Horatio Potter, President, and his wife, Elizabeth, have run their cattle ranch at the base of the Crazy Mountains outside Wilsall for the past ten years. Horatio serves as a Trustee for Buxton School in Williamstown, Massachusetts and is also on the Park County Environmental Council. Prior to moving to Montana in 1989, he taught in New York City Public Schools in both Special Education and the Coalition for Essential Schools. Horatio has a degree in English from Vassar College and received a Master of Fine Arts degree in writing from the University of Montana. Horatio and Liz have a son, Jeffrey, who is a graduate of The Learning Circle Montessori Elementary School.
Shaunna Kersten, Vice-President, is an adult nurse practitioner at the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Bozeman, Montana. Shaunna has served as the parent liaison to The Learning Circle Montessori Elementary School Board of Trustees, the Chair of the Parent Group Organization and has participated in various school activities with an emphasis on fundraising. She received her undergraduate degrees from St. Mary's College and the University of San Francisco and a Master's Degree in Oncology Nursing and Adult Primary Care from the University of California - San Francisco. Shaunna and her husband, Bill, have a daughter and a son who are graduates of The Learning Circle Montessori Elementary School and a son who graduated from The Learning Circle Montessori Elementary School.
Nancy Characklis, Founder and directress of The Learning Circle Montessori School Early Childhood Program, moved to Bozeman with her husband and two children in August of 1979 from Houston, Texas. Nancy worked at the School of the Woods, a renowned Montessori school in Houston from 1972-1979. In 1977, she and her family spent a year in Switzerland where she taught in the Intercommmunity School in Zurich. Nancy has more than 30 years experience as a Montessori teacher and administrator and three years experience in the public schools of Connecticut and Ohio. She graduated from Towson State College in 1964 with a Bachelor's degree in education and earned two credentials from the American Montessori Society for preprimary and elementary. Nancy also founded and was The Head of School at The Learning Circle Montessori Elementary School from its inception in 1997 through August of 2003.
Kelly Ann Brown, Treasurer, joined the board in January of 2004. She brings her knowledge of business management as well as her passion for the Montessori philosophy to the organization. She was the bookkeeper and office manager of Big Sky Screenprinting for 16 years. She and her husband, Putter, moved the business to the valley in 1990. She recently completed her Bachelor's degree in Spanish at Montana State University and intends to continue her studies throughout Latin America. Kelly Ann and Putter have a son, Juddy, who is a student at The Learning Circle Montessori Elementary School.
Matt Colón joined the board in the spring of 2006. He is a former secondary English teacher and has spent several years working in both public and private school settings in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Boulder, Colorado and Marion, Massachusetts. Matt and his wife Suzanne moved to Bozeman in 1998. Their daughter, Isabel, is a student at The Learning Circle Montessori School. Matt has degrees in English (1987) and law (1996) from the University of Michigan as well as a Master's Degree in English Literature from Middlebury College.
Denny Lee joined the board in January 2008. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degree from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. After a two year post-doctoral fellowship at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio, he came to Montana State University in 1968. There he taught physics and astronomy until his retirement in 1997. In 1970, he began working part time as an accident reconstruction expert and an expert witness, in which field he has worked full time since his retirement from MSU. He and his wife Ilse-Mari have a daughter Elizabeth, who is a student at The Learning Circle Montessori School early childhood program and who will be a student at The Learning Circle Montessori Elementary starting in the fall of 2008.
Margaret Mason joined the board in September 2007. Margaret's experience includes eight years of non-profit work as an office manager/development director at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Gallatin County and Program Director for the Human Resource Development Council's Retired and Senior Volunteer Program. She has a BA in English from the University of South Carolina. Margaret and her husband, Todd, have lived in Bozeman since 1995. They have two daughters. Liza is a student at The Learning Circle Montessori Elementary School.
Kristin Sutton joined the board in the fall of 2006. She is in her fourth year of teaching a 4th and 5th grade multiage class at Irving Elementary School in Bozeman and teaches for the Montana Outdoor Science School in the summertime. Prior to moving to Bozeman with her husband, Steve, three years ago, Kristin taught for ten years in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and her Master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Dominican University in San Rafael.
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