Travel & Location

Kathleen Allen is AMI Elementary trained and taught for forty-eight years prior to her retirement in 2021. She holds a PhD in Humanities and Culture
from Union Institute & University. A published author and award recipient, she has conducted research and designed classroom materials, served as an Elementary course assistant for the Montessori Training Center Northeast, and has been a key implementer of The Keepers of Alexandria since its earliest days.

Gerard (Gerry) Leonard has presented the Keepers of Alexandria in several 9-12 Montessori classrooms. He has also, together with Kathleen Allen and David
Kahn, given workshops on the program for teachers. He is a trainer and international examiner for the Association Montessori Internationale and has
trained elementary teachers at the Montessori Training Center Northeast. Gerry has AMI 3 to 6 and 6 to 12 diplomas from Sion Hill College in Dublin, and a Masters in Education from the University of Hartford. He taught for over thirty years in 3
to 6, 6 to 12, and 12-15 Montessori programs. Gerry was a co-developer with David Kahn of the NAMTA Centenary Exhibit, A Montessori Journey:1907- 2007.
The latter exhibit toured seven cities in North America and is now permanently housed at The Montessori Center of Minnesota in St. Paul.

David Kahn has become de facto the legacy documenter of the AMI world, through his 50-year sole editorship for the North American Montessori Teachers’ Association and the last six years with the Association Montessori Internationale Journal. David has served as a director for various non-profit Montessori management organizations over the last 60 years. He has 17 years of Montessori teaching
experience, 12 of them as teaching principal at Ruffing Montessori School. David founded the Hershey Montessori in 2000 School’s Adolescent Community, an internationally acclaimed Montessori farm school model for adolescent education. He served as founding director emeritus of Montessori High School at University Circle, Cleveland, Ohio. The original AMI Montessori Orientation to Adolescent Studies initially guided and developed teachers who worked with students ages 12–18, with David’s leadership as a main contribution. David holds a BA in fine arts and Great Books from the University of Notre Dame as well as the AMI Montessori elementary diploma from Bergamo, Italy. This
conference is the occasion for a collaboration with Baiba Krummins Grazzini spanning her shared roots from that of Camillo Grazzini. David has utilized his film and writing skills to create the largest global Montessori media history initiative, documenting Montessori innovation and implementation in both the public and private sectors through video and publications. He has created two major museum exhibits that have accented the social and ecological directions of the Montessori movement. The high school reflects Mr Kahn’s awareness in the context of a general education, then with specific knowledge and skills through psycho-disciplines. Regional high schools focus on both farm and urban areas with an emphasis on practical arts and social contribution that defines the dignity of responsibility. He currently directs Montessori global classical studies by integrating the Syntopicon and Great Books—originated by Mortimer Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins at the University of Chicago Committee on Social Thought. He is about to present a proposal regarding Montessori Great Books seminars to be reviewed with AMI and Montessori-Pierson Books. David also helps advance the Montessori Institute for the Science of Peace with international implementation under the discretion of the Philippines, Abba Orchard Schools and the Barrameda Family.

AMI trainer, lecturer and examiner, Baiba Krumins Grazzini is director of elementary training at the Fondazione Centro Internazionale Studi
Montessoriani (Bergamo, Italy), an AMI Training Centre which was founded by Mario Montessori in 1961. She has been involved with Bergamo’s AMI Elementary training course since 1975, became an AMI elementary trainer in 1986, and a director of training in 1992. Baiba Krumins Grazzini trained in London with Hilla Patell and Muriel Dwyer (3-6), in Bergamo with Eleonora Honegger Caprotti and Camillo Grazzini (6-12) and in Washington with Margaret Stephenson and Fahmida Malik (as part
of her Training of Trainers Programme). In addition to her work in Bergamo, she has lectured in Spain, Ireland, India and in Japan, where she gave the first elementary training course. She served on the AMI Pedagogical Committee, now known as the Scientific
Pedagogy Group, from 2004 until 2013, and also on the AMI Material Committee during the same years.

Mary is Professor Emerita and former Department Chairperson of Specialized Educational Programs, College of Education, Cleveland State University, former visiting professor at University California/ Berkeley and St Mary’s College, Moraga, CA. and former Teacher leader of the Reading Recovery program in Ohio and California. She holds an AMI Elementary certificate from Bergamo, Italy training center, as well as infant and toddler and 3-6 training. She is widely published in Montessori research, The
Montessori Bibliography and other Montessori works in collaboration with NAMTA and David Kahn and in reading and learning disabilities, nutrition
and learning and research of Edgar Allan Poe. She and her husband helped found South Suburban Montessori School in Ohio now in its 56th year
attended by her children and granddaughters who now work as assistants as they finish their college degrees.

Caren Ross has established and led three farm-based Montessori adolescent programs in Connecticut over the past two decades, most recently working as the Adolescent Program Director and Farm Manager for the Montessori School of
Greater Hartford. An AMI auxiliary trainer at the adolescent level, Caren received her training in Ohio, Mexico, and Hartford and is eager to further disseminate and develop the adolescent approach to the psychodisciplines, about which she has published an article and designed a summer workshop. Caren has a BA in psychology and Spanish from Tufts University and an MA in international affairs from Columbia University. She worked many years as a journalist, writing news
stories from the United Nations and editing news and feature stories from Spanish-speaking countries. She has lived in Spain, Italy, and Switzerland and has
been involved for decades in local land preservation efforts.

Xavier Angelo Paez Barrameda is an AMI Auxiliary Trainer at the 6–12 level with nearly 15 years of experience in Montessori education. He has assisted and lectured in the 60th and 62nd AMI 6–12 diploma courses at the Fondazione Centro Internazionale Studi Montessori in Bergamo as part of his Training of Trainers program. Xavier holds AMI diplomas at both the 3–6 and 6–12 levels, completed the NAMTA Adolescent Orientation, and participates regularly in AMI’s Training of Trainers Seminars.
His career spans roles as assistant, lead guide, Head of School, and now Director of Pedagogy at The Abba’s Orchard School. He examines for AMI diploma courses, consults internationally, presents widely, and contributes to the AMI journal.