• Summer
  • Calendar
  • Students
  • Parents
  • Faculty/Staff
  • Alumni
  • ChargerHub

Albuquerque Academy

  • Apply
  • Visit
  • Get Info
  • Support
  • Contact Us
  • About
        • About-Us
        • We believe that children's lives change when their natural passion for learning is nurtured and transformed into habits of life-long learning and reflection. We believe that the world changes as these children learn to serve country and community with wisdom, conviction, and compassion.

      • Overview
      • Strategic Plan
      • By the Numbers
      • History and Traditions
      • News and Events
      • Administration & Board
      • Campus
    • Close
  • Admission
        • Admission Banner
        • Our admission process allows us to meet families, like yours, with curious and motivated students who would benefit from an Albuquerque Academy education and contribute to our community. We’ll get to know each other through the admission process that includes workshops, group activities, and other fun, child-centered events.

      • Admission Home
      • Start Your Application
      • Meet the Academy
      • Affording the Academy
      • Hear What Our Students Have to Say
    • Close
  • Academics
        • Academics-Menu
        • Albuquerque Academy is an independent, college preparatory day school for boys and girls in grades six through twelve. The Academy prides itself on offering an educational program based on creative, independent doing and thinking.

      • Overview
      • Academics by Division
      • Departments
      • Library
      • Outcomes
      • 1:1 Computer Program
      • College Guidance
      • Peterson Learning Support
    • Close
  • Athletics
        • athletics-menu
        • Athletics is an integral part of the Academy experience. Every season our student-athletes gain lifelong lessons in the value of competition, perseverance, hard work, and the true meaning of teamwork.

      • Chargers Athletics
      • College Outreach
      • Chargers Playing in College
      • Teams and Coaches
      • Schedules and Scores
      • Facilities and Locations
    • Close
  • Campus Life
        • Campus-Life
        • Beyond the classroom, nearly all Albuquerque Academy students are involved in multiple extracurricular activities. Opportunities abound to participate in a wide range of clubs and activities, exchange programs, community service and sustainability initiatives, and student publications.

      • Overview
      • Diversity, Culture & Belonging
      • Clubs/Activities
      • Publications
      • Student Resources
      • Exchange Programs
      • Cool Places & Spaces
    • Close
  • Community
        • Community-menu
        • Inherent in the Albuquerque Academy mission is a commitment to supporting the wider community through outreach and community service. In addition to the Community and Global Citizenship program that is part of the curriculum, the Academy offers a number of other programs for the wider community.

      • Community Service
      • Parent Association
      • Think Academy
      • Levanta Institute for Music and Creativity
      • Charger Aquatics
      • Desert Oasis Teaching Garden
      • Community Academy
      • Community Builders
    • Close
  • Employment
You are here: Home / Counseling and Human Development

Counseling & Human Development

The counselors at Albuquerque Academy promote skills-based, social-emotional learning, including helping students develop self-awareness, emotional regulation, empathy, and healthy decision making. We believe that these skills are the hallmarks of young adults who are successful in their relationships, college, and workplace environments.

Cathann Dragone-Gutierrez

8-9 Division
dragonegutierrez@aa.edu | 596-0590

Cathann was born and raised just outside of Manhattan. After attending school on the upper west side, she and her girlfriends took a road trip across the country. It was then that she fell in love with star-drenched skies in the land of enchantment. After attending UNM for her masters in counseling, she has spent her career working with children and families in both a school and clinical counseling setting. She is an experienced supervisor and worked as a clinical director for a community counseling agency. Her approach to counseling is relationship-based, grounded in interpersonal neurobiological tenants and trauma informed. She spent several years as an adjunct faculty member teaching graduate-level social workers on the topics of grief and loss and issues in supervision. She is an endorsed level-3 infant mental health specialist and child-parent psychotherapist. When she isn’t reading professional texts, she spends her free time raising her two daughters, cooking big Italian meals, hiking with her husband, gardening, and doing yoga. She loves travel and has a knack for finding unique Airbnbs and planning family vacations.

B.S., Family Studies and Human Services, University of New Mexico
M.S., Counseling, University of New Mexico 

Make an appointment.

Anacarmen Guambaña

10-12 Division
guambana@aa.edu | 828-3221

Anacarmen is a fierce devotee to young people and a multi-passionate creative with roots in her beloved Ecuador and northern New Mexico. For well over a decade, she has been living her purpose as a trusted ally for others as they lean into the vulnerable tender places and unpack the messy, alongside the beautiful. She works with kids’ growing edges– normalizing the struggle and co-creating anchors that support a grounded witnessing of oneself to work more gracefully and meaningfully within oneself. The essence of her work is realized as kids come to own their inherent worthiness and capacity for greatness.

