Staff and Faculty

Staff	Faculty
Dr. Kent Johnson, Executive Director Dr. Joanne Robbins, Principal Kris Melroe, Assistant Director of Schools & Agencies Beth Bartter, Director of Operations Dawn Oliver, Admissions Director Tim Smith, Administration and Facilities Director Patrick Erbeck-McKinnion, Technology Director Steve Dunnington, Accounting Felisa Yasutake, Front Desk Julian Gire, Assessment Coordinator	Paul Conrad, Faculty Marianne Delgado, Faculty Erin Schwartz, Faculty Shiloh Isbell, Faculty Haley Landau, Faculty Erica Lybarger, Faculty Geoff Martin, Faculty Mike Wolfson, Faculty Andrea McDermott, Faculty Rosie de la Harpe, Faculty Jenni Reilly, Faculty Adam Stretz, Faculty Paul Conrad, Art Restita DeJesus, Wushu Jennifer Testa, MTA intern

Staff

Dr. Kent Johnson founded Morningside Academy, in Seattle, Washington, in 1980, and currently serves as its Executive Director. Morningside is a laboratory school for elementary and middle school children and youth. Morningside investigates effective curriculum materials and teaching methods, and has provided training and consulting in instruction to over 90 schools and agencies throughout the USA and Canada since 1991.

Dr. Johnson has served in all the positions at Morningside, including classroom teacher for 10 years, financial manager, administrator, teacher trainer, school psychologist and school consultant. He has published several seminal papers about research-based curriculum and teaching methods. Most recently he published a book, "The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction: What It Means to Leave No Child Behind," with Dr. Elizabeth Street (2004, Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies). The Morningside Model focuses upon foundation skills in reading, writing, mathematics, thinking, reasoning, problem solving, studying core content, and project-based learning. Over 18,000 students and over a thousand teachers have used the Morningside Model of Generative Instruction. Dr. Johnson is also a co-founder of Headsprout, Inc., a Seattle-based company funded by investors to develop web-based, interactive, cartoon-driven instructional programs. The first product is currently available: Headsprout Early Reading, from headsprout.com.

Prior to founding Morningside, Dr. Johnson was professor at Central Washington University, director of staff training at the Fernald School in Massachusetts, and instructional designer at Northeastern University in Boston. He received his M.S. (1974) and Ph.D. (1977) in psychology at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst under the mentorship of Drs. Beth Sulzer-Azaroff, Ellen Reese, and John Donahue. He received his B.S. in psychology and sociology from Georgetown University (1973), under the mentorship of Dr. J Gilmour Sherman. He also counts Drs. Fred Keller, Charles Ferster, B. F. Skinner, Susan Markle, John Dewey, Robert Gagne, Siegfried Engelmann, Ogden Lindsey, Israel Goldiamond, Arthur Whimbey, and colleague Joe Layng as major influences on his work.

Dr. Johnson enjoys reading philosophy, mysteries, ancient history, psychology, and books about teaching and children. He also enjoys rock, electronic downbeat and ambient music; and talking about politics and public policy.

His recent publications include:

Johnson, K., & Street, E. M. (2004). The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction: What it means to leave no child behind. Concord, MA: Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. Available at www.behavior.org.

Johnson, K. (2009, in press). Instructional design for Precision Teaching in academics. In Marlene Cohen, Carl Binder, and Michael Fabrizio (eds.), Bridging the gap for learners with autism spectrum disorders and learning disabilities: Precision Teaching and Fluency-based Instruction. New York NY: Springer Publishing Company.

Johnson, K. (2008a). Precision Teaching. In the Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology, 2, 809-813. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Johnson, K., & Street, E. M. (2008b). Direct Instruction. In the Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology, 1, 240-243. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Joanne Robbins is the Principal of Morningside Academy in Seattle, Washington. Joanne has over thirty years of experience in program development, curriculum design, and teaching and supervision of programs for children, youth and adults. Joanne's experience has been in both educational and mental health settings. She developed programs for Pre-K through college level. In addition to the gratifying work as Principal of Morningside Academy, Joanne is a founder of P.E.E.R., Partnerships for Educational Excellence and Research. The P.E.E.R. project is designed to radically improve the teaching and learning communities in several township schools in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Prior to moving to Seattle, Joanne lived in Chicago for many years. While there, she was the Activity Therapy supervisor for a 120-bed children's state psychiatric facility, served as an adjunct faculty member in the Psychology Department at Northeastern Illinois University, and designed and implemented problem solving and thinking skills programs, study skills programs, and learning acceleration programs for inner-city children and college students for the University of Illinois at Chicago and the City Colleges of Chicago. She also served as program developer and instructor in the federally funded Nation of Tomorrow program, training Chicago Public School teachers how to use computer technology in their classrooms. Joanne served as a research assistant in the Instructional Research and Development Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a frequent presenter at professional meetings and has published experimental work in human clinical decision-making. Joanne has served as an instructional design consultant to private industry in the production of instructional video and interactive laser disks including Learning-to-Learn, Inc. in Cambridge, MA, and Focus International, Inc. in Huntington, NY. An expert in the teaching of thinking and reasoning skills, Joanne is the author of Talk Aloud Problem Solving: A Script for Teachers, and co-author of Fluent Thinking Skills: A Generative Approach.

