Small World Preschool and Child Care Center

OUR STAFF

LAURA WINTER Owner and Executive Director:

LAURA WINTER is the owner and founder of Small World Preschool and Child Care Center. She has an extensive background in the field of early education and care and is Director I, Director II, Preschool and Infant/Toddler certified. After leaving the corporate world in 1980, she began working in a variety of preschool and camp settings, followed by ten years of running a family child care program while raising her own five children. Small World opened in 1994 and continues to serve children throughout the community.

Laura is an active and involved member of her town serving on a variety of town boards, committees and councils. She has been advocating for children and their families since 1978.

HOLLY BERTHIAUME Program Director and Lead Teacher:

HOLLY BERTHIAUME has been a life-long resident of Western Massachusetts. She began working in at Small World Preschool and Child Care Center in 2004 as a lead teacher and became program director in 2009. Holly is also a student working toward her Bachelors Degree in Early Childhood Education. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, traveling and, most importantly spending time with her six-year old daughter Kali.

KRISTIN CHENEY Lead Teacher:

KRISTIN CHENEY grew up in Bernardston and recently moved to South Deerfield. She spent time working in a variety of programs with children in preschool through grade six when she was a teen in high school and grew to love the younger age grouping. She received her associates degree in Education and has been working at the preschool level for seven years now, moving from teaching assistant, to teacher, to her current position of lead teacher at Small World.

Assistant Teacher:

JESSICA DOWNEY began teaching at Small World Preschool in 2007. She is currently a student working toward her Masters Degree in Early Childhood Education. She enjoys all aspects of children’s developmental process and finds her area of strength in teaching social development through classroom interactions and play.

SASKIA NISLOW Assistant Teacher:

SASKIA NISLOW began working at Small World in 2011. She found her way to this position after many years as a nanny, babysitter, and personal care assistant and feels lucky to be teaching in a great classroom environment. In addition to her job at the preschool, she is working toward a BA in English at Mount Holyoke College and aspires to write children’s literature as well as adult novels.