The PALS Program with Alex Sachs and Elissa Nowacki

Alessandra “Alex” Sachs is originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil, but grew up in the US and France. In 1993, she moved back to Brazil and pursued an undergraduate degree in Physical Education at FEFISA. She followed with a Master’s degree in Sports Psychology at UNIFMU, where she worked under Brazil’s top Sports Psychology, Dr. Regina Brandao. In 2000, her Master’s thesis was published at the Sports Psychology World Conference in Skiathos, Greece. She met Dr. Darren Treasure and Dr. Cristina Versari at the conference and in 2001 was invited to be a doctoral candidate at Arizona State University under the guidance of Dr. Treasure. Unfortunately, a year later Dr. Treasure left the university and Alex transferred to San Diego University of Interactive Studies under the leadership Of Dr. Versari. Alex played professional soccer for 11 years on the Brazilian Women’s National Team. She has a silver medal from the 2004 Olympic Games and a gold medal from the 2007 Pan American Games. She was inducted into the Brazilian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2005. Alex worked at the Jewish Community Center for 11 years, was a program manager for Playworks Arizona for 3 years and now works for the Scottsdale Police Department as the Crime Prevention Police Aide for the Via Linda District. Elissa Nowacki has worked with children most of her life, starting in her early teens, babysitting the neighborhood kids. She worked with the YMCA after school programs in high school and while getting her teaching degree from ASU. She spent many summers working at residential summer camps in the mountains of Prescott AZ and the Pocono Hills in Pennsylvania. She started teaching in Maryvale in 1996 and spent the next 20 years at the same school. She spent most of her years teaching 5th grade. In 2016, she stepped into a new role as an instructional coach. In 2018 she started on her School Administrator journey! She loves her current school community and hopes to be able to serve there for many years.