Discover Our Staff

Darryl Garris is the principal for Stella High Charter Academy, and he leads the school to ensure all Eagles achieve academic excellence and grow their unique talents so they find joy and fulfillment in higher education, career, and life.

Previously, Darryl served Bright Star Schools as principal of Stella Middle Charter Academy (Grades 5-6) and as assistant principal of Stella Middle Charter Academy. Darryl also taught pre-algebra, algebra readiness, and Algebra 1 at Stella Middle Charter Academy and Bright Star Secondary Charter Academy.

Prior to joining Bright Star Schools, Darryl was a teacher at Dorsey High School as a Teach For America corps member.

Darryl holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in environmental economics from UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources. He also holds a master’s degree in urban education, a master’s degree in school administration, and a certificate in charter school leadership from Loyola Marymount University's School of Education.

Originally born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, Elizabeth, a first-generation college graduate, went to Gertz-Ressler High School near the Pico-Union area of the city. At 18, she took the biggest leap of faith that would change her life and moved to the midwest to attend the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in St. Joseph, Minnesota.

St. Joseph became her new home for the next 4 years. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Hispanic Studies and Communications, and also studied abroad in Guatemala where she was able to connect to her roots through food and poetry.

After graduating from college, Elizabeth served in College Possible AmeriCorps as a college coach, where she mentored and coached numerous first-generation and low-income college students. She then became a high school college counselor for the next 4 years at a private Jesuit high school in Twin Cities, Minnesota. She fulfilled a goal of 100% college acceptance rate for all students and collaborated with Georgetown University to create a retention and persistence program.

After living in Minnesota for 10 years, she returned to replant her California roots. She is thankful and grateful for the countless mentors she had along her journey. She looks to pay it forward to under-resourced and historically excluded communities to ensure they have access to information, resources, and higher education.

Supporting: Bright Star Schools alumni, classes of 2010-2022, in graduate school applications and career coaching

M.A., Harvard Graduate School of Education, Class of 2010

B.A., University of California, Los Angeles, Class of 1997

Genoveva Garibay Cortes has over two decades of experience working as an elementary and middle school teacher, K-12 and college administrator, and program coordinator. She was Bright Star Schools’ founding math teacher for Stella Middle Charter Academy in 2003, and currently serves as the Director of the Alumni Support and College Success (ASCS) Program for the organization. Geno developed and launched Bright Star’s ASCS Program to support the organization’s alumni to persist in and graduate from higher education. ASCS tracks, supports, and coaches Bright Star Schools' alumni to get to and through higher education, with a goal of 60% of Bright Star Schools alumni graduating with a bachelor's or associate's degree, vocational certificate, or from a workplace development program within six years of high school graduation. Geno is a former foster youth and the first in her family to have graduated from college. She is passionate about educational equity and reform, and social justice.