Ella Jones, Head of School
Mead Administration & Support
Ella is a Knoxville native, holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from the University of Tennessee. She received her AMI Primary Montessori training from the Montessori Institute Northwest in Portland, Oregon, and her Master’s Degree in Montessori Education from Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland.
More About Ella
Ella was a Montessori child and has extensive experience caring for all ages of children and teaching in both Montessori and conventional educational settings with children ages 15 months to 15 years. Ella's son Arthur attends Mead, and her daughter Eva graduated from Mead in 2025. Following her mother’s legacy, Ella has expanded the reach of Montessori education through Mead’s growth and community ties to many children in East Tennessee.
Allison Watson, Office Manager
Mead Administration & Support
Allison joined Mead as a parent in 2012 and as staff in 2013. Her twins, Aliza and Jesse, graduated from Mead in 2025. Allison received her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration at Tennessee Tech and a law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law.
More About Allison
Allison worked extensively with families and children of all ages in her legal practice. She has served on various community boards advocating for children’s rights and human rights for disabled persons.
Allison has been a public speaker for criminal and social justice reform and at high schools regarding challenges faced by teenagers. Improving the lives of children has always been her lifelong passion.
Sarah Leggett, Primary Assistant + Office Support
Mead Administration & Support
Sarah obtained her degree in Early Childhood Education in Fort Collins, Colorado. Her professional teaching experience includes school site director, lead toddler teacher and Montessori primary assistant in Colorado before her move to Tennessee.
More About Sarah
Sarah is known to be kind and patient and has a working knowledge of multiple educational and play-based philosophies, including Montessori and Reggio-Emilio. She enjoys reading, amateur photography, hiking and floating in rivers. Sarah is also mother to Mead students, Ember and Lennon.
Tiffany Allen, Toddler Lead Teacher
Redbud Community Teacher
Tiffany began as a Toddler Assistant at Mead West in the Spring of 2016, and became the Lead Teacher for the Toddler South class in the Fall of 2018. She graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor’s Degree in Child and Family Studies. She earned her Assistance to Infancy diploma from Southwest Institute of Montessori Studies during the summer of 2021.
More About Tiffany
Tiffany has served as a tutor, nanny, babysitter and child-care worker in a variety of settings for many years. Tiffany is passionate about child development and has a great deal of experience working with young toddlers. Tiffany enjoys dancing, reading and crafting.
Chelsea Riordan, Toddler Assistant
Redbud Community Teacher
Chelsea has worked with both Toddlers and Primary children at Mead since 2016. She also has experience in management, having acted as the Pantry Manager for Washington and Lee University and an Administrative Assistant in a law office.
More About Chelsea
Chelsea worked as a full-time nanny for a family with three children ages 8, 7 and 3 – planning and preparing meals for the family, managing the schedule for all children, maintaining order of the household and welfare of the children. Chelsea is also mother to Mead students Raksha, Nimerah and Taj.
Miah Weaver, Primary Lead Teacher
Willow Community Teacher
Miah has been an employee at Mead since 2012, working with all ages of children – she started helping with our school when she was in 8th grade! Her natural ability to care for and teach children has been evident from the start.
More About Miah
She completed her AMI Lead Teacher training at Montessori Northwest in May of 2017. Miah is mom to Solomon, and enjoys kayaking, yoga, hiking, sewing, crafts, and the great outdoors!
Jessica Hollensbe, Primary Lead Teacher
Sugar Maple Community Teacher
Jessica joined Mead in the Fall of 2022. She has worked in the Montessori Primary classrooms for over 20 years. Jessica grew up on a small farm outside Richmond, Virginia. She attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and graduated with degrees in Biology and Environmental Science in 2001.
More About Jessica
After graduation she joined Americorps NCCC where she served as a volunteer across the western United States and Guam. Jessica then moved to Houston, Texas, where she worked in Montessori toddler and primary classrooms. She attended her Montessori training at the Montessori Education Center of the Rockies in 2004. During her years in Colorado, she worked at Giving Tree Montessori School and Salida Montessori Charter School. Jessica and her husband Matt, and pup Waffle Cone, enjoy camping, hiking, playing music, and sitting around the fire with friends.
Aisia Robbins, Primary Assistant
Sugar Maple Community Teacher
Aisia earned her Master's Degree in Human Services from ETSU. After graduation and before joining Mead, she was a teacher at ETSU's Little Buccaneers School.
More About Aisia
Aisia has also worked as a teacher in ETSU's Child Study Center, as a tutor at Coalition for Kids, and volunteered at the Boys & Girls Club in Johnson City, TN.
Aisia enjoys photography, camping and music festivals.
Erin Salter, Elementary Lead Teacher
Tulip Poplar Community Elementary
Erin Salter, Elementary Lead Teacher and Educational Training Coordinator. Erin established the elementary program in 2010 and has been guiding the elementary community since then. She has worked with children (from age 2 to 12) in Montessori communities since 2000 and has experience supporting the growth and development of both young and established Montessori schools.
