STUDENT SERVICES

Licensed counselors are available for students and their families as needed. Various types of counseling support are integral to Catalyst. Because supporting our students’ ultimate health and well-being is of utmost importance to us, our counselors create a “bridge” between any therapeutic work a student is doing outside of school and their daily lives at Catalyst High School. We communicate with students’ therapeutic supports to ensure that we are all working as a team to support students as they work through social and emotional challenges so that they can succeed academically. Although licensed counselors are on staff and available for students and their families as needed, referrals may be made to outside services if more support is necessary.

Doyle Johnson, Counselor
Guidance and College Prep Counselor
Email: 
Phone: (303) 604-6512

Originally from the Midwest, Doyle Johnson has worked with young people for thirty years as a counselor, teacher and coach in Iowa, Arkansas and Colorado. After working on his family farm and participating in high school sports and music, he attended Northwestern College on an athletic scholarship while majoring in Physical Education and Social Sciences. In preparation for a career working with youth, he then received a Master’s degree in Guidance and Human Development at the University of Iowa. In addition to working with diverse student populations, unique and inspiring young people and stunning colleagues, he enjoys a diverse balance of interests. Johnson is an avid golfer, closet tap dancer, theatre and opera-goer and a master of the bongos. He possesses a passion for reading, wishes to write and be published and enjoys the outdoors through snowshoeing and hiking. He is a diverse music enthusiast, NPR supporter and animal lover. Married to his wife Leigh, a professor at CU-Boulder, they enjoy travel and braving new horizons together. As a guidance counselor in the Boulder Valley School District for the last fifteen years, his life has been constructed around the social-emotional challenges of his students, the devising of plans of hope for their journeys after graduation and a sincere and continued openness as to what students continue to teach him. Two of his former students have attended and graduated from Catalyst and he is thankful to have the opportunity to be a part of such an institution.

 

Brenda Von Star, FNPC
Nurse
E-mail
Phone (303) 604-6512

Brenda is a Family Nurse Practitioner who started her career as a Navy Hospital Corpsman during the Vietnam War. After discharge from the Navy, Brenda attended and graduated from nursing school in Oregon. She moved to beautiful Colorado in 1973 and worked at several Denver metro area hospitals over the next six years. She earned her Family Nurse Practitioner certificate from CU Denver Health Sciences Center in 1979. She is trained to see all age groups and is authorized to prescribe medications, see acute problems (i.e. colds, fevers, sprains/strains, simple lacerations), do preventive exams (physicals) and manage chronic problems.

Andrea Braney
Special Education Consultant