Board of Directors

Chair, Board of Directors

Michele Hutchinson

Michele is a Montessori Administrative Consultant with nearly 30 years of experience as a Montessori guide and administrator. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Health Care Planning and Health Psychology from the University of Rochester, two Montessori teaching diplomas, and a Master of Arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis. Most recently, as Director of Conference Operations and a member of the Core Executive Team for Youth for a Better World, LLC, she trained Montessori teachers, chaired committees and inspired elementary and adolescent students to become young change-makers through programs such as Montessori Model United Nations.

Michele has a long-standing dedication and commitment to true Montessori excellence, AMI standards, and the Washington Montessori Institute, itself, as a flourishing teacher-training program. Her four children attended Montessori schools through 6th grade, and her daughter graduated from WMI in 2017.

Michele is also a portrait photographer specializing in children’s portraiture, and a workshop instructor for Michele Jeanine Photography.

Secretary

Inga Sieminski

Inga’s 30-year Montessori journey includes a farm-based primary 3-6 program, elementary 6-12 classrooms, and administrative positions in the Washington, DC, metro area. She holds two Montessori diplomas, an M.Ed. from Loyola University Maryland, a Master’s degree in Arts Administration from American University, and post-master’s certificate in Curriculum and Instruction from University of Maryland. As Coordinator for DC public schools, she was part of an innovative program that addressed the need for differentiated and multicultural learning through an arts-integrated curriculum.

Including child-centered music and movement daily in her Montessori classrooms emerged naturally from Inga’s 3-level certification in Orff-Schulwerk-Music for Children from George Mason University and research in Orff Music Therapy. She has written a 230-page lesson manual as part of her international training workshops and introduced the complementary pedagogy at AMI/USA Experience, AMI International Montessori Congress, Serendi Montessori Ghana, and Montessori Europe Congress.

Inga has always appreciated the integrity of her AMI training at WMI and is grateful for the opportunity to serve on the Executive Board.

Treasurer

Stacy Fresch

Stacy is a Partner in Forensic Risk Alliance’s Washington, DC, office and has nearly 26 years of private and public sector experience providing advice on a variety of multinational compliance, financial reporting, and forensic accounting matters. Before joining FRA in 2016, Stacy was a managing director in KPMG’s forensics practice and served as an assistant chief accountant in the SEC’s division of enforcement. Stacy is a certified public accountant (CPA) and a certified fraud examiner (CFE). She received her MBA at the College of William and Mary and earned her bachelor’s degree in economics at Dickinson College.

Kavitha Mehta

Kavitha is a native of Northwest Indiana and attended Casa Montessori in the early 1980s. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University with minors in Spanish and Biology. Kavitha worked in corporate finance at Procter and Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she held various forecasting and analysis positions with such brands as Iams, Vicks, and Crest. In 2008, Kavitha earned her AMI Primary diploma at the Washington Montessori Institute and a Masters in Montessori Education at Loyola University Maryland. She was a Primary guide for eight years and is the founder and Head of School of Northcrest Montessori in Clarksville, Maryland. She also serves on the board of the Montessori Schools of Maryland. Kavitha lives in Maryland with her husband Nick and her children Lara and Dilan, both of whom were Montessori students.

Sailini Magapu-Lohia

Sailini founded Fiore Montessori along with her husband, Sandeep Lohia, in 2010. The school is recognized by AMI USA as a committed practitioner of the authentic Montessori accreditation standards. She is trained as an AMI Montessori Primary Guide and has over 8 years of experience working with children ages 3 – 6. Sailini holds an MBA in Finance and a BS in Commerce. In a previous life, Sailini worked as a Business Director for Capital One. She and her husband have two young adult sons, and live in Vienna, VA. She is a committed Iyengar Yoga student and enjoys playing Bridge.

Keely Boomhower

Since 2018, Keely has served as the Head of Oak Grove Montessori School (formerly Christian Family Montessori School) in Washington, DC. Originally from the Midwest, she began her Montessori journey as a primary student and rediscovered Montessori as a young adult through volunteer work at Nightingale Montessori in Springfield, OH. Keely has worked in education for 25 years, guiding children at both the Primary and Adolescent levels in school, library, and residential settings before transitioning into development and administrative roles in independent schools.

Keely earned an early childhood certificate in Montessori education from the Seton Montessori Institute in 2001 and served for several years as a primary guide at Montessori Habitat School in Champaign, Illinois and at Hudson Montessori School in Ohio. She holds a B.A. from Wittenberg University and an M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Keely is committed to making high quality Montessori education accessible to all.

James Yoo

James is a Director at a forensic accounting consultancy in Washington, DC, with 10+ years of experience in performing financial statement audits of multinational corporations and advising companies on complex accounting and compliance related issues. As a parent of children who are being raised in a Montessori environment, James is a champion of children-led education and views learning as a life-long journey. James lives in Falls Church, Virginia with his wife, Joanne and their two endlessly curious children, Heather and Seth.