Regular board meetings are held the first Thursday of each month on alternating months. Meetings will be held at school at 5:30 pm, unless otherwise noted (*). The public is welcome to join us.
2024-25 Board Meeting Dates
Agendas | Minutes | Finance Committee | Master Planning Committee
- September 4
- November 6
- January 8
- March 5
- May 7
- July 2
Current Board Members
- Tony Dini (Interim Board President), Major Gift Officer at Yale University
- Carolyn Havrda (Secretary), Assistant Director of Early Learning at NHPS
- Sudhakar Vamathevan (Treasurer), Financial Consultant at EmergeCT
- Susan Clark (Teacher Representative), Lower Elementary Guide at ECMS
- Kara Straun (Parent Representative), Director of Program & Evaluation at Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
- Tasha Hawthorne (Alumni Parent Representative), Yale University Dean of Pierson College
Tony Dini, ECMS Interim Board President, a Connecticut native with a deep love for the Elm City, grew up in West Haven and has called New Haven home since 2007. Since joining Yale in 2013, Tony has held positions in university governance, board management, and development, and he currently serves as a Major Gift Officer. In this role, he works to connect Yale alumni in Texas and the Midwest with university priorities aligned with their interests, exploring opportunities for meaningful philanthropic support.
A dedicated parent, Tony embraces the joys and challenges of raising his vibrant 5-year-old daughter. Outside his role at Yale, Tony serves as a Shore Haven Little League (West Haven) board member and umpire, bringing his passion for sports and community involvement to the forefront. He also took up oil painting during the early COVID-19 pandemic and participated annually in the Westville ArtWalk.
Tony holds a BA from the University of Connecticut and an MA from Trinity College.
Carolyn Havrda, ECMS Board Secretary, is an inspirational educational leader that has dedicated 35 years to public education in Hartford. She began her career as a PreK and Grade 1 & 3 teacher. After she earned her Association Montessori Internationale diploma, Carolyn taught Montessori at the primary and lower elementary levels with Hartford Public Schools and CREC. Additionally, Ms. Havrda has supported Montessori classrooms as a literacy specialist, coach and Principal.
Carolyn enjoys staying abreast with current educational research and trends. She recently became a fellow of the UCONN Neag PK-3 Leadership Program, earned her TESOL credentials and completed LETRs training for Early Childhood. Through her continued learning and each of her experiences, Carolyn brings a thoughtful means to empower those in learning communities.
Ms. Havrda recently joined New Haven Public Schools as the Assistant Director of Early Learning. She also continues to informally consult with the Hartford Montessori schools and various after school programs.
Sudhakar Vamathevan, ECMS Board Treasurer, served in senior financial management positions in various organizations in Massachusetts and Connecticut over the last 35 years. He is now semi-retired and works as a part-time financial consultant with EmergeCT, a small not-for-profit organization serving formerly incarcerated members to break the cycle of recidivism, build community, and inspire hope by finding transitional employment and providing wrap-around services. He is passionate about social justice and youth development and have served on the Boards of social services agencies in developmental disabilities, domestic violence, human rights, and campus spiritual assistance. He has two children, a boy and a girl, both on the West Coast, and became a grandfather for the first time last December.
Susan Clark, ECMS board teacher representative, is a Lower Elementary Guide at Elm City Montessori School. She is an AMI trained Elementary guide with 18 years of classroom experience. She has worked as a consultant at several area Montessori schools and is a Course Assistant for the Montessori Training Center Northeast. Susan is currently working towards her Masters of Education with a Montessori Concentration at the University of Hartford. Helping to grow the Elementary program at Elm City Montessori right now feels just right.
Kara Straun, ECMS Board Parent Representative, is the mother of 2nd and 4th grade sons at Elm City Montessori. Her family has been a part of the ECMS community since 2018. Since then, she has enjoyed being a part of many facets of community at ECMS. Born and raised in New Jersey, Kara has embraced New Haven and has proudly called it home for over a decade. Kara currently serves as the Director of Program & Evaluation at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. Kara has been with the Foundation for nearly 12 years, working to evaluate the impact of the Foundation’s grantmaking and providing management and strategic insight on several programmatic endeavors. She also serves as the lead staff person for the Foundation’s Community Fund for Women & Girls, working on such initiatives as the Girls of Color Mentoring Network and the Pathways to Economic Success for Women grantmaking programs which largely benefit women and girls of color. She truly loves what she does and views it as the culmination of a variety of professional and personal experiences rooted in public health, community development, and social justice. Prior to working in her current role, Kara gained experience in the affordable housing and community development sectors. Kara received her Master of Public Health degree from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health with a concentration in Sociomedical Sciences, Urbanism and Community Health and has remained committed to work that uplifts vulnerable communities through intentional, collective action.
Tasha Hawthorne, ECMS Board Alumni Parent Representative, has developed a few New England/East Coast proclivities from her New Haven-county-born husband but Tasha Hawthorne is a Midwesterner through and through, hailing originally from Kansas City, Missouri. In her earliest years, she attended a Montessori school, followed by Catholic school for grade school, and then The Pembroke Hill School for middle and high school.
She has worked as an English and history teacher in high schools, including The Hopkins School, The Pembroke Hill School, and Phillips Academy at Andover. She has served as the co-director of a center for gender studies and has worked as a professor and lecturer of literature and Black studies at Berea College and Yale College. Her academic work explores the intersection of gender, sexuality, genre, race, and politics in Black fiction — though she is equally passionate about popular culture.
Over the course of her life, Hawthorne has lived all over the country, including Maine, New York City, Ithaca, Chicago, San Francisco, Kentucky, Amherst, and Kansas City, and has even lived in Stuttgart, Germany. Currently, she serves as the Dean of Pierson College at Yale, where she lives on campus with her family. When she is not reading, writing, and mentoring students, she can be found spending time with her daughters, Haviland Hawthorne (ECMS ’24) and Hayden Hawthorne (ECMS ’25), and her husband Geoffrey, a neurobiologist who teaches neuroscience at the University of Connecticut.
Hawthorne earned a BA in African American Studies and English from Bates College, an MPS in Africana Studies from Cornell University, and both her MA and PhD in literature, with a specialty in African American literature, from Northwestern University.
Founding Board Members
- David Low, Teacher, Sound School
- Eliza Halsey, Founding Executive Director, Elm City Montessori School
- Erik Clemons, CEO, ConnCAT
- Joan Bosson-Heenan, Program Director, Yale Center for Genes, Reading and Dyslexia
- John Freeman, Former Principal, Annie Fisher Montessori Magnet School, Hartford
- Kenna Barrett, Kenna Barrett Consulting
- Kia Levey, Project Director, MOMS Partnership
- Mira Debs, Executive Director, Education Studies Program, Yale University
- Priscilla Coker Palmer, President, AMI-US Foundation