Faculty

Kathy, the most veteran member of the Quest staff, has seen the school grow from day one. She is a founding parent and former Board Member of Quest. She joined the teaching staff in 2005. Kathy completed her Montessori Upper Elementary training at the Seacoast Center in New Hampshire. She has a B.S. in Industrial Psychology from Clarkson University. Kathy oversees the Quest curriculum along with faculty professional development and recently completed guiding the school through a duel accreditation process with AISNE (Association of Independent Schools of New England) and AMS (American Montessori Society).

Susannah is responsible for Quest's Marketing, Communications and Development. She holds a degree in Early Childhood Education from Boston College and studied Educational Administration at Lesley University. Prior to living in South County, she spent five years teaching preschool outside of Boston and worked at Bright Horizons Family Solutions in Watertown, MA on their Sales Development team. From 2006-2016 she operated her own independent sales business for children’s apparel and gear maufacturers, working with New England retailers and is a proud Quest parent of two.

Anne holds a BFA in Photography and a K-12 Visual Arts teaching certificate from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit Michigan and an MA in Art and Design from Rhode Island School of Design. Anne's career as an art educator includes experiences working with students ages 3-8 at the Roeper School in Michigan to working with middle and high school aged students at ACE Academy, a middle and high school for adjudicated young men. Anne's focus at RISD was community based art education and social justice. She studied out-of-school-time programs that provided free access to art experiences for New England youth. Anne was able to work with several arts based organizations including RISD Project Open Door, English for Action, Community Music Works and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Anne's creative practice is as much about education and community engagement as it is about making works of art.

Maureen is a certified American Montessori Society (AMS) Toddler teacher from New York Center for Montessori Teacher Training, one of the premiere and most respected Montessori Infant/Toddler training programs in the country. She comes to us with a strong background in teaching holding an Elementary Education degree from Salve Regina University and a Special Education certification from Providence College. She worked as a substitute in the Rhode Island public school system for a decade, and most recently, at Pathways Strategic Learning Center in Coventry for five years. At Pathways, Maureen worked with elementary and adolescent children with severe disabilities.

Michelle holds an AMS Montessori Early Childhood Credential (3-6) through Center for Montessori Teacher Education/NY and a BA in Arts & Letters from Portland State University, Oregon. She studied Elementary Education at University of Portland, Oregon and holds a Rhode Island Department of Education Early Childhood Teacher Certification (preK-2nd grade). Michelle has over 15 years of Montessori experience and is passionate about Early Childhood Education and believes the experiences between ages 0-6 have a tremendous impact on a child's future learning and development. She loves traveling to new places and experiencing other cultures, as well as spending time with her husband and three children.

Cressida is a trained Lower and Upper Elementary teacher with an American Montessori Society (AMS) degree from the Montessori Elementary Teacher Training Collaborative (METTC) in Lexington, Massachusetts. Prior to joining the Quest faculty, Cressida was a Quest parent and her youngest son graduated from Quest in 2016. Cressida holds a Bachelors of Arts degree from Trinity College in Theatre Arts with a minor in Psychology and brings professional experiences as a producer and director in television and documentary film.

Lacey comes to Quest with experience teaching both Middle School and High School science and has a BS&A in Biology and Education and a Master of Social Work with a focus in Child and Adolescent Trauma. Through the URI S.M.I.L.E Program, she developed inquiry-based curriculum for STEM afterschool programs for 4^th through 12^th grade students from over 20 schools throughout the state. Lacey owns and runs a farm which specializes in heritage breed animals and a focus on biodynamic farming and sustainable living. She is particularly interested in social justice as it relates to food production. Lacey is a Kingian Nonviolence trainer, which focuses on the philosophies of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., through the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies at URI.