Student Wellness

Brenna Chiaputti is a Middle School counselor who supports our middle school students, parents, and faculty through trusting relationships and psychoeducation to promote a healthy school climate. Ms. Chiaputti has an extensive background in counseling and social/emotional training. She served as a school social worker at The Gilbert School in Winstead, CT, for five years, where she developed social-emotional programming, provided counseling, and facilitated affinity groups. As a clinician at the Family Resource and Development Center in West Hartford, she provided individual, group, and family counseling, utilizing a range of treatment modalities. She received her B.A. from Hamilton College, an M.A. in English from Trinity College, and an M.S.W from the University of Connecticut. By partnering with our teachers, Ms. Chiaputti will continue to foster a climate of inclusiveness at the Middle School.

For Jennifer Hayman-Gross, it’s all about the students, ensuring the inclusivity of neurodiverse learners. In her former school as a learning specialist, she counseled parents, teachers, and class deans on issues that impacted learning and developed strategies with faculty to meet the needs of individual students with learning differences. She also met with students to tap into their potential, identifying their strengths and working through their challenges. She describes herself as an average runner, a less-than-average cook, avid volunteer, and NCAA March Madness bracket expert.

Athena is a collaborative special educator with over 20 years of experience. Prior to KO, she consulted the Connecticut State Department of Education’s Office of Dyslexia and Reading Disabilities. She taught at St. Thomas Aquinas College as an associate professor of Teacher Education and at St. John’s University in literacy education. Athena has published extensively on reading comprehension, reading intervention, and learning disabilities.

Beth is our critical member of the KO family and is available when our students take sick at school. She was an instrumental part of our Covid Response Team and kept in close contact with the local department of health and CDC to follow guidelines to keep our community safe and healthy. 

Felicia Velez, LMSW, provides support to students with big and small emotions that they alone cannot manage in a safe space for students to breathe, relax, and refocus so they can return to being their best selves. Upon graduation from ECSU, Felicia started her social work career as an investigative social worker for the Department of Children and Families. Her 24-year career as a DCF social worker involved working extensively with families and children, spending most of her career as an after-hours investigator of child abuse and neglect covering all of Connecticut. Following this position, she worked at Hartford Hospital for five years in the Neurology/Neurosurgical/Trauma unit, supporting and counseling patients and families who have experienced life-changing medical diagnoses. Felicia is an avid learner and was recently offered to teach new graduate students at the UConn School of Social Work as an adjunct faculty member, which she regards as a rewarding opportunity to give back to the school that taught her.  Felicia loves to teach, enjoys counseling her students, and seeing them leave her office better than when they first walked in.  An advocate of self-care, Felicia practices her own self-care by reading, sewing, making and teaching jewelry, doing craft projects, and spending time with her family and friends.