OHM Board of Directors

Mr. Alizadeh is the Cofounder and President of Hemisphere Companies, including Hemisphere Capital Partners, Hemisphere Development Group and Hemisphere Restaurant Partners. The Companies’ areas of interest are gaming and hospitality as well as development and private investments. Mr. Alizadeh has held corporate finance positions at Jefferies & Company, Dain Rauscher, Inc., Marshall Group, and Citigroup. He has raised over $800MM in senior, subordinated and equity capital for private and public entities. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota and an MBA in Finance from University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. Ali joined the Board in 2005 and has three children attending Oak Hill.

Kathy Anderson, Head of School

Ms. Anderson joined Oak Hill as Head of School in July of 2004. As Head of School she is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the school, admissions and communications with our Oak Hill community, the broader Montessori community and the general public. She is responsible for establishing and ensuring the authenticity of program offerings in addition to hiring and guiding our teaching, administrative and support staff. Kathy has a long history within the Montessori community both as a teacher and as an administrator in several schools throughout the country. Having started her career teaching in the public school system in Minnesota, she entered the business world, working in management positions for a subsidiary of AT&T. After ten years in business, Kathy moved to Atlanta, Georgia where she went back to school, earning her AMI certification at the Primary level. She taught and administrated in Montessori schools in Atlanta, Dallas, Texas and Stillwater, Minnesota. In 2004, Kathy began auditing the AMI Elementary training program, which extends over three summers and is being hosted by Oak Hill.

Brooks Cavin, Member-at-Large

Mr. Cavin has been an active member of the Twin Cities Montessori community for the last eleven years as a teacher and school administrator, and currently serves as Assistant to the Principal at Lake County School in Minneapolis. He began his formal education at age three in a Montessori Children's House and is enthusiastic to serve on the Oak Hill Board. Mr. Cavin holds a MEd from Loyola College in Maryland, an AMI Diploma at the Elementary level and an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Carleton College. Mr. Cavin is passionate about supporting the powerful mission and community of Oak Hill Montessori.

Paul Grande, Treasurer, Finance Committee Chair

Scott Hood, Member-at-Large

Ken Lewen, Member-at-Large

Mr. Lewen has bee an Oak Hill parent since 2004 and joined the Board in 2007. Ken and his wife have worked on the Oak Hill yearbook from 2005-2009. He has been employed at General Mills since 2000 and is currently the Technical IS Project Lead for one of their largest databases. Prior to his current postion, Ken worked in General Mills' research and development. He has a B.S. in Chemistry from Purdue, PhD. in Food Science and Human Nutrition from the University of Illinois and a M.S. in Software Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Ken and Elizabeth have two children at Oak Hill.

Jean Melancon, Board Chair

Ms. Melancon has been an Oak Hill parent since 2004 and joined the Board in 2007. Jean is the past president of the OHM Parent Association and was active in the formation of the association's bylaws and committees. She has served OHM in areas including campus planning, development of parent satisfaction survey, documenting a successful auction process, creating a database of volunteer skills, and streamlining the annual collection of family data. Jean is an independent business consultant and prior experience includes working with businesses on Six Sigma deployment, leading nation-wide organizational assessments, and business process redesign. She has traveled internationally working with IT staff of global airline carriers. Jean is a past President of the MOMS Club of Mahtomedi and has served on the Mahtomedi ECFE Advisory Board. She is an assistant leader for Girl Scouts. Jean and her husband Kurt have two children attending Oak Hill.

Melissa Peacock, Development Committee Chair

Ms. Peacock's children have attended Oak Hill since 2005 and she has volunteered as a member of the Development Committee since that time. In 2009 she joined the Board and is currently Development Committee Chair. Melissa sorted beads and built pink towers as a child at a Montessori preschool/Kindergarten program. She received a B.A. from Dickenson College and has a M.A. in Gallery and Retail Art Administration. Melissa has worked in Development since 1992 in event management, annual fund, major gift and planned giving areas for The Glass Workshop, Dartmouth Medical School and most recently at the Animal Humane Society as a Major and Planned Gifts Officer.

Ben Peltier, Member at-Large

Mr. Peltier has been an Oak Hill parent since 2007 and joined the Board in 2009. He is an attorney at Allina Health System in Minneapolis where he concentrates his practice on business transactions and government regulations. Prior to Allina Ben worked for the U.S. Congress and in private legal practice in Washington, DC. He received his B.A. in economics from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and his J.D. from George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, VA. Ben and his wife, Layna have three children at Oak Hill.

Janet Schuerman, Member at-Large

Ms. Scheuerman has been an Oak Hill parent since 2004 and joined the Board in 2008 after working on the Oak Hill Marketing Committee. Having lived and worked all over the world, Janet settled in Minnesota in 1997 to raise her family. Janet has extensive experience in the healthcare industry as well as in the private business sector. She is currently employed by a not-for-profit in the Twin Cities area which facilitates reforming the health care system to deliver patient-centered and value-driven care. Janet and her husband Jim have one son that attends Oak Hill.

Katie Toghramadjian, Member at-Large

Katie and her husband, Avo, have four children who have attended Oak Hill since 2003. Katie joined the Board in 2004. Having served as Secretary and Vice Chair, she currently serves as Board Chair. In addition to her work on the Board, Katie served on the Head Search Committee in the spring of 2004, has been actively involved in the Outdoor Environment Project since 2005 and enjoyed co-leading the after school chess club for four years. Katie's own formal education began at the age of two in a Montessori classroom. Katie earned her B.S. in Civil Engineering with a structural emphasis from Northwestern University. A licensed civil engineer, Katie has owned and operated Isthmus Engineering, Inc., a transportation design firm since 2002.

Wyatt Stahl, Member-at-Large

Wyatt and his wife have one daughter, Eliana who is attending OHM for the fourth year. Wyatt has been working directly in the medical electronics industry since graduating from South Dakota State University. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering with a Biomedical Emphasis. Wyatt currently works for Boston Scientific, Inc. in Arrhythmia Marketing.

David VanMeter, Secretary

Mr. Van Meter, his wife Stacy and their two children have been actively involved at Oak Hill since the fall of 2006 and Montessori since 2003. Dave and Stacy were most recently the Honorary Chairs of the 2009 Annual Fund. Dave is the Chief Services Officer at Infinite Campus which manages student data for over 4 million students and nearly 2,000 public school districts across the country. He has had a passion for Montessori education since his initial introduction to the experiential learning model at his first Casa parent's night. Dave is also actively involved in the community as a head coach for the youth football in Mahtomedi. He holds B.A. in both Mathematics and Computer Science from the college of St. Thomas.

Joan Vaughn, Member-at-Large

Ms. Vaughn has been an Oak Hill Parent since 2004 and was elected to the position of Board Secretary in 2007. She has volunteered at Oak Hill for the community build, auctions, Wall of Wine chair for 2 years, and many other activities. Joan has previous experience fundraising for Make A Wish Foundation and Hope in the Heartland. She has previous board experience as a member of the Children's Hospitals Family Advisory Board. Joan holds a M.D. in English and owns Communities of Care, Pediatric Home Care Agency. Joan's daughter, Elena, is in Lower Elementary.