Our enthusiastic and nurturing classroom staff are committed to providing a safe, stimulating, and carefully prepared environment to foster your child's development and growth.

Meet our Plymouth staff.
Meet our St. Louis Park staff.


Plymouth Staff Biographies

Toddler Community - Preethy Goonetilleke, teacher and Head of School
Preethy Goonetilleke, the founder and Head of School, is one of those unique and rare Montessorians who holds all three levels of training in the Montessori Method. She received her AMI Primary (3-6) training from Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1978, her Assistance to Infancy (0-3) training from London, U.K. in 1998, and her Elementary training (6-12) in Minnesota U.S.A. in 2006. She is the Toddler Teacher at the Plymouth school. She also has a Master's degree in Education.

Preethy passionately believes in the Montessori Method. She has been teaching for over 30 years and says that she hasn't found a method to beat it.

When she is not in school she loves spending time with her family. She finds time to read, entertain friends and volunteer in different programs in the community.

Her favorite quote: "Be the change you want to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi.

Toddler Community - Lindsay Hersam, assistant
Lindsay was born and raised in Southern California. She attended Brigham Young University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education and a minor in Spanish. She had the opportunity to study abroad for a semester in Spain. After graduation she moved to Virginia with her husband and began teaching at a Montessori school. It is was in Virginia that she fell in love with the Montessori method. This will be her first year with Little Flowers Montessori. She loves children, reading, traveling, and cooking. She currently lives in Plymouth with her husband and their new kitten, Bella.

Casa 1 - Staci Friedman, directress
Staci was born and raised in Minnesota, just blocks away from Little Flowers Montessori School. She began working in Montessori education in 2005. Staci received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, the AMI Primary Diploma from the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota and has a Masters degree in Education from Loyola College in Baltimore.

Previously, Staci lived in Chicago where she worked in event marketing/planning. Yet, she always knew that she wanted to work with children. Fulfilling a dream, Staci feels lucky to be back in Minnesota and working with children and truly loves being a part of the Little Flowers Montessori community. She is passionate about the Montessori philosophy and is dedicated to helping the child cultivate independence and a desire to learn. Outside of school, Staci enjoys yoga, knitting, traveling with her husband and spending time with family and friends.

Casa 1 - Jessica Ostrov, assistant
Jessica has been working in Montessori schools for nearly ten years, and earned her diploma from the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota in 2005. After graduation, she spent two years as a Montessori guide in Japan. Her previous education is in Horticulture, and she is now completing a degree of her creation through the University of Minnesota, focusing on the importance of the outdoor environment for the development of children. She has a two year old son named Nico who will be moving from the Toddler Environment to the Children's House during this school year. She enjoys spending time outside with her son, sewing, writing, and traveling.

Casa 2 - Asheley Nelson, directress
Asheley Nelson joined the Little Flowers Montessori staff in 2007 after earning the AMI diploma from the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota and completing a Masters degree in Education from Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland. She has a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and has been working with children most of her life through tutoring, being a nanny, and leading a preschool classroom. Beyond her love of children, she enjoys walking her dog, reading, and the outdoors.

Casa 2 - Mahvash Biok, assistant
Mahvash was born and raised in Mumbai, India, where she got her Bachelor’s Degree in Education. While she was in India, she taught first through seventh grade for nine years. She came to the United States in 1993, and later worked at Greenwood Elementary Home Base for over two years. This will be Mahvash’s first year at Little Flower Montessori, and she is excited to work and have fun with the children and staff! She currently lives in Plymouth with her husband and daughter. In her free time, she enjoys reading, gardening, and listening to Indian music.

Casa 2 - Victoria Dyrud-Rassi, assistant
Victoria grew up in Brazil where she learned to speak Portuguese. She graduated from Northwestern College with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Sociology and Spanish. From Hamline University she received her TEFL certificate (teaching English as a foreign language). Victoria has lived in Spain and Switzerland. She has a daughter who is seven years old. Victoria’s passions are traveling and spending time with her family.

