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Faculty and Staff

TEACHERS

Stacy Anderson grew up in Monroe, Louisiana.  She attended Louisiana Tech University where she received a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education.  After moving to Texas, she spent several years teaching before she finished her Master’s degree in Educational Psychology, Special Education from the University of Houston.  Stacy found The Joy School after a good friend and former Joy School parent encouraged her to visit the school. This coming year will be her fourth year to teach at TJS.   In her free time Stacy enjoys spending time with her family and friends and volunteering at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  Stacy lives with her husband, Ron, and two daughters, Emma and Sarah Grace.  She feels blessed to have found such a magical place to teach.

Dianna Archer attended Texas Tech University and The University of Texas at Austin.  She received a Bachelor’s degree in English and History with a secondary teaching certification for middle and high school.  In 1999, she gained additional certification via the EXCET exam, to teach kindergarten through the elementary levels. Then, after completing the Basic Language Skills course at the Neuhaus Center, she became more interested in the amazing, yet complicated process of literacy.  Over the past 18 years, Dianna’s teaching focus has been reading development and remediation.  For her, the opportunity to be at The Joy School as a reading specialist has been a true privilege with the greatest rewards possible – remarkable faculty and tremendous parents and students who warm your heart to the core.

Edgar "Mo" Christou is a graduate of Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama with an emphasis in Marine Biology. During his academic endeavors in Alabama, he spent three summers at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.  His final semester at school was spent working for Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and Alabama's Department of Education.  Upon graduation he moved to Denver, Colorado where he worked as a law clerk.  Mo is a native Houstonian. He attended St. Vincent de Paul School and St. Thomas High School.  He is an avid sportsman with a love for soccer and football.  During his college years, he was an active participant on the rugby team.  Prior to coming to The Joy School, Mo was an active substitute teacher at the Presbyterian School from the Lower School through eighth grade.  He joined The Joy School as a science teacher in 2003 and is delighted to continue his work with children.

Sandy Dimel is from the Spring Branch/Memorial area of Houston, TX. She graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education, and then taught in the Spring Branch School District. She left full-time teaching after getting married and for a brief time tried a different career choice. However, her “calling” to teach was too strong to keep her away for long. She returned to SBISD as a volunteer; over the next several years she found her way back into the classroom in a variety of capacities. For the past year and a half, she has done small group intervention for several grade levels. It was a victory to help struggling children discover strategies to help them learn more efficiently. This past year she began toying with the idea of teaching full-time again. The Joy School presented an opportunity she couldn’t refuse. She has subbed in the past at TJS and was continually impressed with what she witnessed at TJS. She is thrilled to have the chance to join TJS family and to start this new adventure in her life.

Christine Do graduated from The University of Texas in Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Sciences.  Focusing primarily on childhood development, Christine worked independently and alongside faculty on research pertaining to children's developmental domains, strengths, needs and their interactions with adults in their lives.  She worked in Austin at an early childhood education center as an assistant teacher and then a lead teacher before moving back to Sugar Land to attend the University of Houston for her Master's degree in Educational Psychology. Christine taught for another two years at a local early childhood education center while earning her graduate degree.   A huge proponent of the "can-do" attitude, Christine believes that children can excel at anything - they just sometimes need a helping hand to guide them.  She looks forward to her first year at TJS.  A native Houstonian, Christine prefers to spend her time indoors away from the sun as much as possible.  She enjoys spending time with her family, arranging monthly family game nights, reading, working on various arts and crafts and scrapbooking/documenting.

Elyse Early graduated from the University of St. Thomas with bachelors in English and Spanish, as well as, her Master’s degree in Education.  Prior to joining the TJS faculty, Elyse taught high school Spanish, privately tutored for the SAT and ACT college entrance exams, and taught creative writing workshops with a non-profit education foundation.  Ms. Early is a bonafide bookworm, but also enjoys fencing, zip-lining, cycling, writing, spoiling her nieces and nephews, playing X-box, cooking for family and friends and traveling the world.  Some of her favorite places to visit include Santiago de Chile and Barcelona, Spain.  Elyse is from Houston and definitely takes advantage of her hometown’s excellent museums, fabulous restaurants and live music.  She is very excited about beginning her third year of teaching at the Joy School.

Jan Flowers is from White Deer, a small town in the Texas Panhandle. She has lived in Houston since 1985.  She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Houston and her Master’s degree from the University of St. Thomas.  She began her teaching career at the Parish School, taught the Bridge class at St. Luke's Day School for several years, and did private tutoring for several years. She became familiar with The Joy School when her nephew, Michael attended the school.  This will be Jan's ninth year at The Joy School and she has loved every minute.  The students, parents, and coworkers are fabulous.  Jan has been married to Larry Flowers for 15 years.  They have two dogs, Buttercup and Petal.  She and Larry love to go to the movies, travel and spend time with their extended families.  Jan also loves to bake and work in their yard.

