Teachers & Staff
Administrative Staff
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Marilyn Motto Henkelman (M.Ed., Loyola University, 1973) is the director of the Phebe Anna Thorne School. Ms. Henkelman is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. She received her early childhood training at the Erikson Institute in Chicago.Before assuming the directorship of the Thorne School, she served as a head teacher at the Thorne School, directed the Ethel Mason Day Care Center and taught at Delaware County Community College. |
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Nancy Rassiga (M.S., Teachers College, Columbia University, 1975) is the director of the Language Enrichment Preschool Program at the Thorne School, as well as the Language Enrichment Kindergarten at the Thorne Kindergarten Center. Prior to her work at the Thorne School, Ms. Rassiga was coordinator of speech at Children's Seashore House and an instructor at West Chester University. She has also served as director of the Speech and Language Center of Northern Virginia Developmental Preschool, McLean, Va. |
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Leslie Rescorla (Ph.D., Yale University, 1976) is the director of Early Childhood Programs at Bryn Mawr College and serves as the psychological consultant to the Thorne School.Professor of Psychology and director of the Child Study Institute, Dr. Rescorla is a licensed, school-certified, clinical child psychologist. She received her clinical training at the Yale Child Study Center, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic. |
Teachers
Each classroom is supervised by a lead teacher who is certified in early childhood education and who has a strong background in child development.
Toddlers:
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Amanda Ulrich teaches the two day Nearly Threes Class. She is a graduate of Brown University and Bank Street College of Education and has been teaching at Thorne School since 2007. |
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Jan Linowitz (Ed.D, Harvard University, 1986) has led the Wednesday morning Toddler Time program for toddlers and their parents/caregivers since 2005. She is also the psycho-educational consultant to the kindergarten and nursery school programs.Prior to coming to Bryn Mawr, she was a lecturer in Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Development at Penn's Graduate School of Education and has worked in a variety of educational and clinical settings with children and parents. |
Traditional Preschool:
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Kirsten Mudd, the lead teacher of Thorne School's Younger Class, is a graduate of Hampshire College and has been teaching at Thorne School since 1992. |
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Dorothy "Dot" Briscoe, the lead teacher of Thorne School's Older Class and Summer Camp Program is a graduate of Dickinson College and has been teaching at Thorne School since 1999. |
Kindergarten:
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Sara Dudley is the Kindergarten teacher. She holds both a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of North Dakota and taught elementary school for five years before moving to Pennsylvania. |
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Debbie Moran is the assistant teacher in the kindergarten classroom. She has worked at Thorne since 2010. She has over 16 years of childcare and development experience including roles as a pre-school teacher and playgroup facilitator. |
Language Enrichment Preschool Program:
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Bev McDonell (M.A. Speech Pathology Western Washington University; B.S. Speech Pathology/Audiology Pennsylvania State University) has been the speech pathologist in the Language Enrichment Preschool Program at the Phebe Anna Thorne School since 1992. She has extensive experience with both preschool and school-aged children with language and learning differences, and is a certified Wilson Tutor for children with reading difficulties. |
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Kim Milliken (BS Elizabethtown College; PA State Teacher Certification, Delaware County Community College) joined the LEEP teaching team as lead teacher in 2008. Prior to that she worked as a trained Montessori teacher at Main Line Montessori School in both the toddler and main classrooms. |
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Cynthia Mack (MA, Early Childhood, BA, Psychology) taught in the Language Enrichment Preschool Program as lead teacher for two years, acted as substitute teacher for several years, and has now been working as our assistant teacher since July of 2003. She is an active team member helping to enrich the curriculum as well as working directly with the children. She has taken courses on teaching yoga to young children and has implemented a weekly yoga program in our older class. |
Language Enrichment Kindergarten Program:
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Claire W. Luce (B.S. Michigan Sate) joined the Language Enrichment Kindergarten teaching team as lead teacher in 2010. Her prior experience includes head teacher of transitional kindergarten and early childhood classes, as well as a special education teacher.
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Christine Barraza (M.S., CCC –SLP) joined the Language Enrichment Kindergarten team as the speech-language pathologist in 2010. Prior to working with us, she was a speech therapist and Director of the Speech-Language Program at the Crossroads School, working with children with language-based learning differences and coordinating services. She also has extensive prior experience working as a speech therapist since 2001.
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Cathy Poynton (BA Drexel) was our full time assistant teacher in the Language Enrichment Preschool Program and substitute teacher for the morning Thorne program for 5 years. She transferred over to our Kindergarten as full time assistant teacher there upon our opening in 2004. Cathy has developed the Kindergarten Arts Program, and for the past 2 years has mounted the children’s gallery of artwork at the end of each year. |
Teaching Assistants
Each class also has an assistant teacher
who works alongside the teacher to provide a nurturing and supportive
environment for young children. Assistants are often recent Bryn Mawr
graduates who have previously worked at Thorne and who already
understand our philosophy and the way that we work with young children.
The assistants must demonstrate a depth of understanding and concern for
young children along with some previous practical experience.
Teacher Aides
In addition to the teacher and the teaching assistant, teacher aides provide additional adult support in the classroom. The teacher aides are most often Bryn Mawr or Haverford College undergraduates who have a demonstrated interest in working with young children.