Casa 3 - Brenda Hanlon, directress
Brenda began her Montessori Primary training in August 1998 when her son was three months old. Her previous career was working with children with developmental disabilities. She has a Bachelor of Arts in elementary education and a Master of Arts in special education both from the University of Minnesota. She has been teaching at Little Flowers Montessori School in Casa 3 since the fall of 2000. Her daughter was born in 2002. Both of her children began in the Toddler Community and graduated from Little Flowers Montessori School after their kindergarten year. Brenda spends whatever free time she has with family and creating. She likes to create whether it is producing videos on the computer, using digital photographs, or making greeting cards and scrapbook pages.

Casa 3 - Shanny Snyder, assistant
This is Shanny’s first school year with Little Flowers Montessori and her first year as an assistant in a Montessori environment. Shanny is currently going to Metropolitan State University working on her Early Childhood Studies degree with a focus on Montessori Education. Shanny just got married in June. Her hobbies include writing poetry, doing chalk art, scrapbooking, knitting, fishing, camping, taking care of her pets, her sister-in-law with special needs, and her husband, and spending quality time with her very large family. In her spare time she is also a Girl Scout Troop leader and a Girl Scout coordinator for Elm Creek Elementary.

St. Louis Park Staff Biographies

Toddler Community - Nadiya Rapp, teacher
Nadiya was born and grew up in Kazakhstan. She received a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Secondary Education and a Master’s of Arts degree in English as a Foreign Language from North-Kazakhstan State University. Nadiya moved to Minnesota in 2003. She had been working at Little Flowers Montessori since 2005, first as an assistant and later as a Toddler Community teacher. Her son started attending Little Flowers Montessori when he was 16 months and is currently enjoying his experiences in Casa 1. In her free time, Nadiya enjoys scrapbooking, hiking and reading classical literature.

Toddler Community - Susan Dyrud MacDonald, assistant
Susie grew up in Grand Forks, North Dakota. She received her Bachelor's degree from the University of North Dakota in International studies and promptly moved to Minnesota, where she has lived ever since. She has worked with children in a volunteer capacity all of her life and is most excited to join the Little Flowers Montessori community and make working with children her career. When she has free time, Susie loves to play with art of all kinds. Her most favorite subjects of her projects are her husband and three children, with whom she lives in Plymouth.

Casa 1 - Nadine Edgar, directress
Nadine Edgar grew up in Anoka, Minnesota (the Halloween capitol of the world). Her favorite childhood memories include spending summers at her grandparents' farms and camping with her family. She attended the University of Minnesota, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Child Psychology. During her second year in college she began working for Preethy. She has been teaching at Little Flowers Montessori for 18 years now. Nadine received her Montessori Training in Minnesota in 1995 and continued on to receive her Masters in Montessori Education from Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland.

Nadine resides in Edina, Minnesota with her husband, two daughters and their dog, Sammy. She enjoys running and hopes to do another marathon in the near future. She also enjoys reading and gardening and taking family bike trips.

"I can honestly say I love coming to work everyday! The environments are beautiful and the staff is great. The best part is being a witness to the method and how amazing children really are. The look on their faces is timeless when they realize they are reading for the first time or counted up to a 1000 or even tied their first bow.”

Casa 2 - Christine Stevens, directress
Christine was born and raised in The Netherlands, where she enjoyed her childhood by the North Sea. At age 21 she became a public school teacher in The Hague. After teaching for 14 years she moved to Beckett, Massachusetts to study macrobiotics, the Art of Living. She worked as a cooking instructor and natural life style consultant for many years while raising two daughters with her American husband, John. She taught popular cooking classes for children as young as five years old at All Around the Neighborhood summer camp on St. Paul’s West Side. Both of her girls attended public Montessori schools which inspired her to take the AMI Primary training. She will be finishing a Master's degree in Education from Loyola College in Baltimore in December 2009.

Casa 2 - Kristi Norwood, assistant
Kristi Norwood grew up in St. Cloud, Minnesota. She studied International Relations, French, and Women's Studies at St. Cloud State University and the University of Minnesota. She has worked with children for six years and absolutely loves it! She has been a vegan for four and a half years and loves to cook. She is passionate about films and music and has sung in a choir for 11 years. She also volunteers at the Oak Street Cinema and the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival. Kristi loves to cook, travel and sing. She lives in Minneapolis with her two adorable cats, Yoshi and Puma.