More About Erin
While teaching at a Montessori school in Tokyo, Japan, Erin collaborated with the school staff and community to undergo an intensive accreditation process. This gave her new perspective on the many facets of a Montessori school. Erin has Montessori diplomas at both the Early Childhood and Elementary levels and holds a Master’s Degree in Montessori Elementary Education. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Oberlin College. In addition to guiding the Elementary Community here at Mead, Erin acts as the Educational Training Coordinator, training classroom assistants and providing support to lead teachers at all levels. Her depth of understanding of the Montessori method and perspective as a seasoned teacher is a wonderful resource to our staff. In her spare time, Erin enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, biking, gardening, and exploring new culinary experiences. She also continues to broaden her knowledge of art & design and especially enjoys making art with children.
Emily Murphy, Elementary Assistant
Tulip Poplar Community Elementary
Emily has a varied background including garden design, events planning, organic gardening, public communications, and pastry/ recipe development for McFarland Restaurants - just to name a few of her many skills!
Emily pursued a degree in Architecture and Design from UT and passed the Departmental Portfolio Review in the Ceramics Department.
More About Emily
Emily has completed an international seminar from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY in Architecture, and Urban Planning and Architectural History. She has also earned her AMI Montessori Assistant certificate from the Montessori Institute - Prague. She is a talented artist, competent in painting with various mediums, photography (and black and white developing), screen printing, ceramics, sculpture and plaster work. She enjoys cooking, baking, food preservation, reading, gardening, biking, yoga, camping and hiking.
Ellen Adams, Middle School Lead Teacher
Red Oak Community Teacher
Ellen is a Tennessee native that studied Biology at University of Tennessee Knoxville. After graduation she spent two years with Americorps, leading service projects in Knoxville and working at a high needs school in Denver. She then spent time at an outdoor education center leading and educating youth in the mountains of southern California.
More About Ellen
After traveling around for a year- farming, hiking, climbing, and teaching - she decided to come back to Knoxville as she loves the community and the surrounding outdoors. She is invested in the education of youth and found that Montessori schools truly reflect her views on how students should learn. She is AMI certified through her attendance at the NAMTA Montessori Orientation ot Adolescent Studies in Huntsburg, Ohio.
Her training has helped her develop an occupation-based curriculum to deeply connect the students to their core areas of study, while integrating into the unique and special Knoxville community. Ellen is mother to Elara and Baker. In addition to her love of knowledge and passing that along, Ellen can be found biking, cooking, reading or outside in her garden.
Annie Crosby, Middle School Lead Teacher
Red Oak Community Teacher
Annie graduated magna cum laude from the University of Colorado Boulder where she received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature and Humanities. She completed her AMI/ NAMTA Montessori Orientation to Adolescent Studies in the summer of 2019.
More About Annie
Annie has worked as a mentor/tutor for middle and high school students at the Denver Center for 21st Century Learning at Wyman Middle/High School in Denver, Colorado. In addition to literacy and math tutoring, she helped develop art and yearbook programs and facilitated youth leadership through a service club. She has also been regional and site coordinator for Reading Partners in Baltimore and New York.
Her love for reading carried her into bookseller and management positions at The Ivy Bookshop & Bird in Hand Cafe & Books in Baltimore and Union Avenue Books here in Knoxville. She loves the outdoors and hanging out with her husband Isaac and dog Charley.
Melissa Quiros, Spanish Teacher
Spanish, Literacy, Yoga/PE & Classroom Support
Melissa was raised by her Colombian mother and Costa Rican father and spent her childhood living between three countries with Spanish as her first language. Melissa also spent time in Denmark and gained experience with Montessori teaching methods in early childhood education.
More About Melissa
She earned her Bachelors in Human Resources from Mt. Olive University in North Carolina. She has served on several non-profit boards and volunteered her time with Big Brothers Big Sisters of East Tennessee as a mentor for high school students, and has served as Director of Student of the Year for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. Melissa is mother to Mead student, Indy.
When she's not teaching, she enjoys spending her time walking the trails near her family's home in the Forks of the River area, taking care of her chickens, biking and gardening.
Hope Irwin, Literacy Support & Yoga/PE
Spanish, Literacy, Yoga/PE & Classroom Support
Hope majored in Special Education and has worked as a classroom assistant and literacy tutor with the Knox County school system for several years. Hope will provide individualized and group literacy support in the elementary classroom, as well as yoga and physical education in the middle school classroom. She is the mother of four (Ensley is a Mead student) and enjoys teaching yoga and pilates at Ijams Nature Center and other businesses and schools in and around Knoxville.
Gretchen McMurry, Classroom & Office Support
Spanish, Literacy, Yoga/PE & Classroom Support
Gretchen is the mother of two Mead graduates and current Mead student, Nora. Gretchen is a Montessori child and has been steadily involved in her mother's school, Jefferson Montessori School, for many years. She brings knowledge and passion for Montessori to her work and lends a helping hand both in the office and as an occasional classroom substitute teacher at Mead. In her spare time Gretchen enjoys ballroom dancing, hiking, sewing and playing with her furry children, dogs
Sprocket and Rigatoni.
Ella O'Tool, Toddler + Primary Classroom Support
Spanish, Literacy, Yoga/PE & Classroom Support
Ella received her Bachelor's Degree in Psychology, with a minor in Child and Family Studies, from the University of Tennessee. Ella has extensive experience as a private nanny, and has found her passion in working with infants, toddlers and young children. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, cooking and hiking. Fun fact: Ella was a student in Mead's first kindergarten class!