Pacifica Stories

Kelly Kurtenbach grew up in Danville, a small town outside of San Francisco. She attended undergrad at UC Berkeley (go bears!) and received a BA in Psychology. Her graduate school years were spent in Moraga, CA at Saint Mary's College of California, where she received an MA in Counseling with a specialization in school counseling. Of the many lessons she learned in her time at Cal and Saint Mary's, Kelly says, “the most valuable [lesson] I've carried with me is the importance of community. Being in community has offered me a deep sense of stability throughout life's many twists and turns. While it takes time to establish those relationships, knowing I get to live life with a group of people who see, know, and love one another deeply is sustaining and an essential part of life.”

Ms. Kurtenbach, known as Ms. K around campus, came to Pacifica through a series of Google searches. She had heard about Pacifica through a friend going through a job search of their own and decided to look up the school to see what it was about. She was in the process of discerning what she wanted in terms of a counseling role at a school and was not finding anything with the "spark" in the Bay Area. Kelly came across the academic counselor role, applied before she could talk herself out of the opportunity, and the rest is history! 

“My favorite aspect of counseling is working with students on setting, creating, and meeting goals,” says Ms. K. “Whatever that goal may be, it is a joy to be in the process and journey with students on their unique paths to success.”

In her time at Pacifica so far, Kelly has brought meaningful guidance, a dry sense of humor, and a genuine display of the intersection between faith and work to campus. While she called Northern California and the Bay Area home for many years, she’s now discovering that West Los Angeles has a unique charm and is excited to embrace all that living and working in Southern California has to offer. 

Most of Kelly’s spare time is spent at the barn riding her horse Zoe. A rare thing to do in Los Angeles! She started riding at the age of 10 and fell in love with horses and the sport of 3-day-eventing. Horses have taught her many valuable lessons over the years: partnership, trust, responsibility, balance, work ethic, how to have fun, the value in facing your fears, and getting up when you inevitably fall down. Outside of riding, Ms. K enjoys anything that gets her outside and near a body of water, reading books from a variety of genres, drinking coffee, and exploring LA's many neighborhoods.