Administrative staff
Cathy Newman, Head of School
Cathy Newman earned a B.S. in education at Illinois State University and spent a year in public schools in the north suburbs of Chicago before heading to Chicago to begin my work as an assistant in a large Montessori school. After her elementary-level training in Bergamo, Italy, Cathy returned to Near North Montessori and worked as a guide in a 6-9 class for three years. Heeding the call of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated in 1990 to guide a small elementary program at SunGarden Montessori in West Linn, Oregon.
When SunGarden expanded its operations into Portland, Cathy became the 9-12-year-old classroom guide for six years at Two Rivers until she refocused her energies on her own family. In 2002, she joined Odyssey Montessori's Board of Directors, and then served as one of the school's co-administrators. In 2003, Cathy officially becamse Odyssey's Head of School, working closely with staff and parents to support Odyssey's mission of excellence.
Now, as Head of School for Sunstone Montessori, Cathy will continue to foster excellence from the Children's House through elementary.
Anna Martucci, Assistant Director
After graduating from Boston University, Anna Martucci began her Montessori career as an assistant in an upper elementary classroom. She went on to obtain the AMI elementary certification from Washington Montessori Institute and a Masters of Education from Loyola University in Maryland.
Anna has worked as a lower and upper elementary guide, and as the middle school coordinator at Cascadia Montessori School. In addition, she has been the summer school guide at Childpeace Montessori School, created the literary catalogue for SMART and worked as a grant-writer for Portland Reading Foundation.
After eight years in the classroom, she took a sabbatical year where she taught English as a second language and obtained a TESL certification from Concordia University as well as a yoga teacher certification from the Himalaya Yoga Training Center in India. Upon return from her travels she jumped at the opportunity to work with the amazing and talented staff at Sunstone.
Brenda J. Koenig, Children's House Campus Administrative Assistant
Brenda brings a wealth of experience and passion for Montessori to the Children's House campus. She received her BA from Drew University in 1995 with an English major & Women's Studies/Education double minor, and was a graduate of the first AMI Children's House Assistant's Course at the Montessori Institute Northwest.
The chance to work at Sunstone brought Brenda up from Corvallis, where she worked for seven years at Corvallis Montessori School. She was a classroom assistant in the primary environment for five years, then was promoted to be enrichment program coordinator. She was responsible for their extended care programs as well as the annual summer arts camp.
Brenda also worked as a Head Start teacher and ran a lab classroom/parent education program for infants & toddlers through Linn Benton Community College. She is an avid reader and cinema enthusiast.
Monica Wright, Children's House Campus Administrative Assistant
Monica was born in North Carolina and raised on the East Coast from Boca Raton, Florida, to New Haven, Connecticut. Most of her years were cultured in Arlington, VA and the surrounding D.C. metropolitan area.
After receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Landscape Architecture from VA Tech; Monica combined her love of art and nature to work for small, progressive landscape architecture firms in Miami, Florida and New Haven, Connecticut.
Intrigued by Montessori pedagogy, Monica moved to Portland, OR to train at the Montessori Institute Northwest, where she received her AMI primary guide certification in 2002. She started working with Sunstone as a classroom assistant before moving into the positions of aftercare coordinator and classroom guide. Monica is now working with the administration staff (and loving it!) and she is gratefully watching her two girls develop through Sunstone Montessori School.
Debbie Hall, Business Manager
Debbie moved from Utah to Portland to attend Lewis and Clark College, where she earned her B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology. She came to Montessori as a parent of a child at the former Two Rivers Montessori School, now merged with Sunstone. She joined the school as a part-time bookkeeper and has expanded her role with the title of Business Manager. Debbie enjoys reading, running, cooking, and spending time with her family.
Jennifer Dannenfelser, Elementary Campus Substitute
Jennifer's entry into Montessori was through the arts. She received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to pursue a career in the visual arts. While an intern at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, she taught art in public schools during the school year, and developed a summer program for the arts at both the elementary and primary levels at Pacific Rim International School, an AMI- recognized Chinese and Japanese language immersion Montessori school. This experience inspired her to get her training. After taking a year off to travel in India and Nepal, she took her AMI training at the Washington Montessori Institute and received her Master's in Education from Loyola University.
After she spent five rich years as an elementary guide at Pacific Rim School, Jennifer and her family moved north to Portland in search of a more tranquil, safer, and greener place to live and to join close friends. She and her husband Andrew live in northeast Portland with their five-year-old daughter, Annika, and baby, Mattea, where they grow sunflowers, pole beans, and giant heirloom tomatoes, among many other things. They also enjoy biking, cooking Asian cuisine, hiking, camping, skiing, reading, and laughing together.
