Our Administrative Team
Trayce Marino has been our dedicated Head of School since 2005. She earned her B.F.A. from Syracuse University. Before coming to MSAE, Trayce worked for six years with Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta as their Arts Program Director. She also worked as a Georgia Pre-K teacher for four years prior to that. She received her Montessori Elementary Certification from Association Montessori Internationale in 2009 and she spent her first year working with our Upper Elementary group. Now she is back in the office as the Head of School. Her love of children is apparent in her work in any hat. Trayce has a wonderful husband of 20 years and two adorable boys: Jack is 13 and Luke is just 6. Both boys happily attend Montessori School at Emory. The family has resided in Decatur for over ten years. In the rare moments that she has time to herself, she likes to read and do crossword puzzles.
Maryann Barnhart has been the Education Coordinator at MSAE for four years. She came here from the West Coast, where she taught primary Montessori for decades (and even dabbled in a wonderful Montessori Middle School), originally in California, though mostly in Oregon. When she visited our school for an interview, she was so taken with the awesome teachers and the thought given to the running of the children’s day that she decided to pack herself up and travel across the country to a place she had never been before just so she could support all of that. She is enjoying Atlanta and the surrounding beauty and culture of the East Coast, her new home, where she welcomes visits from her son in Portland, Oregon.
Valerie Kote-Tawia is the Montessori School at Emory Office Manager and Yearbook Staff Adviser. She is an Atlanta native and Agnes Scott College alumna. Valerie has been at MSAE for over five years. She has worked in the DeKalb County Public School System as well as the Atlanta Public School System. As a former high school teacher, she has found Montessori to be a refreshing and rewarding educational approach and enjoys seeing children grow and develop through the three year cycles. She is a young adult author, produced playwright and director. She has been featured in the Decatur Book Festival as an Emerging Author and her first novel, Would You Be Left?, is now available at DeKalb County Public Libraries in the Local Author Collection.
Tom Podgorny, Our founder, has made authentic Montessori his life’s work. Tom lives in Atlanta, and his two children attend our Montessori school. Tom says, ”after everything I have seen the past twenty plus years there is no way I would let my own children miss out on a Montessori education“. Although Tom is not a trained teacher himself he is well respected throughout the Montessori community both locally and nationally for his accomplishments and experience. He was asked to serve as the Chairman of the Board of the AMI teacher training center here in Atlanta. Once he completed that term he has remained a member of that board. Tom also served as a board member of the Montessori Administrators of Georgia. He is also a member of the following organizations:
Association Montessori Internationale (AMI)
Montessori Administrators Association (USA)
NAMTA
Tom is interested in hiring only the best AMI trained teachers for each of the classrooms and employing them as administrators as well. He believes that if you hire the best AMI trained teachers, you can then give them full autonomy to do what they do best.
Association Montessori Internationale (AMI)
Montessori Administrators Association (USA)
NAMTA
Tom is interested in hiring only the best AMI trained teachers for each of the classrooms and employing them as administrators as well. He believes that if you hire the best AMI trained teachers, you can then give them full autonomy to do what they do best.