Joanne earned an MA in Behavioral Sciences (Art Therapy concentration) from the University of Houston, Clear Lake Campus. A native of New York, she earned a BA in Sociology from the State University of New York at New Paltz. Joanne completed her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago under the mentorship of Dr. Sue Markle, Dr. Phil Tiemann and Dr. Herbert Walberg.

Kris Melroe, Assistant Director of Schools & Agencies, earned a BA from Luther College in 1971. After graduating, she worked in the Minneapolis area on numerous health related projects. Kris founded a clinic that specialized in women's health. She also did research for a NGO (non-governmental United Nations organization) health project, examining sterilization and birth control practices on four Indian reservations. Her findings were used in planning the United Nations "Decade of the Woman" and resulted in her receiving the 1983 National Recognition Award from the group Women of All Red.

In 1976 Kris left the Midwest and moved to Seattle, where she worked in various capacities with different social service groups, including serving as co-director for the Lesbian Resource Center. Being drawn to the field of education, Kris received her teaching certificate and later her Special Education endorsement from the University of Washington. Kris joined Morningside in 1980, where she remained for five years as an elementary teacher. Here she honed her skills in instruction and precision teaching. After taking some time off to have two children, Kris taught for the Renton School District as a Special Education teacher for eight years. While in Renton, Kris designed and implemented a precision teaching training program for new special education teachers and was a member of the Renton Education Association's negotiating team.

Kris was a faculty member at Pacific Oaks College, teaching a graduate class in Special Education as part of their teacher training program. Kris returned to Morningside to work in the Morningside Teachers' Academy, where she supervises school-wide implementations of the Morningside Model of Generative Instruction. Kris currently travels extensively to coach & train public school teachers. Her primary focus has been working with Native schools from South Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma, & Hawaii.

Beth Bartter joined Morningside Academy in 2002 as the Director of Operations. She has extensive experience working with nonprofits, educational organizations, and international non-governmental organizations. Most recently she worked at the Nakorn Payap International School in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where she taught English and administrated extra-curricular activities. Prior to that, she ran an environmental planning business, which contracted with the City of Seattle to provide education to ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the area of household hazardous waste awareness. She has also supervised relief efforts in Somalia and tutoring programs in Singapore.

Beth holds a B.A. in Design from Miami University in Ohio and a M.A. in Urban and Community Planning from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Dawn Oliver is responsible for the direction of the academy's admissions procedures and development programs. She directs the admissions process to recruit and assist prospective students and their families from initial contact until enrollment and the development and enhancement of projects such as fundraisers, corporate sponsorships, and grant writing: relationship building for the purpose of seeking and applying for funding for academy priorities. She oversees community outreach and public relations endeavors, serving as a spokesperson for the academy and its interests. This includes the supervision and management of a team of volunteers, predominantly made up of parents, committed to the academy's mission.

Dawn has over twenty years' experience working in the administration of private schools. She has held positions as Registrar, Director of Financial Aid, Director of Admissions, Acting Administrator and Director of Development. The schools with which she has been affiliated have been located in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia and have ranged from a private school to a junior college. In addition, she has experience tutoring children with attention deficit disorder and autism having received training in discrete trial and direct instruction utilizing the techniques of applied behavior analysis. Upon her arrival in Seattle, Dawn completed the graduate credit program offered by Morningside Teachers' Academy, The Summer School Institute. She is a member of the Puget Sound Grantwriters Association (PSGA), The Northwest Development Officers Association (NDOA) and Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD). She serves on the SLUFAN Board, The South Lake Union Friends and Neighbors Council, as Vice President, and represents the academy at the South Lake Union Chamber of Commerce.

