FACULTY AND STAFF

Jesse Logan-Samuels - Elementary Lead Guide

Jesse is a seasoned educator and holds a degree in Elementary Education from the University of Arizona. She has experience working as an assistant in both lower and upper elementary Montessori classrooms. Jesse has lived and worked in Silver City with her family for the past six years, is fluent in Italian and in ASL, is a great lover of all things science and nature, and spent time teaching English in Rome. Jesse is currently enrolled in the AMI Primary Training course and is set to complete her training in the summer of 2022.

Johannes Lencer - Elementary Assistant

Johannes grew up in Germany and moved to the US permanently in 2018. He lived in Oregon before he and his spouse moved to Silver City in the Spring of 2020. Here they hope to start a homestead on 10 acres. Johannes holds a B.A. in History and Philosophy and is currently pursuing a Master’s of Sustainable Food Systems from Prescott College. He has worked previously with junior youths, ages 11-14. When he is not busy working on the homestead or studying, he enjoys the outdoors, taking walks with his two dogs, getting to know the local flora, and connecting with the community.

Erin Fitzgerald - Co-Lead, Sunflower Classroom

Erin Fitzgerald was raised in a family that loves travel and new experiences, but their home base was always the beautiful landscape of Southern New Mexico. After completing her degree in Cultural Anthropology and Creative Writing in 2013, Erin moved back to Silver City and found the Guadalupe Montessori School community. Erin had the opportunity to assist at each level of Montesori education offered at GMS (Toddler, Primary, and Elementary) before finding her niche as an Administrator. Erin and her partner have two children, Lydia and Arlo who are also vibrant and lively members of the GMS community. Although Erin’s passion is early childhood development and understanding cultural backgrounds of families, she also loves to hike, craft, cook, read and play with her children, and get her hands dirty while working with the earth. She is currently enrolled in the AMI Primary Training course and is set to complete her training in the summer of 2022.

Rylee Myers - Co-Lead, Sunflower Classroom

Rylee has been with us for three years now, moving from assistant to Co-Lead in the Sunflower classroom. Rylee's tenacity and dedication in the classroom over the past year during the pandemic have been nothing short of heroic and we applaud and greatly appreciate her contributions to our school community!

Joanie Morency - Co-Lead, Agave Classroom AMI Certified

Joanie joined us in 2017 as an assistant and then moved into the Lead Guide position in the Fall of 2018. She completed her AMI certification last summer and has recently added a beautiful baby boy to her growing family! After spending the spring semester at home with her family, she is now rejoining the classroom as the Co-Lead in the Agave Classroom.

Miyoshi Renard - Co-Lead, Agave Classroom

Miyoshi has been with GMS for three years now and has moved from a summer guide, to assistant in the Agave Classroom, to now acting as Co-Lead for the Agave Classroom while she completes her AMI Primary Training! We are very grateful to have her beautiful energy and spirit enriching the classroom and our school community. Miyoshi is currently enrolled in the AMI Primary Training course and is set to complete her training in the summer of 2022.

Skye Armstrong - 2nd Assistant, Agave Classroom

Skye is originally from Morenci, AZ. She moved to Silver City, NM in 2013 to begin her college education in Early Childhood Development at WNMU. Skye has her AA degree in ECED and is working towards receiving her BA in ECED. She has a two year-old son and two stepchildren. Skye enjoys being outdoors with her family, hunting, backpacking in the Gila, and traveling, and goes camping multiple times a year. She believes in empowering the minds of our young children and is expanding her knowledge in the Montessori Method. One day she hopes to become a Lead Guide at Guadalupe Montessori and is very excited to see what the future holds!

Xochitl Hernandez - Bilingual Toddler Guide

Xochitl Hernandez Moctezuma was born in Mexico City, the third of six children. Both her parents were teachers of humble origin who moved to the country's capital to earn a degree and support their families. In Mexico, Xochitl pursued a teaching career and taught Math in middle school for nine years before moving to the US in 1998. Mother of three children, her family lived in Michigan, Texas, and New York before moving to New Mexico. Xochitl provides Spanish bilingual immersion in the Toddler classroom, and received her AMI diploma at the Montessori Institute of San Diego for children ages 0-3 in the summer of 2018.

Nicole Smith - Toddler Assistant

Nicole moved to Silver City from Douglas, AZ. She has always loved children and started babysitting at the age of 9. Nicole has two sons, a granddaughter and new grandbaby due in March 2021. She enjoys being outdoors helping her fiance with his yard cleaning business and woodcutting. She has been with GMS since 2018.

