Authors

Amanda Love has been teaching PE for over 20 years and was an Athletic Director in New York City and Cleveland. She played soccer at Georgetown and in Rome while teaching at St. Stephens School. Having worked extensively with Project Adventure, Amanda enjoys sprinkling "challenge by choice" into her classes at Laurel School.

Andrea Buffara is Co-Founder and COO of Gamut Education, which provides educational consulting services. She is also Co-Founder and Director of Escola Americana de Vitória (Brazil), founded in 2018.

Ann Klotz is a reader, writer, mother, and teacher who lives in Shaker Heights, OH, where she is the Head of Laurel School, an all girls’ school, K-12 with a coed pre-primary.

Ann Martino is the Head of Lower School at The Ellis School, an all-girls school for girls age 3 to grade 12, in Pittsburgh, PA.

Ari Pinkus is a storyteller, editor, and organizer. She is a research scientist with the American Communities Project based at The George Washington University.

Bee Stribling has spent more than a decade working in K-8 independent schools as a teacher and administrator. He is finishing his Ed.M in Private School Leadership at the Klingenstein Center for Independent School Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. He’s on Twitter @wmstribling

Dan Sturdevant is Head of School at The Oaks, an innovative Christ-centered independent school in Charlotte, NC. Raised on a boarding school campus, Dan has spent his life and career in independent schools and is passionate about student and faculty development, experiential education, and creating space for innovative learning opportunities in and out of the classroom.

David Cutler teaches history, journalism, and government at Brimmer and May, an independent PK-12 school in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Follow him on Twitter at @SpinEdu.

Derrick Willard is the Head of Augusta Preparatory Day School which serves students from the Augusta, Georgia area. He is a career educator passionate about creating optimal learning environments within our brick and mortar school as well as creating productive virtual learning environments online.

Gabriel Lucas is a search, staffing, and strategic consultant for schools, associations, nonprofits, and other mission-aligned organizations across the country, overseeing two search services: Ed Tech Recruiting and 12M Recruiting. Lucas worked for many years as an educator and later administrator in both K-12 and higher ed. He is the co-founder of ATLIS (Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools) and continues to serve on its board. Lucas regularly presents and writes on topics including organizational structure and management, leadership development, and diversity and hiring.

Gay Cioffi was Director of Little Folks School in Washington, D. C. for 38 years. An Early Childhood specialist, Gay consults and writes a weekly blog called Little Folks Big Questions.

Jessica Flaxman has served as an English teacher, department chair, director of studies, admission counselor and assistant head at a number of independent schools. Jessica is an education writer and founding partner of 120 Education Consultancy.

Kathryn Beaumont Murphy is counsel at the law firm Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, where she represents independent schools, colleges, and universities. Prior to this role, she was in-house counsel at a K-12 school and boarding school.

Kawai Lai is a designer, facilitator, and strategy consultant helping organizations make the abstract more concrete. She is a co-founder of VizLit, an organization with the mission to unlock the visual minds of all learners. Her upcoming book, The New Team Habits, provides practices for leadership teams to build better habits for team learning, meetings, and projects. Formerly, she served as the Vice President of Innovation at the National Association of Independent Schools, where she helped schools reimagine education, build capacity to innovate, and share stories of authentic progress.

Lauren Calig is the Director of Multicultural Curriculum at Laurel School.

Lauren Huddleston is a doctoral candidate at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College and a middle school English teacher at Hutchison School in Memphis. You can follow her on Twitter at @L_Huddleston.

Laurie Gruhn is Head of Lower School and the Assistant Head of School at the Browning School, a school for boys in New York City. She has worked there for the past 22 years. Next year, she will join the Gateway School, a K-8 School in New York City, as Head of School. She lives with her 14-year-old daughter and their rescue dog, Marcie. Both mother and daughter can often be found obsessing over jigsaw puzzles.

Michael Brosnan is an independent writer and editor with a particular interest in education and social change. His latest book of poetry, “The Sovereignty of the Accidental,” was published by Harbor Mountain Press.

Nancy Mugele is the Head of Kent School in Chestertown, MD. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Independent Maryland and DC Schools. You can follow her on Twitter @nancymugele.

Paris McLean is the Head of Lower School at Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart. An independent school educator for 16 years, Paris has led student centered initiatives, faculty development and sponsorship, along with institutional advancement. Paris is also an associate of 120 Education Consultancy.

Samantha Simpson teaches English at Winsor School and at the Kenyon Young Writers Program.

Sarah Barton Thomas is Upper Elementary Division Head at Trinity School in Atlanta, Georgia. Her career pursuits have taken her from the elementary music classroom, to the computer lab, the opera world, to the principal’s desk. She was inspired to be a teacher and principal by Mr. Bruce (her elementary principal) and Mrs. Sobel (her middle school history teacher). She enjoys running; singing; reading multiple books at a time; and snuggling with Atticus and Toby, her rescue pups. Her most prolific writing comes in the form of 280 characters at @teach2connect.

Sarah Cooper is an advisor, teaches 8th grade U.S. History, and is Dean of Studies at Flintridge Preparatory School in La Canada, California.

Sarah Neidhoefer is the Director of The Plumb Line Institute, focused on mission alignment, spirituality and personal student growth programming. A mother of four teens, she is currently co-teaching 4th and 7th grades at Stone Bridge School, a Waldorf-inspired public charter in Napa, CA.

Stephen J. Valentine is an administrator and teacher at Montclair Kimberley Academy in Montclair, New Jersey. Over the past decade, he has authored a book for teachers called Everything but Teaching, co-authored a book for school leaders called Blending Leadership, and co-authored a teaching book for businesspeople (and teachers) called Make Yourself Clear. He writes and posts regularly at www.refreshingwednesday.com.

Susanna A. Jones is the Head of School for the Holton-Arms School, a girls’ day school for grades 3-12 in Bethesda, MD. She also currently serves as Vice-President of the Board of One Schoolhouse and is a member of the Board of the Association of Independent Maryland and D.C. Schools.

Tom McManus is the Head of Mission at Revolution School in Philadelphia. He has been working in education for almost 25 years. Most recently, he was the high school principal of the Mid-Pacific Institute in Honolulu. McManus began his career in college admissions at the University of Pennsylvania. He can be reached at tom@revolutionschool.org.

Wendy L. Hill, Ph.D. is Head of School at The Agnes Irwin School, an all girls’ independent school in Rosemont, Pennsylvania. www.agnesirwin.org. She is the Rappolt Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience at Lafayette College, and member of The Forum of Executive Women, Philadelphia.

Wendy Lichtman is the Math Intervention Specialist at MetWest High School in Oakland, California. She’s also a writer and has published both personal essays and young adult fiction. Her most recent book is Secrets, Lies and Algebra.