Dawn received her B.A. in English and Education from Douglass College of Rutgers University. She holds New Jersey certification to teach English, Speech and Theatre Arts. She began her career as a public high school teacher of English, public speaking and drama. In that role, she was also the director of the school plays.

Before relocating seven years ago to Seattle, Dawn served as Director of Development and Admissions for The Faison School for Autism at Virginia Commonwealth University. She wrote and produced the school's video and prepared all of the marketing materials for this start-up school.

Patrick joined Morningside in May of 2008 as the Director for Information Technology. Prior to that, he was a Field Engineer for a regional business to business Apple repair group, having moved to the Seattle area in 2007. He also has done turns with support at ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), at Weil Cornell Medical College in Qatar (Doha, Qatar), and at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California . At Morningside, Patrick provides technology and audiovisual support services to faculty, staff, and students.

Patrick studied Psychology at California State University - San Marcos before going into computer support and repair. He holds both hardware and technical support certificates from Apple Computer. He is originally from Northern California, with stints in Hawaii, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Doha, Qatar. In his free time, spends time with his daughter, and indulges in hobbies such as the Society for Creative Anachronism (a historical recreation group with a focus in the Middle Ages), SF/F conventions, and other related activities. He also rides horses, reads, cooks, plays the harp, and has altogether too many Lego sets.

Steve Dunnington is a bookkeeper who works on contract with Morningside Academy two days a week since September of 2003. Steve also works with a number of other non-profit groups who do good work in the community. Steve works at Morningside most Monday though Thursday afternoons from 1pm to 5pm.

Felisa Yasutake comes to Morningside Academy after an 8-year career with Vrane & Co., Paper Makers. Felisa enjoys working with youth and children and aspires to teach Math and Science someday. She labels herself as a "Jane of all Trades" and loves a challenge, whether physical or mental. In her free time, Felisa enjoys playing video games, watching movies and spending time with her one-year-old son.

Julian Gire, Assessment Coordinator, is entering his third year at Morningside Academy. But the path to Morningside was a long one spanning the Pacific Ocean and Cascade Mountains. Julian was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, and after graduating from high school in 1999 he moved to Cheney, Washington where he attended Eastern Washington University. While at EWU he earned a B.S. in Applied Developmental Psychology with an emphasis in school counseling. After graduation he returned to the "halls of academia" to earn a Masters degree in School Psychology. While looking for an internship, an advisor told him of a school in Seattle that specialized in teaching children who have not been successful in the traditional school system. So he packed up his truck and made the move from the small town to the big city. In his free time Julian likes to cook and BBQ, garden, and play paintball when the weather is nice.
He is very excited to be living in Seattle because, in his own words, "there are so many places to see, things to do, and great choices of food to eat!"

Faculty

Marianne Delgado recently returned to the Northwest after living a number of years in the New York City metropolitan area, where she studied at Barnard College and received her Masters in general education from Georgian Court College in Lakewood, New Jersey. She is the mother of three. Her profession specialties are creative writing, curriculum design, and implementing service-learning programs. In her free time, she enjoys the indie-rock music scene, thrift store shopping, comic book collecting, and costume design.

Erin grew up in Tullahoma, TN and spent the majority of her life in the southeastern United States. She earned her Bachelors in Environmental Science from David Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN. After an internship with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, she attended the Georgia Institute of Technology where she graduated with a Masters of Science in Public Policy. She worked for a while in the public policy arena on education policy where she decided that in order to truly make a difference in education, she needed to work directly with the students. So, she began teaching students with learning disabilities on the high school level at The Cottage School in Roswell, GA. There she brought the world of Political Science, Economics and Black and White Photography to the classroom for her students to explore and learn. She enjoyed her experience so much that when she followed her husband to Seattle, WA, she immediately searched for a teaching opportunity involving students with learning disabilities. Thus, she
joined Morningside Academy mid-year in the 08-09 school year. The experience has continued to be enriching and rewarding. When she is not teaching, Erin can be found taking black and white pictures with her trusty Nikon FM, doing yoga, running, reading and acting.

Shiloh was born in Seattle, Washington and spent her formative years in the small town of Maple Valley. She showed an interest in education at an early age, volunteering as a peer health educator from the ages of 15 to 18. After graduating from high school, she attended both the University of Washington and Central Washington University. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education and an Elementary Science Education Minor. She is currently working on her Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction, with an emphasis on Precision Teaching and Instructional Design.

