I currently serve as the Director of La Jolla Montessori School in San Diego, CA. We are a Bilingual Immersion (English / Spanish) Montessori school for ages 18 months - Kindergarten. We strive to follow Association Montessori International (AMI) curricular practices including hiring AMI Guides, protecting the 2hr/3hr work period for toddler/ primary; and following the AMI curricular sequence.My own preparation involved training as an AMI Primary Level Guide in 2014-15 from the Montessori Institute of San Diego, I subsequently spent four years, serving as a head Primary-Level Guide at Kinderhouse Montessori and the Montessori Institute of San Diego. During the pandemic I supported Scripps Montessori school. To support my growth as an administrator, I have completed courses offered by the American Montessori Society (AMS) on Effective Coaching as well as Anti-bias, Anti-racist practices and courses offered by the Montessori Medical Partnership for Inclusion (MMPI) on Universal Developmental Screening using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) and Interventions and Therapies for children with developmental disorders. Prior to moving to California I was a tenured professor at North Carolina State University. For over 10 years, I taught child development, learning theory, and research methods courses for teacher-education programs. Trained as an educational psychologist, my university teaching interests surround helping teachers use theories of development to meet their students' needs. My research interests followed three threads: examining developmental differences/changes in children's relationships with their teachers, understanding the ways in which students and teachers regulate their emotions, and exploring the enactment of pre-service and practicing teachers' beliefs. I occasionally serve as an adjunct for the psychology program at Miramar College.
Listed skills include Teaching, Curriculum Design, Staff Development, Higher Education, and 14 others.