While nurturing mental health, Klipfel inspires young people to acquire dreams, ambition, confidence, and skills. For three decades, Klipfel has used his position as a teacher, coach, and adviser to challenge all students to develop these foundations, and he works at the school and district level to implement research-backed reforms. Born in Nebraska and educated in California, Klipfel is the youngest of eight. During WWII, his father was a SeaBee and his mother worked on the homefront. They were hard-working patriots who instilled a respect for education and the Golden Rule. Klipfel earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in history and political science from the University of California, Davis. He conducted graduate work at the University of California, Irvine and studied Spanish at the University of California, Los Angeles. Klipfel currently teaches 11th-grade Advanced Placement United States history and coaches swimming at Saugus High School in Saugus, California. He has supported science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM) programs via his science Olympiad team, career paths with a journalism program, and struggling ninth-graders with a teamed intervention class. He attributes his education to his father’s access to the GI bill—and the inspiring accomplishments of his older siblings. Klipfel’s primary motivation to teach is to ease the challenges of growing up and getting an education. He believes students thirst for caring mentors to drive them toward their potential. Klipfel thanks his mentors for his professional accomplishments and welcomes the opportunity to pay that favor forward—to students and colleagues.