When she isn’t pouring deep care, presence and heart into students, you will regularly find her pursuing her aspiring role of “superhero” to her own boy cub and spending time with family. The fullness of her truth isn’t known without making mention of her four decades of study, performance, and instruction of dance, (i.e. ballet, flamenco, hip hop, tribal fusion belly dance, salsa, tango, and Haitian), her affection for putting her hands on the piano, and her “nurture through nature” riff that comes alive by spending time in the wild—from the Spanish Pyrenees’ landscape of contrasts, to the untethered jungle of the Amazon, to our backyard sanctuary of mountains in the Southwest.

B.A., University of New Mexico
M.S., New Mexico Highlands University

Make an appointment.

Resources

  • Make a Referral
  • National Suicide Prevention Hotline
  • NM Connect App: iPhone or Android
  • Meet the Counselors
  • Mental Health Mondays
  • Creating a Space for Healing webinar recording and handout
Kevin Mancini

8-9 Division
mancini@aa.edu | 398-3990

Born and raised west of Philadelphia, Kevin attended college in Williamsburg, Virginia. From there, he spent seven years in New York City doing real estate and owning/operating a cafe with friends. Kevin then studied transpersonal psychology in Palo Alto, CA before landing in Corrales. Prior to working at the Academy, Kevin spent eight years as a marriage and family therapist, helping guide both children and adults in living authentic, well lives. Kevin enjoys sports of all kinds, strategic thinking, philosophy, adventures, gardening/yard work, laughing as much as possible, and life on the beach. Kevin’s world always begins with his wife, Jaime, and his three daughters, Jianna, Sage, and Isla.

B.A. Psychology, College of William and Mary
M.A. Counseling Psychology, Sophia University

Make an appointment.

Rebecca Marianetti

10-12 Division
marianetti@aa.edu | 451-4035

Rebecca has worked extensively in the mental health field in Arizona and New Mexico and has trained with trauma experts from around the world. She has cultivated techniques in mindfulness based stress reduction, which includes an ongoing certification in DBT (Dialetical Behavior Therapy) and Polyvagal Theory informed therapy. Rebecca enjoys helping young people learn how to come into the present moment to create wellness for themselves. She has a regular yoga practice and enjoys anything outdoors, including hiking in the mountains and sailing with her husband and two daughters.

B.S. Psychology, Regis University
M.S.W. Arizona State University

Make an appointment.

Lorrie Swanson

6-7 Division
swanson@aa.edu | 828-3270

Lorrie is a native New Mexican having grown up in Los Alamos who has been involved in education her entire professional career. She worked in the Oakland Public Schools before earning her masters degree, and since moving back to New Mexico, has spent time working with the Albuquerque Public Schools and most recently the Rio Rancho Public Schools. Lorrie is a mother of two and enjoys reading, hiking, and spending time with family. She is passionate about social justice, meditation, and doing her part to make the world a better place.

B.A. Sociology, Economics minor
M.S.W. Smith College for Social Work

Make an appointment. 

RULER

At Albuquerque Academy, we prioritize your child’s social and emotional development. We are excited to be implementing RULER, an evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning developed at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. RULER is also an acronym for the skills of emotional intelligence: recognizing emotions, understanding emotions, labeling emotions, expressing emotions, and regulating emotions. Research from the field of emotion science finds that children who understand and manage their feelings make more responsible decisions, have stronger relationships, and perform better in school.

Students work on building their skills during family time and advisory. As they learn more about the skills of emotional intelligence, we’d like to do that in partnership with parents. Opportunities for parents and caregivers to learn more about RULER will be available throughout the year. Parents will receive specific dates and times in the weekly newsletter, and that can visit this page for details.

We look forward to partnering with families and encourage you to join an upcoming workshop that provides an excellent overview of RULER for families of middle school students.

6400 Wyoming Blvd NE
ABQ, New Mexico 87109-3899

Phone:
505-828-3200

  • About
  • Admission
  • Academics
  • Athletics
  • Campus Life
  • Community
  • Apply
  • Visit
  • Get Info
  • Give
  • Contact Us
  • Employment

Follow Us

Albuquerque Academy is an independent, college-preparatory day school for students in grades 6 through 12 and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, creed, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or disability in admissions, the administration of its educational policies, tuition assistance, athletics, and other school-administered programs.

© Albuquerque Academy | Website by EnvisionIT Solutions | Login | Privacy Policy

Albuquerque Academy is an independent, college-preparatory day school for students in grades 6 through 12 and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, creed, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or disability in admissions, the administration of its educational policies, tuition assistance, athletics, and other school-administered programs.

© Albuquerque Academy | 6400 Wyoming Blvd NE Albuquerque, New Mexico 87109-3899 | Ph: 505-828-3200 | Login | Privacy Policy

  • ChargerHub
  • About
  • Admission
  • Academics
  • Athletics
  • Campus Life
  • Community
  • Start Your Application
  • Support
  • Calendar
  • Students
  • Parents
  • Faculty/Staff
  • Alumni
  • Summer
  • Contact Us
  • Search