASU's Barrett, The Honors College with a degree in sociology in 2020. Kathy cherishes spending time with her family and friends.  She also enjoys traveling, reading, cooking, and watching offbeat sci-fi movies.

Sheryl Shelley is the Administrative Associate at the Herberger Young Scholars Academy. Mrs. Shelley has over twenty years of experience working for K-12 schools and she has held many classified positions from teacher's assistant to principal's administrative secretary.  Mrs. Shelley has a Bachelors in Communication from Ottawa University and earned a Masters in Library and Information Sciences at the University of Arizona.  Mrs. Shelley has worked at ASU for eleven years.  She has previously worked in the Disability Resource Center as an administrative assistant before coming to the Herberger Young Scholars Academy. 

When not at work or studying, Mrs. Shelley loves to read, watch reality TV, play video games, and spend time with family and friends.

Casey Warmbrand is an Instructor at the Gary K. Herberger Young Scholars Academy at Arizona State University West Campus.  He is a mathematician, with a BS in discrete mathematics from Georgia Tech and an MS (ABD) in Mathematics from the University of Arizona. He has done research in Network Theory, Asymptotic Analysis, and Game Theory, has over 20 years of teaching and tutoring experience at all levels from middle school through graduate school. Casey has also designed, developed, and authored standards aligned mathematical content, as well as filmed video lessons for blended learning products.

Academically, Casey’s interests span the fields of mathematical modeling, theoretical computer science (algorithms & machine learning), systems engineering (optimization & efficiency), business (analysis & applications), game theory (design & strategic analysis). He has adopted a growth mindset into his teaching philosophy and strives to help all of his students do the same on a daily basis. With a family full of educators on the ELA side, he has learned to utilize the power of language when teaching mathematics. 

Casey is excited to work with the students at the Gary K. Herberger Young Scholars Academy. Outside of school, Casey can usually be found at home with his wife and their dog and son. Aside from being a lifelong learner, his hobbies include pickleball, games of strategy, and card games.

Florence Hamel holds an electronic and computer science engineering degree from the Grande Ecoles in France as well as a master's in spacecraft technology and satellite communications from University College London, UK. She has worked in her original field as a project manager in the corporate world for 5 years. She also has a strong and successful experience as an entrepreneur in the health and nutrition industry, training and leading multicultural sales teams internationally for more than 10 years. Mrs. Hamel has moved 14 times, traveled the world and immersed herself in various countries for long periods at a time fully embracing local cultures, ways of living, understanding political and economic systems and gaining firsthand experience on how people interact not only locally but also internationally.

Mrs. Hamel found her true passion for teaching when she was hired by the French Lycee in Santiago, Chile. She taught math from 6th through 10th grade. Back in Phoenix, AZ, she accepted the subject matter expert position with ASU Preparatory Academy Digital High School and built their math and science courses following the Cambridge standards. Mrs. Hamel has been a part of the Herberger Young Scholars Academy community since July 2017 as a Spanish teacher.

Most importantly, Mrs Hamel loves children and enjoys seeing them thrive and succeed exploring reasonings and ideas outside of the usual mindset. Mrs Hamel is also perfecting on a continuous basis her curriculum and teaching approaches to better serve our gifted students. She is dedicated to helping them open their minds to new approaches beyond the classic study book and enable them to see opportunities rather than problems whether it is in the classroom or in life.

Mrs. Hamel loves traveling the world with her husband Christophe and their two young adults Camille and Pierre.