Faculty

200 years of teaching experience + 150 years in authentic Montessori classrooms

= an unmatched educational experience for your child

Meet the MMS faculty and staff: front row, from left: Karen Kelly, Maria Kershner, Suzanne Sanders, David Pushkin and Beth George; back row, from left: Rachel Scarpelli, Jennifer Carriger, Dana Gilliland, Kathryn Rhoads, Samantha Van Den Berghe, Nancy Johnston, Fran West and Amanda Cox. Missing: Julie Margolis and Gloria Lopez.

A quality education for your child starts with qualified teachers in the classroom. At Mountaineer Montessori, you’ll find highly-experienced and dedicated faculty and staff who are passionate about education and committed to nurturing your child’s unique potential. All lead teachers are AMS or AMI certified (see below) and bring more than 200 combined years of professional education experience — 150 in authentic Montessori classrooms — to MMS.

Education

MMS faculty pursued higher education at the following: University of Akron; Anglia Ruskin University (United Kingdom); Baldwin-Wallace University; Bethany College; Cleveland State University; Cornell University; Columbia University; Duke University; Longy School of Music at Bard College; Loyola University of Maryland; Marietta College; Marshall University; University of Massachusetts-Amherst; Middle Tennessee State University; New England Conservatory of Music; Penn State University; Rhode Island School of Design; San Francisco Art Institute; University of Vermont; West Virginia State University; West Virginia University; and Wright State University.

Montessori training

All MMS faculty train at programs approved by the American Montessori Society (AMS) or Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), the two most established and widely-recognized certification programs worldwide. AMS and AMI certification programs, which require extensive on-campus training and testing and ongoing in-person collaboration with expert mentors and fellow students, generally exceed the requirements of the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (MATCE). All MMS lead faculty members are fully certified.

MMS faculty have trained at the following AMS and AMI approved institutions: Center for Montessori Teaching Education, New York; Midwest Montessori Teacher Training Center, Evanston, Ill.; Montessori Education Center of the Rockies, Boulder, Colo.; Virginia Montessori Teacher Education Center, Chesapeake, Va.; and the Washington Montessori Institute at Loyola University, Baltimore.

Meet our faculty (please see the biography section for each department for complete descriptions of each faculty member’s experience and education.)

Administrative staff