Staff- Under Construction. Please pardon our dust

 Martha has been serving as the director of GMS since the fall of 2014. Martha's leadership is based on over a decade of experience at GMS, including instruction; food service management; music programming; and design, development, and management of our award-winning garden. Martha received her B.A. in Religious Studies from Brown University, where she also completed the Undergraduate Teachers Education Program with a provisional certificate in Secondary Social Studies and History. During college, Martha was heavily involved in urban farming and community gardening, and student taught at an experiential High School. Ultimately, her talents in experiential education, community gardening, and professional cooking would come together at GMS: After founding the garden that both feeds and helps educate our students, Martha ran the school's meal program for two years. She has also served the school as the unofficial music teacher as well as its 7th year Guide. All of Martha’s three daughters attended GMS through Elementary, and are now students at Aldo Leopold Charter School. 

 Dee has an extensive background in office management, including Executive Assistant to the General Counsel at Texas Tech University (B.A., C.L.A.) and Administrative Assistant to the CEO of St Mary Hospital in Lubbock, TX. When her husband changed professions and became a commercial pilot, Dee followed his career around the country, through Idaho, Colorado, Nebraska, and St Croix, USVI, before settling in Grant County, NM. She has managed offices for telecommunications and insurances, and in healthcare administration as a lead promotora, medical records director, and general manager of an assisted living facility. In the summer of 2016, it was Dee's turn to change career paths, and she brought her expertise in office management and passion for excellence to GMS. 

 Carissa was born in Silver City, and attended GMS from age 2-1/2 to 11. In her last year of high school, she moved to Las Cruces to pursue gymnastics. In 2003 she relocated to Alaska to attend college, and ended up living there until 2016, developing her bookkeeping skills. She and her family spent 2017 traveling through four continents before coming back to settle in Silver City in January, 2018. Carissa has a huge passion for music and dance, and is a certified Zumba instructor. She also has a deep love for the outdoors and for working with and advocating for children. 

Heidi joined GMS in the fall of 2010 when she enrolled her two children Molly and Thomas. In true Montessori fashion, Heidi came to us with a variety of skills - fashion design and promotions, outdoor education and wilderness medicine, catering and managing commercial kitchens- just to name a few. In her role at the school, Heidi brings a high level of professionalism and organization to the GMS food program and kitchen, and takes the lead at GMS with health and safety protocols. She cares deeply about providing the highest level of student nutrition, and our lunches are all recipes she has crafted. She puts a great deal of effort into sourcing local and organic food and in to training GMS kitchen staff to cook from scratch. Heidi was the driving force behind expanding our lunch service to provide hot lunches to Aldo Leopold Charter School under the National School Lunch Program in 2017.