Shiloh has worked with both special education and general education populations. She worked through college as a one-on-one paraprofessional for a student with physical and mental disabilities. Upon graduation, she took a teaching position at a school for severely emotionally and behaviorally disabled students in Tacoma, Washington. She eventually moved back to Seattle to take a teaching position at Morningside Academy, where she works with students transitioning from the Foundations program into the Middle School program. She has been with Morningside since August, 2007.

Shiloh lives in the Seattle neighborhood of Wallingford with her boyfriend Joe and their two cats, Mama and Tom. She loves cooking, camping, and karaoke, and spends a lot of her free time collaborating on various creative film and literary projects with friends. Her long-term career goals include teacher coaching and further study into educational policy development centered around Precision Teaching and Behavioral Analysis.

Haley Landau grew up in a tiny town in Iowa. After high school, she'd had enough of the cold Midwestern winters and trekked out west to Flagstaff, Arizona. There she attended Northern Arizona University where she received her B.S. in Elementary Education with an emphasis in Applied Science. Throughout college, Haley worked at Lowell Observatory (where Pluto was discovered) as a tour guide, telescope operator, and educator for school groups. Haley completed her student teaching at an intermediate school on the Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. Upon graduating, Haley educated students in two of Flagstaff's charter schools.

In 2006, Haley bid adieu to the Southwest and ventured up to Portland, Oregon. There, she worked as an elementary music teacher and a private tutor. A year later, she moved to Seattle to pursue this exciting position at Morningside. Outside the classroom, Haley finds happiness rock climbing with Bryan, entertaining her cat Lola, traveling, reading, and sampling the fine vegetarian cuisine of Seattle.

Erica Lybarger came to Morningside Academy after growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After too much sunshine, she moved to the Pacific Northwest to study at Seattle University. She graduated with a B.A. in Psychology with departmental and academic honors. She wove her passion for teaching and Psychological academic experience while working as an age-group swim coach for the West Seattle YMCA and Swim Seattle. Post graduation, Erica moved to Boulder, Colorado to continue her work with young adults as the Youth Services Coordinator at a women's heath clinic. There, she developed a commitment to disseminating accurate health information, which is something that she continues at Morningside Academy as the Health teacher.

Erica has been teaching at Morningside Academy for two years. Her contributions to the Morningside community include presenting on the Talk Aloud Problem Solving (TAPS) class at the Association for Behavior Analysis International conference and being the Reproductive Health educator, as well as teaching Reading, Writing, Math and TAPS. She is a life-long student whose current interests are health and the environment. Erica prefers to spend her time outside of school hiking, running, watching movies and enjoying her home.

Geoff Martin, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, participated in Morningside Academy's Summer School Institute in 2000 while still in Graduate School, and joined Morningside full-time in January 2005. At Morningside, he has taught beginning and corrective reading, math, and writing; and he has assisted with the design and production of instructional and supplementary practice materials. Geoff earned his B.S. degree in Psychology from the University of Florida and his M.S. degree from Auburn University. Prior to Morningside, he has worked in a variety of capacities including, as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, a Behavioral Clinician at a State Developmental Center in Indiana, a Consultant for a Developmental Center in Alabama, an Instructional Designer and Training Developer for traditional business and industry settings, a Computer Consultant, and a Tutor.

Originally from Northern Virginia, Geoff relocated to South Florida after middle school. He enjoys writing simple computer programs to automate common tasks, renovation projects with friends, reading, and seeing all Seattle has to offer.

Mike Wolfson is currently in his second year as a teacher at Morningside Academy. He received his Bachelor's Degree in History from the University of Washington and his Master's Degree in Teaching from Heritage University. He participated in national service for one year as an Americorps volunteer. Earlier in his teaching career, Mike taught for five years in a Seattle public school as an 8th grade teacher. Mike loves to travel. Not only has he traveled the country by car, but he also has been to Africa. Yet another interesting fact about Mike is that he has worked in Hollywood on set crews. In addition, Mike's interests include motorcycling, sports, and board games.

A Bay Area native and outdoor enthusiast, Andrea McDermott came to Seattle eager to explore the Pacific Northwest. Prior to her cross-country trek, she taught reading to middle school students in Austin, TX under the directorship of the Vaughn Gross Center for Reading & Language Arts. Before moving to Texas, she received her Master's degree in Special Education from Vanderbilt University. While in Nashville, she created a foundation for children with Down syndrome in an effort to provide them with reading scholarships at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Reading Clinic. In her spare time, she loves to hike, bake, fundraise, train for marathons, and roller blade (however she is still learning to master the 'art of stopping!'). She is excited to be a part of the Morningside team & looks forward to the journey ahead.

