Please feel free to contact any of the Board Members with questions about their domains of responsibility. Click their name for email or use the listed telephone number.
Susan Cunningham , President, Current and Alumnus Parent
Susan is the Director of Major Gifts at Washington and Lee. She has served on the board for two years most recently as Vice President. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky and a master's degree from Vanderbilt University. Susan's husband, Neil, is the head coach of the women's soccer program at Washington and Lee. Susan and Neil have a Montessori alumni, Daniel and a current Montessori student, Anna.
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J.D. King , Vice President, Current Parent
J.D. is currently a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor and the Director of the Criminal Justice Clinic at Washington and Lee University School of Law. Before coming to W & L in the summer of 2008, J.D. practiced law as a criminal defense attorney in both Washington, D.C., and Laramie, Wyoming, and taught at the University of Wyoming College of Law. J.D.’s wife, Johanna, also teaches at the Law School; they have two sons, Elijah (6) and Emmet (4), and are expecting another child in December 2009.
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 Alison Detwiler, Treasurer, Community Member
Alison holds a BS in Business Administration and Accounting from Washington and Lee University, and currently works as a Tax Director for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. She is based in the Firm's Mclean, VA office. Her husband, David, is the W&L Head Men's Tennis Coach and Director of the Duchossois Tennis Center. This is her first term on the WCM Board.
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Tinni Sen, Secretary, Current and Alumni Parent
Tinni is an associate professor of Economics at VMI. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi and a MS from Kolkata University, India. She has spent parts of her life in Africa and India. Tinni and her husband Atin Basu, a professor of Economy at VMI, have two children: Saara, age 4,currently at WCM, and Oishani, age 9, a WCM alumnus.
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John Keyser, Buildings and Grounds, Community Member
John is a graduate of Virginia Tech. After finishing his M.S. with concentrations in Criminology and Quantitative Methods, he taught in and coordinated the Criminal Justice major at Roanoke College for seven years. While there he also was the co-founder and President of BKW Research Group, a survey, marketing, and program evaluation firm. He and his family moved to Staunton in 1997 when he started working at Washington and Lee University School of Law. John now serves as the Associate Dean for Administration and Technology at the Law School. John’s wife, Kim, has been a Montessori teacher since 1995. She is currently employed at the Montessori School of Charlottesville. Kim and John have four wonderful, Montessori educated children: Jordan (19), Nathan (16), Matthew (16), and Hollyn (14).
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Karla Murdock, Buildings and Grounds, Alumni Parent
Karla is a professor of psychology at Washington and Lee University. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia and taught in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston before moving to Lexington in 2005. Her specialization is in developmental psychopathology. She has been a member of the WCM Board for four years, serving as President in 2008-2009. Karla and her husband Bob, a veterinarian, gardener and woodworker, have two WCM alumni children: Anna, age 8, and Will, age 5.
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Louise Wasserott, Fundraising, Community Member
Louise moved to Lexington in 2008. She has 3 grown children who are alumni of the Wyoming Valley Montessori School in Kingston, Pennsylvania. With a degree in psychology from King’s College and a master’s in rehabilitation counseling from the University of Scranton, she spent the first half of her career in social services, including the Director of the United Cerebral Palsy Center in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Those counseling skills became handy in her second vocation of alumni relations and fundraising. Currently Louise works in the planned giving office of W&L and volunteers with Habitat for Humanity.
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 Hari Osofsky, Events, Current Parent
Hari Osofsky is an associate professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law, where her research, writing, and advocacy focuses on climate change law and policy. Her current writing projects include several articles, a co-edited book on climate change litigation with Cambridge University Press, and a casebook on climate change law and policy forthcoming with Aspen Publishers. Her advocacy work has included assisting with Earthjustice’s annual submissions to the U.N. Human Rights Commission on environmental rights and with the Inuit Circumpolar Conference’s petition on climate change to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She has served as an advisor to the Western Environmental Law Center on climate change litigation, and her fall 2008 Climate Change Litigation Practicum assisted the Southern Environmental Law Center. She is mom to current Montessori student Oz (5 years) and prospective Montessori student Scarlet (9 months).
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 Nancy Smith, Cooperative Coordinator, Community Member
Nancy, a longtime certified Montessori teacher, is a former Director of Woods Creek Montessori (then known as the Montessori Center for Children). During her career, she has taught in a number of schools throughout the country and served as Director in schools in Northern Virginia before ‘retiring’ to Lexington with her husband in 2002. In addition to classroom and administrative work, Nancy has been involved with teacher training programs, has conducted parent education workshops and presented seminars at Montessori and other Early Childhood Education Conferences. She has published a number of articles in Montessori Life Magazine. Currently along with the Montessori Board, Nancy is a member of the Virginia Child Day Care Council and the FAIR Board, and is Vice President of the Board for Masters Gardeners. |
 Derek Carter, Director Support and Evaluation / Financial Aid, Current and Alumnus Parent
Derek holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Washington and Lee University and has been a member of the Lexington community since 2002. Derek has many years of finance and investment experience through previous jobs, and currently, he is a retirement planning specialist and insurance agent with Bankers Life and Casualty Company. Derek is currently serving a second term on the Board, having spent his first three-year Board tenure focusing on the long-term financial improvement and stability of the school. He served as Treasurer of the Board the last two years of his first Board term, and Derek currently serves as chair of the Executive Director Support and Evaluation Committee and the Financial Aid Committee. Derek is the father of current Montessori student, Ainsley (3.5 years old) and an alumnus student, Daniel (6 years old).
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 Derek Pinkham, Public Relations, Current Parent
Derek is a graduate of Bennington College with a degree in Chemistry. After working several years in industry as an analytical chemist, he worked at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, the New England Conservatory, and Washington and Lee University in various administrative roles. Derek is the author of Milwaukee Jazz Profiles: Lives and Lessons of Musicians from the Cream City, slated to be published in 2010 by Marquette University Press. He now works at Virginia Military Institute's Center for Leadership and Ethics as the Assistant Conference Coordinator. In his spare time he likes to play and listen to jazz music and build and repair instruments. Derek is father to one Montessori child, Cole, and a Montessori hopeful, Lucy. Derek has been a member of the board since June 2009. |
 Jennifer Cook Goodhart, Classroom-Teacher-Community Support, Community Member
Jennifer Cook Goodhart is a former lead Primary teacher at Woods Creek Montessori. She received her training through the Northeast Montessori Institute in Washington D.C. and her undergraduate from Denison University. As a child she attended a Montessori School up until High School and is a firm believer of the method. She was working and living in NYC until her husband swept her off her feet and tempted her with visions of a renovated farmhouse filled with babies. She is currently at home in this farmhouse with their 2yr old, and 5month old girls Eleanor and Ruby.
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