Meet Our Teachers

Nan McGinty
Nan has a way with children that shows her respect for their developing minds; when she speaks to them in her calm voice, they listen.  With patience Nan guides the  babies and toddlers through the ups and downs of their days.  Nan worked with young children as a nanny for eight years.  She began subbing in the Nursery/Preschool in 2002 and joined the Nursery team in 2003.  About working in the Nursery, Nan says, “It is wonderful seeing the children develop and progress in so many ways.”  Nan is working toward a degree in Elementary Education and completed coursework at Montgomery County Community College and Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  Nan enjoys reading, going to movies, and spending time with family and friends.  Her daughter, Olivia, is in the Nursery.

Doris Outterbridge
Doris’ organizational skills have been as much a shaping factor in the Nursery as her vast understanding of children. She began caring for children by working for a family with three. After being with the family for ten years, Doris joined the Nursery/Preschool Program in 1985. She brought her years of experience with her own four children, and through the years her family has grown to include ten grandchildren with whom she and her husband, Wendell, have a very close relationship. Doris has a way of speaking with the children at their individual developmental level that makes each of them feel respected and important.  While Doris is a mentor to all the children, her specialty is caring for the youngest members of the Nursery--she makes every new infant and their family feel safe and loved.  Doris does much of the feeding in Nursery and has organized meal times in ways that allows each child to have individualized attention and helps them explore tastes, colors and textures. Meal times provide the opportunities to learn names of common objects and to master the jobs of holding a utensil, balancing food on it, and getting food from the plate to one’s mouth. With warmth, humor and firmness, Doris works to help children enjoy nourishing meals while learning to focus and to socialize. Doris’ outside interests include teaching Vacation Bible School and she is on the Board of the Mt. Airy Baptist Church Day Care Center. 

Brenda Williams
Brenda works in the Nursery, and she can frequently be found in the play yard supervising the toddlers running, digging, and climbing or cuddling a baby in the fresh air.  Brenda is a familiar face to many around GFS, as she worked on campus prior to joining the Nursery/Preschool in 2003.  Brenda is working toward a degree in Early Childhood Education and she is certified in Business/Computer skills from Advanced Career Training School.  She says the children in the Nursery are “filled with questions waiting for answers.”  Outside of school, Brenda is the Youth Director at New Birth Progressive Primitive Baptist Church.  She also directs the New Birth Praise Dancers.  Brenda has two children and two grandsons.

Lindsay Roberts 
Lindsay graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, with a concentration in Early Childhood Education.  As a graduate of a Quaker elementary school herself, she appreciates the Quaker philosophy and values on education, and she has found they have had a positive impact on her own education, growth and development.  Lindsay joined the Preschool in 2011 bringing six years of experience working with three and four year olds to the program.  Her goal is to creates and maintain an inviting, stimulating and organized learning environment for the children. Lindsay is a trained leader in Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (S.E.E.D.) As a facilitator she lead a year-long workshop session to educate faculty and staff at her former school about multicultural pedagogy, curriculum, and institutional change in their schools.  Lindsay is also a trained preschool yoga instructor.

Jenny Taylor Curtin
Jenny has a unique way of talking with children.  She can matter-of-factly speak to their concerns, freeing them up to express and discuss their feelings and observations.  She never avoids questions children raise and thus in a straightforward manner she finds out how much information a child has and what they need to know from her. Jenny received her dual major BA in English and Spanish, and then started to work at the Nursery/Preschool in 1986.What does she like about her work?  “It’s fun!  I can’t imagine not working with kids.  It’s challenging and I also like being part of the larger community here at GFS.”  Jenny grew up in Germantown.  She has volunteered for both the zoo and the Academy of Natural Sciences.  Jenny is an expert baker and cake decorator and she also does beautiful craft projects, interests that she shares with the children in the Preschool. Jenny enjoys photography and maintains an archive of the first ten years of the Nursery.  Jenny is involved with the Penn Literacy Network and traveled to Ireland as part of a teacher exchange. Her husband, Patrick works at GFS and her two daughters attend school here.

Dara’s interests in science, in numeracy and in literacy have informed the 4/5 Preschool curriculum, providing it with lots of hands-on science experiments, problem solving and language immersion experiences. Dara taught Pre-K at the Language Enrichment Arts Program (L. E. A.P.) in Lexington, MA for two years and taught Kindergarten and 1st Grade at Media Providence Friends School for eight years while completing her M.Ed. and certification. Since joining the GFS Nursery in 1996, Dara has been particularly interested in introducing children to language and mathematics through creative cross-curricular themes.

