Christa learned to love Falk through her student teaching experience in Kindergarten during the 2016-2017 school year. She has a variety of experience in regards to working with young children. After she completed her teaching certification at the University of Pittsburgh, she began her work as a Preschool Educator at the Cyert Center for Early Education- Penn Avenue. Christa is thrilled to be back in the Kindergarten classroom! In her spare time she enjoys hiking, kayaking, swimming, reading, live music and Pirate baseball games.

 

Kevin Goodwin has worked at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh for the past several years in the Education/Learning and Research Department . He has worked in both traditional classroom settings as well as informal learning environments. Kevin has a Master’s in Early Childhood Education from Carlow University, a Bachelor's in Political Science from St. Bonaventure University, and is a member of the Harvard based Agency by Design research group located here in Pittsburgh. Kevin loves teaching children and considers himself a life-long learner.  He also loves dinosaurs and sloths.

Carolyn Mericle has enjoyed a 29-year career of serving as a teacher and administrator at various independent schools in the Washington DC and Pittsburgh areas.  She has led classrooms of children ranging from preschool to first grade. She has served as Director of After School and as an Education Director for school programs involving children in pre-k through 6th grade.  All of the classrooms and programs in which Carolyn has worked have shared the same student-centered, experiential, progressive orientation to education that Falk Laboratory School so excellently exemplifies.  Though Carolyn has taught for a long time, she still finds teaching an energizing and fascinating undertaking! At home, Carolyn loves spending quality time with her family. Together they care for their many pets, garden and orchard. Carolyn also enjoys reading, cooking, hiking, sailing and cross- country skiing.

Mr. Outerbridge has worked as a classroom teacher and mid-level administrator in both public and independent schools, and his experiences have convinced him that there are few learning experiences more powerful and engaging than discovering how something works, recognizing a pattern, or understanding a cause-and-effect relationship.  When he was a social studies teacher, Mr. Outerbridge had students examine varying accounts of Columbus’s return visit to Hispaniola, where he discovered that Fort La Navidad had been abandoned and most the men killed.  Students had to judge which account was most plausible and support their arguments with evidence and reasoning.  As a librarian, Mr. Outerbridge feels that a big part of his job is to help students use similar critical thinking skills to sort through today’s massive volume of information in order to locate and evaluate what is most reliable and pertinent to their coursework and personal interests.  The other big part of the job is to foster in students a love and appreciation for reading.

Maria Sassani was thrilled to join the Falk School Community during the 2011 – 2012 school year, after presenting the session, “Music, Literacy, and Dance” during the NALS conference hosted by Falk in the Spring of 2011.  Prior to her arrival in Pittsburgh, Ms. Sassani shared her love of music with students from The School at Columbia University (2005 – 2011) & The Brearley School (2000 – 2005), both located in New York City, and the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada (1995 – 2000).  Favorite performances in her teaching career have been directing a 250-member chorus on PBS’s – “World’s Largest Concert” (1999), New York City’s Carnegie Hall in (2002 & 2003), the National Black Theatre of Harlem (2006 – 2011), and most recently in the lobby of Heinz Hall during the Pittsburgh Symphony/Falk School Extravaganza.  A true advocate of music programs in our schools, Ms. Sassani believes….“children would rather play than study, if we are smart, we will teach them while they play.”  (Carl Orff)  She continues her professional growth as a member of the American Choral Director’s Association (ACDA), American Orff Shulwerk Association (AOSA) and the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).  Ms. Sassani’s favorite genre of music is “Musical Theatre” where she has performed professionally in six states.   Some of her favorite roles have been:  “Dolly” from “Hello Dolly”, “Reno Sweeney” from “Anything Goes”, “Charity Barnum” from “Barnum”, and “Maggie” from “42nd Street.”

Dawn Smith started her teaching career in Spotsylvania County, Virginia as a Teacher for students with Severe Disabilities.  She then relocated back to the Pittsburgh area where she taught as a Learning and Emotional Support Teacher in the Penn Hills School District.  Next, Dawn worked for DynaVox, Mayer-Johnson as an Education Consultant.  After adding to her family, and missing being in the classroom, Dawn returned to working directly with children again, as a Life Skills Support Teacher at the Norwin School District.  Following her quest for knowledge, Dawn accepted the position at Falk as the Primary Learning Specialist in 2018.  In her free time, Dawn enjoys time with her husband, as a spectator of their three children’s various sporting events.  Dawn also enjoys reading, walking their dog, and summer trips to the beach.

Mónica was born in Barcelona, Spain, to a large family of polyglots and world travelers. At age 8 she moved to Nice, France with her family, and at 15 she moved to the US with one of her sisters. Mónica earned her Bachelor's of Science in Psychology with a minor in Art from Guilford College in Greensboro, NC, and her MBA in International Marketing from USD in San Diego, California. A lifelong learner, Mónica has recently started her EdD at the University of Pittsburgh. 

Mónica’s ten-year tenure in international business was followed by her career in education, a passion that ignited back when at 8 she spent recess time enthusiastically teaching her eager French classmates Spanish recess games and songs. Her passion for sharing her languages and cultures with school children keeps growing with the years. Without counting her teaching assistantships throughout college and graduate school, Mónica has been a professional educator for eighteen years, having taught Spanish, French and Mindfulness at Sewickley Academy for the past ten years. There, she was also Chair of the Health & Wellness Committee and one of the two Lower School Coordinators of DEISJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice), and she served in the Faculty and Staff Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for years. She is thrilled to join a community that is committed to advancing equity and justice in society through education, something that guides her daily practice and which she embeds in her curriculum. 

Mónica has two children who are currently in graduate school pursuing careers in Biomedical Engineering and Clinical Psychology. She loves traveling with them back to Spain to reconnect with extended family in the summertime, and together they have explored multiple countries throughout Europe and Latin America. She has finally visited Morocco, one of her dream destinations. The highlights of her travels always gravitate towards connecting with the locals, learning their language, their expressions, their music, and their dances, understanding their hopes and their dreams, and savoring their foods. She is very excited to join Falk and meet everyone in the Falk Community as soon as she returns from her current visit in Spain.