Staff

The Fort Hill studio teachers engage with all the children and teachers at Fort Hill. They bring specialized knowledge and skills to the program and are an integral part of the school. They work directly with children as both studio teachers and supervising teachers of the afternoon program. They also consult with the classroom supervising teachers to integrate the studio programs into the classroom curriculum.

Katie Fortier, Visual Arts Studio and Preschool Supervising Teacher  Katie graduated from Alfred University in 2014 where she studied Interdisciplinary Art and Art Education. Katie taught English as a Second Language in the Peace Corps and has studied and practiced as a Therapeutic Yoga and Children’s Yoga teacher. She has worked in preschool settings since 2016, including two years as a classroom Teacher at Fort Hill, before beginning her current position in the summer of 2021. Katie is currently the Visual Arts Teacher and the Preschool Program’s Afternoon Supervising Teacher. 

Kass Melo, Music Studio Teacher  Kassandra graduated Berklee College of Music in 2018 earning a bachelor of Fine Arts in both Songwriting and Vocal Performance. Kass has been a lifelong student of music and has a wealth of experience teaching private music lessons to young children, teens and adults. While living in Boston, she served as an artist mentor to young artists, a band leader, and music director at a school for young children. Kass has played in many bands and writes and performs her music in the Boston area and Western Mass. Kass joined the Fort Hill community as our Music Studio Teacher in early 2023.

The rotating teachers bring high quality to the program by providing familiar and consistent teaching when classroom teachers are absent due to vacation or illness and also join classroom teams to allow supervising teachers to work on special projects and meet with team members, other staff, and families. When not working in the classrooms, the rotating teachers assist with other school-wide projects. Rotating teachers bring special skills and knowledge  to the position as they know all of the children and teachers in the school and have often held a range of teaching positions at Fort Hill.

Balbir Singh, Rotating Teacher  Balbir earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the City University of New York and an Associate’s degree in textile design from the Fashion Institute of Technology.  Balbir holds a Director II certification from UMASS and has completed education course work at Greenfield Community College.  Balbir has worked as a teacher, a supervising teacher, and a rotating teacher in toddler and preschool classrooms since coming to Fort Hill in 1993.

Ren Dominguez, Rotating Teacher  Ren Dominguez graduated from UMass Amherst in May 2023 with a dual degree in Special Education and Spanish. She brings experience working with children with and without disabilities as an arts camp counselor, tutor, teacher in a substantially separate public school setting, and now as a rotating teacher at Fort Hill. She joined the team in January 2024. 

Kaila Goldstein, Rotating Teacher  Kaila graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies and a minor in Critical Social Thought, where her studies included coursework in critical pedagogy and educational psychology. Prior to joining Fort Hill, Kaila worked with infant, toddler, and preschool aged children as a full-time nanny, and with children ages 3-7 in the nature play preschool and summer programs at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst, MA. Kaila joined Fort Hill in November of 2023.

Kristen LaValley, Substitute Rotating Teacher

Sarah Shimchick, Rotating teacher  Sarah graduated from Smith College with a degree in Psychology and is excited to have returned to the Smith Community as a rotating teacher at Fort Hill, beginning in October of 2023.  Sarah has a master’s in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis, as well as a master’s in Education that she earned while a Corps Member with Teach for America in Phoenix, AZ.  Sarah has worked with a broad range of ages, from birth through high school, in both formalized academic settings as well as programs that are less structured. Sarah is excited to spend time with the infants, toddlers, and preschoolers at Fort Hill.

Marguerite Suozzo-Golé, Substitute Rotating Teacher  Marguerite graduated from Brown University in 2016 with a bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies and a focus on Climate Policy. She worked as a political organizer for several years before working at the Summer Festival for the Arts in Bar Harbor as a music and musical theater teacher in 2019. As a worker-owner at Riquezas del Campo cooperative farm in Hatfield, she worked with groups of children to teach them about growing food and caring for the land.  She has experience doing bilingual childcare for families in French and English, both in the U.S. and in France. She began as a rotating substitute teacher at Fort Hill in November of 2023.

The efforts of the Fort Hill teachers working together with the administrative team create the high quality early childhood program offered by the Center for Early Childhood Education. The administrative team has many years of experience with the program and are dedicated to building a strong community and high-quality early childhood program.

Laurie DeMello, Assistant Director  After an earlier career path studying biology at Union College and staying home to raise her children, Laurie entered the early childhood field when she joined Fort Hill in 2001. Laurie received a BA in Early Learning and Child Development from the University of Massachusetts and holds a Director II license from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care. Laurie’s work has focused on children during the preschool years, working as a preschool supervising teacher since 2009, and the preschool level coordinator since 2012. Laurie moved into the Assistant Director role in December 2020.

Jen Godlesky, Director  Jen holds a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke and a Masters in Education from Smith College. She is certified at the Director II level through EEC, and licensed to teach both PreK-2 and 1-6 through DESE. She joined the CECE teaching staff in August 2002, and has been a Supervising Teacher across all age groups, from infancy through preschool. After three years in the assistant director role at Fort Hill, Jen moved into the director role in October of 2020.

Lori McKenna, Office Coordinator  Lori earned an Associate’s degree from Holyoke Community College and worked part-time as an office assistant in the medical field while raising her children. She joined the Fort Hill administrative team in 1999.