Faye Owens

Ms. Owens was born and raised in Columbia, Mississippi. She grew up with five brothers and one sister. After graduating high school, she moved to California where she then attended Heald College to study business. Her first place of employment was a part-time teaching position in a toddler classroom at Grand Lake Montessori. It is here that she developed a love and passion for working with children. She very much enjoyed supporting the development of the toddlers and noticed that they could do many things on their own. Teaching at Grand Lake has inspired Ms. Owens to take many child development courses, including some in Montessori. She has also received an Administrative Director’s certificate and a Home Child Care certificate. Ms. Owens has been a teacher in many classrooms at Grand Lake Montessori for over thirty years. Ms.Owens believes strongly in bringing creativity to all aspects of education and also strives to uphold the school’s mission in her everyday work, which is to “Help make childhood a journey, not a race.” She loves to travel throughout the U.S., spending as much time as possible with her family in Mississippi. In her spare time she enjoys doing yoga, listening to music, and loves eating different varieties of food.

Nancy Haskins

Ms. Haskins is a Bay Area native, born in Richmond, California. She was raised in a very loving Italian family and was lucky to have most of her immediate family members close by. She graduated from Richmond High and then from Contra Costa Jr. College with an A.S. in Computer Sciences and began working immediately for the Diablo Valley School District. She was hired by GLM in 1984 as the Office Manager after enrolling her daughter in the school. Nancy loves the outdoors, hiking, gardening, going to A’s games (Go A’s!) reading, cooking, and spending as much time as possible with her family and close friends. Although she is not a Montessori teacher, she has a great respect for the Montessori approach to education and for the GLM teachers and staff.

Ashley Vanderford

Ms. Vanderford was born and raised in the Bay Area, predominantly spending her childhood in San Lorenzo. After University she decided that she wanted to work with children and came to be an Assistant Teacher in the Brown Cottage. She fell in love with the Montessori principles and wanted to learn more. She then had an opportunity to travel and live in London for an extended time, so said goodbye to her beloved Camellia class. As luck would have it, her new job in London offered Ashley a chance to study at the Maria Montessori Training Institute (A.M.I.) and become a Montessori teacher, specialising in working with children ages 0-3 years. After 5 lovely years in the UK she has returned back to the Bay Area and her Brown Cottage team. She strives to encourage independence and a love of learning in the children that come through her classroom. During her free time she enjoys singing with friends, swing dancing and attending aerial circus classes.

Mrs. Tien (she/her)

Mrs. Tien was born in Vietnam and moved with her family to China. She came to the United States in January 2006. She did not speak any English upon her arrival, but began taking classes. She joined GLM in 2008 as a support teacher in the Mulberry classroom, where she is still teaching! She believes that working at GLM is a great place for her to better her English and learn Montessori philosophy: learning from the parents and community, learning from colleagues, and especially learning from the children. Children have taught her to open her mind and her heart to joy. Ms. Tien feels blessed to be a part of the GLM community, and she has completed Montessori Assistant training for both primary and toddler courses. Her goal is to help children become confident, independent learners and she believes learning should be fun. She enjoys shopping and cooking for her family in her spare time.  

Ms. Phillips (she/her)

Paul Contreras

Mr. Contreras is from the San Fernando Valley, where he first started working with students with developmental delays while in the 6th grade. His passion for empowering and advocating for youth blossomed from that experience. Paul quickly fell in love with the multiculturalism of the Bay Area while studying Sociology at UC Berkeley. After operating his own business in Berkeley, with a brief stint in the corporate world and an after-school program in Oakland, he decided to return to school to attain a degree from the Peralta Colleges in Child Development so that he could work with younger age groups and their families. He worked with the City of Oakland’s Early Head Start program for a year before making the transition to the GLM community in June of 2013. Paul spends his free time at dog parks with his two Pugs, jogging Lake Merritt, playing softball & basketball, attending concerts, and enjoying the numerous festivals and events the Bay has to offer.

Mariana Bissonnette

Mariana was born and raised in the SF Bay Area and is grateful to have family close by! She has had various roles in education – from health education to teacher recruitment, after school programming to classroom instruction. She could see that the current educational model didn’t seem to meet the needs of children, teachers or even parents and started looking for something that might just do all three – and she found it! Mariana found Montessori Education through Grand Lake Montessori in 2010 when she came for an observation for an opening in the Camellia class. She was instantly hooked! Here was an educational framework flexible enough to meet the needs of all students and structured enough to allow the child to maximize their potential! Mariana earned her AMI 3-6 credential in 2012, her AMI 0-3 credential in 2016 and self-published a Montessori parenting book, Babies Build Toddlers, in 2020. At Grand Lake Montessori, she spent 8 years in the classroom as both a support and lead teacher and is excited to be working with the greater school community of staff, parents and children as Director of Instruction. Mariana also runs the parent support program, The PEACE Program, at Grand Lake Montessori that offers free and sliding-scale parenting support for the broader community. Mariana has two children – two GLM alums! – and in her “free” time, she loves being outdoors with her husband, kids and dog, Sequoia.

Tina Huang

Tina Huang was born in Taipei, Taiwan and moved to the Bay Area when she was 3 years old. She holds a Bachelor’s in Biology from Hawaii Pacific University and a Master’s in Forensic Science from UC Davis. After working in different areas of education, Ms. Huang realized that early childhood education is very important. She made the decision to go back to school and received her AMI Primary certification this past June from Montessori Northwest in Portland, Oregon. Tina is very excited to be back in the Bay Area and to join the GLM community this summer. She believes in a hands-on-approach to learning, supporting children in using their hands to build their intelligence and personality. In her spare time, Tina enjoys knitting, hiking, reading, playing board games, and traveling.

Celeste Stanley

Born in San Francisco, Celeste grew up in both Southern and Northern California. Always drawn to the world of education, she spent several years working at colleges and universities throughout Northern California. Celeste was introduced to the philosophy of Montessori while researching preschools for her oldest son. Inspired by Dr. Montessori’s consummate respect for children, she pursued the Montessori ECE program at Saint Mary’s College. An introduction to Ms. Leck led to an internship in the Ginkgo classroom for the 2016-2017 school year. When not at GLM, Celeste is working on her Montessori ECE credential and spending time with her family (husband Brian, 8 year old TJ, 6 year old Parker and an old brown Lab named Wags).