Sara has been involved in education professionally for 20 years.  After receiving a Bachelor of Science in Education & Social Policy from Northwestern University, she taught Special Education grades 3-6 in New York City as a corps member for Teach for America. Sara earned a Master’s of Science in Education and went on to work for Montana’s Office of Public Instruction for 5 years.  Sara worked in special education compliance, professional development and spearheaded the beginning of the State’s School Mental Health Initiative.

For the last 7 years, Sara has lived between Helena and New York creating learning environments. She founded and directed a micro school for kids ages 2-8 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  Credentials aside, Sara’s passion is curating space and facilitating conversations that lead kids to make their own discoveries.

Christopher graduated from The Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York City. Architecture came after a degree in studio art (emphasis on photography and painting) and work as a teacher, chef, and exhibit designer for a science museum. His architecture thesis “The Walking School” focused on education through the lens of peripatetic exploration. Through the creation of wearable classrooms and mobile pieces, students can fully explore the natural and cultural landscape around them. Instead of an insular system of classroom education, the things the students carry become the space for investigation. As an architect, Chris finds building and making with kids to be the ultimate inspiration. As co-founder of Cottonwood ALC, Christopher continues to explore curiosity and learning as the catalyst for design.

With a joint Creative Communications degree from the University of Winnipeg and Red River College, Meg is a freelance journalist and editor, and multi-media artist. Through her business, The Craft Nerd, Meg creates functional art and works to inspire others to find their own creativity. Her goal is to create media that changes the way people view and move through their world, encouraging others to live more passionately, sustainably and gently.

Mitch cares ardently about empowering young learners, and he is thrilled to be a part of Cottonwood. He is a student of philosophy, a theater maker, and a teacher; his work has often been an interweaving of education, story, and inquiry. At the BIRD Theatre in Tottori, Japan, among other productions, he collaborated with Korean group TUIDA to create The Poetry Class about the colonial period and Pacific war; he also directed students at Kei Ai High School in Romeo & Juliet. Using applied theater, he performed with Village Playback Theatre creating improvisations from audience members’ personal stories, and for a three month residency he taught embodied methods of community dialogue through the Colombo Americano in Medellin, Colombia. He has also taught theater to elementary school students at 82nd St. Academics and middle school students at Summer Institute for the Gifted. For a year, he taught at the English Immersion Program in Umphium Mai refugee camp on the Thailand-Myanmar border using a curriculum based in literature and critical thinking. With the New York Foundling at Queens College, Mitch supervised the academic component of The Dorm Project, a program supporting youth in foster care through college. He has a Bachelor's degree in Theater from Skidmore College and a Master's degree in Philosophy and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Mitch has recently presented at the North Eastern Philosophy of Education Society (NEPES) and Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization (PLATO) conferences. He also relishes walking in the forest.