While the first decade of Chelsea’s teaching career has been largely teaching at Falk in the Primary Grades, she also has worked as a TSS (Therapeutic Support Staff), and has taught in Detroit, Michigan. Chelsea is intrigued by the thinking and reasoning of children. Teaching Kindergarten allows her to merge her passions for working with children, animals, studying counseling and yoga/wellness. Being able to thread these passions ground her teaching and synthesize her understanding of development, but moreover, propose new wonderings. Chelsea has had the opportunity to teach in K, 1, 2 at Falk and values the insights she gained of this developmental spectrum. 

When not teaching, Chelsea enjoys running, teaching yoga, spending time with animals and reading but most of all, trying new things and learning about people. She lives with her cat named Tarzan, two bunnies Sunny & Neptune, and relishes in the first sip of coffee on the porch. 

Kevin Felter is one of the Kindergarten teachers on the Primary Team at Falk. Before landing in Pittsburgh and at Falk, Kevin served as the Dual Language Literacy Coordinator for a charter school district in Austin, Texas, overseeing the bilingual and biliteracy programming across four K-4 elementary schools. Kevin has taught 1st and 2nd grades in Spanish and has also worked as a bilingual literacy interventionist for students in Pre-K through 2nd grade. A native of Rochester, New York, he received his B.A. in Spanish and International Relations with minors in Anthropology and Latin American Studies from the State University of New York’s College at Geneseo. Kevin also holds a Master’s in Reading Education from Texas State University. His passion within education lies in early literacy and language acquisition, specifically looking at how language and culture intersect in classrooms and schools. If Kevin won a million dollars, he would travel throughout Latin America, buy a Skee-Ball machine, and build a library in his home.

Laura Hunt has a Masters of Arts and Teaching degree in K-12 Physical Education from the University of Pittsburgh.  Ms. Hunt has been teaching at Falk since 1997. Currently, she teaches Kindergarten through fifth grade and coordinates the Middle School sports programs.

Colleen Lataille grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. She graduated Westminster College in 2009 with a degree in Elementary Education and Spanish. Upon graduation, she moved to Colorado and taught 3rd and 4th grade. She also spent a few years supervising and leading a preschool ski program at a local ski area. After obtaining her masters in Global and International Education at Drexel University in 2017, she moved abroad to Switzerland to teach at an international boarding school for four years. She taught 3rdgrade and then preschool, finding her love for early childhood education. She was able to lead weekend activities for high school boarding students, chaperone service trips in Kenya, and explore all that Europe has to offer. Ms. Lataille is excited to return to Pittsburgh to reunite with friends and family, discover the outdoors community here, and raise her new puppy. She is thrilled to join the team at Falk this year!

Leah began teaching yoga and mindfulness at Falk School in 2011.   Her classes at Falk are centered on guiding children through the simple but powerful practice of connecting movement and breathing to create a relaxed, focused and aware student, ready to learn and play.  Ms. Northrop also teaches individual “therapeutic” yoga sessions for students with a variety of challenges, from the social and emotional to the behavioral and learning realms.  Additionally, Ms. Northrop  heads a research project at the University of Pittsburgh, Yoga for Anxious Children.  Her interest lies in the development, implementation and outcome of exercise-based treatments for children and adolescents with mood and anxiety disorders.  She has presented her work at international conferences. She enjoys almost any outdoor activity, cooking for a crowd and most of all, spending time with her husband, Ben and her three sons, Wyatt, Weston and Lucas.  Ms. Northrop currently lives in the Squirrel Hill area.

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.