Jamie Frease is in her third year at The Joy School, where she enjoyed teaching math.  This year Jamie will take the first semester off to give birth and care for her new baby girl.  She will return in January as a part-time pull out teacher.  Jamie comes to us from Florida, where she went to the University of South Florida and earned her degree in Special Education.  After college, she spent three years as the Assistant Director at a learning center in Palm Harbor, FL.  Jamie lives in Houston with her husband, Clint, their Chihuahua, Boomer and soon-to-be baby girl.  She is very excited about this year and is looking forward to the opportunity to teach and inspire students in this new capacity.

Sue Gebhardt is beginning her third year working with the wonderful kids at The Joy School.  She has spent over 25 years working with kids of a variety of ages.  Greg, her husband of 28 years, has lovingly referred to her as “Santa Claus” because kids flock to her wherever she goes.  Sue’s calling to work with children began at age 23 when she and her husband became youth leaders for junior and senior high kids.  This ministry lasted 25 years and gave birth to many more.  Sue also home schooled both of her daughters from kindergarten through twelfth grade.  Sue’s passion for kids has grown even more through the privilege of teaching kids at TJS. She is looking forward to another great year.

Anne (Kelly) Keehnen grew up in Houston, graduating from Bellaire High School in 1973.  However, she moved to Nacogdoches to attend Stephen F. Austin State University, and spent the next 30 years there.  With a degree in Elementary and Special Education, Anne taught math and reading to students in a variety of grade and ability levels.  She also received a Master’s degree in counseling, and was a school counselor for six years.  Now that she’s back in Houston, Anne is thrilled to have found The Joy School, which shares her own philosophy of teaching.  She cannot wait to begin teaching the joys of math to 4^th and 5^th graders.  Anne lives in the Montrose area with her teenagers, Gus and Collette, and their Border collie, Sweetie.  She spent the summer in Australia, visiting her older son, Liam, her grandson, and her newborn granddaughter.  She is happy to show photos to anyone!

Michele Kemper is beginning her fourth year at Joy and will be teaching fourth and fifth grade language arts.  Michele considers teaching at The Joy School to be a great privilege and responsibility. She is concerned about the academic, emotional, and physical well being and advancement of her students.  It is her goal to help students to continue to grow and reach their potential.  Michele has loved working with children since high school.  She left her home in Houston to make this passion a career at Simpson University in Redding, California.  She has been very happily married for three years to Josh Kemper, her best friend of the past nine years.  Michele and her husband are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their first baby in January.  In her free time, Michele loves spending time with her mom and family, going on dates with her husband, and spending time with students and co-workers in fun, relaxed settings.

Brady King is enjoying his seventh year at The Joy School.  Brady grew up in Houston and attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. He attended the University of Houston and The University of Texas in Austin where he majored in Theatrical design and Production and worked in local performance venues. Brady later received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Houston with a Texas Teacher Certification in secondary English and Theater Arts in 1987. After teaching middle school language arts and reading for a short time, he attended University of Houston Law Center and became a licensed attorney. Brady practiced litigation and disability law for several years, but then felt a yearning to return to the classroom. In 1997, he returned to teaching, taking a position as a middle school language arts teacher in Alief I.S.D. at their disciplinary alternative school. It was in this setting that he particularly focused on teaching the writing process to an at-risk student population. He later taught high school English in the district's accelerated credits program known as S.O.A.R. Brady's passion is the teaching of young writers, and he believes that every student can learn to enjoy writing and do it successfully.  Over the last several years he has been particularly interested in the use of assistive software for students with dyslexia and other language processing difficulties, and has trained many students to use these programs.  Brady lives with his partner, Amy, where they serve as personal assistants to their three cats, Jet, Fox, and Bella, and their dog, Frida. Brady enjoys reading, traveling abroad, art, playing guitar, wine collecting, and cooking.

James Ladmirault will be teaching social studies this year.  He joined The Joy School staff in 2004 as a substitute teacher and quickly became indispensable as an assistant teacher.  He enjoys spending time getting to know TJS students outside the classroom and is the teacher of choice for “shooting hoops” after school.  James is very enthusiastic about making historical events “come alive” for his students and looks forward to using his creative talents in the classroom.  In his spare time James enjoys cooking and writing.