Liz Plada - Kitchen/Classroom Coordinator

Liz moved to Silver City with her husband, Ob, in 1991. They opened a music store named Tune Town Music Exchange in downtown Silver, which they ran until 2012. Liz also worked at the Down to Earth School, where she raised her three children while she taught- for close to 20 years! During this time, Liz earned degrees in History and Sociology from WNMU, and graduated with honors in 2015. Liz has been working at GMS since the summer of 2017, and enjoys watching the children of this town grow into fabulous adults and seeing the generations turn their kids on to great music and alternative education. In her spare time, Liz loves to cook, read, travel, and spend time with her family and friends.

Isabella "Izzy" Blasucci - Garden Supervisor

Izzy has been a dirt worshiper and plant whisperer since she was young. Hailing from New Jersey originally she grew up in a home with two Waldorf teacher parents and has always loved being a part of alternative education and the communities supporting them. She has worked in farms from Morocco to Maine and in Waldorf education as an assistant in New Jersey. The Montessori garden is yet another blessing that combines a beautiful outdoor classroom and beds bursting with produce for the kitchen and Izzy is grateful to be its shepherd for this school year.

Administration

Heidi Pendleton - Head of School

Carissa Guild - Director of Finance and Operations

Heidi Pendleton - Head of School

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.

Dee Altosa - Admin Director

Carissa Guild - Director of Finance and Operations

Heidi Pendleton - Head of 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 Guild - Director of Finance and Operations

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 compete at the collegiate level. She stayed in Alaska until 2016, working in landscaping, snow plowing, and then 10 years working for H. Watt & Scott, General Contractors where she developed skills in finance, IT, web design, and construction management. 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 licensed Zumba instructor. She also has a deep love for the outdoors and for working with and advocating for children.

Board of directors

Jeff Cramm - President

Shanna Schultz - Vice President

Jeff was born in Colorado and raised in the western suburbs of Chicago. He received a degree in Architectural Technology in Iowa and then went to CU Boulder for environmental design to continue his education. Construction and Design have always been his passions. He currently works for R.S. Bigelow as a Lead Foreman and will start his own company in the spring. His family moved to Silver City in June of 2017 and they see a lifelong commitment to this community. GMS has impressed Jeff with the overwhelming amount of personal care and attention each student, staff member, parent and family receives, and puts into this gem of a school. He plans to bring his experience in construction and building to support GMS through facilities changes and improvements in the years to come.

Shanna Schultz - Vice President

Shanna is a native of Silver City who started at the Guadalupe Montessori School in 2005 as an assistant in the Toddler classroom. Eventually completing her AMI training in Assistance to Infancy (Birth-3 years), Shanna was the lead guide in the GMS Toddler class until the end of the 2017-18 school year, when she left GMS to pursue a nursing degree at WNMU. Shanna's two younger children attend GMS, and she brings a wealth of relevant experience to the board of directors. In her spare time, Shanna enjoys knitting, camping, and making jewelry.

Amanda Moffett- Treasurer

Shanna Schultz - Vice President

Amanda Schoenberg- Secretary

Amanda and her husband, Tyrell have enjoyed the community and the opportunities that Guadalupe Montessori provides for their daughters. After visiting the school, witnessing the children’s calm, joyful learning, they were hooked on Montessori and knew it was the only option for their family. As a board member she is the Treasurer and member of the Finance and Resource Development committees. Amanda is committed to helping GMS reach their financial and educational goals, of providing high-quality education in a peaceful and carefully planned learning environment. She is the Director of Alumni Services at Western New Mexico University, has experience in event planning, and a children’s literacy advocate.

Amanda Schoenberg- Secretary

Amanda was born and raised in New York City, attended Smith College in Massachusetts and earned a Master's degree in communication (journalism) from Stanford University in California. She has worked as a journalist, editor and public relations professional since 2000 in New York, Costa Rica and California before moving to New Mexico in 2008. She works remotely for Presbyterian Healthcare Services as a Corporate Communication Manager and teaches media writing as an adjunct instructor at Western New Mexico University.

Amanda moved to Silver City with her husband and two children in 2017, both of whom attend Guadalupe Montessori School. Amanda attended a Montessori school until kindergarten and is an advocate for the lifelong benefits of a Montessori education. She enjoys reading, dancing, yoga, attending cultural events and exploring the outdoors.

Eric Payne- Board Member

Amanda Schoenberg- Secretary

Jennifer Olson- Board Member

coming soon...

Jennifer Olson- Board Member

Amanda Schoenberg- Secretary

Jennifer Olson- Board Member

Jennifer Olson attended Guadalupe Montessori School from toddlerhood through 5th grade and recognizes the role the school played in her rich childhood and her lifelong love of learning. Now she can see firsthand how her child is thriving at GMS and wants to ensure that experience is available for Grant County’s current and future generations. A trained journalist and active freelance travel and outdoor writer, Jennifer handles public relations for and manages the social media footprint of Western New Mexico University. And to GMS, she brings a fourth-generation Grant County local’s perspective of this community, board experience, and a passion for the Montessori values of curiosity, compassion, and independence, which foster creativity, peace and empowerment.