Board of Trustees

Nicola Watterson, ECMS Board Teacher Representative brings her passion for education and dedication to children to the Hickory classroom each year. She has experience working in private Montessori schools both in her native Scotland, and her adopted home here in Connecticut, and has worked at ECMS since 2018 first as an assistant as she earned state certification and then as a lead guide when our newest primary classroom opened in 2019. Nicola earned a BS in Psychology from University of Stirling (Scotland) and a primary AMI diploma from MTCNE in Hartford. She is proud to be an ECMS parent and teacher and is committed to providing an authentic Montessori experience to the children who join the Hickory family

Tasha Hawthorne, 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.

Courtney A. Reim, Ed.D. serves as the Managing Director of the Montessori Training Center Northeast (MTCNE) and is the Lead Montessori Fellow with the Center for Montessori Studies at the University of Hartford. She is also a member of the Montessori Research Collective and serves on the Board of the Montessori Public Policy Initiative. Courtney began her professional career after earning a B.S. in Business from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder, spending more than a decade in corporate finance and sales before transitioning into education. Inspired by Montessori as a parent, she completed her Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) Primary (3–6) Diploma and served for five years as a Primary Directress in both public and independent Montessori schools in the United States, guiding children and families through a full three-year classroom cycle before moving into leadership at the Training Center. She holds a graduate degree in Early Childhood Education with a Montessori Concentration and a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership from the University of Hartford. Her research and professional interests include Montessori teacher preparation, pedagogy, teacher dispositions, Scientific Observation for Assessment, leadership development, and education for peace. Driven by a deep commitment to education as preparation for life, Courtney advocates for teachers and the children and families they serve. Outside of her professional work, she enjoys being outdoors, treasures family time, and delights in art, food, travel, and history.

Keisha Blake Harp is a nonprofit and business leader with more than 15 years of experience leading organizations, building partnerships, managing resources, and advancing opportunities for individuals and communities. She is Co-Founder and Principal Consultant of K2 Group Consulting LLC, where she works with business and nonprofit leaders on strategic planning, organizational effectiveness, operations, and sustainable growth. Keisha previously served as Vice President of Supplier Diversity & Sustainability at Morgan Stanley, where she led strategic initiatives, managed a multi-million dollar program budget, developed external partnerships, and worked with senior leaders across the organization. Prior to Morgan Stanley, she served for more than seven years as Executive Director of the Women Presidents’ Educational Organization/WBEC Metro NY, a nonprofit organization supporting women business owners. In that role, she oversaw staff, programs  and operations, worked closely with a 17-member board and committees, led fundraising and corporate partnerships, and developed programs designed to expand economic opportunity. Keisha brings substantial experience in board governance, strategic planning, financial and organizational oversight, fundraising, partnership development, and community engagement. She has served in leadership and advisory roles with organizations focused on education, youth development, economic opportunity, and the New Haven community. A longtime New Haven community member, Keisha is currently a board member of Continuum of Care, Trinity Church on the Green, Hopkins Alumni Advisory Board and The Community Fund for Women and Girls.

Elizabeth “Lizzy” Donius is the Executive Director of the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance (WVRA), a non-profit organization dedicated to economic development, historic preservation, and cultural vibrancy in the Westville neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut. She has held this role since July 2016. In May 2026, she was honored with the prestigious 2026 Founder’s Award by the Connecticut Main Street Center (CMSC) for her strategic leadership and commitment to Main Street revitalization principles.Under her leadership, the WVRA coordinates major neighborhood traditions like the annual Westville ArtWalk and the monthly Westville Pop-Up Cinema at Lotta Studio. She has successfully managed storefront vacancy reduction, advocated for “New Urbanist” zoning overhauls to prompt infill development, and collaborated with local business owners on public art installations, such as the new neighborhood gateway sign at Lyric Hall

Matt Wilcox, New Haven Board of Education Representative, is a graduate of programs at Asbury University, James Madison University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Matt has spent his career in libraries and higher education. He currently serves as the director of the Edward and Barbara Netter Library at Quinnipiac University.

Matt, his spouse JoAnne, and their family have lived in New Haven for more than twenty years. Their children attend and have graduated from New Haven Public Schools.

Matt has a deep and abiding belief that all children can learn and have a right to a high quality, free public education. “Education is not simply done to prepare a person for a lifetime of work, but to help a student build a life – a fulfilling life –  as an active, engaged, and thoughtful member of our community.”

Meredith Gavrin has been an educator for over thirty years. She studied American History and American Studies as an undergraduate at Princeton University and received her M.Ed. from Harvard University. After teaching for several years in a “start-up” public middle and high school in New York City, she moved to New Haven, and in 2003, she and her husband co-founded New Haven Academy, a public interdistrict magnet high school in the New Haven Public Schools system. Although Meredith works primarily as an administrator, she also continues to teach Civics to 12th grade students. In addition, she has done consulting work on curriculum and instruction for multiple organizations, she has served on the Advisory Group for the Partner Schools Network of Facing History and Ourselves, served on the board of the Fund for Women and Girls of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, and was a member of the Educator Task Force of Educating for American Democracy.  Her three children have attended New Haven public schools.