Kate Lilly is most pleased to be beginning her third year at The Joy School.  She is a native Houstonian, the youngest of 3 sisters (actually, the WAY youngest--her sisters are 10 and 15 years older), and the proud aunt of three nieces and two nephews.  After graduating from Baylor, Kate started her career as the speech pathologist at Jacinto City Elementary.  She began teaching their PPCD unit in her second year and continued for 14 years.  When one of her best friends, Stacy Anderson, told her that she would still come to work at TJS every day even if she won the lottery, Kate moved to The Joy School as the Kindergarten teacher.  It was definitely one of the best decisions she’s made in her life; she loves The Joy School with a capital “L”.  In her spare time, Kate loves to travel, take photographs (be careful, she always has her camera), read, eat out (her friends call her the Restaurant Docent), cook, wistfully dote on other people’s dogs (she can’t have one in her apartment), go to movies and spend time with family and friends.

Stephanie Malveaux grew up in Beaumont, Texas.  She attended Southwest Texas State University where she received a Bachelor of Science in Applied Sociology.  Stephanie recognized her calling to work with children early on.  As a freshman in high school, she organized programs such as H.O.P.E (Helping Others Promote Excellence), participated in numerous after school tutorial programs for underprivileged children, and focused on helping the students develop their reading, writing and social skills.  Before joining The Joy School, Stephanie served as an outreach counselor at the Greater San Marcos Youth Council as part of her internship. She provided group and individual counseling regarding anger management, peer pressure, conflict resolution,  diversity and life skills.  Stephanie is currently starting her seventh year at The Joy School.  Her greatest joy is being the stepping-stone needed to help kids reach their full potential in every aspect of learning, both academically and socially.  She strongly believes that given opportunity and encouragement, there is no limit to what a child of any nature or background can accomplish.  Stephanie enjoys shopping, scrapbooking and being with family and friends.

Kathy Matlage will be teaching math to 5^th through 8^th graders.  She joined The Joy School in 2003, after teaching in Alief ISD, Houston ISD, and a private Montessori school.  Kathy is a native Houstonian.  She received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Houston, and has completed her Master’s degree in Mathematics Education as well. She enjoys spending time with her husband and her cat in their backyard – which is a Certified Texas Wildlife Habitat.  “The vision was all Frank’s, I was just the manual labor.”

Sara Matthews will be teaching second and third graders.  This will be her fifth year at The Joy School.  She grew up in Springfield, Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C.  She attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and Early Childhood Education.  Sara moved to Houston in 1997 and began teaching first grade in Alief Independent School District.  She taught in the same school for seven years before making the jump to The Joy School.  She loves working with children and helping children to succeed in their individual way.  Sara spends her free time outdoors playing sports or exploring nature, traveling, cooking, spending time with friends and spoiling her nephew and nieces.

Lynn Negrin is a third grade teacher at The Joy School.  She begins her ninth year here and feels fortunate to work in such a wonderful school environment.  Lynn grew up in Houston and attended The High School Performing and Visual Arts. She graduated from Southwest Texas State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She began her school career as an interpreter for the deaf. This experience convinced her to apply for HISD's Alternative Education Program in special education. After completing her training, she worked in HISD as a Special Education Resource Room teacher for ten years.  Lynn learned about The Joy School from a former HISD parent whose child was then attending TJS. The Joy School was looking for teachers and the parent came to her and encouraged her to apply.  Lynn will always be grateful this parent thought enough of her to share this news. She has been married for twenty-two years to her husband, Rob. They have a 16 year old son, Zac, and two cats, Mahalo and Max. Lynn enjoys traveling, exercising, reading and spending time with her family and friends.

Reneé Nichols has worked at The Joy School for four years and will be teaching math to 5^th-7^th graders.  She is a native Houstonian and graduated from The University of Houston Downtown with a Bachelor of Science in Social Sciences in 2004.  After working in the corporate environment for 11 years, she had the opportunity to re-evaluate her career and decided to work towards a childhood dream of becoming a teacher.  Reneé recently received her certification in both Early Childhood and Special Education in May 2007.   She feels fortunate and blessed to be able to work with such amazing children and incredible faculty at TJS and believes that given the right tools and guidance, every child can learn!   Reneé enjoys reading, going to movies and visiting with friends and family.  Reneé and her husband, Jason, live with their two beautiful children, Sarah Mae and Jack, along with two chocolate labs, Bob and Lucy.

Christine Pratt is beginning her first year at The Joy School as a primary teacher.  She attended Texas A&M University where she earned her Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing.  After graduation, Christine joined the corporate world where she worked as a marketing assistant.  Before and throughout college, Christine mentored, tutored and worked with children.  Although she enjoyed the time she spent working in the marketing field, she soon realized she wanted to pursue a career in education.  For the past year, Christine worked in FBISD as a Resident Substitute.  She is looking forward to her first year at The Joy School.  She believes in a “hands on” approach to learning and looks forward to watching her students grow, discover and succeed.  Christine enjoys spending time with family and friends, playing with her dog, Tinkerbell, traveling and shopping.

