Mirka Vlckova first encountered Montessori when her youngest son was born. Despite having no formal training, financial resources, or external support, she was determined to bring Montessori education to her child. Starting with a volunteer mother’s group, she successfully established a Montessori kindergarten and elementary school, followed by an international Montessori teacher training center, and later, an adolescent farm program.

With over fourteen years of experience, Mirka has become a seasoned Montessori entrepreneur. She has raised over 1.8 million EUR in grants and funding and continues to run a thriving Montessori business, Montessori Institute Prague. She also serves on the board of the Montessori school she founded. Her passion is to help others realize their Montessori visions, whether through starting schools, securing funding, or launching new programs.

Birgitte Berger graduated in Political Science and Communication Studies in Munich. She has experience as an editor at Bavarian Radio. She uses the Montessori approach in language teaching in courses and in further education.

Publication work: 'Learning English according to Maria Montessori' published in collaboration with Lilo Esswein, Herder Verlag in 2016. A completely new approach to grammar teaching was developed and published by her own publishing house in 2019 in the material "English tenses - a model for English lessons according to Montessori principles" (www.englischzeitenmodell.de).

Sue Pritzker worked as a primary teacher and administrator at Marin Montessori School before taking the position of Head of School at Childpeace Montessori in Portland, Oregon in 1987.  She helped to grow the school from 45 to 360 students and retired from that position in July 2020. 

Sue is in close collaboration with Lead Montessori and Montessori Institute Prague. Her focus as a consultant, speaker and presenter is the primary classroom and administrative practice.  She is a board member and trainer for Whole School Leadership and a trainer for the AMI Administrators Certificate Course. Sue has been an AMI-USA school consultant at the Primary level since 1985.  

Marikay McCabe founded Madrid Montessori School in 2006 and was its Director until 2017. In 2018 she established Learning Ecologies to continue supporting educators as a school consultant and as seminar faciliator. In 2020 she co-founded the Bilingual

Montessori initiative in order to offer a virtual home for educators working in bi/multilingual schools and is now excited to give this work more attention with the support of the Erasmus + grant.

Kathy is Executive Director at Whole School Leadership Institute, founded to help Montessori administrators around the world to guide healthy communities of children, families and school staff. Kathy has 40 years of experience as a school leader and was the Head of School at Aidan Montessori in Washington, DC for nearly 20 years.

Kathy presents for NAMTA, AMI USA, Montessori Australia Foundation, AMS and AMI. She is a trainer for Whole School Leadership Institute and the AMI Administrators Course.

Peter devoted his life to children and the Montessori movement, with 6 years in the classroom and 37 years in administration including 27 years as Head of School at Montessori School of Beaverton, Oregon.

Peter consults, speaks on management topics and provides leadership seminars across USA and Canada and around the world, including Russia, Australia, GB, the Czech Republic, Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

There was no training for school leaders in 1981 when I began leading a school, and very little communication between us. Talk about lonely! So I reached out to my fellow school leaders for mutual support, I had to search for guidance also, and found it in my Montessori teacher training, in certain pivotal books from the business and human development worlds, and in unique experiences both inside and outside of Montessori. I look forward to sharing these resources that helped shape my successful leadership approach.  I would also like to share some of the insights I have gained since retirement. I only wish I had encountered them sooner!