Mandi Franz, M.Ed., was a Montessori student from age 18 months through Upper Elementary. She is the teaching coach at Ross Montessori Charter School in Carbondale, Colorado. She has 14 years of experience as an elementary Montessori guide in the public sector and has been coaching since 2016. She is an instructor at the Montessori Education Center of the Rockies in Denver, Colorado in the Elementary and Administration programs. Mandi volunteers as a member of the AMS Teacher Education Action Commission (TEAC). Credentials: AMS Elementary 1 and Administration.

Uniit Carruyo is an artist, author, and educator. She has over 25 years of experience working with 0-6 children and their families. Ms. Carruyo is a Montessori teacher trainer passionate about the transformation possible through brave self-awareness. Ms. Carruyo’s publications include Team Teaching in Early Childhood Settings: Leadership Tools for Reflective Practice, Clarice, and Montessori Life, among others.

Molly O’Shaughnessy is an accomplished AMI trainer as well as a consultant and lecturer. She has led the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota (MCM) for 20 years of expansion, growing a teacher training center into a movement to bring high-quality Montessori education to hundreds of underserved children. In 2008 O’Shaughnessy opened MCM’s campus in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood in East St. Paul.  The campus includes an early childhood center, a teacher training center, and a one-of-a-kind Montessori museum. Additionally, MCM partners with Cornerstone Montessori Elementary School, a separate charter serving children kindergarten through sixth grade. The campus features much natural life, wood and stone materials, art, a greenhouse and a wetland.  

Through a pilot program called Montessori Partners Serving All Children (MPSAC), O’Shaughnessy helped launch ten Montessori schools in under-resourced neighborhoods. Through the MPSAC initiative, MCM forms partnerships with local communities to increase their access to high-fidelity Montessori early childhood education. These partnerships include community-rooted schools as well as less conventional educational settings, with a goal to strengthen bonds between home, school, and community in a culturally responsive way. The program also provides ongoing support and guidance. 

A noted authority in the field of Montessori training, she has served on the board of the Association of Montessori Internationale in Amsterdam, was a long-time member of the AMI Trainers Group, chairs the board of the MM75 fund which provides assistance for future AMI teacher trainers, and was a member of the Montessori Leaders Collaborative. She is in demand as a speaker nationally and internationally and has presented keynotes and workshops across the United States as well as Canada, Australia, Mexico, China and Europe. She has consulted on several Montessori projects nationally and internationally.   She has a Master’s degree in Education from Loyola University in Maryland and a Bachelor’s degree from the College of St. Scholastica.  She serves as Community Faculty for Metropolitan State University and served as an adjunct faculty for St. Catherine University for several years. 

In June 2016 she was given the Early Childhood Honors Award by the Start Early Funders Coalition for her “unwavering dedication to improving the lives of young children and their families. She also received the Wisdom of the Elders Award granted by the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (MACTE) in recognition of leadership throughout the Montessori community as an educator, writer, and innovator (2015-2016).

Donohue, now semi-retired, has been a Montessorian for over 40 years, serving in multiple capacities starting as classroom assistant to lead teacher to teacher educator to conference presenter and writer. She holds AMS credentials at both the I/T and EC levels. Have lunch and hear from Donohue as you consider the challenges and possibilities of what Montessori can mean IRL.