Kathleen is a founding member of Five Oaks Academy. She began her career at Five Oaks Academy as an Educational Consultant as the concept of the school was being formed. She fell in love with the project and became the Executive Director when the school opened in 2003. Kathleen began teaching in 1987 and became an acting Director of a Montessori school in 1994. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Anthropology from the University of S.C. She holds 3-6 certification in Primary Education from St. Nicholas Montessori Training Center based in London and Maitland, Florida.
As part of her Montessori Training, Kathleen completed the International Montessori Council’s (IMC) Leadership Course, “Building a World Class School”, in Alexandria, Virginia. She received leadership training from IMC, AMS, and Montessori Educational Programs International (MEPI).
Kathleen is a founding and current member of the South Carolina Montessori Alliance (SCMA), a board comprised of public and private Montessori educators located in South Carolina. For over ten years she has served the group in the roles of Chair and Vice Chair respectively. Previously, Kathleen has served as the Treasurer for MEPI.
Kathleen serves as a member of the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society (IMBES), MEPI, Learning and the Brain, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Kathleen is an educational consultant and has presented at state, national, and international workshops and conferences. Kathleen has been a presenter at IMC, AMS, SCMA, MEPI, and Polski Instytut Montessori Leadership Workshop (The Polish Institute of Montessori).
Before joining Five Oaks Academy, Kathleen was the Director of Montessori West, a private Montessori school located in Spartanburg, SC. She also taught at Parkview Montessori School in Atlanta, GA. Kathleen studied German at International Sprache Dienst (ISD) Institute in Stuttgart, Germany.
One of Kathleen’s interests is in correlating brain research with the Montessori curriculum and the Study of Happiness as researched by UC Berkeley and “The Greater Good Science center. Kathleen is completing coursework at UC Berkley’s GGSC.
