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Meet Our Founder

Diane Cutler Lewis is an educator, entrepreneur, and philanthropist committed to helping students reach their highest potential. She began tutoring a friend's daughter and within one year, had 21 students from referrals. The best part was that she loved her students as they poured laughter and joy into her heart. Tutoring quickly became Diane's passion and life purpose.

She founded A+ In Home Tutors in 2003 to promote educational awareness and customized learning for students of all backgrounds and grade levels. The organization has grown to be one of the leading tutoring vendors to many Charter Schools and community partners throughout California. In 2021, Diane launched Firefly Tutors, presented by A+ In Home Tutors, to continue to expand tutoring services with the goal of more positively impacting greater numbers of students in all 50 United States.

Diane earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University Northridge, majoring in Liberal Studies and Education with a California Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential in K-8th grade learning.

Diane's career in education was inspired by her father, Morris Cutler. In 2019, she published Education Warrior, an inspirational memoir of her father that highlights his global impact on education in Afghanistan, Kenya, and California. Also, as a tribute to her father, she founded Education Warrior, a not-for-profit created to provide much-needed tutoring for vulnerable at-risk children of families with high hopes but little money who are the most likely to drop out of school.

In addition to her passion for making education accessible to all, Diane embraces travel, people from diverse cultures, delicious foods, art, music, theatre and enjoys an active, healthy lifestyle in Anaheim, California.

Diane@fireflytutors.com
888-505-5930

Diane Lewis

Founder and CEO

Our Story

What we believe

We believe every student deserves the opportunity to develop to their highest potential. Unfortunately, many students fall through the cracks with traditional education. We offer customized multi sensory integration to maximize the learning experience.

What we do

Selecting the right tutor can be a challenging process. We guide parents through the process with exceptional customer service and helpful information to assure your student is matched with the best tutor to help them succeed. Our experienced tutors are experts at relating curriculum to your student’s interests and hobbies. This unique combination of understanding students’ needs and matching your student with the right tutor and learning solution helps to deliver exceptional academic results.

What guides us

What is best for students is what guides us. For any action we take, our strategic lens, or North Star, is “how will this benefit students?”

Our Leadership Team

Star Galmore

Education Consultant
Star is a certified educator and therapist. A recent school teacher of the year award winner, she strives to help others reach self-mastery and takes pride in maintaining a high level of professionalism. Star currently resides in Raleigh, NC, and enjoys spending time with her family and fur baby chihuahua.
star@fireflytutors.com

Tyler Cunningham

Education Consultant
Tyler is deeply passionate about individualized learning that brings out the best in students. With over five years of experience managing and developing arts education programs, he excels in problem-solving and relationship-building, the magic formula that makes learning possible. Based in Virginia, Tyler pursues his long-term quest to beat his chess partner and become fluent in German.

tyler.cunningham@fireflytutors.com

Seth Alfarero

Administrative Assistant
Leseth, a seasoned corporate sales professional, has become a versatile virtual assistant, supporting businesses across various industries for over a decade. Based in Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines, she takes great pride in balancing her professional endeavors alongside the joys of motherhood, caring for her six sons alongside her supportive husband.
seth@fireflytutors.com

Tracy Davis

HR & Accounting Manager
Tracy leads the HR & Accounting department here at Firefly Tutors. She has over 20 years of HR and Accounting experience. When Tracy isn't working, she's homeschooling her daughters. In Tracy's freetime she enjoys reading, working out, and teaching others about budgeting and health & wellness. Tracy resides in Virginia with her family.
tracy@fireflytutors.com

Emily Allen

Tutor Talent Scout
Emily is a homeschool mom to six children, with 15 years of experience. She loves tutoring because of the individualized help each student gets and the opportunity to build relationships with the families being served. Emily loves gardening, singing, and Zumba. She lives in Auburn, California with her family.
emily@fireflytutors.com

Anna Kasson

Marketing Director
Anna leads our Firefly Tutors marketing team, providing effective communication to our parents, teachers, school administrators, and tutors. She brings 6 years of experience with the past 3 years managing teams of marketing specialists. Anna’s strengths soar in website management, social media, content creation, and advertising.
anna@fireflytutors.com

FAQ

Firefly Tutors believes every student deserves the opportunity to develop to their full potential. We take the time to understand your student’s learning style to match your student with the tutor that has the experience and skills that are right for your student. Our experienced tutors design a personalized multi-sensory learning experience for your student based on their learning needs. Unlike other tutoring firms, Firefly Tutors helps students learn valuable life skills beyond the classroom. Our goal at Firefly Tutors is to help your student discover their light and illuminate their potential.
We offer tutoring across the United States. No matter what your location in the U.S., we can help.
At a minimum, you should expect that your student achieves learning success in the subject or subjects needed. With Firefly Tutors you can expect more. Our tutors help your student learn the academic material but also help your student build life skills and confidence for successful learning in the future.
Pod learning is designed to teach groups of students. Participating students can be from multiple families or within the same family. Often pods are created by parents who have joined together to help their respective students as a group. Learning pods can be as small as 2 to 3 students or as large as 4 to 6 students. Pod learning offers the benefit of social interaction with other students along with the learning experience. Depending on the situation, pod learning can also be less expensive per student. Firefly Tutors can help assess if pod learning is a good fit for your student or family.
At Firefly Tutors, we spend the time upfront to understand your student’s learning style, hobbies, and specific learning needs. We then match your student with a tutor who defines a personalized plan for your student. We do not offer ‘cookie-cutter’ learning plans. Everything we deliver at Firefly Tutors is tailored to your student’s needs.
It depends. There is strong evidence that in-home tutoring is the most effective for most students. However, with evolving tools for online learning, this model can be as effective as well. After learning more about your student and your family situation, we will recommend what’s best for your student.
If your student is falling behind or struggling in school, this could be a sign that tutoring is needed. Your student may seem to lack confidence or lose interest in learning. These are also signs that tutoring could help. Our first step is to learn more about your student’s situation. We will provide you guidance based on our years of experience to identify if tutoring is right for your student.

Tutor Of The Month

September 2024
Danelle Barr

Introducing Danelle Barr, our outstanding Tutor of the Month for September 2024! Danelle resides in the beautiful city of Laguna Niguel, CA, and has been a valuable member of the Firefly Tutors team for a year. She brings over 20 years of experience working with children.

Armed with a degree in International Relations, Danelle specializes in tutoring Reading and Writing. Her approach goes beyond academic success, focusing on building confidence and making learning enjoyable. Danelle's commitment to this approach is truly inspiring, as she takes pride in assessing each student's strengths, developing their skills, and implementing creative strategies that set them on the path to success. She believes embracing each family's unique needs is an honor and she cherishes being part of their student’s educational journey.

Danelle's proudest moments as a tutor come from helping students understand that mistakes are a natural part of learning. She reminds them that through practice and perseverance, anything is possible. "Everyone has something they struggle with, and we can all do hard things," she shares, instilling a sense of resilience in her students.

Her unwavering belief in students gives us all hope and optimism for the future.

When Danelle isn't tutoring, she enjoys gardening, photography, and collecting sea glass!

We are thrilled to celebrate Danelle Barr as our Tutor of the Month for September! Her commitment to making learning fun and her ability to inspire confidence make her an invaluable part of the Firefly Tutors family.

Connect with Danelle on social media:
Facebook: Danelle Biesiot Barr
Instagram: @raisingthebarrs9

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