4/5 Preschool lessons often facilitate childrens' acquisition of knowledge and experience through play and process. Children especially enjoy bookmaking since it allows children to both visually and verbally describe their ideas. Through book making, children begin to understand that their language has several functions: a way of representing their thoughts and feelings; a way to tell a story that can be read back to others; and also provides an entry point into reading and writing for themselves. This process generates enthusiasm in children for self-expression, speaking, reading, writing, problem solving and drawing. Dara has presented for educators and parents over the last 15 years. She works with the Penn Literacy Network in the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, and traveled to Dublin, Ireland with a group of teachers. Dara enjoys reading, and spending time with her extended family. Dara has three sons at GFS.

Liz Meyer 
Liz joined the GFS Nursery/Preschool program in 2009 as a substitute teacher.  She reports that she immediately felt a connection with the children as well as the other teachers.  In 2010 Liz began working part-time in the program as an afternoon assistant. In 2011 she joined the 4/5 Preschool Class teaching team. 

After a successful career in the Manhattan marketing and advertising arena, Liz left the corporate world to earn a Masters degree in Elementary Education from Lesley College.  She went on to teach school in Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia.  Liz and her family live in Germantown their four cats and one dog.  She volunteers as a teacher in the Faith Development program at the Unitarian Society of Germantown. 

Marissa joined the Nursery/Preschool in 2008 and has worked in each of the Preschool classrooms. Marissa’s most recent early childhood experience prior to GFS was as a volunteer and board member at the Big Back Yard Cooperative Nursery School in Mt. Airy.  Before taking a few years off to be a stay at home mom to two boys who attend GFS, she was a research associate for The Yale Evaluation Study Team at The Yale Child Study Center. Prior to that, Marissa taught for many years at the Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn, NY.  There she taught 1st grade and was also the Director of Studio Arts Mini-camps during the summers.  Marissa has also taught 7th and 8th grade Language Arts Enrichment in a NYC SURR (Schools Under Registration Review) school.  Marissa has received a BFA in sculpture and has a MS in Elementary Education.  She has most recently been pursuing certification as a literacy specialist.  Marissa is committed to education and is always striving to become a better teacher.  When not in the classroom, Marissa enjoys spending time with her family and friends.

Mindy paints what is around her: landscape in her Germantown neighborhood and beyond, and still life and interior in her loft. She is particularly fascinated by light, and the way it can transform the things and places people often overlook into something significant and new. She uses her paintings to steal these moments of meaning from the relentless passing of time. She is grateful to be part of the long chain of artists teaching other artists, and looks forward to many more years of making, teaching, and learning about art.

Andy is a full-time musician who sings and plays guitar as well as bass, mandolin, banjo, and harmonica.  As a children’s performer, Andy has worked more than ten years for local schools and at parties, school assemblies, and fairs.  In addition, he has been the music director at Miquon Day Camp for eleven years.  He joined the GFS Nursery/Preschool program in 2006.  When not entertaining children, Andy works as a senior’s performer, teaches private music lessons, and plays with several musical ensembles.  Andy has written nearly 300 songs and has recorded cds.

Leah Finlay
Movement
Leah joined the Nursery/Preschool in 2010. She holds an M.S. degree in Physical Therapy from Ithaca College.  She has worked with children on their gross motor skills over the past 10 years in schools, daycares and home settings.   These skills include large muscle movements that help with body control, coordination and balance, such as running, jumping and hopping.  She has extensive training on age-appropriate gross motor development and how it relates to overall social and academic development.  Leah loves helping children gain experience, confidence and strength through movement.  When Leah is not teaching movement classes at GFS Nursery/Preschool, she provides school-based physical therapy services to children throughout the Philadelphia area.    

 

Cynthia has been associated with the Nursery/Preschool Program since her two sons came to GFS.  Her youngest son came through the Nursery and now he out of college. At GFS she has been a First Grade assistant, a Sixth Grade assistant, and a Middle and Upper School art teacher—she even worked in the library.  In 2002, Cynthia joined the Nursery/Preschool faculty in the afternoons. In 2003 Cynthia became a classroom teacher and since then she has worked in each of the three groups.  Cynthia brings her creativity and sense of humor to the classroom each morning when she arrives.  The children love playing games with her at the table or on the floor.  She received her Associates Degree from Garland Junior College in Boston, Massachusetts and studied painting and sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Studio School of Art and Design.  Outside of the Nursery/Preschool she is an artist and spends as much time as possible painting.

Heidi Hector
Director of Afternoon Programming
Heidi joined the Nursery/Preschool Program as a substitute teacher in the Spring of 2011 and fit right in.  She became the Director of Afternoon Programming in the Fall of 2011. She has her BS in Psychology and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education. Prior to coming to GFS, Heidi worked for six years in an early childhood program in New Jersey.  Heidi believes that the love for learning is instilled at an early age, and she is eager to guide children on this path through creative and fun techniques.  She believes children should be active participants in helping to guide curriculum based upon their interests, Heidi lives in Glenside with her husband and puppy.  She enjoys visiting her family and friends in New Jersey, decorating and spending time in her new home, as well as baking and hosting get togethers.