Rosie grew up in Big Bear Lake, California, a small mountain community. She moved across country to Baltimore, Maryland and attended Towson University, where she earned a B.S. in elementary education. She and her husband decided to move back to the west coast and settled on Seattle. She feels lucky to have begun her teaching career at her son's preschool, which was inclusive of typically developing children and children with special needs. Rosie made a transition from the classroom to early intervention, working as a coordinator of services for parents of children with special needs. She loved the work she did with families but longed to work more closely with school aged kids again. After working for a year as a substitute teacher for Mercer Island and Shoreline school districts, she was thrilled to start teaching at Morningside Academy. Rosie enjoys running and biking and generally being outdoors. She loves to travel and enjoy good food with family and friends. Her favorite sport to watch is any that her son is playing!

Jenni Reilly learned of Morningside Academy while attending Eastern Washington University, where she received her Masters in Education in Special Education with an emphasis on Applied Behavior Analysis and Direct Instruction. She earned her Bachelors Degrees in both Psychology and Elementary Education. She started her teaching career with Morningside Academy during the 99-00 school year. She embraces the Morningside Model and continues to be amazed by the personal and academic growth by the students each year. Jenni is both a teacher and teacher trainer at Morningside Academy. In her spare time she enjoys gardening, sailing, swimming, and spending time with her husband, Jason, son, Nicholas, and golden retriever, Elmo.

Adam was born and raised in Olympia, WA. He attended the University of Washington where he received a double major in Communications & Political Science. He spent three years in Chicago where he got his Master's Degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Adam teaches our upper level students at Morningside Academy, including content classes in history and civics. Adam is an avid sports fan (Go Huskies! Seahawks! Mariners! Sounders! and Cubs!) and spent several seasons coaching Babe Ruth Baseball. Adam also enjoys traveling (he's been to over 20 different countries, and 28 U.S. States, reading (especially political, historical, and science fiction), playing basketball & softball, swing dancing, Star Wars collecting, and fly-fishing any chance he gets.

Sifu ("teacher") Restita DeJesus is the Instructor of Wushu Class. She is the co-founder and instructor of Yin Yang Arts Center. Sifu DeJesus has 30 years of experience in martial discliplines that include Karate, Kung Fu, Kajukenbo, Eskrima, Aikido, Iaido, Tai Chi, Qigong, Bagua, and Wushu. She is an active tournament competitor, holding national and international awards in Chen Style Tai Chi, Tai Chi Sword, and Wushu Southern Boxing.
Black Belts & Certifications:

Sifu DeJesus earned her first black belt in Karate at age 15, and has been teaching martial arts ever since. She currently holds a 5th level Instructor's rank in Taikabudo (a style founded by she and Sherril Johnson) a black belt in Butokukan Karate, 2nd degree black belt under Al Dacoscos' Wun Hop Kuen Do - Kajukenbo system, a 5th degree black belt in doce Pares Eskrima, and a 5th degree rank in Guro Christopher Petrilli's "Filipino Martial Arts Academy" system. She is also a certified instructor of Wushu, Tai Chi, and Qigong under Master Yijiao Hong.

Sifu DeJesus actively trains and competes each year, having consistently won Gold and Silver medals at the USA Wushu-Kung Fu Federation international competitions, as well as winning First Place in Chen Style Tai Chi at the 2001 First World Taijiquan and Health Conference in Hainan, China.

Sifu DeJesus and her Demo team perform at countless martial arts demonstrations each year. She has used her Martial arts experience in appearing as an extra in several movies, various commercial spots, stock footage, and motion capture sequences for video games.

Sifu DeJesus' goal is to share the fun and fitness benefits of Chinese Wushu with kids of all ages. Through Wushu, she hopes that kids can enhance their sense of confidence and empowerment, as well as keep physically fit.

Jennifer was born and raised in Minnesota. She obtained her B.S. in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota and is currently pursuing a M.S. in Behavior Analysis from St. Cloud State University. She has extensive experience working with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. At Morningside, Jennifer is working on creating new math curriculum with the Morningside Teachers' Academy. In the future, Jennifer aspires to achieve her Ph.D. in Special Education with an emphasis on behavioral analysis and curriculum design.

The climate of Seattle and the Northwest suits Jennifer perfectly. In her spare time she enjoys kayaking, playing water polo, hiking, drinking coffee, and exploring Seattle.