Bonnie Smith has been teaching since the ripe age of four when her parents bought her a chalkboard of her very own.   She soon had her Cabbage Patch kids reading on a 4th grade level and using their higher order thinking skills.  She knew, even then, that teaching was the career for her.  However, her early college years led her to believe she wanted to be a traveling photographer of the world.  So, she and her camera headed off on a journey around the world - only to return home with 60 rolls of film all of pictures of children!  Pictures of children in Venezuela, pictures of children in India, pictures of children in Africa, pictures of children from every country she visited!  As she searched through her photographs for pictures of the places she had been, she realized that all she had were bright-eyed little faces staring into her lens.  Bonnie instantly traded in her camera for a lesson plan book and proceeded to get her teaching degree from Houston Baptist University.  After years of watching her younger brother grow up in the public school system with Attention Deficit Disorder and Dyslexia, and battling the teachers who misunderstood him, she knew she wanted to be the teacher that could reach struggling learners.  She spent five years teaching second grade and has loved every educational challenge that she has faced.  She will be teaching 4^th and 5^th grade science and social studies.

Tammy Smusz has been teaching 2^nd and 3^rd graders at The Joy School for the past four years.  Ms. Smusz feels blessed to have found such a wonderful school to teach in.  Tammy is a native Houstonian.  She received her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Sam Houston State University in 1993.  For the past 14 years she has taught 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd graders in Spring Branch ISD and here at The Joy School.  For six of the 14 years Tammy served as Lead Teacher and oversaw and trained three student teachers from the University of Houston and two from Houston Baptist University.  Tammy feels she has found a school with a great teaching environment and smaller student-teacher ratio where she can continue to make a difference in the lives of children.  In her spare time, Tammy enjoys outdoor activities, eating out, cooking with friends, shopping, decorating and most importantly spending time with her nieces and nephews and the whole gang!

Casey Waldner began substitute teaching at The Joy School in fall 2006.  She became the first full-time Physical Education teacher, fall 2007.  Casey attended the University of St. Thomas, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with concentrations in Theatre and Arts.  Her teaching experience began when she was 16, working for a science store and conducting experiments for children’s birthday parties.  During her college years, Casey taught elementary theatre in after school programs affiliated with the non-profit organization M.E.C.A.  She is pursuing her Master’s degree in the field of Counselor of Education at the University of St. Thomas.  In her spare time, Casey enjoys skating, biking, playing music, theatre, illustrating and studying.  She feels extremely blessed to be a part of the TJS staff and the philosophies of education which it promotes.

Katherine Yoerg is returning to The Joy School for her third year, and will be teaching technology full-time, as well as, study hall. She is returning as "Mrs. Kat" instead of "Ms. Kat" following her summer wedding to her longtime best friend, Jason.  Katherine was born in Corpus Christi and raised in Houston.  She enjoys spending her free time listening to music, traveling, writing and, of course, using her computer. Computers played a large role in Katherine's childhood and teenage years as she learned to integrate her artistic interests with computer technology. She enjoys inspiring the same creativity with computers in her students.

SPEECH/LANGUAGE PATHOLOGISTS

Meredith Hibbetts is a native of the Houston area, having grown up and graduated from high school in The Woodlands.  She went on to The University of Texas at Austin where she received a Bachelor of Science in Speech Pathology from the School of Communications.  From there, she went on to receive her Master of Arts degree in Speech Pathology from the University of Houston.  She graduated in August 2004.  Meredith enjoyed having a language arts homeroom for two years; however she loves getting to work with a greater number of students in speech.  She is very excited about helping students become successful communicators and loves students who enjoy learning.  She enjoys spending time with her friends and family, reading, and traveling.

Beth Harris

SUPPORT STAFF

Leslie Smith grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  She attended Fort Wayne Bible College and studied Christian Education.  She and her husband of 31 years, Rev. Charles Smith, have served in churches with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Pennsylvania, Ohio and most recently, Vermont.   Leslie has been active in Children’s Ministry, Women’s Ministry and directing Day Care in these churches.  The Smiths were transferred to Houston in December of 2006.  With six children, ages ranging from 30-16 years, five grandchildren, and fostering more than 50+ special needs children while living in Ohio, it is clear Leslie has a passion for children.  Some of Leslie’s hobbies include gardening, cross-stitch, decorating and travel.  Their two youngest children, Emily and Jordan, attend Gateway Academy.  Leslie counts it a blessing to be a part of the lives of the students at The Joy School.

Connie Spencer